your experience with meditation and addiction?

gracelee

I would really love to hear peoples experiences with addiction and how you believe meditation might or has helped you

thanks
G

taiyaki

i've realized addictions can only persist if we are unconscious.

thus with the practice of mindfulness i can see my addictive patterns and processes.
they arise and fall. i accept then for what they are. just empty processes.

now i can only give them power if i reject them. so through acceptance i just see them as they are and they go away on their own. like all things arising and falling.

without mindfulness you're basically fucked. but here's the thing mindfulness is cultivated via morality and concentration.
thus by actively engaging on the path and practicing meditation, we can condition ourselves to have wholesome state of mind and thus being able to be more mindful of the mental objects in our minds.

and in each moment we can realize the three marks. we can see things as they are rather than what we're conditioned to see based on our assumptions, beliefs and interpretations.

i have a strong addiction with food. so i am mindful when i eat so that i don't become unconscious. i taste everything fully and engage totally with the food with no distractions. then i move on. i accept my addiction for what it is. i don't want to get rid of it, nor do i really interpret it as an addiction. it just is a simple process that i previously got infatuated with.

in meditation we can notice all these cycles whether they are biological (hungry, sex, etc) or just mental craving (sexual, bliss, etc). and even negative states arise such as fear and anxiety.

all of these "states" arise and fall. and they are perfectly normal. seeing them for what they are, i see no hierarchy. why attach to something that comes and goes? why detach from something that comes and goes?

just accept it all and move on.

aMatt

G,

Meditation can help us strengthen our resolve so we make decisions based on awareness, rather than craving. Are you trying to overcome addiction? Community strength is often very helpful, as well as meditation.

I used meditation and patches to overcome smoking several years ago. Physical addiction can be very absorbing to our senses!

With warmth,

Matt

Jeffrey

Unifying meditation with binging on the drug is the way to go. Same heart! Same bodhicitta. This doesn't mean to binge on the drug. It means that the division of self into halves is an illusion.

Go full force whatever you do. Burn up the meditation with no trace. Hurl with no trace.

Only then are you free to face pains of addiction. Otherwise you a slave.

TheFound

pfft you guys!
true addiction isn't a foe that can be defeated easily.
RESPECT THIS ENEMY, or it will rip out your throat..
A reverse brainwashing AFTER understanding is what's needed hmm...

Jeffrey

fear is the mindkiller. It is the little death that gets us all. I will allow my fear to pass over and through me. where fear has gone there will be nothing. only I will remain.

SherabDorje

pfft you guys!
true addiction isn't a foe that can be defeated easily.
RESPECT THIS ENEMY, or it will rip out your throat..
A reverse brainwashing AFTER understanding is what's needed hmm...

This deserves repeating for emphasis. I hope there will be more substantial answers posted. I have to spend some more time thinking about what I might write that is substantial, and I have kind of a funky signal so I don't know if I'll be able to post it, but I just think the OP is looking for something more.

TenPoundNote

Addiction is serious stuff and I'd suggest the first stop for anyone who's addicted to something dangerous should be medical help.

I'm sure meditation can help a person 'stay clean' in the same way the undertsanding imparted by meditation can help with most things. But don't underestimate addiction - it kills on a daily basis - and get a doctor involved first off.

Jeffrey

Its correct that there are no quick fixes. Including AA, therapy, drugs etc.. I didn't explain myself clearly but what I found in successfuly overcoming alcohol addiction was to not be divided: not one side poor me who is addicted and partying being knocked by the other side who is trying to quit. The result of being divided is that there is cognitive and emotional dissonance due to the split. The dissonance is medicated with the addiction.

Here is a description of the dissonance. Party. Getting over the drug less pleasure, coming down. Hangover. Clarity that you sense another possibility. Projecting of a future off the drug. Punishment of self/ self-discipline. Sensing of a possibility to be free from that condemnation.. Grasping onto the drug as a means to escape the negativity. Party. Repeat.

Without the cognitive dissonance. We party when we party. We own it and are mindful and compassionate. When we come down we are mindful etc. When we have a hangover we are mindful. When we sense a possibility we are mindful. We do not project into the past or future and let go of such thinking in tandemn with a meditation practice. Observe psychological and mental cravings. Experiment sitting with thoughts and feelings. Link Weakened!!!!!!! Owning of party mindful and loving. Repeat.

Even if we weaken the link forwards and backwards one step at a time it is in the right direction and our heart gets stronger and stronger.

Good luck. With love.

Jeffrey

The clarity of other possibilities is what strengthens and the confidence and courage in sitting with our most difficult mental and physical states.

