Recalling that addiction is clinically defined as repeating negative behaviors despite the consequences or the risks involved and recalling also our initial categorization of our inner listeners as Absent Others we now look at addictive dialogs from within this framework. Addictive dialogs...

In our last entry we left open the question of who is doing the listening within our inner dialogues. Upon close introspection we find that there are multiple “inner listeners” that can be categorized as Absent Others; others “as if” they were present in the dialogue...

According to theAmerican Society of Addiction Medicine the clinical definition of addiction includes: "A primary, chronic, neurobiologic disease, with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. It is characterized by behaviors that include one...

The Term Relapse Means: From the Latin relabi to slide back, from re- + labi to slide, The act or an instance of backsliding, worsening, or subsiding, A recurrence of symptoms of a disease after a period of improvement. Like recovery relapse is a process that begins before actual re-addiction to...

National Library of Medicine (NLM): Readiness To Change Questionnaire The following questionnaire is designed to identify how you personally feel about your drinking right now. Please think about your current situation and drinking habits, even if you have given up drinking completely. Read each...

Prochaska & DiClemente developed a stages of change model that identifies 5 progressive stages of change as they specifically apply to overcoming addictions. Precontemplation The stage where the inpidual is not contemplating changing any of their addictive behaviors. This stage is often...

Stages of Addiction While genetics and neurochemistry assuredly play important roles in addiction the experience of addiction from the addict’s perspective is not at the genetic or neurochemical level. The experience of addiction is progressive.
At first the inpidual may just be ...

The experiences of addiction While current research shows that genetics (see the mu-opioid blog entry) and brain physiology (see the amygdala blog entry) play an important role in addiction none of these third order factors are experienced by the inpidual's whom is addicted.
The inpidual's...

Addiction is often defined as continuing the same negative behaviors despite the consequences or the risks involved. The question is why?
Why do people continue their addictions in spite of negative consequences? The answers are not simple. One of the purposes of this blog is to explore the...