Addictions; The Wildly Bizarre To Comical Impulses

why so serious? is it because, you like big butts and you cannot lie...

Smart phone addiction... I found this amusing video that isn't too far from.the truth...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1114332/Funny-advert-The-perils-smartphone-addiction.html

We all know the girl/guy who texts through dinner dates, compulsively checks Instagram to see what all her/his friends are eating at other restaurants, or ends every argument with a Google search—she's/he's one of those people so tied to their cell phones that it's never out of arm's reach. But what if that friend is... you?

Smart-phones and use of digital tech is getting increasingly popular with the younger generation with university students showing signs of obsessive and compulsive disorders with their phones/tablets. Just take a quick walk around campus and the buzzing activity of smart-phones is apparent to anyone.

Technology (specifically smart phones and the like) has become an integral part of our lives, particularly the youth, in the next decade do we risk developing an amplified socially-challenged personality, an out of touch character from the real world day to day going, a disengaged and disrupted family home etc ?

Something fun to do, next time you are out on a long walk through the town, or in car, take note of how many people are using their phones and are oblivious to their surroundings. Or the selfie-addict who snaps themselves everywhere.

I like my.technology , I like the iphone. Good features lots of money so y nt use it ? Face time is good, okay Facebook users can calm down. But it makes us happy

How many hours in a full day would you say on average, you spend on the phone? (apps, online, games, texts, facetime, skype etc)

I don't know Al Ghazili, I know about the dopamine reward pathways that are part of the brain chemistry and the psychological model where a persistent need or desire for something trumpths consequence and a loss of self control. Aren't psychological histories in a sense addictions? The innate self meets the environment and is hardwired into the brain different ways whether they be positive or negative to survive through psychological defenses. If i supress a bad memory, if i project character traits i don't see in myself. If I am socially fearful because of trauma or upbringing is my brain not addicted in a sense of reinforced pathways that my brain now follows to survive. My thoughts, my feelings towards situations are these not in a way addictions since my brain is now programmed to act. What if i choose to look beyond my though patterns? 

Arent drugs in a sense external substances that bind to our own brain receptors meaning within us is the drug itself and whatever pathways a drug stimulates are present within our own selves. A beautiful sunset, a passage in a book, a song can awaken and change our serotonin levels, our dopamine levels, our own experience calls witihin us a innate change in our chemistries. 

The paradox of life and death. 

What is knowing self? 

Can you see beyond who you are into the heart of another knowing that the real self is not the name and patterns i have developed but a freedom and love of expression. Seeing self but not holding on to it.

The latter points are simply describing how the mind normally functions, an addiction in the medical sense is something that deviates away from the 'normal' functioning that ultimately either cause detrimental effects to your health or significantly disrupt your day to day living with impulses dictating and overbearing any other thought process.

There is something called the 'peak perfomance', in which the optimum 'performance' of an individual isn't compromised by deviation of health, illness or if you like addiction, from my limited understanding you cannot label the thought-process as an addiction because in the current usage of the term, it is for something deleterious or abnormal with respect to time, that brings about a short term relief from the stress, the thought-process model you're presenting in fact enhances the 'peak performance' and at times is in conflict, it cannot be both, thus it isn't in the medical sense an addiction. Though as I have said before, just because something is written on paper or a book, it doesn't alone make it a fact, it's up for change/debate (man-made concepts always are)

Your examples detail 'imprinting' that describe how 'packets of information' are accessed in order to carry out a specific pattern of behaviour,  this can be used to explain almost everything we do?! These are decision-based, whereas your 'complete' addict, lets say substance abuse, has very limited ability to make a rational judgement regarding the act, is oblivious to the consequences and time and cannot at that time point consider the paradox of 'change'.

If you are arguing from a pseudo-spiritual sense, the link between hormones and electric synaptic nerves then perhaps in that case we can consider a compulsive search for happiness with our thoughts being the medium an addiction of spirituality, thus the addiction to the thought-process (as it deviates away from what is the norm of a standard life).

