In The Realm Of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction Quotes
"Faith in humanity, already cracked by the first slap in the face, then demolished by torture, is never acquired again."
"The dullness is itself a consequence of an emotional malfunction not of her making."
"What a wonderful world it would be if the simplistic view were accurate: that human beings need only negative consequences to teach them hard lessons."
"It's not that my senses are dulled—no, they open, expanded."
"In the dark mirror of their lives, we can trace outlines of our own."
"The very same brain centres that interpret and 'feel' physical pain also become activated during the experience of emotional rejection."
"The addict's reliance on the drug to reawaken her dulled feelings is no adolescent caprice."
"It's not a matter here of common shyness but of a deep psychological sense of isolation experienced from early childhood."
"I don’t know how to live everyday life without it. You take it away, I don’t know what I’m going to do."
"The desire first arises as a thought and rapidly transforms itself into a concrete object in my mind, with a weight and a pull."
"I have come to see addiction not as a discrete, solid entity—a case of 'Either you got it or you don’t got it'—but as a subtle and extensive continuum."
"Somewhere along that continuum I locate myself."
"Day in, day out I’ve obsessed about what music to get and spent countless hours poring over write-ups on classical music websites."
"I cannot walk the dog without a sonata, a symphony, an aria sounding on the earphones."
"I fear losing her affection. I don’t want to look bad in her eyes. I’m afraid of her anger. That’s what I don’t want."
"Addictions, even as they resemble normal human yearnings, are more about desire than attainment."
"The greatest pleasure is in the momentary satisfaction of yearning."
"The fundamental addiction is to the fleeting experience of not being addicted."
"Passion is a source of truth and enlightenment; addictive behaviours lead you into darkness."
"Addiction is centrifugal. It sucks energy from you, creating a vacuum of inertia."
"A consuming passion that you are helpless to resist, no matter what the consequences, is an addiction."
"The less effective our own internal chemical happiness system is, the more driven we are to seek joy or relief through drug-taking."
"Human connections create neuronal connections."
"For man the most important stressors are emotional."
"Early stress establishes a lower 'set point' for a child’s internal stress system."
"A child who is stressed early in life will be more overactive and reactive."
"Our DNA is simply too paltry to spell out the wiring diagram for the human brain."
"The early environment, consisting of both the prenatal and post-natal periods, has a profound effect on gene expression and adult patterns of behavior."
"The liability trait for alcoholism is not static."
"The current concept of addiction is ill-founded."
"In the final analysis, it’s not the activity or object itself that defines an addiction but our relationship to whatever is the external focus of our attention or behaviour."
"The distinguishing features of any addiction are: compulsion, preoccupation, impaired control, persistence, relapse and craving."
"All addictions, substance related or not, share states of mind such as craving and shame, and behaviours such as deception, manipulation and relapse."
"In effect, people become addicted to their own brain chemicals."
"The freedom from pursuits, the freedom from being so needy that our whole life is spent trying to appease our desires or fill in the emptiness."
"Addiction is always a poor substitute for love."
"Only chronically and severely dislocated people are vulnerable to addiction."
"The addict dreads and abhors the present moment; she bends feverishly only towards the next time."
"At the core of every addiction is an emptiness based in abject fear."
"We despise, ostracize and punish the addict because we don’t wish to see how much we resemble him."
"Addicts become addicts because they develop these habit structures which become totally focused on non-traditional rewards, drug rewards."
"Free choice only comes from thinking, it doesn’t come from emotions."
"The whole decision-making process is…it’s not even really a process. You just decide to use."
"The more we dehumanize and vilify substance abusers, the more it is impossible to put in place the kind of interventions that will help them."
"If we create environments that are safe and predictable and relationally enriched, then all of the other factors involved in substance abuse and dependence will be so much easier to dissolve away."
"We need to be very loving, very accepting, and very patient with people who have these problems."
"Proper nutrition, shelter, the controlled provision of their substances of dependence, counselling, and compassionate caring are what most addicts need if we are to help wean them from their debilitating habits."
"This is an excellent discussion that shows the complexity of the issue and the lack of perfect solutions."
"The real obscenity here is the shocking lack of funding for treatment and care and harm reduction initiatives that have been shown to work."
"Around drug addiction there are no easy, risk-free solutions to be found."
"What man wants is simply independent choice, whatever that independence may cost and wherever it may lead."
"The issue is not whether the addict would be better off without his habit—of course he would—but whether we are going to abandon him if he is unable to give it up."
"Harm reduction is often perceived as being inimical to the ultimate purpose of 'curing' addiction."
"Everything has mind in the lead, has mind in the forefront, is made by the mind."
"Your worst enemy cannot hurt you as much as your own thoughts, when you haven’t mastered them."
"The gods, we are taught, created humankind in their own image."
"Write down your values and intentions and, one more time, do so with conscious awareness."
"The road to hell is not paved with good intentions. It is paved with lack of intention."
"What matters is not the features of our character or the drives and instincts per se, but rather the stand we take toward them."
"Sobriety means being free of internal compulsion and living according to principles I believe in."
"Although not for everyone—nothing is for everyone—Twelve-Step programs provide the best available healing environment for many people."
"The ecological approach to recovery must, therefore, address the stresses in one’s life."
"The well-off and the destitute are considered together."
"Addiction arises from the intensely personal and global, the spiritual and the medical."
"A compassionate attentiveness to what is happening within."
"Understanding addiction and its roots in people's early years."
"A calm, unjudging, compassionate attentiveness."
"Empathy and understanding can change perspectives on addiction."
"The nature of addiction and its complex roots."
"A journey into the heart and mind of addiction."
"The struggle to understand and combat addiction."