Addiction......Taste - a strategy that will work

[Guest guest]

Hi Lisa and all,

Consider the Ayurvedic approach to addiction and cravings. We all

have needs. We have to sort what are real needs are, from these wants

that are actually eating us. To start with, check archives on 3/31/03

for posts with "Sugar, honey and chocolate?" in subject line.

I have copied the below info from "Prakruti" by Robert Svoboda.

If the below is completely over your head, get caught up at

http://www.sahej.com/ayurveda_intro.html ,

http://www.sahej.com/Ahamkara.html )

Sat Nam,

Dharam

 

Addiction and Taste (your buds)

 

Humans frequently become habituated to foods which do not agree with

them because of the intoxicating effects such foods have. V people, for

example, often become hypoglycemic because they love to eat sugar, since

sugar provides instant satisfaction and temporarily controls the mental

erraticalness which Vata creates. P people may become habit-uated to

meat or to hot spices which inflame Pitta and make them more obsessive,

intense, goal-oriented and driven. K people may find them-selves

habituated to heavy, fatty foods which reinforce their natural

com-placency.

 

All of us use our food to affect our consciousness; most of us, though,

prefer to perpetuate all our old idiosyncrasies and personality traits,

in-stead of improving them with a diet balanced according to individual

constitution. We live in a fast world in which many of us try to run

even faster than the world forces us to. Once an individual has invested

so much in his personality that he feels he can no longer afford to

change it, he uses crutches to help cope with life's pace. Whenever you

use a crutch you run the risk of becoming dependent upon it.

 

You can become addicted to almost anything. All addictions are

fun-damentally identical, even though substances differ in their power

to addict, because people become addicted to thrills. Thrills are due to

chemical changes in the brain. Inspiring music, works of art, Nature's

glories, films, ballets, plays, books, sports events, parades, perfumes,

food, gambling, exercise, sex and everything else which overwhelms you

with tingling excitement give you pleasure because of internal molecules.

 

Some researchers believe that thrills occur when molecules called

en-dorphins are released. A drug called naloxone blocks those molecules

and prevents music from inspiring you, movies from stirring you, and

parades from creating a lump in your throat. Other researchers credit

adrenaline and other hormones with thrills, and some like Vimalananda

regarded increased blood flow into certain sections of the brain as the

cause of exaltation. Whatever the specific cause chemistry is at the

basis of thrills and addictions.

 

Our society is inundated by addictions because we crave intensity and

require ever stronger thrills to satisfy our cravings. Humans who become

addicted to intensity can exhaust their internal thrill molecules, and

then may turn to certain foods for stimulation, or may use drugs as

substitutes. Addiction to drugs reduces sensitivity to the simpler

thrills of life, and weakens our very humanity. Rats administered

morphine lose all maternal instinct and refrain from showing maternal

behavior to their offspring. Naloxone returns their behavior to normal.

Endor-phins, which are internally derived opiates, may have a similar

effect. We cannot afford to purchase painlessness at the cost of

maternal in-stinct, because we are dependent for health on Nature, the

Universal Mother. Subtlety has gone out of fashion in our society. Our

nervous systems are no longer sensitive enough to function at the level

of "art, grace and culture" which for Vimalananda distinguishes human

beings from ani-mals in human form, those who have lost interest in

differentiating be-tween right and wrong.

 

Animals also self-administer drugs to themselves on occasion. Baboons

have been known to use tobacco; elephants, raccoons, bears, goats, pigs

and sheep consume fermented fruits and grains for the al-cohol; and

reindeer, cattle and rabbits sometimes partake of intoxicat-ing

mushrooms. Animals know when to stop, though. Once dedicated to

intensity humans rarely stop willingly, because unlike animals who use

their intoxicants for an occasional change of pace humans use their

crutches to balance themselves.

 

V people usually become addicted to substances which reduce their pain

and insecurity. P people adopt addictions which keep them at the high

level of activity which they associate with success. K people often fall

into addiction unawares because of poor eating habits which they fail to

change. Sweet addiction is a good example of how addictions develop.

 

Sweet creates satisfaction in Ahamkara. If you search for satisfaction

primarily in your food instead of in your life, you may become addicted

to Sweet. If you are not careful to select healthful Sweet foods like

fruit and whole grains you will probably fall prey to sugar-filled junk

foods like doughnuts for your Sweet fix. When you eat too much white

sugar for too long you become hypersensitive to it. It exhausts your

system's ability to digest it and aggravates Vata, which increases with

any sort of exhaustion. Vata then exaggerates the gap between your high

blood sugar level and your low blood sugar level. The degree of

variation be-tween the two is determined by the intensity of your Vata

disturbance, and determines in turn the severity of your symptoms.

