When does too much turn into addiction?<\/p>\n
I am often asked this question in many different forms, about many different subjects.\u00a0 It usually comes across in questions like am I addicted to work, or money, or candy, sex, alcohol even television.\u00a0 The list goes on and on.\u00a0 Society has done a wonderful job of blurring what is really very obvious to most people. In order for something to be considered an addiction the following definition must apply. \u00a0You will not hear the definition of addiction talked about in the media.<\/p>\n
Continued use in spite of negative consequences.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
For those of you who read this column regularly you have heard this definition before.\u00a0 These negative consequences for the 5 major addictions are obvious to everyone who knows the addict.\u00a0 For the soft addictions the consequences may not be so obvious from the outside.<\/p>\n
Many people would say that a person who makes millions of dollars and continues to build his wealth is addicted to money. Without knowing who this person is and what he is up to with his money, it is not for us to say that he is addicted.\u00a0 Take for example, the person who works 100 hours a week.\u00a0 We would judge this person to be a workaholic.\u00a0 But what if that person is doing what he or she loves to do?\u00a0 What if the work this person is doing is for a cause that could bring great joy and freedom to large numbers of people?\u00a0 Do we still say that person is a workaholic or do they now become a saint?<\/p>\n
So if a person likes to come home from work every night and crack open a cold beer, \u00a0sit on the couch and watch the evening news is he addicted?\u00a0 My answer is, \u201cI don\u2019t know, what happens if he doesn\u2019t watch the news?\u201d\u00a0 You didn\u2019t see that coming?\u00a0 Really?<\/p>\n
The news media uses fear as the driving force to keep people coming back.\u00a0 And it works! How does being informed of the murders, house fires, and potential terrorist threats, on a daily basis help us to feel joy?\u00a0 Do we really need to know what the weather is going to be this coming weekend so we can make plans?\u00a0 Many people keep a cable news channel on all day long listening to the same 5 stories be repeated endlessly.\u00a0 You don\u2019t think this is addiction?\u00a0 Tell me what good this serves in our lives.<\/p>\n
Fear, is the opposite of everything that we are.
\nGod said that in CWG book one.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nFear causes tension and anxiety which leads to all sorts of physical and mental health issues. Fear causes the body to enter into the fight of flight syndrome.\u00a0 While in that mode the body cannot repair itself thus becoming vulnerable to disease.<\/p>\n
Living with a pattern of behavior that creates a mental state of fear qualifies as addicted by definition.\u00a0 Repeating a behavior that is non-beneficial to our physical health or our mental well being is dysfunctional living.<\/p>\n
Hang on — there\u2019s breaking news — oh no, a carjacking in New York City.<\/p>\n
Yes, this story gets the headlines; one man carjacks somebody in a city of 12 million people and this makes a top story on the 5 pm news?\u00a0 Why? \u00a0What is the end game of this type of reporting?\u00a0 Is it really just to keep us coming back day after day so they can sell ads?\u00a0 Why do we not see the bigger picture?\u00a0 That the majority of humans are out in the world doing good things, living normal, happy lives?\u00a0 When will we decide take back our reality creation instead of letting someone create our reality based on what sells more advertising for them?<\/p>\n
It is staggering to see what the media chooses to report on when you look at it honestly.\u00a0 The news is merely another form of entertainment much like professional wrestling. They are going to look for the most sensational piece of news and beat it over our heads for as long as possible.\u00a0 A sensational plane crash gets 2 weeks coverage at the top of the hour while meanwhile 44 people per hour per day die from addiction-related incidents.<\/p>\n
My wife and I decided a few years ago that we would not watch news unless there was something happening that we felt the need to be informed of.\u00a0 We also decided if we were going to watch that we were going to keep our finger on the channel button and turn it off as soon as we received the information we desired.\u00a0 For the most part we get our news through the internet where we can pick and choose what it is we want planted in our head.<\/p>\n
My suggestion to everybody is how much news are you watching?\u00a0 How is it affecting your life?\u00a0 Is it helping?\u00a0 Or is it just filling your head with useless information?<\/p>\n
\u00a0In June we kicked off our first in a series of CWG on 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 experience. \u00a0 Our next retreat will held in San Jose, California, Sept 19 -22nd, 2013. \u00a0On October 24 – 27th, 2013 we will have another retreat in Orlando Florida. \u00a0Click\u00a0here<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0for more information on these life changing retreats.<\/p><\/blockquote>\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<\/span>\u00a0<\/a><\/i>\u00a0To connect with Kevin, please email him at\u00a0Kevin@TheGlobalConversation.com<\/span><\/a><\/span>)<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When does too much turn into addiction? I am often asked this question in many different forms, about many different subjects.\u00a0 It usually comes across in questions like am I addicted to work, or money, or candy, sex, alcohol even television.\u00a0 The list goes on and on.\u00a0 Society has done a wonderful job of blurring […]<\/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":[196,1337,1338,1342,1339,4,62,1340,1341,580,459],"class_list":["post-6299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-addiction-and-recovery","tag-aa","tag-addiction-recovery","tag-alcoholism","tag-chronic-illness","tag-coda","tag-conversations-with-god","tag-cwg","tag-fear-based-teaching","tag-fight-or-flight-syndrome","tag-health-and-wellness-2","tag-na"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299","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=6299"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6304,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6299\/revisions\/6304"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theglobalconversation.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}