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psykostx · 28th December 2009

If you want the truth about addiction, read Allen Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and watch the movie "Supersize Me." Allen Carr points out that brainwashing (from outside and inside you), combined with a mild unpleasant stimulus is the formula for what he calls "the most effective psychological sand trap nature and mankind have ever conspired to devise." In "supersize me", an addiction to fast food nearly shuts down the hero's vital organs upon stopping! I believe he went into the hospital in near critical condition and the experiment had to stop! There are many more sources of my information, including personal experience. So yes, I AM A KNOW IT ALL WHEN IT COMES TO ADDICTION. Another interesting book on a related subject, "The Puzzle of Pain," by Doctors Melzack and Wall. It is the most complete study of the human experience of pain and is still the authority on the subject. Also, relevant to gearslutz, they use a "noise gate" analogy that is easy for us slutz to understand. According to them, opiates temporarily increase the threshold, reducing the "dynamic range" of pain, thus the pain signal becomes the noise floor and is gated out. Withdrawal can be described as the lowering of the gate threshold, and thus allowing noise through, even in the absence of pain stimulus. Anyone who has ever withdrawn knows that "noise" is a very good way to describe the sensation! Very interesting.

Another good analogy for addiction provided by Allen Carr, "Addicting yourself is like tying your shoes too tight on purpose, so that you can feel the relief of untying them." In other words, by continuing using, you cause unpleasant effects that you relieve by continuing. When you stop, the unpleasant effects slowly subside. The human factor comes in to play here: You have to be tough enough to TRUST that it will end. No faith in your body to regulate itself, no stopping. In other words, DON'T BE A WIMP!

28th December 2009	#13
psykostx Gear addict Joined: Jun 2009 Posts: 479	If you want the truth about addiction, read Allen Carr's "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking" and watch the movie "Supersize Me." Allen Carr points out that brainwashing (from outside and inside you), combined with a mild unpleasant stimulus is the formula for what he calls "the most effective psychological sand trap nature and mankind have ever conspired to devise." In "supersize me", an addiction to fast food nearly shuts down the hero's vital organs upon stopping! I believe he went into the hospital in near critical condition and the experiment had to stop! There are many more sources of my information, including personal experience. So yes, I AM A KNOW IT ALL WHEN IT COMES TO ADDICTION. Another interesting book on a related subject, "The Puzzle of Pain," by Doctors Melzack and Wall. It is the most complete study of the human experience of pain and is still the authority on the subject. Also, relevant to gearslutz, they use a "noise gate" analogy that is easy for us slutz to understand. According to them, opiates temporarily increase the threshold, reducing the "dynamic range" of pain, thus the pain signal becomes the noise floor and is gated out. Withdrawal can be described as the lowering of the gate threshold, and thus allowing noise through, even in the absence of pain stimulus. Anyone who has ever withdrawn knows that "noise" is a very good way to describe the sensation! Very interesting. Another good analogy for addiction provided by Allen Carr, "Addicting yourself is like tying your shoes too tight on purpose, so that you can feel the relief of untying them." In other words, by continuing using, you cause unpleasant effects that you relieve by continuing. When you stop, the unpleasant effects slowly subside. The human factor comes in to play here: You have to be tough enough to TRUST that it will end. No faith in your body to regulate itself, no stopping. In other words, DON'T BE A WIMP!