Control of Vata eases the symptoms.

 

You cannot shake a Sweet addiction by trying to go off it cold turkey

onto other tastes. You must first replace refined sugar with other Sweet

foods like whole grains so that you still get a Sweet "fix" regularly

during the day. Ayurvedic supplements can then be used to even out the

"spikiness" in your system's response to carbohydrates which causes the

roller-coastering of your blood sugar. Simultaneously, a good diet and

good habits will reduce and balance Vata.

 

Alcohol is a sort of super-Sweet substance, one which is metabolized in

the same way as sugar. The tremendous Sweet rush which alcohol gives

gratifies Ahamkara tremendously. Alcoholics are people who find the

alcohol-Sweet so superior to other forms of Sweet that they insist an

prolonging their experience of it. Alcohol is a medicine in small

amounts, but overuse makes it a poison. When you ingest alcohol

reg-ularly your system creates a balance for itself based on alcohol,

and you eventually begin to feel ill if you fail to drink regularly. You

are ad-dicted, even if you are not a classic alcoholic. Any habit which

you cannot break without seriously damaging your body, mind or spirit

persona is an addiction. All addictions must be broken, though it is

usually best to break them gradually so that the system does not go

dramatically out of balance in the process. Each ad-diction requires

special consideration. Because alcohol abuse is so com-mon, some

elements of the Ayurvedic approach to alcohol dependency are presented

here.

 

Alcohol dependency is a form of Sweet dependency in which all three

Doshas are disturbed. Small amounts of medicinal wines control Vata

-type diseases; larger amounts of alcohol cause Vata diseases. Alcohol,

because of its hot, intense taste and smell and its liquid nature,

aggra-vates both Pitta and Kapha, which then create obstructions to the

free movement of Vata and vitiate it. The late stages of alcoholism are

purely Vata in nature: shuffling gait, vacant stare, profuse and

meaningless speech, severe mood swings, delirium tremens, and

hallucinations. All these symptoms reflect profound mental and physical

"jerkiness" as a result of the erraticalness of deranged Vata. Even if

you are not frankly alcoholic, you will have to calm Vata first and then

bring Kapha and Pitta back to normal if you want to eliminate an alcohol

habit.

 

Modern medicine has determined that there is a definite genetic

sen-sitivity to alcohol which is present in 7 to 10% of the population.

In other words the tendency to alcoholism is passed from parent to child

genetically. There seem to be two types of genetic alcohol sensitivity.

The first, which need not be too severe, can be passed from father or

mother to son or daughter and usually causes alcoholism to develop only

after age 25. The second type is passed only from father to son. The

affected individual can be shown to have significant inherited brain

abnormalities even if he never drinks, but most victims begin drinking

as early as age 11 or 12 and become alcoholic quickly. Unlike the first

type, their behavior is often violent.

 

People who have been dependent on alcohol and then give it up often

trade their-addiction to alcohol for addictions to coffee, into which

they may pour heaps of sugar, and to Hot, Sour, Salty, Pungent food,

like French fries with ketchup and chili sauce. Coffee and chili sauce,

both Pungent, replace that aspect of alcohol's Taste personality.

Inten-sive use of white sugar is the easiest way for the body to get the

level of Sweet intake which alcohol has made it accustomed to. Ketchup

and other sauces provide the necessary levels of Sour and Salty to force

the already overburdened digestive tract sufficiently to handle the

heavy, fried food, whose heaviness and oil help reduce Vata. Each of

these Tastes must be provided to the alcoholic body to permit it to

preserve its relative balance. The Bitter Taste is used simultaneously

to reduce the organism's intensity requirements.

 

Sweet should be provided by whole grains, and by fruits and fruit

juices. Grains provide a regular, stable source of sugar to the blood,

and fruit juices like grape or pear should be used to provide quick

"fixes" of Sweet when the body demands them. Pomegranate juice provides

Sweet along with Astringency, which is further therapeutic for Pitta.

Dates are good sources of Sweet because they strengthen the body. Carrot

juice is Hot enough to encourage good digestion, and Bitter enough to

help reduce the body's need for intense stimulation. It is also

powerfully Sweet. The satisfaction and balance which the body receives

from carrot juice provides tremendous subliminal satisfaction to the

brain, which compensates to some extent for the lack of pleasurable

mental distortion alcohol can provide.

