Dependence is when someone has made a choice to continue use despite having full knowledge of the potential consequences, whereas addiction can be considered to be the reversal of intent, continuing to use against one’s own better judgment, or loss of control.
Jack Trimpey, in his book Rational Recovery, speaks to this issue and it clearly fits into one of the major aspects of Dr. Roger Callahan’s work, namely Psychological Reversal, which I discussed in detail in chapter 11 of my book Rapid Recovery: Accelerated Information Processing & Healing.
In 1929 Walter B. Cannon described the sympathetic and parasympathetic responses to stress that he termed the “fight or flight” responses. Clinician Billie Jay SahleyThese responses can have a tremendous physiological impact on us and are easily set in motion by any form of stress, anxiety, fear, panic or phobia. The neuro-endocrine system, which includes the adrenals and pituitary, will produce chemicals and hormones which in large amounts can be very harmful. If there is anger, rage, fear or excitement, then over-secretions of adrenalin or noradrenalin can lead to heart attacks or emotional breakdown, whereas long term physical or mental exertion can lead to over-secretions of cortisone, cortisol or corticosterone and this can lead to susceptibility to infections. Burn-out can result from brain cells being depleted of their neurotransmitters. The immune system can be affected by many toxins or allergens (environmental stressors) such as chemicals, foods, pollens and perfumes. These can also cause “reversals”, which also are covered in detail in chapter 11.
The autonomic and central nervous systems govern the messages and automatic reactionary functions of the body. Therefore our heart rate, blood pressure, circulation, respiration, posture, and digestion can all be negatively impacted and lead to obvious physical tensions such as headaches.
Fritz Perls stated that, “Fear is the excitement without the breath.” It has been established that for some there is a direct link between having panic attacks and alcoholism, and that hyperventilation and fear of dying can be a direct trigger for the need to “mood alter”.
Stress can also be said to come from three main sources; fear, pain, and fear of more pain, which in turn can produce “anticipatory anxiety”.
Some data involving phobics with symptoms that range from simple anxiety to full-blown phobias would suggest that the subconscious has become saturated by past traumatic events, which are unresolved, and therefore lead to the over-saturation (or total depletion) of chemicals and hormones that are designed to regulate us. The key lies in the ability of an anxious person to realize the truth that, ”It’s over, let it go, let it rest in peace. I can’t change it, the past is over, my control is in the present, not the past or the future. Thought Field Therapy, EFT, EMDR, TAT and other AIP therapies and techniques allows this re-framing to be facilitated at the core subconscious level and does not require behavioral modification or constant affirmations as these appear to be automatically and positively impacted.
It is known that a certain level of stress is necessary to maintain optimal health. Hans Selye (a pioneer of research on stress and its origins and effects) referred to this optimal level as “Eustress” or “positive excitement”. If this optimal level is exceeded and any form of system dysfunction follows, then that is referred to as “distress”.
There is an obvious fear or phobic response as a result of something that has occurred in a traumatic fashion, or has a distinct possibility of happening, but the body cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. This fits the acronym of FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real). However, often a phobia begins following a trauma that has not been resolved, and the inner disturbance of energy can often manifest in some totally unrelated phobia.
Fear can also provide “secondary gains”, inasmuch as allowing us to avoid fulfilling our true individual potential. Abraham Maslow noted that the fear of our own higher potentialities is quite common. Marilyn Ferguson stated that “We enjoy and even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves in peak moments. And yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness, awe, and fear before these same possibilities. Fear of knowing is very deeply a fear of doing.”
Having knowledge carries with it responsibility, and once something has been made conscious to us we have choice – and if we do nothing to change things, then that in itself needs to be recognized as a choice. At least the gift of healing brings one back to a place where true choice is again (or for the first time) available. If one decides to do nothing differently, it is at least a decision made from a state of healthy reasoning ability, and not from one of psychological imprisonment, torment, or ignorance.
Most people who have been in an auto accident in which, for a split second beforehand, they `knew` what was about to happen, but not the outcome, can relate to the following common fear-based reactions. The body goes taut, one stops breathing momentarily and we instantly “freeze” the image (still picture) of the moment that we felt that death or pain could be imminent. The treatment goal is therefore to “unfreeze” the image (picture), in order to allow the movie to “run on”, so that all levels of one’s consciousness and awareness truly know that one has survived, continued to grow up, and did not die. This allows for both a sense of inner peace and the dispelling of any self-sabotaging that may have otherwise surfaced. Clearing Template memories or PTSD work such as in my online UDEMY course PTSD Cleaning & Clearing Shock & Trauma.is designed to reframe any harmful beliefs that appear stuck or frozen. To unfreeze such beliefs or cellular memory can change or shift the way we view or act in the present moment, or in the future.
Frozen development is the frozen vibration of the original trauma. This means that if it is not attended to and worked through, then similar vibrations in the present will create the same fear-based response. “In the extreme state of shock or terror, there is total immobility of the muscles, spinal cord, and the lungs, a defocusing of the eyes, and a partial congealing of the fluids and the arterial blood supply.” (Keleman p. 66)
Energy healers may refer to “frozen psychic time conglomerates” as being when, from conception onwards, we had to stop the flow of energy around a particularly painful event, we froze that event in both energy and in time, which creates a frozen energy-consciousness. Any part of our psyche associated with that event also froze as we separated/dissociated, or otherwise stopped the pain. It is that part of the psyche that needs “thawing out”, as it does not mature along with our physiology. It will not mature until conscious thought and energy get to the block and allow the processing to take place and allow for true maturation. The need is to turn any still/frozen fear, or anxiety images, into moving pictures, and thereby merge the levels of consciousness and allow for the natural flow of the body’s energies again.
It was Karl Pribram who determined that the brain, through its holographic nature, had the amazing ability to store a staggering amount of information, and that the frozen imagery of trauma can be accounted for by the blocking of the necessary interference, and resolved when the interference patterns are unblocked and returned to a flow state.
A person may continue to draw fear-based situations into their life in the form of re-enactment, and it follows that these re-enactments will stop once there has been a resolution to the original trauma.
Jung’s believed that “neurosis is the avoidance of legitimate suffering.” Scott Peck stated that most people who see a psychiatrist are suffering what is called either a neurosis or a character disorder, and that the neurotic assumes too much responsibility, which leads to self-blaming whenever they are in any conflict with the world.
AIP’s (Accelerated Information Processing Techniques) such as Thought Field Therapy and EMDR may use dreams, memories, or current behavior as foci in order to stimulate the specific neuro networks that contain the disturbing information. (Shapiro p. 49)
It is the perception of a particular trauma that appears to continue the damage, rather than what may have actually happened and while one party may have been dramatically affected –
another person may continue to be emotionally unscathed.
Dr. Richard Gerber stated that the subconscious is primitive and has the logical thinking of a six-year-old. This is also the age at which we are said to be egocentric and believe that anything that happens around us is as a result of who we are or what we have done. For example, if parents separate, a young child will often believe that in some way they were responsible for what happened, and will often carry the `guilt`, even to their grave.
If you wish to know more about Addiction, Boundaries and Enabling you might want to check out my lecture at Okanagan College. It was shown on ShawTV Okanagan and is available on YouTube under the heading Addiction Boundaries.