About Addictions

        A true addiction (vs. "overdoing" something) is an uncontrollable compulsion which provides temporary relief from significant inner pain - and increases it over time. Four types of addiction are:

• substances which reliably alter brain chemistry, including su-gar, fat, and carbohydrates ("comfort foods"). Some substan-ce addictions have genetic predispositions and/or create bio-logical cravings that amplify psychological needs 

• relationships (codependence) 

• excitement (e.g. rage, risk, sexual arousal and relief), and...

• activities like gambling, shopping, overwork, investing, worship, cleaning, exercising, pornography, Web-surfing, etc...

        All true addictions have clearly identifiable traits, and reliably indicate a low-nurturance childhood and major psychological  wounds and unawareness 

        12-step "Anonymous" programs can arrest addictions (partial recovery), but do not identify and reduce psychological wounds, so addicts must constantly guard against relapses. Full recovery requires the person to want to (a) free their true Self to lead their other subselves, and to (b) find more effective ways of avoiding and reducing inner pain. self-improvement Lesson 1 provides an effective way to do that.

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