What is addiction? My philosophy is that addiction is a behavioral response to feel better, to avoid pain or discomfort.
Our society has driven us to become less tolerant of discomfort so one part of an addiction treatment model would be distress tolerance education. There is often a deeper wound that Carl Jung and William James explored, they viewed addiction as spiritual thirst for wholeness– a misguided search for spiritual connection.
Alcohol was referred to as spirits originally and was seen as a way to relax into making a spiritual connection; kind of ironic because addiction has become something we often see when people are lacking in spiritual connection.
As I write this I find myself not completely comfortable with word ‘spiritual’ as it is a loaded term with varied associations and meanings. For this moment, let’s take it to mean a connection to something larger than self. In a letter from Carl Jung to Bill Wilson (co-founder of AA) Jung recommends seeking solace and healing “by real religious insights or the protective wall of human community”* Which is a beautiful underpinning of the fellowship associated with AA.
Whilst healing can come from this feeling of connection in community – there are some souls so wounded that they lack the capacity to connect, and being surrounded by people with the desire to connect, without success, can enhance a feeling of loneliness.
Those experiencing this pain (based on trauma and defense mechanisms) cannot avail themselves to connecting in community without a more nuanced therapeutic support —to learn how to be in relationship, to both give and receive love and kindness and compassion.
As there is not one right way to heal, we must get creative-drawing from talk therapies, energetic and body based modalities, medication management and/or psychedelic assisted therapies. Human civilization has been hurting and healing for thousands of years, why should we limit ourselves to what North America has explored in the last few hundred?
If you’re interested in hearing more about Psychedelic Therapies please join us on Wednesday March 5th 2025 as Home-LA partners with The Center for Collegiate Recovery at LMU to discuss the future of psychedelic healing. XO EVA