 

Carrot juice may be consumed alone. If the liver is especially de-ranged

beet can be added. Adding the long white daikon radish helps support

weak digestion. Cucumber's Astringency helps reduce intensity craving

and soothe inflamed tissues. The best addition is cilantro, which is

Pungent but Cold. It is one of the best foods available for reducing

anger, as it flushes heat from both body and mind. If the digestion is

very weak, radish and carrot can be pressure-cooked together with a

slice of beet into a soup, or these vegetables can be chopped and cooked

with mung beans and rice into kichadi, and cilantro added on top.

 

Fresh coconut milk is an excellent Sweet unless liver weakness forces a

restricted fat intake. It is usually available bottled in health food

stores. Otherwise the flesh of a fresh coconut should be shredded, put

into a blender, and covered with just enough water to wet all of it.

After blend-ing it should be strained, more cold water should be added,

and the process repeated. Hot water should then be added, and after this

strain-ing the remains of the coconut meat should be discarded. Coconut

is cooling, and heavy for digestion; its heaviness helps satisfy the

alco-holic's craving for heavy food.

 

Lemon or lime juice should provide the Sour Taste in the diet, and the

Salty Taste should be provided with kelp or other seaweed powder, or

with a liquid-amino preparation. The Amalaki fruit if available is the

best source of Sourness. Dry ginger is the best source of Pungency, but

it should be used carefully to prevent further Pitta disturbance.

 

Mild Iaxation is good purification for someone who has abused alco-hol

since it eliminates accumulated heat from the liver which is afflicted

by increased Pitta. Bitter can be provided by the compounds Arogya

Vardhini and Tikta, or by a variety of single herbs including gentian,

barberry and aloe vera, all of which also flush toxins from the liver.

Dra-matic purgation should be avoided because although it quickly

reduces Pitta it, will further aggravate Vata by its intensity. Since a

craving for intensity is one aspect of dependence on alcohol or other

drugs, reduc-tion of the organism's exposure to intensity is therapeutic.

 

Physiological balancing removes jerkiness and promotes stability, which

in turn assists the mind to right itself and* return to normal

functioning. People drink alcohol because it inflates Ahamkara past her

boundaries. These people exist in pure Ahamkara energy, pure

individu-ality, without regard for spirit, mind, or body. The

self-disgust and self-pity an alcoholic shows when he or she is sober is

a trick that Ahamkara plays on the rest of the organism so that it can

continue uninterruptedly enjoying its alcohol-food. Alcoholism is, in

fact, a disease of Ahamkara, of the individuality.

 

Alcohol is a super-Sweet. No ordinary food can match the intense current

of Sweetness which flows with alcohol into the brain. To par-tially

substitute, flood all the senses with Sweet. Let the patient'' s nose

smell Sweet fragrances, like rose, and let his skin feel "Sweet" things,

like oil. "Sweet words" should fall into the patient's ears, and "Sweet"

surroundings, like life in the country, should meet his eyes. Intense

Sweet of all sorts must be provided until the brain is willing and able

to scale down its Sweet intake. Otherwise the patient may backslide and

return to alcohol, which he or she knows can be relied on to pro-vide

Sweetness.

 

The mind must be strengthened if its faculty of discrimination is to

reassert itself. Memory and discrimination can both be strengthened with

the herb gotu kola, taken as a tea or in capsules washed down with tea

of the herb skullcap. Gotu kola is the main ingredient in the Ay-urvedic

medicine Brahmi Vati.

 

An alcoholic's worst mental problem is weakness of will. The

alco-hol-dependent Ahamkara believes she can live without body, mind, or

spirit, and is willing to deceive body, mind and spirit as long as she

can. '1'o perpetuate her unrestricted indulgence she weakens the

individual will-power until it can no longer object to her desire to

drink. Nothing can be done to remedy this addiction until the individual

will-power re-asserts itself and reestablishes limits for Ahamkara. As

mv teacher Vi-malananda put it, "If you want to drink, you must make

sure that you are drinking the drink, and that the drink is not drinking

you." The al-cohol -dependent Ahamkara allows drink to consume her whole

or-ganism, in return for the false promise of eternal life and vitality

that the intoxication of alcohol provides.

 

Ayurveda recognized alcoholism to be a grave disease more than 3,000

years ago, respecting it for its puissance and its potential to cause

harm, and insisting that an alcohol-dependent individual accept outside

help to put Ahamkara back in her place. This same sort of going out-side

oneself to seek help is used by modern-day programs which recog-nize

that the first step in management of any dependency is the recognition

that a problem exists. Recognition that Ahamkara has gone beyond her

limits opens the door to a new balance for the entire or-ganism.

 

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