The nature of substance addiction is painfully elaborate and impenetrable. It is the all-consuming, overwhelming desire for a permanent sensation of euphoria; one that is unattainable through naturally-sourced stimuli, such as a humorous movie or being in the presence of good company, and hence, is sought out via artificially manufactured substances, including, but not limited to, alcohol, medication and recreational drugs. The appetite for intense pleasure perpetuates addiction, suggesting that both positive and negative emotion are inextricably laced with addictive behavior: when one senses that they are in a depressive state, or in other words that they are lacking pleasure, one seeks the feeling of bliss through voluntary intoxication, thereby combatting this deficit of elation. Arguably and rather simplistically stated, addiction is the use of artificially stimulated positive emotion as a mechanism to cope with real, negative emotion.<\/p>\n
While the aforementioned statements suggest a large degree of intentionality, addiction is never purposeful, nor is it instantaneous; it nevertheless manages to inhabit a multitude of hosts. Addiction is a laborious and isolating process whereby one depresses himself in his endless quest for pleasure. It is neither familiar, nor of homogenous origin: there cannot exist one lone catalyst for addiction, as the series of interrelated, sequential actions that culminate in such an insatiable craving are dependent both on context and one’s evaluative judgements of his position in an isolated context. It is important to note that, due to the prolonged nature of addiction, each finite context wherein one finds himself, and the judgements he makes therein, amalgamates with the preceding. This combination of finite events forms a temporal continuum, which has the potential to span from a series of months to the bulk of a lifetime. <\/p>\n
Two aforementioned assumptions are crucial to this argument and will subsequently form the thesis of the following discussion: addiction is the use of artificially produced emotion as a coping mechanism for undesirable, natural emotion; and, addiction can be the result of poorly evaluated contextual judgements. The preceding contention, analyzed under the lens of the cognitivist theory of emotion, will shed light on how it is possible, from an emotional and philosophical perspective, to trigger the progressive and disorienting path of addiction.<\/p>\n
The cognitivist theory of emotion, as described specifically by Robert Solomon, states that emotions simply are evaluative judgements. To elucidate, because emotions are engagements with the world, our emotions are judgements about specific things that appear as objects of our perceptions; these objects can be utterances, purely visual occurrences – for example, seeing the man you love with another woman, or simply the content of one’s own unarticulated thought. These evaluative judgements are complex in nature, as they often include a judgement of responsibility, most notably for unpleasant emotions like shame, guilt and embarrassment, presuppose a factual basis, and have a moral structure, without which emotion would be unintelligible (Solomon, 207). There are other intrinsic properties to contextual evaluative judgements, but they are not worth mentioning for they do not add substantive value to this discussion. However, and most importantly, the crux of the argument is that it is the nature of these evaluative judgements that determines the type of emotion one experiences in a particular context. Put simply: contextual interpretation always precedes emotional response. It may therefore be surmised that emotions have a formative influence over the actions that follow them, and that, in accordance with the preceding assertion, there furthermore exists a cyclical pattern in which context, evaluative judgements, emotion and action are fixed in a rigid chain of causality. It is within this sequential cycle that the immense influence of emotion over addictive behavior becomes readily apparent.<\/p>\n
For the purpose of this discussion, it is necessary to consider only the contextual judgements that conjure the emotions responsible for the perpetuation of addiction. The following emotions are typically associated with the symptoms of both acute and chronic addiction, and will subsequently be the focus of this essay: helplessness that stems from a loss of control; anticipation in the form of an insatiable preoccupation with the substance, possibly including an anticipation for the feelings experienced when it is being used; and, anxiety, triggered from a multitude of sources, some of which include anxiousness felt when using or due to a lack of use, and alternatively, anxiety manifested in the form of guilt or shame over use, or over unethical methods used to obtain the substance. Before these emotions are examined in greater detail, it is necessary to describe the way in which a poorly evaluated contextual judgement can trigger a negative emotional response. It is important to note that the word ‘poorly’ is meant to describe a wrongly made contextual assessment; the following example will clarify what is meant by the preceding contention.<\/p>\n
