If Addiction Is A Disease Why Is The Answer Spiritual?

If addiction is a disease, then why does everyone say the answer is spiritual? I mean, that doesn't really make much sense, does it? If you've ever thought about that question before, you're in luck, because I am going to explain it to you in this video. For those of you who are new here, welcome to Put the Shovel Down. I'm Amber Hollingsworth, and this YouTube channel is all about helping you understand the science and psychology of addiction so you can get your family and your life back on track. Get back out there and live the life that you want. I want you to know you are not powerless. You do not have to hit rock bottom. And there are many things you can do to help an addicted loved one. If you want to be back in control of your life, subscribe to this channel, and I'll make sure you are always five steps ahead of addiction. And don't forget, hit the little bell if you want access to the bonus episodes. You know, in the world of recovery, it's like there are all these different factions or groups out there, and every one of them has a different belief about what addiction is and how you fix it. It's almost like different religions that are out there. And so there are certain factions of the recovery world that believe it is purely a brain illness, and you treat it with medication. And then there are people out there who believe, yes, it's a brain illness, but it's also a spiritual abnormality. And the answer is spiritual answer. And then there's a whole other section of people out there that says it's just people being bad and they need to act right. Today we are going to find the intersection of all those things and find exactly where the crossover is. Because, honestly, there's a little truth in all of that. You know, one of the first recovery models that really had any success at all is the 12 step model. And that's why it is still around today. The 12 step model is actually born out of a religious. If you look at the history of aa, which is Alcoholics Anonymous, you'll know that the founder is Bill Wilson. And Bill Wilson, who was an alcoholic, a pretty severe alcoholic, became very interested in a religious movement at the time. And through his study of that movement, he found the foundations of what is now a A now. He referred to alcoholism as an allergy. And so there was definitely some reference and understanding of the biological aspect of addiction, but all of the solutions to the problem were spiritual in nature. Now, what do I mean by spiritual in nature? What I mean is you gotta have a Heart shift. You gotta change your thinking, change your mind, and maybe even change who you are a little bit in order to be addiction. So that's the place that we come from in recovery. That's sort of the old school model, which is still probably the most widely accepted and widely used model of finding recovery practice today all over the world now, all throughout time in history, there's been the idea out there that people that have addictions Are making bad choices. And that they need to get their act together. And that they're basically just being bad. And I know saying that these days in the new agey times, it's like, oh, Amber, you can't even say that. Well, there's a little truth to that. Most of the time, when we get ourselves into an addiction, maybe not all the time, but 99% of the time, we knowingly made some bad choices along the way. Right. Now, we didn't make those choices with the intention of becoming addicted. Right. But we made some bad choices that resulted in it. Kind of like we make a choice to speed driving down the road. That doesn't mean we make a choice to get in a car wreck, but we kind of make those choices knowing that our risk of getting in a car wreck go way up. So there is some choice involved in the situation. Okay. What we're seeing these days is a shift from those two models of thinking. It's like a hard shift over into this new school line of thinking, which is more along what they call, like, the disease model. And it's understanding about the brain changes that occur when someone is addicted. And I have a ton of videos about that. I'm not going to go into the brain science, But I will link those videos at the end of this video in case you want to see them, in case you want to nerd out. But the new school thinking is really only focused on sort of those neurotransmitter changes. And how do we fix that with medication? How do we fix the medical piece of the problem? And in a lot of ways, that shift in thinking has been somewhat a good shift. Because it's given us more options, newer ways to think about addiction. And it has gone a long way to help destigmatize the problem. However, you know, with most things in life, we all tend to sort of overcorrect. And I really feel like that's an overcorrection. You know, it's too far all the way on the other side. I personally think that it is somewhere in the middle. And I want to explain to you why my thinking is the way that it is. And you come up with your own ideas about this, please feel free to share them with me in the comments below. But I just ask that you're at least nice and appropriate about it. Because, hey, we're all on the same team. We're all trying to either get better or help people get better or destigmatize addiction. So. So just remember we're all on the same team. We might just have different ways of doing it. Be mindful when you comment, but I definitely want to hear what you have to say. All right, here's what I have to say. I do think that most addiction starts with bad choices. That is part of it. That doesn't mean a person is bad. We all make bad choices. Just like we've all chosen to speed. If you drive, you've chosen to speed, right? That doesn't mean you're a bad person, but it is a choice that you made. Right? I do think that that level is in there. And we have to take some responsibility for our choice. Of course, now when we make those choices enough times, it causes a change in our brain. Now this is the part that a lot of people call the disease of addiction. And for years and years and years, like for most of my career, I called it the disease of addiction. And these days I'm kind of like a little iffy on it. And it's probably really just splitting hairs about the word or whatever. There's definitely brain changes that occur. Like I said, there's videos on it. You can watch them. But those brain changes are very similar. Almost the same as the brain changes that happen when you get infatuated with someone. Very similar, in fact, to the brain changes that happen when you move into adolescence and puberty. Would we call those diseases? No, if you looked at the brain, it would look exactly like an addictive brain because they're addicted states. So yes, there are some brain changes that occur. And depending on what substance you use, you know, that also impacts the different neurochemical changes and all that. But maybe it's just because I always see the sort of the gray and everything resistant to going all the way over on the side. I'm mostly over on that side, but not 100% completely over on that side. So you have these