Dr-Hilton-Breakout-UCAP-2014

Pornography Addiction:
Disordered Learning, Toxic Sexuality
Donald L. Hilton Jr., MD
Utah Coalition Against Pornography
March 22, 2014
Why then, can one desire too much of a
good thing?
William Shakespeare, As You Like it
Hotel California
“…Prisoners of our own device..”
”…programmed to receive…you can never leave.”
“It was really about the excesses of American culture….”
Don Henley, London Daily Mail, November 9, 2007
Addiction is disordered desire
Pornography is toxic sexuality
Accumbens
1100
1000
900
800
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
AMPHETAMINE
DA
DOPAC
HVA
200
Accumbens
Caudate
150
100
0
0
1
2
3 hr
Time After Nicotine
COCAINE
DA
DOPAC
HVA
200
100
0
5 hr
NICOTINE
Accumbens
300
% of Basal Release
250
1
2
3
4
Time After Amphetamine
% of Basal Release
400
0
% of Basal Release
% of Basal Release
Effects of Drugs on Dopamine Release
250
0
1
2
3
4
Time After Cocaine
Accumbens
5 hr
MORPHINE
Dose (mg/kg)
0.5
1.0
2.5
10
200
150
100
0
0
1
2
3
4
Time After Morphine
5hr
Di Chiara and Imperato, PNAS, 1988
Natural Rewards Elevate Dopamine Levels
200
% of Basal DA Output
NAc shell
150
100
Empty
50
Box Feeding
SEX
200
150
100
15
10
5
0
0
0
60
120
Time (min)
Di Chiara et al., Neuroscience, 1999.
180
Copulation Frequency
DA Concentration (% Baseline)
FOOD
Female Present
Sample
Number
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Fiorino and Phillips, J. Neuroscience, 1999.
Mounts
Intromissions
Ejaculations
Addiction: a ‘new’ normal
• All addictions reset the hedonic set point
• ASAM: addiction is a chronic disease of the
brain affecting reward, motivation, and memory
systems
• ASAM: it now incorporates natural addictions
such as to food, sex, and gambling, as well as
substance addictions
Natural or Process Addiction
Sexuality
Food
Gambling
Drug Addiction
Cocaine
Methamphetamine
Opioids
“Mr. Congressman, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do
not meet the classic definition of addiction.”
James Johnson, Chairman and CEO of RJ Renolds Tobacco Company
Rep. Waxman’s Subcommittee on Health and the Environment
April 14, 1994
“Addict-us”
First English use of word “addict” by Frith in
Antithesis, 1529
Latin: “assigned by decree, made over, bound,
devoted
Othello - Shakespeare
First use of word “addiction” in English:
“Each man to what sport and
revels his addiction leads him.”
JAMA 1906
“It matters little whether one speaks of
the opium habit, the opium disease, or
the opium addiction.”
JAMA 1906
Addiction is…
“…the continued use of mood-altering addicting
substances or behaviors (e.g., gambling,
compulsive sexual behaviors) despite adverse
consequences.”
Angres DH, Bettinardi-Angres K The Disease of Addiction:
Origins, Treatment, and Recovery Dis Mon 2008: 54:696-721.
“While much has been written and said about pornography being addictive, on par with
drugs, booze and cigarettes, it's important to consider that this misinformation has been
based upon questionable "science" and the opinions of anti-porn activists -- not upon any
legitimate, unbiased research.
Consider also the fact that "drugs, booze and cigarettes" are all physical, chemical agents
that are ingested and can indeed have measurable, harmful, addictive effects. The mere
viewing of any type of subject matter hardly falls into this category and, in fact, belittles
the very real battles that addicts face over drugs, booze and cigarettes -- all of which can be
lethal. No one ever died from looking at porn.
While some compulsive types can be "addicted" to anything, such as watching a favorite
television show, eating ice cream or going to the gym, nobody suggests that ice cream is
akin to crack and should be regulated to protect…people from themselves.”
Steven Yagielowitz, senior editor XBIZ
Lady Gaga: Drugs Inspired Me
"[Using drugs] I really figured out the art I wanted to make and
was inspired," she said. "Some people find inspiration in dark
places. I guess I'm one of them. What always made me different is
that if I was doing drugs I was also making music. I wasn't just
doing drugs. "Once you open those doors they're open for ever…”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/27/lady-gaga-drugsinspired-_n_696842.html
Miley prefers weed…
"I think weed is the best drug on earth. One time
I smoked a joint with peyote in it, and I saw a
wolf howling at the moon,”
"Hollywood is a coke town, but weed is so much
better. And molly, too. Those are happy drugs—
social drugs," she explains. "They make you want
to be with friends.
