The Buddhist View on Addiction Multiple Perspectives
Some Vietnam combat veterans came home addicted to heroin they used in overseas. But even though they were in a foreign and unpopular war and ostracized by society, they knew we would be a place to get help. They came to our clinic for its nonjudgmental health care,” Smith recalls. With patients experiencing multiple relapses, Haight Ashbury Free Clinic also had a mobile overdose “squad” carrying Naloxone to reverse ODs in 1971.
latest article
Unlike these recovery programs, Buddhist addiction treatment, as presented by Flatirons Recovery, may be applied to any addiction. The commitment to understanding the existence of suffering and trauma, understanding how craving leads to suffering, understanding that less craving results in less suffering, and reinforcing the commitment to the path that ends suffering. Buddhist addiction treatment teaches that by accepting how to avoid a relapse when things seem out of control the world just as it is–not as we would like it to be–we can truly heal and create a more meaningful life. The recovery program uses Buddhist wisdom, compassion, community, and meditation practices for healing and recovery. People can often benefit from several treatment modalities and various methods. One holistic, peer-led addiction support program is the Buddhist addiction recovery fellowship Recovery Dharma.
Discover Your Recovery Journey With Recovery Dharma
The principles in the 12 Steps can help anyone willing to take the first steps toward recovery. When David E. Smith, M.D., now age 85, was a shiny new doctor just graduated from UCSF, he launched the first free medical clinic in the United States in San Francisco during the “Summer of Love” (1967). Dave,” Smith’s initial plan was to help some of the tens of thousands of young people flocking to the area for sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll, most with little or no money. Some became ill from using hallucinogens and other drugs, and some developed addictions.
BRN Meetings
- Yutthadhammo repeatedly emphasises this in his videos – the Buddhist path is a gradual path and requires constant practice to build up the mindfulness required to let go of addictions and other strong attachments.
- We will start to notice all the unpleasant things about smoking, like the bad taste, the smell on our clothes, the burning in the throat, and we will automatically see there is nothing pleasant about smoking.
- At the same time, it’s important to remember that the Buddha had no teacher, no community, and he woke up based on his own direct experience.
- For addiction that can involve being in a certain place, around certain people, certain sounds, smells and so on.
- The principles in the 12 Steps can help anyone willing to take the first steps toward recovery.
- It’s in forums such as magazines where one can carry on (anonymously of course) meaningful dialogues about Buddhism and AA.
“The most dramatic rescue was when Janis Joplin ODed in the Haight.” The HAFC served as a meeting site for 12-step programs such as Narcotics Anonymous and referred patients to Alcoholics Anonymous groups in the neighborhood. He still remembers when doctors were punished for treating people dependent on drugs. It hadn’t occurred to most people then that integrated, whole-person treatment was an option. Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous existed, as did Synanon. We need to take a lesson from Shitou and Ma and realize that we practice in different recovery programs but we aren’t in competition with each other. We may have different techniques, but we have a common goal.
This article is only for Subscribers!
Other times they organize by topics of recovery, affinity groups or circles of interest. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader. Yuttadhammo is more in favour of allowing the addiction in, but being mindful about it when you act it out, really picking it apart from the level of the five senses so you can see there is nothing intrinsically good or beneficial about it. He recommends addicts try to give their habit up just for a short time to begin with, just to see what happens and how they cope with it.
Journal of Psychedelic Drugs
The practice of mindfulness will help you find your own unique response to addiction. It will improve self awareness and allow you to observe the mechanics of addiction as well as thought processes that drive it. You can respond to to it in a mindful way that works for https://sober-house.org/fentanyl-addiction-treatment-rehab-center-in/ you. His Sirimangalo video page has at the time of writing more than 750 videos where he addresses the Buddhist perspective on many different issues and problems. It is the undisputed resource on Buddhist philosophy applied to daily life and problems we all face.
I believe that real addicts and alcoholics cannot gain balance, which is treated only by abstinence. And beyond that, like the Buddha I believe that in order to come to a spiritual awakening, abstinence is necessary. Whether you are an addict or not, if you care about awakening, if you want to develop wisdom and compassion, 4 surprising health effects of long-term kratom use fhe health then a drug- and alcohol-free lifestyle is what the Buddha taught. Buddhist recovery manuals, a genre that has emerged in the last 30 years, aim to use Buddhist ideas and practices to address the challenges of addiction. These books draw on classical Buddhist thought and Twelve-Step programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous.
Buddhism originated in India and is one of the largest religions in the world. As with the Twelve Step program, the first thing in Refuge Recovery is community. You come in, and you’re met by a bunch of kind and generous recovering people—other addicts and alcoholics who are there to help you. And we offer meditation instruction right from the beginning.
Zen and the Twelve Steps have given me a whole new reality, filled with purpose, joy, and gratitude. And I’m aware of quite a few other Buddhists with similar experiences at the Twelve Step meetings I attend. Theravada, Zen, Tibetan, and Nichiren, my friends have all found ways to mutually practice their particular Buddhist traditions and the Twelve Steps. The great thing about mindfulness is that it allows each individual person to draw out their own uniqueness and spontaneity and find their own original ways of responding to events and triggers. There is no formula as everyone is different and addictions form differently and so both teachers are right about addiction; they just approach it from different angles.
This is an interesting variation from Yuttadhammo, who on one level expresses almost the opposite viewpoint, that we should not push away addictions because by doing so we don’t understand them. Secondly, he mentions from his own experience giving up drink that a tremendous power can come from choosing to give up a certain habit, even for a week or so to see what happens. There can be a surge in energy as you experience the power of taking control of your life. It can also have a knock on effect where this positive energy can give you the power to start leaving other addictions behind as well. Whilst this “cold turkey” elimination approach can work for some people, the problem with this approach is that it can represent avoidance and suppression; we are desperately trying to keep the source of our addiction at arm’s length.
Smith is also concerned marijuana could become commercialized like tobacco. “One of the things I fear is big companies will promote marijuana to youths as big tobacco did while denying they cause addiction with health consequences.” Smith wrote a personal account of his concerns in a scientific paper on psychedelics. He worries large corporations may similarly misuse psychedelics if researchers discover psychedelics are effective treatments for depression, anxiety, and other psychiatric disorders. At first, Smith tried valiantly to obtain funding for his free clinic from the state to treat all these problems in one place, but to no avail. Rock stars and promoters of the time, aware of the kindness of Dr. Dave and his staff, helped fund the clinic, which became known as the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic (HAFC). David Smith was a role model to other physicians and became known as one of the fathers of addiction medicine in the United States, a title of which he is rightfully proud.
