Addiction/Recovery

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Eupsychia Institute
PO Box 151960
Austin, TX 78715-1960

(800) 546-2795
Local (512) 327-2795
Fax (512) 327-6043

THE TRANSFORMER'S VIEW OF ADDICTION

Following are the working definitions a Transformer uses for addiction.

Addiction = non-growth. It is a way of staying stuck in the past, repeating like a robot the same outworn modes of operation that do not work. Habits are desires objectified, repeated by unconscious action. We cannot maintain an addiction consciously. We have to put ourselves to sleep in order to act out an addiction. Conscious awareness, moment by moment, fully in the here and now, transformers addiction.
Addiction = attachment. When we are attached to something or someone, we have forgotten who we are. We feel we cannot be whole without this something. We experience pain and suffering whenever our attachment threatens to leave us. Attachment is the cause of suffering. Addiction is the cause of suffering. Nonattachment does not mean non-caring; it is non-needing, non-obsessing. Nonattachment removes emotional investment so that one can truly see clearly and therefore care appropriately for the other's sake. Paradoxically, attachment is non-loving.
Addiction = postponement. Repetition is hypnosis. We did it yesterday, we are doing it today. Tomorrow will be the same. Repeating, repeating. And this is how addictions grow. The more we repeat, the deeper we carve the groove, the more the affliction is worked into the fiber of our being. We know we want to do something else with our life, but always we feel...tomorrow. Then I'll be ready. Tomorrow I will be stronger. Tomorrow I will have gained more knowledge; I will have more energy. I will be out of the current crisis. But tomorrow never comes. And transformation happens now. It is this moment. Because nothing has to be done for transformation to occur–no looking to the future, no desiring an outcome, no goal.

Transformation is simply an awakening out of a dream state, a realization that happens in the mind. It is an instant realization that we lack nothing at all. We just open our eyes and see. And the seeing transforms! [excerpt from TRANSFORMERS, pg. 79-81]

The addictions field has done an excellent job of helping us name our addictive conditions. We have been forced to wake up and take a look at how we are giving our very lives away. Addiction and codependency treatment is replete with knowledge about each and every addiction and dysfunctional behavior we are capable of.

However, something has been missing, not only from some recovery books, but also from most of our treatment of addiction and codependence, and I believe this "something" is our whole Self. I know of no place where reductionism and psychological myopia are more rampant in today's world than in the existing field of mainstream addiction treatment. This is a strong statement. And there are, of course, exceptions.

It is a fact that most hospitals' and treatment centers' programs report high degrees of recidivism (some as high as 80%), and many such programs are folding, having failed to meet their goals. Yet many still in existence continue to focus almost entirely on the negative, sick, or fragmented aspects of people. For they view clients-as well as the client's family-exclusively through the lens of disease and dysfunction. There seems to be very little interest in or understanding of the concepts of wholeness, the repressed sublime, creativity, core goodness, or the inner healer. Clients' inner strengths that have developed over years of struggle with addictions are often unacknowledged, and clients and their families are given little hope for becoming wise or greater selves, or for understanding the positive aspects of their crisis or the transformative nature of humankind. I am often reminded of the comment made by India's great social reformer and sage, Sri Aurobindo: "I find it difficult to take these Western psychiatrists at all seriously...yet perhaps one ought to, for half-knowledge is a powerful thing and can be a great obstacle to Truth...They look from down up and explain the higher lights by the lower obscurities; but the foundation of these things is above and not below." (Satprem, Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness) Many treatment programs recommend or include the Twelve-Step programs of Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, or Codependents Anonymous. Yet if you review these treatment programs' philosophies, you can see instantly that they merely give lip service to the principle of Higher Power, the real healer of the Twelve-Step approach. They themselves have become the experts. And they look to their clients for verification. But "fixing clients" is a myth. Anytime we believe someone else is our savior, another addiction has set in. Giving our power away to others, at whatever level, is codependence, leading to more entrapment in lieu of the hoped-for-freedom of recovery. The only power we should surrender to is our Higher Power, and this always happens within the Self. The focus of treatment–if it is to be really life-giving and lasting–must be on clients finding their own strength and inner healer. And, they should leave treatment believing in themselves, not in some expert or program. [excerpts from AWAKENING IN TIME, pg. 24-26. For more on addiction/recovery read books AWAKENING IN TIME and TRANSFORMERS: THE ARTISTS OF SELF-CREATION]

Recovery is no longer a term limited to people living in sobriety or abstinence from a specifically defined addiction. The term has been broadened to mean recovery from an imbalanced human condition. Without the imbalance, we can live from our "center." And, as we heal, the idea of recovery gradually shifts to discovery of the true Self. This represents a turn away from focusing on the past, toward a focus on an emerging future and greater life. [excerpts from RISING TO THE CALL, pg. 35]

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