Addiction & Emotion

Addiction is a complex, widespread, and persistent problem and there's a lot to say about it. It has produced an enormous amount of human suffering. And what's particularly irksome is that this appears to be largely unnecessary and preventable. We should be able to stop it. . .or so we tend to think. If you say addiction lies in the physical world, then Dr. Michael Lukens says recovery lies (predominantly) in the metaphysical world, in the addict's own meaningful world, where the mind lives. We're never going to win the war on addiction by understanding the physical properties of the substances or the chemical soup inside the brain alone. Dr. Lukens considers addiction a philosophical issue and not just a health or behavioral issue, which suggests we should examine what it means to the addict to escape. The two primary sources of human emotional suffering are Self-Esteem Damage and Grief/Loss. These concepts are developed in Dr. Lukens' illustration of the "Fuckit Bucket". The pain of the world (Grief/Loss) brings up Anger and Sadness, whereas the struggle with self (Self-Esteem) brings up Shame and Guilt. When escaping feelings becomes a way of life, it's because you are committed to turning off these important notifications (what he calls 'feeling states') that signal potentially painful information.
This volume is educational and thought-provoking and is intended for professionals, practitioners, and industry experts interested in the philosophical foundation for Volume 2. The second volume is a self-improvement manual for anyone interested in better understanding addiction and the possibilities of transformational recovery.