Generally speaking, we live in a sick western Society. I share this heavy information to help you to stop taking your form of unhappiness personally. The core issue may be more of a social problem rather than individual.
In our society it is hard to find anybody that is not addicted to something, and about 9 percent of American adults from all walks of life suffer from some form of depression.What have we been doing about it?… Prescribing more drugs and declaring war on drugs. Since the “War on Drugs” campaign began in 1971, the US federal prison population has increased over 7 times and overall drug usage by US citizens has increased over 30 percent. And today, about forty-five people die every day from prescription pain killer drugs– more deaths than heroin and cocaine overdoses combined.
The “War on drugs” policy came about from a rat experiment. Rats were isolated in solitary confinement and given a choice between regular water and water laced with cocaine. They chose the cocaine water, became addicted, and eventually died of drug overdose. The conclusion made is that drugs are the cause of addiction. Seems like an obvious truth, right?
Wrong. Bruce Alexander and associate scientists hypothesized that the rat experiment was not a fair assessment because the rats were put into an inhuman situation caged in solitary confinement. So, to gather more realistic data, they built a “rat park”, an environment that included all the things rats love –including each other. In Rat Park, the rats avoided the cocaine water, and they remained healthy for long life spans. Next, rats in isolation that had been addicted to cocaine for over 50 days were then introduced into Rat Park, and almost all of them immediately stopped using and became healthy.
These later experiments are proving addiction is not so much of a chemical hook as it is a social issue. This explains why hospital patients as well as war veterans who have taken so called addictive drugs for extended periods of time end their drug usage once they are back in a supportive community.
This radically different view on addiction is beginning to change the world. Portugal is one example, where one percent of the entire nation’s population was addicted to heroine while “the war on drugs campaign” was in full operation. Portugal then changed its policy and reassigned the “war on drugs” money for the to rehabilitation of the drug users back into society with a variety of social programs including group therapy, subsidized housing and work. In just a few years the country’s drug addiction rate dropped below 50 percent what it was.
The Cost of Addiction
Because most of us are addicted to something. And, even if you are not addicted, we ALL must do our part to address this all pervasive social problem if we are to change it. Let’s begin by embracing the following sobering statistics.
Alcohol
Alcohol shows to be the most destructive drug, and strangely the most socially acceptable. Nearly 88,000 people die from alcohol-related causes annually.
In 2013, 39 percent of college students ages 18–22 engaged in binge drinking (5 or more drinks on an occasion) in the past month compared with 33.4 percent of other persons of the same age. This socially popular pattern of getting drunk that starts at an early age seems to be a major precondition to alcoholism.
Work
The greatest addiction of all in America is one of the most unnoticed and almost considered normal behavior. About 75 percent of Americans are workaholics. According to Robinson’s research, marriages with at least one workaholic partner are 40 percent more likely to end in divorce. Another recent study showed that over-workers are as much as 80 percent more likely to develop heart disease.
After much study and common sense, I have come to believe workaholism is a major contributory factor to developing other addictions that offer an escape from such a hard life. Most work-a-holics tend to have another addiction during their off hours.
A common way this begins is at college, when almost 40% of students get drunk at least once a month while they are undergoing the pressure of school. Our schools are designed upon the notion real learning must be “hard”. This insane programming sets the stage for work-a-holism.
Cigarrettes
About 18% of all adults in the United States smoke cigarettes, about 42.1 million people.
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths every year, or 1 of every 5 deaths. More than 16 million Americans live with a smoking-related disease.
Food
One of the greatest addictions in the United States is to food. Obesity has risen at an epidemic rate over the past 20 years so that now, two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight, and 30 percent are obese. Overweight and obese adults have a much higher mortality rate.
Soft Drinks
A top cause of obesity, is America’s addiction to sugar, often in the form of soft drinks. An average American consumes about 57 gallons of soda per year. Tragically, high fructose corn syrup, in the form of soda, has become the number one source of calories in the United States, and it is very clear that it is the primary cause of the obesity epidemic. Studies indicate there is a strong link between soda consumption and childhood obesity. They found that for each additional daily serving of sugar-sweetened soft drink consumed during the two-year study, the risk of obesity jumped by 60 percent for 12-year-olds. Just one extra can of soda per day can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight over the course of a single year! At that rate, it’s no wonder more than 65 percent of all American adults struggle with overweight and obesity.
Sex
More than 12 million people suffer from sexual addiction in the United States. Due to the accessibility of sexual material available on the Internet, cable television and videos, these numbers are greatly increasing. The pornography industry is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink! Sex without love has become epidemic–as one in three American women will be sexually abused during their lifetime.
Shopping/Spending
The Journal of Consumer Research suggests the number of compulsive shoppers -spenders is about 8.9%, more than 25 million Americans.Its probably a much higher number than that because the average credit card debt for a U.S. citizen is close to $10,000–mostly accumulated from unnecessary purchases (Time, Money magazines) Over-shopping / Over-spending is more than about poor budgetary or savings habits; many people need professional psychological help. – 2006 Stanford Study.
