Stimulus Addicted

America Adrenalizing Out of Control

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Addictions are something all of us are familiar with: we make jokes about them, we watch TV docudramas-of-the-week about them, and basically have incorporated the concept into our everyday existence. We all suspect or definitely know of someone who is caught in addiction's treacherous labyrinth. That is, with the most obvious addictions: alcohol, food, sex, drugs, gambling, love, etc.

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What is far more insidious and subtle, though, is our society’s addiction to stimulation — bigger, faster, more intense and explosive, flashier and titillating, sensational, and awesome. Our country has devised amusement parks specifically focused on “bigger and better thrills,” yet the biggest thrill park we have going is called “The U.S. of A.” Without recognizing all the clues, we’ve walked right into — with our eyes wide shut — an obsession, one that satisfies all the criteria of a classic addiction.



The purpose of this book is to help begin the process of recognizing, understanding, and releasing this particular addiction. Its hold on us is powerful, pernicious, and extremely creative in maintaining its control and keeping us engaged. It needs to be addressed or we will continue thrilling ourselves more deeply into its tortured and convoluted depths.

 

At some point, we will hit rock bottom, a place of desolation and hopelessness. From there, it is a very long and arduous road back to health, as we must start from square one in building a new foundation, one based on clarity and authenticity.

 

We can avoid this abyss or we can do it the hard way. The choice is ours. As individuals and as a society, we have our lessons to learn. How much pain do we need to suffer before learning them?



Stimulus Addicted is approached in three sections:

 

Recognition—The Labyrinth’s Terrain

Understanding — Creating Perspective

Disengaging — The Middle Path

 

The current track we’re on requires consistently greater doses of stimulation. Our level of stimulus need is such that the line between entertainment vs. violence (from physical to emotional to psychic), acceptable vs. non-acceptable behavior, and responsibility vs. greed and lust is becoming irreversibly blurred and concomitantly approved of and expected.

 

As with any addiction, non-recognition creates only one path: a downward spiral — and we are a country blindly adrenalizing out of control.



​The e-book version of Stimulus Addicted will be availabe in 2014.