ADDICTIVE REFLECTIONS

                         ADDICTIVE REFLECTIONS

     As I left the feature presentation, my mental gears of critical inquiry were churning at an alarming rate.  There was something disturbing about the subject on which the speaker lectured…so disturbing that my pulse quickened, and my blood pressure rose accordingly.  However, I cannot say that this feeling of disturbance was in any way negative.  In fact, it was stimulating and invigorating…it’s a feeling I enjoy, or at least yearn for.  Let’s see.  How can I describe this feeling?  Maybe as a sort of “rush”?  Yes, that will suffice.  It was an adrenaline rush.  Indeed, I was thinking, and therefore I was!  But am I addicted to this rush?  Hmmm.  Well, I guess that all depends upon how one defines an addiction.
The precise meaning of the word addiction is not easy to pin down.  Merriam-Webster defines the term as “a compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal”; more broadly, it is defined as “the persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful”.  Interestingly, psychologists routinely equate addiction with substance dependence, which they operationally define as “the abuse of a drug sometimes accompanied by a physiological dependence on it, made evident by tolerance and withdrawal symptoms.”  Further investigation into the core of the meaning of addiction therefore requires working definitions of tolerance and withdrawal symptoms:  the former is defined as “a physiological process in which greater and greater amounts of an addictive drug are required to produce the same effect.”  The latter is defined as “negative physiological and psychological reactions evidenced when a person suddenly stops taking an addictive drug; cramps, restlessness, and even death are examples.”  The reader should now realize that reliance upon these definitions is starkly problematic: indeed, the argument for the meaning of addiction as provided above becomes rhetorically circular and is therefore insufficient as an effective medium of communication.  That is to say that the word we are attempting to define has merely been expressed by the use of synonymous terminology.  Hence, the question has been begged—“What exactly is addiction?”  Hmmm.  Again, it looks as though we have come full circle….
     All right, I’ve indulged my senses in the high and lofty ivory towers, and crashing into my embracing armchair, I will grant momentary respite to my lapsing reason.  In truth, I cannot feign to know what addiction is, and I will not presumptuously categorize individuals in equivocal terms.  The fact is that one man’s addiction is another man’s passion.  Furthermore, any attempt to isolate the “cause” of addiction is nothing more than an exercise in futility for several reasons, the primary one being that which I have just pointed out:  one cannot isolate what she cannot operationally define.  Moreover, biological research continues to show that nature and nurture are not mutually exclusive concepts—genes may be the guns, but the environment is the trigger!!  And of course a plethora of cogent research exists showing that sex and food (especially sugar) elicit physiological responses that mimic drugs (or vice-versa as the case may be).  In addition, the study of exercise physiology clearly shows that exercise releases endorphins, the brain’s “natural” opiates, which are much more powerful than morphine.  With that said, in the dim light of shadowy ignorance, allow me to convene the menial, questioning spirit of Socrates, and put this sensually arousing discussion to numbing rest.  Can exercise become addictive?  Can sleep become addictive?  Can food become addictive?  Can sex become addictive?  Can survival itself become addictive?  Finally, assuming an affirmative answer to any of the above, is it not possible to revamp Darwin’s Theory of Evolution in terms of compulsive behaviors and addictions?  Wow!!  What a HEAD-RUSH!!