Say that, after a crippling divorce a man proceeds to lose his job. When he goes home after having been fired, he realizes that he is alone. His apartment is no longer home to him; his family is no longer present. He surveys the unfavorable contextual environment in which he finds himself and concludes that he has lost everything. He has made an evaluative judgement that, as a result of having apparently lost everything meaningful in his life, there is nothing worth living for, and due to this judgement, the man feels an extreme sadness that mimics an anxiety filled, depressive emotional state. It is at this point, after a negative emotional response is elicited from a badly evaluated contextual judgement, that an emotion has the potential to compel one to act in ways that foster addictive behavior.<\/p>\n
The man could seek the artificial, immediate euphoria stimulated by drugs or alcohol in an attempt to superficially numb the dull pain of his hopelessness, or he could alter the perceptual standpoint with which he evaluates his predicament, thereby alleviating, or entirely removing, the cause of his immense despair. It is evident that the man has not lost everything, and this is why he has poorly evaluated his situation. For instance, there are many employers that are hiring, and it is possible that he finds a job within the next hour; alternatively, the man’s family is still his family: he has not lost them, they are simply not in the same vicinity.<\/p>\n
If the man in the unfortunate situation, as described above, would have had an evaluative judgement closely paralleling that mentioned in the preceding paragraph, it is evident that the resulting emotional response would have been more positive, potentially one of hope, or even one of happiness over the possibility of new beginnings. One can further speculate that this favorable attitude would have encouraged actions that only further reinforced this commendable outlook, straying the man ever farther from the abyss of addiction. This hypothetical example proves an important point: the man cannot retroactively change or prevent the occurrence of the context within which he has found himself; however, he certainly can change the contextual environments he experiences thereafter. This is precisely the formative disposition of emotion.<\/p>\n
This formative nature of emotion lends insight into how poorly evaluated contextual judgements have the ability to create a spiral of unfavorable emotional reactions: a misinterpreted evaluative contextual judgement results in a negative emotion, which subsequently results in a negative action, causing one to seek artificial pleasure, which after the hollow feeling of ecstasy subsides, another unfortunate context is produced, thereby producing a negative evaluative judgement of that context, and so on. This is just one of the many ways that the web of addiction is weaved.<\/p>\n
It is now necessary to address a brief objection to the aforementioned argument. It is the following: addiction does not have to result from a poorly evaluated contextual judgement because emotions can be said to be deeply dependent on cultural presumptions (Solomon, 210). This assertion, in conjunction with the scientific and psychological stance towards addiction, namely that addiction is a brain disorder, disease and mental illness, proves to be a convincing counter argument against the cognitive view of emotion. For example, one may develop an addiction to alcohol solely because, while in college, one drank to the point of excess every weekend. Now he has discovered that, physically, he cannot live without it. This addiction was not triggered initially by a poorly evaluated contextual judgement but was instead spurred by a positive emotion: excitement over a good time with friends. However, as an unfortunate result of the man’s harmless pursuit for pleasure, the man’s body has become chemically dependent on this substance.<\/p>\n
A possible reply to this objection is that the cognitive theory of emotion, as examined in the context of substance addiction, still applies despite the initial trigger being a positive emotional response. It may be said that the man who is addicted to alcohol is indeed addicted because he has made a series of inappropriate contextual evaluative judgements that directed him towards the emotionally cyclical path of addiction, and that, had those judgements been appropriately evaluated in that instant, would have steered him away from addictive behavioral tendencies. For example, after a devastating breakup, the man evaluated his situation and judged it to be upsetting; he was therefore distressed, ashamed and angry. He decides to ameliorate his emotional state with alcohol, thereby temporarily relieving his suffering.<\/p>\n
If he continues to make decisions like the former, it is possible that addictive tendencies, and potentially addiction, occur. Conversely, if, after the breakup, the man evaluates his situation to be an opportunity for self-improvement, and hence feels motivated and inspired, his positive emotional outlook may compel him to go to the gym, thus, steering him away from what could have been a lifetime of counterbalancing negative emotions with instantaneous, artificially synthesized, shallow euphoric relief. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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