by Daniel Jones

Created on: February 05, 2007   Last Updated: June 29, 2009

The truth about addictions and how to rapidly treat them

We are all born with the ability to create habits and with the process to get addicted. Without these abilities mankind wouldn't have lasted as long as we have. There are many things that naturally turn into habits so that we don't have to pay all our attention to them just to do them. Like driving a car, brushing teeth etc

Sometimes this process gets high-jacked by a negative habit, like finding yourself smoking before you realise what you are doing. The process for addiction also serves a useful purpose. The process gives you a high' when you do something and causes irritation or uncomfortableness when you don't.

This process is required for survival and evolution.

For example when a stone-age man used a stick to break open a coconut the high' of that achievement wears off over time so the stone-age man then turns that stick into an axe with a piece of flint. He then gets another high' from that achievement which also wears off over time. This process keeps the stone-age man reaching a point where he needs to do something to get that same high. Addictions high-jack this process giving a high' when carrying out the addictive behaviour and causing uncomfortableness when fighting to not carry out the behaviour. Over time you need to do more of the addictive behaviour to get the same high'.

A useful analogy of addiction and the associated cravings is one of a company that wants to make positive changes. The boss' which is the part of you that is saying I want to quit smoking (for example)' has good intentions. Beneath the boss is a secretary' that monitors incoming messages from the body. The security guard' monitors levels of various chemicals in the body but doesn't know what should or shouldn't be there, the guard just alerts the secretary if any of the chemicals begin to go missing or reduce.

When the boss has stopped the intake of nicotine, after a short while it starts reducing in the blood. The security guard notices this and so he emails a message to the secretary. This message is laced with dopamine which is a feel good chemical. The secretary checks on the computer and sees that the boss has said no cigarettes'. So the secretary ignores the message. As the nicotine goes down even further the security guard sends another message laced with even more dopamine. This time the secretary does a search on the computer for memories where nicotine has been taken into the body, and searches for memories that

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