The "Insanity" of Addiction

“I say welcome, welcome to the Boomtown. Pick a habit, we’ve got plenty to go around…”
David and David, Welcome to the Boomtown

Addiction in its many forms is ravaging modern society. One of the common petitions at an intervention of an addict is the retelling of the definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over again but expecting a different result.” It is the assurance that whatever physical, psychological, or emotional utopia the addicted individual is hoping to achieve, it is only a mirage, slipping further and further away with each repeated usage or action. C.S. Lewis coins this addictive cycle in his book “The Screwtape Letters” as “the law of diminishing returns.” But hidden inside this definition of insanity lies a profound fallacy. The addicted individual, who was once healthy, was doing the same thing over and over again – but at the first moment of addiction a different result occurred.

We tend to compartmentalize individuals. For example, an afternoon television program spotlighting pornographic addiction might detail the tragic lives of a few addicted men, citing the alarming societal statistics such as the rise in child molestation cases, rapes, and the like. Yet in typical “fair and balanced” fashion, the program also might feature a psychologist or sex therapist bestowing the liberating value of pornography when used in a “healthy” manner. The show might even include a husband and wife blissfully retelling how watching erotic videos “saved their sex lives” and possibly their marriage. The addicted and the healthy are compartmentalized. The tragic outcome of addiction is not the fault of the pornography, or the gambling, or the drinking; instead it is the fault of the individual unable to control himself, and/or the beneficial and “healthy” features of these actions.

But no one sitting in a bar on a Saturday night walks in the front door thinking, “Tonight’s my night to get addicted.” No one who gets on the computer to periodically look at porn clicks to the first website of the evening and says, “I hope this enslaves me tonight.” No one who routinely plays blackjack with his or her friends on Monday evenings and watches World Championship Poker on Satellite TV thinks, “Tonight gambling will start destroying my life.” They simply continue doing the same thing they had done in the past. And yet, at the point of addiction, a different result occurs.

Surprisingly, the difference at the moment of addiction has little to do with the individual. It is far more tied to the individual’s physiology. In the mini-book “Addiction’s Tipping Point,” the Daniel Project purported that the purpose of the pleasure of addiction-producing actions (or APAs) is not to ensnare the individual, but the body itself. The article discussed how the will of a man is not tied to his body. While an individual may claim, “I have needs,” in actually it is the body that has needs. But the body initially requires the man’s will to fill those needs. Once the will of the man has gone down that path, the body begins to take over. At the point of addiction, the will of the man has been hijacked by the physiology (or body) of the man. But the process to domination, the pathway to addiction, is simply continuing in the same course of action over and over again.

The first instance of addiction is very much like the moment a gun finally goes off in a game of Russian roulette. The more times one plays, the greater the probability the gun will discharge, since the repetition of addiction-producing actions adds the bullets that fill the gun’s empty chambers. But in this metaphor we discover a greater danger. While the potentially addicted individual may be the one holding the gun, the gun itself is the flesh (physiology) of the individual. The individual (the will) does not determine when the gun goes off. So the individual who repeatedly pulls the trigger – only to have the gun continually misfire – naively concludes, “I’m in control.” In reality, bullets are being added to the gun without the individual being the least bit aware. The gun goes off when the flesh, not the will, decides it’s time to fire. All the individual can do prior to the moment of addictive discharge is walk away from the gun. He cannot begin the game and control the result.

Unfortunately, leaving the table – even prior to addiction – is harder than one might think.

Keeping with the Russian roulette metaphor, neuroscience and genetics have uncovered two very important aspects of this addictive game. First, geneticists have determined that planted in the genes of each individual is the predisposition for certain addiction-producing actions. England, for example, is considering the analysis of young children’s DNA to determine if they have a propensity toward addictive drugs such as heroin or cocaine. Secular scientists use these genetic predisposition discoveries to legitimize and rationalize certain behaviors and sanction seemingly moral-centric actions. As secular science uncovers these objective discoveries, its ambassadors erroneously conclude that these actions are simply part of the makeup of the human animal. To deny one’s genetic impulses is to deny being human.

But bringing these discoveries back to our metaphorical game of Russian roulette, we uncover that addiction is not played on a single table: addiction is birthed out of a number of different repetitious actions. So there are a myriad of tables on which an individual can begin to play, ranging from drugs to pornography, from violence to gambling, and a plethora of other actions. But if each individual carries particular genetic predispositions, then certain guns are already filled with bullets even before he begins to play. The guns of drugs and sex may be half full of bullets for one person, while another’s loaded gun may be overeating, and another’s, child pornography. All the enemy of mankind need do is make sure the right game is well-disguised and enjoyable enough so that the individual steps to the table with the right gun (or guns) and sits down. Through clever marketing tactics, progressive ideologies, and mammoth financial capital, not only do these addictive games surround us, but nearly all tables (all of the addiction-producing actions correlating to mankind’s genetic predispositions) are now open and available to play. Even worse, the path to the addiction table and its preloaded weapons can merely be the click of the mouse or the turning on of a portable DVD device.

