Spiritual Forum

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What Is Addictive Behavior?   Addictive behavior is the use of any substance or the engagement in any activity, or the obsession with anything that becomes the major focus of a person's life to the exclusion of other activities.   A person can become addicted to, dependent upon, or compulsively obsessed with just about anything.   The level of addiction can be mild (occasionally bending one behavior)  or  overwhelming (completely dominating and controlling one's life.).

The essence of addiction is that something other than the conscious, rational mind is controlling a person's behavior.   The more common ways that people lose control of their lives include:  The use of mind altering substances,   Making money,  particularly making large amounts of money Gambling  --   Taking risks (commonly with money)  
Putting themselves in physical danger,  Sexually compulsive behavior, 
Religion.  

Extremist in any religion are Religion Addicts.   Their beliefs, true or false, control their lives.  Common examples of this are Islamic terrorists and the ultra-conservative, Christian extremists that call themselves the Republican Tea Party.

How an Addiction Grows.  An activity can start out as simple pastime or something of mild interest, however, if a person continues to engage in the activity in order to achieve feelings of well-being and euphoria, he (she) can become addicted to the behavior or the substance.   One of the keys to becoming aware of addictive behavior is when a person needs something outside of him or herself in order to feel good.

The Addiction Takes Control.  Addiction often overwhelms the addict, and he (or she) will continue the behavior even though he knows that his behavior produces negative physical, mental, or emotional problems to himself and/or harms others, and/or that his activity will result in negative social, and/or environmental consequences.   The Addict becomes addicted to the process.  

The Consequences Become Irrelevant:  Once one becomes addicted to the process, the result are irrelevant.   This in a prime attribute of the Money & Profit/Dopamine Addict.   The tobacco industry gives us a clear and obvious example of this type of out-of control, destructive behavior.  In spite of the fact that none of the industry's chief executives needs more money, their focus is entirely on making more money.   These corporate leaders completely ignore the fact that their products kills 44,000 of their customers every year.  

The Money and Cocaine Connection.  There are similarities between physical addiction to various chemicals, such as alcohol, cocaine, and heroin, and psychological addiction to activities such as gambling, making money, sexual activity, working, running, shopping, eating, religion, et cetera.   Addictive behavior produces beta-endorphins in the brain, which makes the person feel "high."   Over time, a psychological addiction can and often does overpower the individual just as much as does addiction to alcohol or cocaine.   The person becomes physically addicted to the dopamine that is produced in his brain when he engages in the addictive behavior.   Researchers have determined that making money and using cocaine both stimulate the same part of the human brain.   

The Love of Making Money:   When you examine the corporate leaders (particularly the money lenders in the financial industry) you'll soon notice that these men (and a few women)  fall in love with the process of making money.   The results that they produce, other than making more money, soon becomes all but irrelevant.   They have no personal use for the next ten million dollars.   The money is just an ego-lifting number.   What they do to employees, to customers and to the environment is also irrelevant to them.   

Addict Behavior Patterns:   At http://www.indiana.edu/~engs/hints/addictiveb.html, there's a list of ten common characteristics of addictive behavior.   Here's an edited version of that list. 

1)  The Addict is obsessed with an activity,  

2)   ... will engage in the behavior even though he or she know            that it is causing harm, 

3)  ...is out of control -- will compulsively engage in the activity,      

4)   ...upon cessation of the activity, withdrawal symptoms often occur, 

5)  ...loses of control as to when, how long, or how much          he or she will continue the behavior,    

6)   ...denies that there are problems resulting from his/her behavior,

7)   ...hides the behavior from concerned family or close friends,   

8)   ...loses memory about what occurred during the compulsive behavior, 

9)  ...the compulsive activity may result in depression,   

10)   ...the individuals with addictive behaviors often have low self esteem, feel anxious if the do not have control over their environment, and come from psychologically or physically abusive families.

The bottom line is that:  

*** The addict is out of control, 

***  The addiction is in control 

*** The addict will destroy whatever stand between him/her and the next fix.

The addiction to making money is particularly easy to deny.   First  because their are no external chemicals directly involved in the addiction.   Second, the addiction commonly grows in intensity rather slowly.   It tends to intensifies as the person becomes wealthier.   Third, society at large does not recognize making large amounts of money as an addiction.   Fourth, the super-wealthy money and profit addicts are often looked upon as heroes and not addicts.  