(as quoted from Rolling Stones interview)
http://www.eonline.com/news/464064/miley-cyrus-in-rolling-stone-i-think-weed-is-thebest-drug-on-earth
“I love weed…I just love getting stoned”
Miley Cyrus, W magazine, 2014
How did we miss this?...
“Our results suggest that long-term cannabis
use is hazardous to white matter in the
developing brain…. Disturbed brain
connectivity in cannabis users (84-88%) may
underlie cognitive impairment and
vulnerability to psychosis, depression and
anxiety disorders, all of which are significant
public health concerns.”
Zalesky A, Solowij N, Yücel M, Lubman DI, Takagi M, Harding IH, Lorenzetti V, Wang R, Searle K,
Pantelis C, Seal M.(2012). Effect of long-term cannabis use on axonal fibre connectivity. Brain. 135(Pt
7):2245-55.
Just ask them…
“…we conclude that the overall findings suggest
that many young Danish adults believe that
pornography has had primarily a positive effect on
various aspects of their lives.”
Hald GM, Malamuth NM. (2008) Self-percieved effects of pornography consumption. Archives of
Sexual Behavior. 37(4):614-25
“Outlet” Sex – The world as a masturbatory
object… “Release” is the goal
[C]onsidering the physiology of sexual response and the mammalian backgrounds of
human behavior, it is not so difficult to explain why a human animal does a particular
thing sexually. It is more difficult to explain why each and every individual is not involved in
every type of sexual activity. (Kinsey, Sexual Response in the Human Female, 1953, p.451)
“[W]e suggest that sexuality, in its basic biologic origins, is a capacity to respond to any
sufficient stimulus. It is simply a picture of physiologic response and psychologic
conditioning in terms that are known to the biologist and psychologist. This is the picture
of sexual response in the child and in most other younger mammals.. For a few uninhibited
adults, sex continues to remain sex, however they have it.” (Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin,
Gephard, in Psychosocial Development in Health and Disease, [Grune and Stratton],1949,
p.27.)
From “Sexual Behavior in the Human Male,” Alfred Kinsey, 1948
Paul Gephard, Kinsey co-author
Muir: “So, do pedophiles normally go around with
stopwatches?”
Gebhard: “Ah, they do if we tell them we’re interested in
it!”
Taped transcript, phone conversation between Gephard and J. Gordon Muir,
about table 34 in the 1948 ‘Male’ book.
Walter Pomeroy, Kinsey co-author
•
“… having sex with the male animal,… whether it is a dog, horse, bull or some other
species, may provide considerable erotic excitement for the boy…Psychically, animal
relations may become of considerable significance to the boy who is having regular
experience…[ and] in no point basically different from those that are involved in
erotic responses to human situations…”
Boys and Sex
•
“We find many beautiful and mutually satisfying [sexual] relationships between
fathers and daughters. These may be transient or ongoing, but they have no harmful
effects … Incest between adults and younger children can also prove to be a
satisfying and enriching experience … When there is a mutual and unselfish
concern for the other person, rather than a feeling of possessiveness and a selfish
concern with one’s own sexual gratification, then incestuous relationships can and
do work out well. Incest can be a satisfying, non-threatening, and even an enriching
emotional experience, as I said earlier.”
Variations magazine
Pornography Apologism
in Academia
Courtesy Dr. Judith Reisman
The Neuroscience of Attachment
Vasopression
Oxytocin
Attachment neuropeptides and human bonding
•
Oxytocin and vasopressin are produced by the hypothalmus and stored in the posterior pituitary
gland.
•
Oxytocin causes uterine contractions and facilitates lactation (in females), and facilitates
ejaculation (in males).
•
Vasopressin is essential in controlling fluid physiology in humans, and erection in males.
•
We now know that both are integral in human emotional bonding!
•
Kinsey’s ‘outlet sex’ dogma didn’t take into account the effect of attachment neuropeptides.
For perspective on attachment neuropeptides, read: Elizabeth A.D Hammock and Larry J. Young
(2006). Oxytocin, vasopressin and pair bonding: implications for autism. Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 361(1476):2187-2198.
Neuropeptides and bonding to computers?
