ADDICTION TO VIOLENCE AND UNHAPPINESS
And people call it love, peace, and happiness
“Addiction is a condition that results when a person ingests a substance (e.g., alcohol, cocaine, nicotine) or engages in an activity (e.g., gambling, sex, shopping) that can be pleasurable but the continuation of which becomes compulsive and interferes with ordinary responsibilities and concerns, such as work, relationships, or health. People who have developed an addiction may not be aware that their behavior is out of control and causing problems for themselves and others.” - Psychology Today
In pursuit of love, peace and happiness, if I told you that I was going to emotionally and physically abuse you, cause you to bleed and suffer would you associate that with love, peace and happiness? If I total you that I wanted you and your family to watch fellow human beings inflict bodily harm upon themselves to the point of excruciating pain, suffering and even death, would you associate that with love, peace and happiness?
While most people would not associate violence with love, peace and happiness and try to avoid violence the journal Psychopharmacology, reveals the same clusters of brain cells involved in other neurological rewards system such as love, peace and happiness are also behind the craving for violence. Charles M. Johnston, M.D found that “At a psychological level, the drama and titillation of violent scenarios serve to create a sense of excitement, potency and significance that is missing from most people's daily lives.
Note in the adjacent video Parker J. Palmer author, educator, and activist for spirituality and social change goes on to explain “I do not think we believe that violence is a true solution, but like the addict we need the fix, we need the fix of using violence even though we know the day after tomorrow were going to wake up feeling worse than we do today and that’s a very serious problem. It seems to me that we do not have the cultural, well or the wit to do the hard or painful work of withdraw of getting clean or sober from this fix that keeps not working.”
“For thousands of year’s humans have worship Gods and or deities that according to their scriptures inflicted suffering, diseases and even genocide upon millions of humans and call it love, peace and happiness.” – IamEPI.com
And If I told you that the way to spiritually being loving, peaceful and happy was to worship Gods and or deities that inflicted suffering, diseases and even genocide upon millions of humans and other sentient beings would you consider that a spiritual path?
IN PURSUIT OF LOVE, PEACE AND HAPPINESS
When put in such context most people would not and in fact if anything would associate these acts of violence with unhappiness, and even consider them inhumane or insane. But yet as far back as accident civilizations humans have encouraged, participated, inflicted and even worshiped such acts of violence in the justification of culture, entertainment, and religion, all within pursuit and addiction to what they call love, peace and happiness.
ADDICTED TO VIOLENCE
see video
“Violence is an extreme form of aggression” – American Psychological Association
ADDICTED TO UNHAPPINESS
Dr. David Sack M.D. board certified in Psychiatry, Addiction Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine posted an online article titled “Are you Addicted to Unhappiness” which included a University of Chicago Press Journals study by Dr. Eduardo Andrade and Joel Cohen, (University of California, Berkeley) and Joel B. Cohen (University of Florida) which evaluated why people enjoy horror movies, concluded “that some viewers are happy to be unhappy.”
The researchers found that people experience both negative and positive emotions at the same time, meaning they not only enjoy the relief they feel when the threat is removed but also enjoy being scared. This same theory, they argued, may help explain why humans are drawn to extreme sports and other risky activities that elicit terror or disgust in which they associate with happiness. Note that “positive emotions” and “happiness” are dopamine reactions.
Martha H. Pieper, Ph.D. and William J. Pieper, M.D., coauthors of the book “Addicted to Unhappiness“, explains how parenting styles based on discipline and excessive expectations condition children to equate unhappiness with love. This often persists into adulthood, leading to behaviors including eating disorders, compulsive gambling, disastrous romantic choices, substance abuse, and more.
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HOW ADDICTION HIJACKS THE BRAIN
The following are excerpts from a July 2011 Harvard Medical Health Publication How Addiction Hijacks the Brain. The word "addiction" is derived from a Latin term for "enslaved by" or "bound to." Anyone who has struggled to overcome an addiction — or has tried to help someone else to do so — understands why. The brain registers all pleasures in the same way, whether they originate with a psychoactive drug, a monetary reward, a sexual encounter, or a satisfying meal.
In the brain, pleasure has a distinct signature: the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine in the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells lying underneath the cerebral cortex. Dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens is so consistently tied with pleasure that neuroscientists refer to the region as the brain's pleasure center.
Addictive drugs provide a shortcut to the brain's reward system by flooding the nucleus accumbens with dopamine. The hippocampus lays down memories of this rapid sense of satisfaction, and the amygdala creates a conditioned response to certain stimuli. Dopamine not only contributes to the experience of pleasure, but also plays a role in learning and memory — two key elements in the transition from liking something to becoming addicted to it.” The key word here is “Dopamine”, Dopamine is a hormone that helps us feel love, peace and happiness, see the adjacent video for further understanding.
see video
They state “People who have an acquired unrecognized need to cause themselves unhappiness often come from stressful, abusive or highly dysfunctional childhoods. When a child grows up with this type of discomfort, they tend to normalize it. So, for these children, the discomfort of unhappiness was equated with being loved.” Note, the feelings of love are caused by the brains release of dopamine.
Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee states "We have found that the reward pathway in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved."