Over the past couple of days I have been thinking about addictions. Why you ask? Well pay attention! I was challenged earlier in the week to quit a couple of addictions in an attempt to 'manage' (I feel like fix would be too definitive) some health stuff. I agreed to it, with caveats, like "I can't do it until I get back from japan, because I need caffeine when I travel" "but when I get back I will definitely do it"....
The psychological mechanisms of addiction have intrigued me for sometime (not enough to work in the field mind you). Anyone I have ever spoken to with any kind of addiction, from caffeine to heroin, always develops (albiet unconscious) some seemingly rational justification of why they engage, and continue to engage in things which are ultimatley unhealthy for them. I am at a loss to describe an addiction which is good for you, in the sense of addiction being at the extreme end of the behavioral continuum. Even exercise or eating vegetables have negative consequences both physically and psychologically when at that extreme end of behavioir. And we know it's bad. I know that my diet coke habit will probably result in many long term health issues that at this time in my life I have no concept of. I justify this to myself (and clearly anyone who will listen) that there has been no causal link between diet coke and brain tumoirs, or stomach cancer, or Leukemia. But there wasn't a causal link proven between smoking and lung cancer for many years either, it was just a process of getting enough people into trials to show the effect. Showing causality is fraught with scientific danger, but in the absence of causality do I think that drinking copious amounts of chemicals is good for me? Of course not. Does this knowledge stop me doing it, or provide a voice in my head every time I take a sip reminding me of the danger? Nope. Not even a little bit.
Many memoirs have been penned reflecting the difficult nature of addictions and the seemingly infinite cycle of fighting them ( a little part of me hopes that a talk show host will read my blog and make me famous). Why do we keep doing things that we know are bad? Can it be as simple as "because they make us feel good?"
The path of starting an addiction often seems pretty innocuous in and of itself, one smoke, a couple of cups of coffee, just one more pain pill. I was reminded of this a little on the weekend when I watched "Trainspotting" and that constant idea "of just one more hit", our human behavioural assumption would indicate that when a person is ready to give up (point to appropriate place here on the stages of change model) we should just give up, but all the research suggests that setting a date to stop a behaviour is more successful. Its almost counterintuitive.
Meanwhile. I am open to giving up the "dc" but mostly my motivation is financial. I am ready to have an extra $30 a week. I'm not ready for headaches, sugar crashes, fatigue and bottles of water. Is this a predictor of poor quitting outcomes? I think not, I have quit loads of times before.
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