“Overall, OT and AVP had sexually differentiated effects on both
behavior and brain activity. In women, AVP increased conciliatory
behavior, and both OT and AVP caused women to treat computer
partners more like humans. In men, AVP selectively increased
reciprocation of cooperation from both human and computer
partners.”
Rilling J.K., et al. (2014). Sex differences in the neural and behavioral response to intranasal oxytocin and
vasopressin during human social interaction. Psychoneuroendocrinology, Vol 39, 237-248.
Yet more, if emotion be eliminated, what
difference is there, I say not between a man and a
brute, but between a man and a rock, or the trunk
of a tree, or any inanimate object?
Cicero, On Friendship
“I never wanted to be out beating the drum against pornography. In the
beginning of my career, if anyone had suggested I’d be here now, I’d
have laughed at them. But from my own clients, my research, and my
personal experience, I’ve come to the conclusion that pornography is
moving from an individual and couples problem to a public health
problem, capable of deeply harming the emotional, sexual, and
relationship wellbeing of millions of men, women, and children. As a
sex therapist, I’m amazed that what I once saw as a liberating sexual
experience and a therapeutic option for improving sex with an intimate
partner has evolved into something that can easily hijack and harm
people’s sexuality.”
Wendy Maltz, LCSW, DST
http://www.therapytoday.net/article/show/1665/
‘large lucrative treatment industry’
$100,000,000,000
Large, lucrative exploitation
industry?
Steve Hirch, Founder and CEO, Vivid Enertainment
Hirsch is in front of that class of business students at USC. He spends more
than an hour outlining the details of running a business in the skin trade.
Students scribble notes as Hirsch talks about vertical integration, buy rates,
production value. There is one term he refuses to utter--the P word.
"Pornography has always been a bad word and we're not about bad words,"
Hirsch would explain later. "We're about making money."
As he finishes his lecture, the students applaud politely. His presentation was
impressive, says Brian Francis Linhart, a business administration major. "I never
knew porn could be so cool.”
LA Times, Jan. 6, 2002, “The Actress, The Producer, and Their Revolution.”
Purveyors
AT&T and General Motors (DIRECTV with 40 million porn
streams per month) reap 80 % of all porn dollars spent by
consumers.
Worldwide porn profits of 100 billion a year – more than the
revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple,
Netflix and Earthlink combined.
Largest uses of Internet porn are between 12-17 years old.
From Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, Chris Hedges
“I’m not a weirdo or a pervert, it’s not my deal. I’ve
got kids and a family. But if I can see as an underwriter
going out and making bucks on people being weird,
hey, dollars are dollars. I’m not selling drugs. It’s
Wall Street.”
Brendon I. Koerner, A Lust for Profits, U.S. News & World Report, March 27,2000, p44
Hirsch says ‘no’ to LA condom law for
pornography performers
“We will fight for our right to express ourselves as
we please.”
Hirsch goes on to say, “Overturning this law is
something I feel very passionate about. I believe
the industry’s current testing system works well.”
Porn Stars Kayden Kross And Logan Pierce Along With Vivid Entertainment Sue To Block ‘Measure B’ Condom
Requirement http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/porn-stars-kayden-kross-and-logan-pierce-along-with-vividentertainment-sue-to-block-measure-b-condom-requirement-32786/
HIV-Infected porn actors
call for condom use
Cameron Bay, HIV-infected porn actress
"Condoms in porn is not really that crazy a thing," said Rod Daily, who said he
discovered he was infected last month. "If they do care that much about the
performers, they would use condoms."
Industry officials have said when they tried using condoms after an HIV
outbreak nine years ago, the $7 billion-a-year business saw revenue decline as
much as 30 percent as audiences made it clear they don't want them.
"Ultimately it's just a big industry, and their main concern is money," said Daily,
who was among six current and former porn actors to speak on the subject.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/09/19/hiv-infected-porn-actors-call-for-condomuse/?intcmp=latestnews
Steve Hirch, Founder and CEO, Vivid Enertainment
"Ten years ago I don't think I would have been asked to speak in
front of that class," Hirsch says in an interview later, adding that
none of the 23 undergraduates questioned the content he sells.
"We're already past the acceptance stage, and at this point we're
just talking about a business as a business. We are nothing more
than widget makers.”
LA Times, Jan. 6, 2002, “The Actress, The Producer, and Their Revolution.”
“Now they are nineteen. They are hookers. They
don’t care. They are a throwaway commodity in a
throwaway world.”