For example, Bill Gates is looked upon by many people as a financial hero.   But, does the evidence support that conclusion?   Are you aware of what did he do to his competitors on the way to the top of money mountain?   How does Microsoft treat its customers today? (June 2010)   Is Microsoft being run today primarily to serve the customers or is its main purpose to make more money?  

With GoDaddy, a major computer service company, customers can call 24/7 and have his/her questions answered and their (GoDaddy-related) problems solved by a live person in a matter of minutes.  The service is free.   It's a function what GoDaddy is -- a service organization.   With Microsoft, customer service comes after the customer agrees to extensive service contract and pays Microsoft money.   Which company is expressing the characteristics of an addictions to Money & Profits at any Price?  

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Here's an assessment of the addiction to money.   Portions of the text below were inspired by a quote on addiction to money from:   http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-tian-dayton/money-addiction_b_221937.html   

Although addiction can be to almost anything, we will focus here on three aspects of money addiction -- Making money, gambling with money and risk taking for money such as engaging in criminal behavior. 

Psychological Addictions:   In addition to chemical addictions, there are also psychological addictions.   Psychological addictions, are addictions that involve compulsive and/or out of control relationship with certain activities such as gambling, engaging in sex, eating, and making or spending money.   With a psychological addiction, a change occurs in the person's brain chemistry that is similar to the change caused by mood altering substances such cocaine.   Engaging in a certain activities, (gambling, making money, risk taking et cetera) can kick start the release of brain/body chemicals, like dopamine, that produce a "high" that's similar to the chemical high from cocaine.   The person who is addicted to some compulsive form of behavior, is in essence, manipulating his own brain chemistry with his activity.  

For people addicted to alcohol or drugs, their lives become increasingly organized around the use and/or abuse of the addictive substance.   A person whose addiction is to making money, gambling with money, or criminal activity related to stealing money can have his relationship with money spin out of control.   The addict becomes overly focused on accumulating money, spending it, hoarding it, or using it to control people, places and/or things.   

Anticipation:   In addition to the high one can get from an exciting  behavior, there is also the high that comes from the anticipation of the exciting behavior.  

Loss of Novelty:   Just as with drugs (such as alcohol) and almost everything else in life, there's  The Loss of Novelty Effect.   In other words, with repeated use, a tolerance develops and the level of satisfaction drops.   In order to achieve the same mood altering high that the addict originally experienced, he must devote larger and larger amounts of his time and energy engaging the addictive activity.   As the tolerance increases, the addict becomes increasingly preoccupied with getting and maintaining his high to the exclusion of other things.   Gradually, their preoccupation with money becomes the addicts primary preoccupation and money becomes their primary relationship to life.  

Addictions Are Never Satisfied:   The addiction to money, like very other addiction can never be satisfied.   There always has to be more.   There always has to be the next high.   And because of the tolerance factor, each fix must be more potent than the last one.   Addicts often become frantic between highs and when the next fix unavailable, the lack of satisfaction can lead to depression.   Obsession/addiction eventually reaches the point where the next fix doesn't produce euphoria, it only temporarily relieves the depression.  

Another factor to consider is the effect of compounded addictions.   This occurs when a person has multiple addiction that support and amplify each other.   For example, Money & Profit Addicts are commonly also addicted to High-Stakes Gambling  (such as making billion-dollar bets with corporate money) and some are also addicted to physical risk taking.   When a Money & Profit Addict engages in criminal activity, not only is he risking his money and/or this employer's money, he's taking a physical risk, risking going to jail. (See the examples below.)  

The Bottom Line:      

Anybody who has many times more than enough money to live in wealth for the rest of his life and is still working for money is a Money & Profit/Dopamine Addict. Anyone who owns controling interest in a corporation that is focused on making money is a Money & Profit/Dopamine Addict.  

Commonly, money addicts are also addicted to high-stakes gambling.   And some even go to the extreme by risking spending the rest of their lives in jail for the thrill of making more money.   Bernie Madoff is a perfect example of this.  

So are the men responsible for the Enron Scandal.  Jeff Skilling, former Enron CEO is a classic example of a corporate executive that was completely out of control.   He was addicted to Money & Profits at any price.   He was addicted to High-stakes gambling, and he was addicted to the trill of physical risk taking.   See the notes on the Enron Scandal.