But through revelations in neuroscience we learn that the game is further fixed. At the moment of any action, the human brain builds up and develops synapses corresponding to that particular course of action. Whether it is the opening of a door, the smelling of a flower or the feeling of feet hitting the pavement during a run, synaptic pathways are produced. The more intense the action or event, the greater the synaptic buildup occurs. Once a pathway tied to a certain course of action has been built, the brain’s natural inclination is further progress down that pathway. The more continuation of that action, the greater the infrastructure is strengthened to that neuronal pathway – and the more difficult it is to deviate from that course of action.

For example, at the moment of sexual intercourse, the brain is flooded with the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Sex doesn’t just feel good on the body; it feels great on the brain. But that dopamine and serotonin travel across the neurological paths built from the actions leading up to that moment, as well as the strongest additional pathways. The brain then knows to feel this good again, the same course of action should be taken. At this moment of neuronal and physical ecstasy, the will is already entering the first phases of being subjugated by the flesh. And once addictive actions become no longer enjoyable to the individual (and especially to those gathered at the intervention) the body and brain still desire and fight for the same effect. Long before the actually physical addiction, that moment the gun finally goes off, the brain itself has already made it difficult for the individual to the leave the table.

So both before and after addiction occurs, the will of the man is being perpetually dominated by the flesh of the same man. Though it is not claimed as such, addiction treatment centers are not curing people of addiction. They are attempting to win the battle over the flesh of the individual that has wholly dominated the will of the individual. The person isn’t freed of addiction; his or her flesh is once again controlled and restricted, as it should have been in the first place. But during the process leading to addiction, science unveils that the flesh gains further and further dominance. So what are the secular world’s best responses to its own scientific discoveries?

One of science’s current solutions is to produce pharmaceutical products, in essence to introduce poisons into the body, that reduce the power of the flesh so persons can enjoy addiction-producing actions longer without the same addictive result. Science is poisoning the body instead of recognizing and dealing with the realities of these addiction-producing actions that they themselves have discovered through their own disciplines! These pharmacological solutions come affixed with a massive list of new objective and detrimental physiological consequences. These consequences are stamped on front of plastic bottles right after the phrase: “side effects include.” In many instances (and Daniel Project will show how these “side effects” are the purpose, not the byproduct) these “side effects” are more destructive to the physiology of the individual than the result of the initial action.

Worse, there are plans by some genetic experts and medical institutions to extract DNA samples of embryonic human life prior to birth. The thinking is that parents can be warned of potentially addictive future behavior patterns, should they decide to terminate the pregnancy. And I have already spoken of the consideration in England to test for genetic predispositions for heroin and cocaine in the young.

But what does science want to do with children that have the genetic propensity? Inject them with these narcotic drugs as children, so that as adults, they no longer desire the pursuit of what they have already been given. The bottom line is that the three best secular solutions to this objective game of Russian roulette are poison, early forced addiction, and death. For the sake of our society, we must demand better solutions…

WHAT WE MUST DO: THE GENESIS OF A PARADIGM SHIFT

Shift I: Elimination of Compartmentalization

We can no longer afford to compartmentalize society. It not only gelds the crucial realities uncovered in this article, but it also produces more addicted individuals. News programs often describe someone as a “sex offender” as if this is his or her predetermined identity. But the sex offender was first a man who may have merely done what he had always done – looked at porn in the privacy of his own home – only soon a different result occurred. Let’s go back to that television program spotlighting pornography addiction once again. While the host listens compassionately to the sad stories of his or her addicted guests, there would no doubt be certain audience members that would compartmentalize by saying, “Well it might have become a dangerous addiction for you, but I’m just fine and healthy with my porn.” But based on distorted reality of the definition of insanity (perpetual action, but at the moment of addiction a different result occurs) and the objective discoveries of neuroscience and genetics, this line of thinking is not only asinine, it’s downright dangerous.

The very person who in that moment is commenting on the healthy aspects of pornography could be an addict, even a sex-offender, a month later. The person who simply enjoys partying on Saturday nights may be the next alcoholic the following weekend. The casual internet gambler may head to Vegas a year later and squander his family’s entire life savings. Simply because what he had done over and over again through his will had finally produced a different result through his flesh.

The church is panned by the secular community for being arcane and dogmatic; mocked with seemingly distasteful titles such as “fundamental.” Essentially, the term “fundamental” refers to individuals whose morality cannot evolve with the changing needs of the society in which they exist. Often those with the loudest anti-fundamental bullhorns flaunt themselves under the supposedly positive banner of “progressive.” But we now have been given a glimpse of why mankind’s Creator may appear to be so fundamental with his moral declarations. And how the leanings of the “progressive” are actually cataclysmic to the flesh. While the will may not be a fundamental identity, the human body and brain (the flesh) are. When we are seriously ill, we may claim (will) “I am not sick,” but the pale color and warm touch of skin, the profuse sweating in the face and the overall compression in posture (flesh) tell otherwise. If we finally admit verbally to what others are seeing visually, we are not being fundamental. We are being truthful.