Jim Powers, pornographer
As quoted in Empire of Illusion: The end of Literacy and the Triumph of
Spectacle by Chris Hedges
“Many actresses admit they've experienced sexual
abuse, physical abuse, verbal abuse and neglect by
parents. Some were raped by relatives and molested
by neighbors…So we were taught at a young age that
sex made us valuable. The same horrible violations
we experienced then, we re-live…in front of the
camera. And we hate every minute of it.”
Shelly Lubben, former pornography actress, now anti-pornography activist
Kimberly Halsey, aka porn star “Houston”
“My porn-ness ruined my life at times. It’s been tough. It continues
to be tough… “I wanted out of porn. I still want out of porn. I
can’t get out of porn because I can’t make the kind of money I can
in the adult industry,” she said. “I hate it. I freaking hate it.”
Porn stars warn celebs with sex tapes: Get out of adult industry while you still can.
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/11/18/porn-stars-warn-celebs-with-sex-tapes-get-out-porn-while-stillcan/
“What does it say about our culture that cruelty is so easy
to market?...We accept a culture flooded with images of
women who are sexual commodities. Increasingly,
women in pornography are not people having sex but
bodies upon which sexual activities of increasing cruelty
are played out. And many men – maybe a majority of
men – like it.”
Robert Jenson, in Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of
Spectacle, Chris Hedges
Putting out fire with fuel ?
D’Amato - “Pornography has reduced social violence”
Diamond - "I don't think they should use kids to make child
porn. They can do it artificially and if that reduces child sex
crimes, I think that is a plus.”
http://www.kitv.com/Hawaii-Researcher-Studies-Effects-Of-Child-Pornography/-/8906042/5357746/-/9li4twz/-/index.html
D’Amato, A. Porn Up, Rape Down. (2006) Northwestern Public Law Research Paper No. 913-13
Diamond M., Uchimyama A., (1999). Pornography, Rape, and Sex Crimes in Japan, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry 22(1): 1-22.
Diamond M. et al. (2010). Pornography and sex crimes in the Czech Republic.
Archives of Sexual Behavior. DOI10.1007/s10508-010-9696-y
Sexual Exploitation in the Czech Republic
“Czech Republic ranked as Europe’s third
worst slavery haven” Jan Richter, Radio Praha,
10/23/13
“There are a number of types of slavery that are a problem
but it’s particularly human trafficking for sex trade that is a
problem in the Czech Republic…”
http://www.radio.cz/en/section/marketplace/czech-republic-ranked-as-europes-third-worst-slavery-haven#0
Porn and Aggression: Fueling the Fire
“College men’s exposure to pornography is nearly universal, with
growing viewing rates nationwide. Substantial research documents
the harmful effects of mainstream, sadomasochistic, and rape
pornography on men’s attitudes and behavior related to sexual assault. The present study surveyed 62% of the fraternity population
at a Midwestern public university on their pornography viewing
habits, bystander efficacy, and bystander willingness to help in po-
Results showed that men who view pornography are significantly less likely to intervene as a bystander, report
an increased behavioral intent to rape, and are more likely to believe rape myths.”
tential rape situations.
Foubert, et.al., Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity , 2011
Porn and Aggression: Fueling the Fire
A meta-analysis was conducted to determine whether nonexperimental
studies revealed an association between men's pornography consumption and
their attitudes supporting violence against women…In contrast to the earlier
meta-analysis, the current results showed an overall significant positive
association between pornography use and attitudes supporting violence
against women, even‘nonviolent’ pornography …This finding has
important implications for the overall literature on pornography and aggression.
Hald GM, Malmuth NM, Yuen C., Pornography and Attitudes Supporting Violence Against Women:
Revisiting the Relationship in Nonexperimental Studies. Aggression and Behavior 2010 Jan-Feb;36(1):14-20.
Sex Week at Yale
“Hirsch grips both sides of the podium as he moves into the stirring, rags-to-riches
part of the narrative… “We went after our dream,’ he declares. I now begin to
realize that I am standing before the Horatio Alger of pornography. This man isn’t
promoting the exploitation of women for profit; he’s promoting the American
Dream.”
“Hirsch is a smooth spokesperson for what he euphemistically refers to as the
‘business.’”
