Have you ever seen the movie, Love Potion #9? In this movie, when someone drinks the love potion #9, suddenly, they see the world through “rose-colored” glasses. After imbibing these chemicals, a person sees the beauty in the world, and they also see the beauty in whomever happens to be in front of them. This quickly leads to trouble. The chemicals in the potion cause the person to perceive a reality that does not exist—one that is more palatable to them—, and unfortunately, they also cause the person to interact with the reality that does exist, wrongly.
These people live in a pliable artificial reality that is embedded in an unbending absolute reality. The differential between the artificial reality and the absolute reality creates strain and tension, and the only way that a person can manage this strain and tension is by increasing the dosage of the love potion in order to bend the artificial reality even more, while making minor adjustments to how they interact with the absolute reality. At some point, however, there is a break. The spiritual, emotional, physical and relational tension and strain between absolute reality and artificial reality becomes too great. Absolute reality crushes artificial reality in order to eliminate the stored up strain and tension. This pent-up energy is released and transformed into another form of energy called, consequences.
These consequences are negative, but they can either create or destroy. On the one hand, when a person looks at the consequences of his or her behavior and accepts the fact that he or she has not interacted with absolute reality, rightly, and does not enter into their “artificial reality of choice” anymore, the consequences create a new life for him or her. On the other hand, when a person refuses to acknowledge that he or she has interacted with absolute reality, wrongly, and continues to enter into their “artificial reality of choice”, the consequences destroy his or her life.
Sound familiar? It should sound very familiar to addicts and alcoholics.
Drug addicts ingest chemicals. The chemicals disrupt the person’s neurotransmitters in his or her brain. As the neurotransmitter balance is disrupted, the brain modules begin to interact with each other differently, which causes a change in consciousness—–a change in the way that person perceives his or her self and absolute reality (the external world),—- producing an artificial reality.
As a bonus, when the addict ingests chemicals, the mesocortical limbic system, a brain structure involved with motivation and reward processing, is flooded with dopamine (the feel-good neurotransmitter), producing a rush (an intense sense of pleasure and well-being).
A similar thing happens when we bond with others and experience love. As we bond with others and experience love, our brain produces a hormone/neurotransmitter called, oxytocin. As oxytocin binds with its receptors, it triggers the release of a wave of dopamine that floods the mesocortical limbic system, which is why bonding and love feel good. It is also why we become addicted to it.
Some scientists think that addiction is the byproduct of the brain’s love system. According to this view, we are seeking the sense of pleasure and well-being that comes from being loved and nurtured. Nevertheless, most scientists agree with the concept that addiction is a byproduct of the brain’s reward center that responds to natural rewards that are necessary for our survival. The bottom line is that addiction is the misuse of the natural reward/love system that God designed into our brain/body complex so that we could survive.
So you might as well face it…..you’re addicted to love.
Addicts are addicted to a love potion (a drug) that allows them to escape from the confines of absolute reality in order to live in their artificial reality. This is what the addict has deemed to be rewarding for him or her and so this is what makes them feel good and what drives their behavior.
God created our brain, and He allows us to place values on our experiences. The prefrontal cortex is where we assign these values. The prefrontal cortex interprets each experience. In the past, if we have assigned an experience a positive value, then the interaction between the prefrontal cortex and the mesocortical limbic system produces a rush of pleasure. Thus, we want to repeat the behavior that generated the experience, so we can get the rush (get high). This is why the people on the TV show, Strange Addictions can eat dirt or cigarette butts and feel pleasure, and get addicted to it.
Conversely, when we have an experience that we have assigned a negative value to, the interaction between these two brain regions produces feelings of displeasure and disgust. Thus, we avoid the behavior that generated this experience. This is why my son will not eat chocolate cake. When my son was little, he ate some chocolate cake and became violently ill. Consequently, now he refuses to eat chocolate cake because he does not want to be violently ill again. He has a strong aversion to chocolate cake that you cannot reason him out of because the experience triggered the fear center in his brain and created a semi-flashbulb memory that overpowers his rational centers.
Drug addicts live in an artificial reality of their own making, because they are uncomfortable in the absolute reality that God has placed them in, so they can grow spiritually. This is rebellion, because we refuse to submit to God’s authority and deal with life on life’s terms. It is witchcraft, because we seek to change absolute reality with our minds. It is sorcery, because we use chemical potions to try to change absolute reality. It is idolatry, because we put our trust in the chemicals rather than God.
Here is my point, addiction is not a disease. Addiction is not a breakdown or a misfire of the human machine that we have no control over. Addiction happens when we make a choice to misuse the human machine and place values on things that we have no business valuing. Addiction happens when we do not accept life on life’s terms. Addiction happens when we refuse to bow to God, and bow to an experience that is rewarding. Addiction happens when we drink the love potion # 9.
Follow