And that truth can then set us free.

God speaks fundamentally about certain actions (especially APAs) not to dominate and restrict mankind, but to disallow our own physical and genetic (flesh) proclivities to dominate us! We can further uncover this reality through the use of a Biblical metaphor:

“All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades… surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades…” Isaiah 40:6-8 (NASB)

Man’s flesh is described as grass, and the glory of man as the flower of that grass. The enemy knows that if he can destroy the grass, he has by default also destroyed the flower. Man’s pride may be powerful; but man’s physiology is weak. So God’s fundamental laws against certain addiction-producing actions speak to the protection of the weak grass – in order to birth the full flower. Over three millennia prior to this moment in history, the prophet Jeremiah metaphorically uncovered the process of addiction, the enemy’s tactics, and God’s reasoning behind His commands. And it is through the objective findings of secular science that the validity and power of this verse materialize. In other words, through the lens of scientific discovery, this verse opens up a myriad of new objective societal solutions.

Shift II: Recognition of the flesh over the will

In five words, the Creator of mankind unlocked why He must be fundamental when it comes to His creation: “…surely the people are grass.” Going back to the verse prior, God is declaring for all of science to hear, process, and respond: Surely the people are more physiology (objective flesh) then loveliness (subjective will and accomplishment). We must create a paradigm shift in society. We must recognize that man is not a subjective entity of will, but an objective entity of flesh. And we must show in repeated, exacting, and concerned detail how every subjective decision of the will produces objective consequence in the flesh. Thankfully, through this scriptural metaphor we not only have the keys to unlock our human realities, but also the reality of God our Creator. God’s law systems speak to the subjugation of the flesh (grass) for the fulfillment of the loveliness of the flower (the accomplishment of man through his unconquered will).

Conversely, the casualties of addiction are withered grass never able to bud into its intended potential as flowers. And the nihilism in our society, especially in the young, is the result of a generation never having seen the beauty of the flower, since our nation – through the sanctioning of APAs – is little more than a collective of withered grass. And what does nihilism foster? Apathy. A disturbed sense of numbness desperately looking for something, anything, to fill the emotional and physical void. And what fills that void most quickly? Addiction-producing actions. Once again, we uncloak a perpetual system of destruction being covertly utilized by the enemy of mankind, grounded in scientific reality, warned of in scripture, and staved off by adherence to God’s law. By its very nature, proven through our own sciences, the only safe solution is to avoid the table altogether. That, dear reader, is not fundamental; that’s truth.

The three best secular solutions attempt to sanction the subjective will, and in doing so, wrack incredible damage on the objective flesh. These secular solutions not only perpetuate the cycle but increase the scope and chances of addiction by encouraging the society to sanction more and more “roulette” tables through legislation (legalization of child pornography, drug usage, prostitution, in-state gambling, etc.), leaving the enemy free and clear to craft new perpetually destructive strategies.

Just as the secular society cannot compartmentalize the addicted and the healthy, neither can the Christian compartmentalize the individual from his or her flesh. Again, the will is not weak; mankind’s physiology is. See Jesus’ own words through this lens: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” By understanding and proclaiming that man is far more flesh than will, new societal standards can be enacted to not only liberate mankind from its own coerced destruction but also to unveil the reality of God attempting to protect His children.

Shift III: Wake Up!

As Christians we must be the first to wake up. We have been given the tools (the sciences) to diagnose the situation, and the salve (the Biblical worldview) to remedy the world’s addictive ailments. But instead we attack the ill (the addicted) and leave the salve (the Biblical worldview solutions) on the shelf until Sunday morning. On most Sunday mornings it’s never used a salve because it’s never removed from its theological or values-oriented medicine chest. It is not that the world is going to a moral hell in a hand basket, but that because the Church has attacked the ill and not the enemy, the mechanisms by which to ensnare the flesh through repetitious action have been permanently established all around us. Many of those reading these words have been caught in the battle for the flesh. You have bought in to the unchallenged lie that repeated action will always produce repeated result. But as Christians we must first petition God to liberate us from our own flesh so that we can become ambassadors of these critical realities.

“…but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” I Cor. 9:27 (NASB)

Can we change? In a society where the same organization warning of the deadly dangers of smoking is the very same corporation selling the product, pessimism can easily beset us. But it begins with destroying the compartmentalism mindset. And it progresses when we stop focusing on merely that God said something and begin to uncover why He said it. Everyday science is doing the job for us. It is our job to take the findings of science and apply them through the Biblical worldview. Our failure to do so has not only furthered science’s dominion over the societal landscape, but it has also allowed these addictive edifices to flourish unhindered. Science will continue to prove that many of the most addiction-producing actions are, in their initial stages, physiologically and neurologically “beneficial.” We can either cower and run from these findings or use them as our biggest ammunition. The Daniel Project chooses the latter.