My head sinks into my hands. And I think the world can get no more absurd. I
have to keep reminding myself: I am at Yale. I am at Yale. But, actually, I think I
have died and been reborn into some freakish world where this kind of banality
passes for Yale-worthy education. Steven Hirsch has become my professor. And
there is actually a bleached blond porn star sitting a few rows in front of me. I pinch
myself. No, it’s real.”
Sex and God at Yale: Porn, Political Correctness, and a Good Education Gone Bad,
Nathan Harden
Sexual assault on campus:
Yale tries to clarify 'consent'
When Yale released its latest semi-annual report on sexual misconduct this summer it faced
criticism for the phrase 'nonconsensual
sex' and for punishments seen as too light.
“A 2007 federally funded survey of more than 5,000
undergraduate women found that 28.5 percent had experienced
attempted or actual sexual assault before or during their college
years. The majority assaulted on campus did not report the
incident to either campus officials or the police…Many
universities, including Yale, have also entered into settlements in
response to Title IX complaints.”
Students Against Sexual Violence at Yale (SASVY)
Christian Science Monitor, Sept 12, 2013 Stacy Teicher Khadaroo
Pornography actress Jenna Jameson returns to pornography after
vowing to quit forever –
‘And to be honest, I made a promise to my children when they were in
my tummy that there is no way I would ever, ever, ever go back.'
‘Five years after publicly announcing her retirement from porn, Jenna
Jameson is returning to the world of adult film for the sake of her
family…’
http://www.businessinsider.com/retired-jenna-jameson-returns-to-porn-amid-financial-woes-2013-11
‘After a slurred television interview on Monday, Jenna Jameson has
reportedly cancelled all television appearances promoting her new
novel….’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2477371/Jenna-Jameson-cancels-remaining-TVinterviews-promoting-new-book-string-slurred-interviews-causes-negative-attention.html
Steve Hirsch
Would he want his infant daughter, Alexis, to become a Vivid star?
He smiles and leans back in his overstuffed leather chair. "I would
tell her to really think that through," he says. "I would respect
whatever decision she would make. And then I would send her to
medical school.”
LA Times, Jan. 6, 2002, “The Actress, The Producer, and Their
Revolution.”
“We suggest that… the mirror-neuron system prompts
the observers to resonate with the motivational state of
other individuals appearing in visual depictions of
sexual interactions.”
Mouras, et al., Neuroimage, 2008
“I’d like to really show what I believe the men want to see: violence
against women. I firmly believe that we serve a purpose by showing
that. The most violent we can get is [names an explicit sexual act].
Men get off on that, because they get even with the women they can’t
have. We try to inundate the world with [names the same explicit
act].”
Bill Margold, pornography performer
Gail Dynes, Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality. Beacon Press,
Boston 2010, pg xxvi
813 students from six colleges
87% of the young men and 31% of young
women view pornography
48.4% of young men view at least weekly
 20% view daily or every other day
Carroll JS, Padilla-Walker LM, Nelson LJ, Olson CD, McNamara Barry C,
Madsen SD: Generation XXX, Pornography Acceptance and Use Among
Emerging Adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 23(1) January 2008, p6-30
Nicholas Tinbergen
• Supranormal Stimulus
• Birds and Eggs
• Butterflies
Breast Augmentation: A human supranormal stimulus?
“The findings are introduced using the ethological concept of
supernormal stimuli and the behaviorist/neuroaestheticprinciple,
the peak shift effect, applied to secondary sexual characteristics
(i.e., waist/hip ratios and breasts) and it is concluded that
augmented breasts, though deceptive signals of fertility, are
supernormal stimuli.”
Doyle J.F., Pazhoohi J., (2012). Natural and Augmented Breasts: Is What is Not Natural
Most Attractive? Human Ethology Bulletin, Vol 27, Number 4.
Pornography – Fueling an explosion in sexualizing breast
and genital cosmetic surgery
Breast Augmentation is the top cosmetic surgery procedure in 2012 with
286,274 procedures in the United States.
http://plasticsurgery.about.com/od/Plastic_Surgery_Statistics/a/2012-Top-FiveCosmetic-Surgical-Procedures.htm
"We haven't completed the research, but there is suspicion that this is related to much
greater access to porn, so it is easier for women to compare themselves to actresses who
may have had it done. This is to do with the increasing sexualization of society – it's the
last part of the body to be changed.”
Dr. David Veale, psychiatrist, King’s University, commenting on current research on skyrocketing
female genital cosmetic surgery rates
"Now women shave…Now they see porn. Now
they're more aware of appearance."