brain changes that occur after you've made some probably not great choices over a long period of time. Now, whatever it is that we're addicted to, right? And we start going after it more and more and more. And in the process of Doing so, we start to develop some life problems, meaning people start to get upset with us, we start to experience consequences of things. Things in our life starts to fall through. But we really feel like we need X, Y or Z. Or we really feel like we're entitled to it. Or maybe we really feel like we can't live without it. And that could possibly be true in some situations. Right. Nonetheless, we're going after this thing. It's causing problems in our life because more and more and more of our focus is becoming about this thing. And as that happens, less and less of our focus is on like living our regular life. And people don't like that. Your job doesn't like that, your family doesn't like that, your wife sure doesn't like that. Right. And so people start coming at you when that happens. Of course we feel kind of bad about that, but we also feel very defensive about that. And when we get in our defensive mind and our defensive ways of thinking, we start to cover up all of that shame and guilt by blaming external situations or people, or rationalizing or justifying the behavior. And all of our thoughts and behaviors begin to shift and change as a result of the addiction. Will addiction change who you are? It most certainly will change who you are to the core. And I don't care who you are. If you get addicted, addiction will change you. And not for the good. Because it is going to. Inherently, it is going to make you more selfish. Inherently, it is going to make you more defensive. Inherently, it's going to make you rationalize and justify your decision. It's going to make you be blind to how your behaviors are impacting other people. Because it's almost like a necessity of the addiction that you have these changes in thinking and feeling. Never mind the fact that some of those brain changes that occur make it actually harder for you to weigh the consequences of your decision. There's some actual physiological reasons why people can't see the issue and why people aren't thinking. Right. In addition to all these psychological reasons that happen. Alright, so now that we're putting these three pieces together. The choice, the disease, the spiritual abnormality. Now let's figure out how do we fix this issue. And this is where it comes in with what your recovery philosophy is. The first thing that you have to do is you do have to re stabilize your brain chemistry. Sometimes medicines help with that. I am not anti doing that. I just think that if you only do that, you're going to be in a problem and the reason you're gonna be in A problem is because if you only fix the brain withdrawal part of the issue, you haven't done anything to correct all of these other psychological, spiritual changes that have happened along the way. And if you don't correct them, the chances that you will go back out there and do it again are really, really. Now, if you've ever been like a 12 step person, you've heard like keep coming back, or if you stop coming to meetings, you might lose your recovery. Some of that has a little legitimacy, although I don't think it's as concrete as they make it out. But it's about. If you don't manage the psychology, if you don't shift your heart and deal with that shame, guilt, resentment, guess what's gonna happen? You're gonna make another bad choice. And that bad choice is gonna start the whole brain thing again, which is just going to lead to more behavior shifts and thinking shifts and ultimately spiritual shifts. Because when you've gotten yourself in this mess, your whole spirit is a freaking disaster. No matter what your religious beliefs, you know, you don't like yourself, you hate yourself, and you hate most of the people around you. Can we all agree that that's a spiritual issue? I think so, right? I'm not saying religious. I'm just saying, like, your spirit ain't good. Okay? So for me, the answer and the way out of this is you got to quit making bad choices. You got to restabilize your brain chemistry, and you gotta go through all this psychology one way or the other, figure it out and get yourself back in good shape. Get back to a place where you're proud of who you are. Get back to a place where you like and care about other people, where you can put other people's needs ahead of yours sometimes, when appropriate. Because I'm telling you along the way, you lost the ability to do that. And that doesn't just fix. If you fix a withdrawal issue in someone, it doesn't. It won't just go away by itself. You must address all three of these areas. If you ask me, that's my opinion. Like I said, everyone's got a different thought about how to, you know, about the whole addiction recovery thing. That's just where I stand. Now, some of you may have heard me say in the past that I'm like non denominational recovery. I like it all. And that's what I mean when I'm saying it. I think all of those theories are accurate and I think all of those things have to be addressed in recovery. Now, I don't Necessarily think there's only one certain way to do that. As long as you address all three of those pieces, I think you're probably going to be in good shape. If you do not address one of those pieces. Like if you just try to address your relationships and your self esteem, but you don't address the fact that you can't go two days without it, you're in trouble. You got to address the brain stuff, right? If you address the brain stuff but you don't feel like you're going to have to make different choices or fix some of the damage, you're not going to make it very far. You must get all three of these pieces in place to get back to living the life that you want to live. Now you can get one or two of these pieces in place and you'd be a little bit better. I'm not saying you can't. But if you want to live the life you want to live, if you want to be five steps ahead of addiction, if you want to have the promises of AA like the good stuff, you got to do all three. Now for those of you who are working on this process or know someone who's working on this process, I have put a link to a free download in the description and it is called the Nightly Questions. And these are questions that I suggest you ask yourself every night. You can do it in the afternoon if you want to, but somewhere in your day I want you to ask these questions because these are questions designed to help you sort of spiritually, mentally, emotionally get yourself back in a good place. You can get that free download in the description below. Up next, more on the brain stuff that has to do with addiction. And don't forget to let me know where you stand on this issue. Like to send a big heartfelt thanks to all of you who help support this channel. Your likes, shares and donations are helping us spread the message of recovery and without you, this wouldn't be possible. Now this next video has been hand selected to go right along with this one. And don't forget to check the description for additional resources.