Have you ever had one of those days where you are just skipping along, happy as can be, and seemingly out of nowhere a fun-wrecker comes in and attempts to steal your joy?\u00a0 Are you the kind of person who has to exert some sort of power or control over others in order to feel somehow better than them or above them?\u00a0 Do you know a person who is constantly putting other people down so at a later point he can swoop in and raise them up to fulfill some sort of hero role?\u00a0 Some people will go as far as to become physically abusive to their spouses and children to maintain the illusion of power.\u00a0 There are many more examples of power-trippers, and please feel free to share your experiences with us in the comment section below.<\/p>\n
Most often we think of “power-trippers” as having very low self-esteem and assume they are using the behavior as a mask for their supposed insufficiency. \u00a0The truth is they are addicted to something much more destructive and insidious: dopamine.<\/p>\n
Dopamine is the great “I am.” It is a naturally occurring neurotransmitter that, when flowing, produces a feeling of euphoria. Dopamine is our ego.\u00a0 To understand this better, when a cocaine addict is using, the chemical response in the brain is to release more dopamine into our system.\u00a0 So the person who has learned how to control that release simply by exerting control over others is just another drug addict who is under the spell of their drug of choice.<\/p>\n
There are not too many power addicts walking through the doors of 12 step programs to get their addictions under control.\u00a0 Many of the people who have this affliction will take it to their grave with them.\u00a0 There is also very little sympathy out there for these type of people, nor should there be; however, without the help of loved ones, addicts suffering seldom have the opportunity or the encouragement to make changes in their lives.\u00a0 Without the understanding of what is triggering the nasty behavior of the “power-tripper,” family, friends, and loved ones eventually exit from the relationship.<\/p>\n
Compassion is what is needed to help the person suffering with this disease. \u00a0Yet without the knowledge of what is going on, most people cannot muster up the motivation to be compassionate.\u00a0 Ultimately, life is about our interpersonal relationships.\u00a0 Most of us would consciously choose not to be in relationship with a person who is constantly controlling everything and everyone around them.\u00a0 Yet unconsciously we find ourselves having to work or socialize with power mongers fairly often.\u00a0 So why is this?\u00a0 What could the possible benefit to the continuing evolution of mankind be?<\/p>\n
Love.<\/p>\n
What greater practice could there be than loving a person who is exhibiting unloving behaviors?\u00a0 Where we get mixed up is, what does “love” look like?\u00a0 Do we give in and let the person treat us badly?\u00a0 Is \u201ctaking one for the team\u201d ever a productive or effective way of loving someone into wellness?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Love is strong, love is confident, love is trusting in the way of the universe.\u00a0 Love knows that each individual must walk his or her own path, and that we can influence but we cannot manipulate.<\/p>\n
There is much room to explore this topic together.\u00a0 Please take some time to comment down below about your experience as a power-tripper or with a control freak.\u00a0 Have you or someone you know recovered from this disease?\u00a0 How do we spot this behavior before we get in to deep?<\/p>\n
Last month we kicked off our first in a series of Path to Peace recovery retreats. \u00a0A small group of people all shared a life-changing event. \u00a0If you are in recovery and not experiencing great joy and freedom or are still suffering with addictions, please consider giving yourself this opportunity to soar into grateful recovery. \u00a0Our next retreat will held in San Jose, California, Sept 19 -22nd, 2013. \u00a0Click here<\/span><\/a>\u00a0for more information.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n (Kevin McCormack, C.A.d ,is a certified addictions professional. He is a recovering addict with 26 years of sobriety. Kevin is a practicing auriculotherapist, life coach, and interventionist specializing in individual and family recovery and also co-facilitates spiritual recovery retreats for the CWG foundation with JR Westen. You can visit his website for more information at<\/i>\u00a0www.Kevin-Spiritualmentor.com\u00a0<\/a><\/i>\u00a0To connect with Kevin, please email him at\u00a0Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com<\/a>)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have you ever had one of those days where you are just skipping along, happy as can be, and seemingly out of nowhere a fun-wrecker comes in and attempts to steal your joy?\u00a0 Are you the kind of person who has to exert some sort of power or control over others in order to feel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159],"tags":[185,1305,195,1303,1304,186,52],"class_list":["post-6116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction-and-recovery","tag-addiction","tag-dopamine","tag-kevin-mccormack","tag-path-to-peace","tag-path-to-peace-retreat","tag-recovery","tag-the-global-conversation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6116"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6298,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6116\/revisions\/6298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}