Stealing
Approximately 0.6 percent of people in the United States suffer from kleptomania (compulsive stealing), translating to approximately 1.2 million people. The number of these people are are probably much higher, as most remain in secrecy. 65% of individuals with kleptomania also suffer from bulimia. This is yet one example of how an addictive person may often have a number of compulsive patterns simultaneously.
The The Common Cause of All Addiction
Looking at the common dominator of virtually all addictive behavior, I recommend you read the article “The Likely Cause of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think.” by Johann Hari, author of the New York times best selling ‘Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs’
To sum up the research, it appears the number one common denominator of all addiction, depression and other unhealthy behaviors including various forms of criminal activity––is lack of intimacy; not having truly loving connections with others in a supportive community. Its not enough to work on the individual level. We must learn to let go of our competitive thinking and prideful western obsession with independence that has driven many of us to isolation. We must learn cooperation to co-create truly supportive communities.
Easier said than done. If almost all the rats stopped “addictive” substances when they were placed back into a healthy community, does this mean humans will respond just as quickly? To be honest, I think not. Many adults don’t take to community easily, or show a readiness to be in a truly loving relationship. The disconnected programming in many of us must be addressed and cleared.
At the University of Mount Shasta we work with Accelerated Healing Methods that get trapped emotions out of a person’s heart center. We call these series of emotions, one’s Heart Wall. After I cleared my heart wall, I was able to date for the first time in three and a half years. In just a few days I met my soul mate and now wife, Maqua.
Where do these trapped negative emotions come from? I can write pages on this: From unnatural child birth, lack of bonding to infants, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, brainwashing children in our schools to give up their own interests to regurgitate “more important information”. Religions preaching we are sinners and God being outside of oneself. Television that gives an average of 12,000 impressions of murder to the first 14 years of a child’s life.
Bottom line: Most of us have been living most of our lives feeling disconnected and unsupported. We can’t just be expected to adapt back into a loving community overnight, but we can all take gradual steps to become more connected with our Authentic Selves and each other.
The Solution
Do we even know what a truly connected and supportive community looks like? Here is one example to give us a clue: I remember reading about Jean Liedloff’s travels into the Peruvian Amazon jungle decades ago. A tribe of natives, who had never met a person from the West before, assisted their journey. But what was so “annoying” is that these people were so unusually happy. With the number one cause of death being snake bite, they had many reasons to be worried. From our western mind point of view they lived very very hard lives, but no tribal member showed signs of stress – as they talked, laughed, and sang throughout each long day. Jean decided to go study these people to find out their happiness secret. After living with them for 5 years she developed her theory and wrote a book about it called the Continuum Concept. In that 5 years, Jean witnessed no one in the tribe showing signs of a neurotic behavior, addiction or being depressed.
This research was life changing for me, (as well as thousands of others,) It helped me understand that my neurosis, addictions, and depression were not just caused by me, but by an entire dysfunctional society I was born into.
What was the tribe’s happiness secret? In one word, unconditional love… and the difference of how they demonstrated unconditional love for each other was seen most dramatically with how they raised their children. How did they raise their children differently?
Number 1, they never imposed independence (and thus abandoned) their children. The young ones were always physically attached to a parent until they chose their independence only when they each were ready. At birth, the umbilical cord was not severed before they learned to breathe, they nursed as long as they wanted. They were never spanked at any age for any reason, They were never put in separate beds or play pins, and these happy children virtually never cried.
Number 2: They never controlled a child. They would give orders, but the final decision of whether to obey that order was the child’s choice––without reaction from the adults. Each individual’s sovereignty was respected. At around 3 years old, a child would have the courage to break contact to venture on their own, and strangely enough no one worried about them, and there were hardly any negative incidents. These children were able to make good decisions, and no one ever argued with their choices. Unlike our children, there was an emotional security with these children after having all that physical and emotional connection, and because no one was trying to control them, these young children were very connected to their intuition. They would sense when their was danger, and when this happened they would run back to their parent. Instead of a parent worrying about them and telling them right from wrong, their parents were focused on enjoying their lives and sharing exactly what they are going through. There was no separating the children from the adult activities. This is just a brief explanation. I recommend reading the Continuum Concept. and the Natural Child ––if you want a guidebook of how to raise children in such a way that works today.
The vast majority of us did not get this kind of love––so now what? I have been programmed to be super independent before I was ready, and as a result have had few friends and would hide my neurosis, my underlying feelings of inadequacy and neediness To show my weakness would mean I would be scorned. Most in our society are putting up an image of perfectionism, of professionalism, as we see this on face book and twitter, and but inside most are feeling insecure. This has been me, and I thought I was alone. Aloneness is the core illusion of illusions. . The deep belief I am alone and unsupported, so my pattern to try to heal my issues on my own was only a continuation of my illness, our illness. We are not alone; we are together. We can only heal our issues together. We took birth to be in relationships, to see our reflection, what we are putting out. By avoiding relationships, we avoid our growth. Our addictions themselves are our resistance to intimacy. Many would rather watch television or porn than risk spending intimate time with love ones. We are afraid to be seen. Big healing happens when we realize we are seen, and we are still loved… just as we are!…. no matter what we are going through.
My next article will go over the common steps to getting free from all unhealthy behaviors.
In Our Freedom,
Joa Janakoayas