Yishai

If you're struggling with nicotine addiction or caffeine addiction (things that won't kill you quickly but are not good), then you can get through it with your will and support. If you are struggling with alcoholism, hard drug abuse, prescription abuse, or self-mutilation or anything that is endangering you or those around you... you need to get professional help ASAP.

ThailandTom

Some addictions I believe cannot be relieved or resolved with mere meditation. Sure it can help us think more clearly about it, but some physical addictions are too strong for such a thing and may have roots that caused the addiction going way back into your life. Mental addictions are easier to overcome, but meditation isn't always the all mighty answer to life's problems. There is a quote I heard once which I will never forget,
''a cell phone is great for calling people or doing a whole bunch of things, but you cannot wash your car with it or relieve a headache. Meditation is a lot like this.''

I overcame all of my substance abuse addictions recently and during a time I had not meditated for at least 3 months. I only did because I hit a huge rock bottom and something within my mind and thought processes changed.

jll

Again, I need to emphasize, the cultural differences between the west & the rest of the world. While the power of addiction is well-known. The ways to recovery are varied. In the west, there is over-emphasis on the chemical aspect eg using methadone & nicotine patch to help addicts cope with withdrawal symptoms.
IMO, the spiritual aspect cannot be under-estimated.
I have seen interviews with people who have beaten addiction without the western model.
I believe that after the detox period, there are many options available.

ThailandTom

I cut myself off of valium cold turkey with no help and had a seizure. Some of the time that s why people advise detox because the body can have a real shock from some stopping some drugs. I was told not to cold turkey that particular drug but suggested I would be fine and I have the right strength of mind. I nearly died and had no feeling in my feet for a few weeks.

Some people take drugs for year and years because they are self medicating for something that has caused them great pain in their life, or that they have a medical disorder like clinical depression or bi polar, or they do not have the tools to overcome something. Professional help can give you those tools and there are some situations where some people will not be able to do it by themselves, they will carry on and maybe kill themselves doing so. When you are in such a hole it is hard to fight or find the light and actually care.

TenPoundNote

Bear in mind that there is addiction and there is addiction!

Forget East v West stuff. Severe addiction should be treated under the guidance of a doctor or both the addiction and the associated withdrawal can kill (I'm talking alcohol, hard drugs etc.).

Meditation can no doubt be a great tool to help remain clean, as can AA, rehab, therapy groups etc. but, whilst I quite agree that chemical 'cures' are not a particularly good long term course of action, they may save your life during the worst of the withdrawal.

Jeffrey

Honestly my therapist didn't tell me what to do with alcoholism. I think I mentioned it and he listened. He pointed out a few things "so.....".

I overcame alcoholism by not being divided and radical acceptance. The clarity of not wanting the addiction came naturally. I wasn't the right type of person for AA. Peer pressure does not work with me.

Jeffrey

Peer pressure AA does not work with me. It actually helped me that Trungpa Rinpoche had been an alcoholic and lived a dharmic life. Self-rejection is disempowering. In contrast it helped me that a relative died of alcoholism he was up to a bottle of spirits a day and I know that my drinking was just increasing. Six wasn't satisfying and it never would stop until I was dead or I quit. That is called clarity and it is totally different from reading about precepts.

First I had a clarity. Then I broke the divided cycle and opened to the situations. More clarity (opening is true mindfulness). Then sitting with difficult states and gradually letting go of the behaviour.

I was a binge drinker. Then with radical acceptance I started drinking 6 beers every day instead of binge drinking. That was a change and shakeup and improvement.

Then I went immediately to non-alcoholic beer. For the first week I probably drank 12 non-alcoholic beers 3 cups of tea 2 glasses of juice every day. It was not satisfying.

I still get more manic and foolish when I drink non-alcoholic beers due to psychology even though now I only drink four and there is 1/10 the alcohol.

TenPoundNote

At my worst I was on two bottles of the hard stuff a day and when I tried to stop I had a seizure, was carted off to hospital, went into full out delirium tremens and wouldn't be here now if wasn't for the intervention of medical science.

Meditation (and Buddhism) has helped me stay clean because, like Jeffrey, AA wasn't for me, but the medical intervention was essential at the beginning.

gracelee

hey thanks for your posts they have been really useful, luckily i am not addicted to hard drugs or booze although i have done my share of both...
my main vice is junk food, i was a chain smoker and addicted to caffine but i managed to give them up by watching the cravings, feeling them fully and then letting them go. i always had a problem with eating but without the other addictions this one has got worse. i feel quite stuck as if my life is on hold untill i crack this...

anyway it has been helpful to her your opinions

i have been told that thinking is an addiction, i found that intresting

thanks to you all
x