I hope made some sense, or rather I hope I understood what it is you're trying to say!

In short it's a theoretical framework geared to facilitate the realization of one’s full potential and purpose by means of encouraging an ever-lasting series of mental and physical practice of exhausting all plausible reasons for higher functioning to ascertain a nondual 'realization' of reality and your position in life.

crazy ^^

I m addicted. Its true

I see what you mean kiwi. Thank you. I was wondering if we look at the chemical processes of the brain itself during doing what one finds pleasurable and the addiction pathway would one find a difference? Would i be able to diagnose someone as an addict by looking at brain scans themselves at their brain functioning?

thank you Lottery :))

From a strictly biochemical sense, the pleasure principle of dopamine being the neurotransmitter to relay feeling is always the underpinning factor that is given the spotlight, however as you may know, dopamine has differing effects depending on which receptor it is connected to . So you're correct in this instance. There's a dopamine stereotype all over some science magazines and the news, but in truth the dopamine pleasure model only explains a limited amount of addictions. You could easily find a substance abuser who is 'addicted' to a dopamine antagonist, thus the dopamine 'reward' mechanism for explaining the pleasure model falls apart, as there isn't a rush of dopa in the brain. But it is still widely somewhat valid for a significant enough amount of addictions. Also it's the only 'marker' we have that we have some understanding of in regards to addiction, so hence why we focus on dopa (as it clearly does have a part to play).

Yes you are able to differentiate between an addict and a normal person experiencing 'pleasure', there's a tool called a PET scan and gamma camera, its a non-invasive method for humans so it is usually preferred over others. The results would again portray a semblance away from the norm in the form of excessive 'gray matter', primarily it detects abornomalities in tissue structure, it can for example detect more dopamine being present than usual levels. The change in structure leads to an overactive receptor site or less sensitive (most likely) with time. So what this actually means is the natural capacity to produce dopamine in the reward system is reduced, while the need persists and the drug seems to be the only way to fulfill it. The brain is losing its access to other, less immediate and powerful sources of reward. Thus the need and only 'available' pathway is the nucleus accumbens (region in which dopamine is said to trigger the pleasure/reward model).

This technique is dependent upon what kind of addiction the person is living and from among them the specific addictions requiring the application of dopamine being the actuator for the 'release'. Other techniques require the use of animals and dissection.

So in my opinion your first part of your initial statement was partly correct but not necessarily with your application to cognition.

This paves the way for more intricate models such the acceptance, abundance, fear and love seeking model, which attempts to combine the chemistry with someone's beliefs. Simply put, we don't know much about how the brain truly works and we cannot for one second confidently attempt to explain totally how an addiction specifically effects the brain at the molecular level.

Very knowledgeable LotBot :))

Thank you Kiwi! I am blown away by your concise, clear, answers and your professional writing style. I can see you writing research in the future for pharmauceticals companies as the head reseacher. 

You always ask the right questions and that puts you above most of us already. Pondering over life and the universe is a sign of a free soul, which does not expect itself to accept absurd or demonstrably false beliefs.

The more we become aware of human limitations, the more self-aware we become. Once attained you will begin to strategize an organized method to life. There is a rich source of  happiness within us all, in order to acquire it, we have to understand, accept and focus on the the conditions of our reality and existence. Regardless of one's job, wealth, family, talents...

Trying your best to learn and rise up in the heirachy of wealth needs to be often spanked with lessons of content, patience and acceptance.

Many authors, poets, theologians, philosophers, polymaths and the like have all tried to show the rest of mankind the higher functioning of man & woman. It is, whatever your belief regarding afterlife, in this form, as far as we can understand a seemingly temporary abode.

There isn't a mask of kindness and selflessness in you, it's not a masquerade. I like how you encourage others to think, if only we were as thoughtful as you.