Emotional Addictions

It is not easy dealing with addicts or addictions. Most of us accept that as a commonly known fact. Most of us also tend to associate the terms addicts or addictions with the use of various forms of illegal or prescription drugs. We think of the poppy fields, the cooking kitchens, drug smugglers, drugs in the medicine cabinet, street dealers, crimes, and users. We see addicts and addictions as part of a darker side of life that is peripheral to our everyday existence. You should remember that the most prolific source of drugs in the world is your own body and you can develop Addictions to Emotions as powerful as any derived from pharmaceuticals or other substances.

We tend to assume that everyone is miserable being miserable. But that is not true! Our instincts and emotions are established in our genetic code and facilitated by our biochemistry and neurophysiology. Some people have a need to be in negative space, they are miserable until they create and syndicate it, and if you are not careful you could become one of them. This topic is discussed thoroughly throughout The Handbook On Being Human. There are a few drugs like methamphetamines that can create an almost immediate addiction. But with most drugs and especially the bio-chemicals of your body-mind the addiction process can be gradual and imperceptible. You see them all around you at work, school, and home, Negative Emotions Addicts. They stand out as exceptional in their ability to provide negative or contrary comments in any discussion, to fine fault with any idea or plan, to diminish the worth and input of others, and to mystically create an argument out of thin air. Regardless of the occasion or the mood and intentions of the group their presence is virtually guaranteed to throw water on the campfire during the best part of the midnight storytelling.

If you are fortunate, you also know people who seem to bubble with a genuine enthusiasm about life whenever you see and interact with them. They exude an energy that is contagious, that perks you up, and makes you want to ride on their higher plane of life. They inspire, comfort, motivate, encourage, calm, and cultivate you simply by their way of being in the world. Unlike their dark counterparts whose faces are often marked by grooves and shadows shaped by years of dark thoughts and sour intentions, these others’ faces are full of light and an unspoken joy about being alive in the moment. We choose to be one way or another but the choice is not made all at once. Developing your particular kind of Emotional Addiction is a gradual process of aggregating the effects of hundreds of choices we make everyday. Each choice directed by some sense of need or desire, charged by anticipation of emotional fulfillment, and fueled by the biochemistry of your body-mind.

Every human emotion has a bio-chemical and neuro-physiological correspondence in the body. These chemicals of emotions are extremely powerful opiate-like substances that influence our mental states, moods, feelings, emotions, and metabolism. How successful your body-mind is in its efforts to preserve your wellbeing depends on whether you are in negative space or Peaceful Space. Being in Peaceful Space and Creating Peaceful Space stimulate the Relaxation Response (a series of biochemical, neurological, and physiological changes that bare the opposite of the stress reaction).

These negative people that you may deal with everyday may have become addicted to the biochemistry of negativity. When they act-that-way they experience a release of biochemical drugs that satisfies a dependency they have formed over some period of time. Often, they are unaware of the extent to which they are creating the negative relationships between themselves and others. They come to rationalize and justify their actions by placing blame on others. Like alcoholics they can persist in denial for years until someone who cares is willing to risk an intervention. If you allow people like this to get-to-you it is just a matter of time before you will begin disliking, and then hating going to work, home, or school. That means you will begin to become negative in those shared places and the situation can only get worse from there.

When you carry yourself in Peaceful Space your oxygen consumption decreases, your respiratory rate decreases while respiratory efficiency increases, your heart rate decreases, elevated blood pressure decreases, muscle tension decreases, and alpha brain waves increase (heightening creativity and intuition). Your body-mind functions most efficiently and more in line with its design and ultimate potential when you are in Peaceful Space. When your body-mind is experiencing cordiality, friendliness, and a sense of belonging, encouragement and supportiveness, empathy and compassion, kindness and sensitivity, and attentiveness and mutual safety, you are operating with a different biochemistry and neurophysiology, a different energy signature. The biochemistry of Peaceful Space will improve your self-control, tolerance, achievement, and intellectual efficiency, meaning improved verbal fluency, quick, clear thinking, and perceptiveness.

Excerpts from: Letters To U: From The Mysterious Dr. M. - The Handbook On Being Human, vol I [Preview]