Gary Alter, MD
Plastic Surgeon specializing in cosmetic labiaplasty,
As quoted in The New York Times, Fashion & Style,
The Most Private of Makeovers
“For the first time in human history, the images’
power and allure have supplanted that of
real…women. Today, real…women are just bad
porn.”
Naomi Wolf, The Porn Myth, New York Magazine
Philip Zimbardo, PhD
Emeritus Professor of Psychology
Stanford University
“The Demise of Guys”
Boys 30% more likely than girls to drop out of school
Girls outperform boys now at every level, from elementary school to graduate programs
10% differential between getting BA’s and all graduate programs, with boys behind girls
66% of students in special ed remedial programs are boys
Boys are 5 times more likely to be labeled as having attention deficit disorder, and being
placed on Ritalin
Zimbardo - Why?
•
•
•
•
Excessive Internet use in general
Excessive new access to pornography and video games
“Arousal Addiction”
“Boys brains are being digitally rewired in a new way for change,
novelty, excitement and constant arousal; that means they are
totally out of sync in traditional classes which are analog, static,
interactively passive…and in romantic relationships, which build
gradually and subtly.”
“The male either becomes confused and doesn’t know
which direction to turn for the female, or he becomes
desensitized to the lower levels of pheromones
naturally given out by the female and has no
incentive to mate with her.”
ABC Science Online, Oct 16, 2000
Will Durant on the fall of Rome
“Biological factors were more fundamental. A serious decline of
population appears in the West after Hadrian…Aurleius, to replenish his
army, enrolled slaves, gladiators, policemen, criminals…So many farms
had been abandoned…that Pertinax offered them gratis to anyone who
would till them. A law of Septimius Serverus speaks of …a shortage of
men.
Bishop Dionysius said the population had halved during his time, and
mourned to “see the human race diminishing and constantly wasting
away.” Only the barbarians and the Orientals were increasing, outside
the Empire and within.”
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Caesar and Christ, Volume 3, Simon and Shuster, Inc.,
1944, 665-666.
Will Durant on the fall of Rome (Continued)
“What had caused this fall in population? Above all, family
limitation. Practiced first by the educated classes, it had now
seeped down to a proletariat named for its fertility: by AD 100 it
had reached the agricultural classes …Sexual excesses may have
reduced human fertility: the avoidance or deferment of marriage had a like
effect…Moral decay contributed to the dissolution…men had now, in the
middle and upper classes, the means to yield to temptation…Moral and
esthetic standards were lowered by the magnetism of the mass: and sex ran
riot in freedom while political liberty decayed. (emphasis added)”
Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Caesar and Christ, Volume 3, Simon and Shuster, Inc., 1944,
665-666.
“The bigger pornography gets, the
lower the birthrate becomes.”
Tom Wolfe
We cannot be free of nagging desires through
suppression. This is like trying to keep a rubber
boat beneath the water. But we remove
compulsive desires altogether by understanding
their nature.
Vernon Howard, quoted in Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
“Refrain tonight, and that shall lend a hand of
easiness to the next abstinence; the next more
easy; for use almost can change the stamp of
nature…””
William Shakespeare
Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4
Recovery visualized on neuroimaging:
Positive Neuroplasicity
Atrophy in gray matter areas associated with reward in
methamphetamine addiction recover and increase to more
normal volumes with recovery (Kim et.al., Int Jour NeuPsyPhar
2005)
Enlargement of gray matter after mindfulness therapy (Holzel
et. al. (Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging 2011) – “The adult
nervous system has the capacity for plasticity, and the structure
of the brain can change in response to training.”
Another characteristic of this growth stage (2-3 years into strong recovery) is a
deep abhorrence of one’s old behavior. Once people in recovery have enough
distance from their old problematic behaviors, they often have extremely visceral
reactions when they think about them. Many say they look back almost in
disbelief at some of the things they’ve done.
By the time recovery reaches the growth stage, it no longer involves false starts.
Consciousness of sobriety and of richer relationships has brought the person to
a new level of being. And it’s at this stage that people in recovery often talk
about the compulsion of addictive behavior as a gift. They have experienced a
depth of humanity that many people never achieve.
Their compulsive or addictive behaviors and subsequent recovery have given
them a greater perception, compassion, and presence. Not only do they serve as
models for other recovering people who follow them, but they are literally
helping our whole society heal.
Patrick Carnes, PhD, In the Shadows of the Net, pg 142