What is addiction?

Addiction is a prevalent topic in our world these days. It usually refers to substances – drugs or alcohol (alcoholism). We know that Fentanyl overdoses outnumbered deaths from COVID-19 in 2020-21. Yet addiction can be about almost anything: food, exercise, shopping, money, religious practice.

My favorite definition is that addiction is anything that takes you away from yourself. Anything that we focus on in a rote manner to numb or avoid our uncomfortable thoughts or feelings is addiction. My personal “best” addiction was workaholism, which likely kept me from being “better” at some others!

Alcoholism runs in my family. As a child, I was only vaguely aware of this. I was 41 when a counselor told me he wouldn’t treat me unless I went to Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACoA), and I said, “What is that?” Since then I’ve participated in one type or another of 12-step groups which have changed my life.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), which began in 1935, is the foundational program for many others: ACoA, Alanon, Narcotics Anonymous (NA), Overeaters Anonymous (OE), Codependents Anonymous (CoDA, etc. Prior to AA, with its principle of one alcoholic helping another and belief in a Higher Power, there was no successful treatment for the “hopeless, helpless alcoholic” doomed to die a miserable death. In “The Doctor’s Opinion” (1939), alcoholism was defined as an allergy of the body and a phenomenon of craving in the mind, requiring a psychic change. Alcoholism was declared a disease with this three-fold concept of body, mind, and spirit by the American Medical Association in 1956.

Since its inception, AA has been the basis for addiction treatment. Now there are other theories and treatment modalities, such as the effect of trauma and pain on the brain. We are fortunate to have many more resources now for treatment of addiction, in whatever form it takes.

What I have learned in my journey is that addiction is a progressive, deadly, and relapsing disease with no regard for race, economic station, religion, or age. Addiction is a trap, a gathering darkness, a prison that restricts life, the antithesis of freedom. Yet with Faith, Hope, and Love, there are many miracles. True freedom IS possible, and, “We are sure that God wants us to be happy, joyous, and free.” (Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous)