Joel's Jottings: "Pleasure, Pain, and Balance"
Our human bodies are quite remarkable creations. Every person is created in God’s image. Through our bodies, we have so many capacities. And we also have limitations.
Addiction is a reality that people experience as they seek pleasure and want to avoid pain. Many people experience this reality in our world today—not just with drugs, alcohol, and food, but also with behaviors like video gaming, internet use, sex, shopping, or other behaviors that have become compulsive. The signs and symptoms vary, but at the core is the need for ongoing stimuli that allows one to disregard consequences and abandon relationships.
It has many different elements that impact the functioning of the brain as well as the need for physical and emotional gratification. A key component in the biology of addiction is the chemical dopamine.
A colleague recently shared information about a new book, Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence by Dr. Anna Lembke. The book describes the tension between seeking pleasure and pain, and how dopamine is a conduit in that relationship, moving between pleasure and pain.
I found this list intriguing, informative, and stimulating. Lessons of the balance:
The relentless pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain, leads to pain.
Recovery begins with abstinence.
Abstinence rests the brain's reward pathway and with it our capacity to take joy and simpler pleasures.
Self-binding creates literal and metacognitive space between desire and consumption, a modern necessity in our dopamine overloaded world.
Medications can restore homeostasis, but consider what we lose by medicating away our pain.
Pressing on the pain side, resets our balance to the side of pleasure.
Beware of getting addicted to pain.
Radical honesty promotes awareness, enhances intimacy, and fosters a plenty mindset.
Prosocial shame affirms that we belong to the human tribe.
Instead of running away from the world, we can find escape by immersing ourselves in it.
You may be aware of some, or all, of these lessons. It is always useful to remind ourselves of what we know, and allow ourselves to learn things anew.
Many of us have known someone who was (or is) struggling with some form of addiction or compulsive behavior. Knowing some lessons that others have gained is one way to manage this when confronting this reality with others or within ourselves. As we navigate the challenges of pleasure, pain, and stimulation, may we find the way to meaning, hope, and the wonder of creation.