A Split Second in the Mind of an Addict
Located in the area of the brain commonly know as the “mid brain” swirls the thoughts of survival. Have you ever put your hand on a hot stove or pot? Did you think to yourself, “Gee, this is hot, I should pull my hand away before I get burned”? Of course you didn’t. Your hand was flying back and away from that pot before you were even aware it was hot. This is your mid brain functioning to keep you safe, providing for your survival.
In the mind of the person with a spiritual deficiency disorder, also know as addiction, the act of taking a drink or a drug or placing a bet or having risky sex or exerting power over another human being is happening before the person can rationalize that what they are doing is harmful. This is how a perversion of the mid brain function takes over a person’s life.
Here is the hope for those afflicted: There is always a pause. There is always an opening for recovery to happen. The alcoholic eventually sleeps after a long night drinking; the sex addict feels deep shame after their binge, and when he awakens, he is momentarily able to consider the magnitude of his powerlessness. Many will cry out, “I will never do that again,” only to find themselves right back in the same pattern only hours later.
Without a spiritual connection, a healthy coping response is virtually impossible. The addict has no power over what is taking place in the mid brain when the reward chemicals are flowing. The possibility for change without outside intervention is minuscule. For recovery to take place, something or someone must take advantage of the “window of opportunity” as it opens. Being aware and present for that brief moment is a difficult task, and the closest friends or family members are rarely capable of providing the help needed.
I have had the experience of the “window or opportunity” opening and feel very fortunate to have had support in getting the help I needed. I look back now and see how it was truly a Divine intervention that had occurred. All of the exact right things lined up at exactly the right time, and I said exactly the right words to the right person: “Dad, I am ready for help.” Three hours later, I was in a detox ward at a local hospital.
Most would say we have no control over the autonomic system and would use the argument that you can not consciously stop yourself from breathing. This would indicate that we have no power over our survival mechanism. Is it true, however, that we actually can stop ourselves from breathing by other means — for example, strangulation. In this example, we used a deductive reasoning to work around a built-in safeguard, effectively achieving the same outcome: our death.
There is much we do not know about the brain and what it is up to most of the time. Some have said that we only use 10% of our brains at any given time. So the possibility exists that somewhere in the brain there is a connection to the divine, a WiFi, if you will. It has been written in many religious and spiritual books “Through Him all things are possible.” I take this to mean that nothing is out of our reach, and nobody is beyond help.
The right brain is known as the intuitive, holistic, spiritual side of the brain. The left side is the logical, rational, thinking side of the brain. There is a super highway, so to speak, that connects these two sides, and it is called the corpus callosum. It is my theory that this highway could be the highway to heaven and that our greatest mystery is happening along that stretch of road. When we ask for help sincerely, powerfully, passionately, the Spirit crosses over from the right side of the brain to the left and infuses our decision-making with healthy, positive, and Holy energy.
This may be an oversimplification of our brain functioning, and I am sure there are many scientists that would rebuke my analogy. The statement I find true is, “No prayer goes unanswered.” We may not listen, we may not always hear, but the fact remains that the request has been answered. It is entirely up to us to listen and acknowledge the presence of God in our lives.
(Kevin McCormack is a “Conversations with God” Life Coach, a Spiritual Helper on www.changingchange.net, and an Addictions Recovery Advisor. To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@theglobalconversation.com)
