Comments on: Controlled addiction http://bananapeelproject.org/2009/09/04/controlled-addiction/ Wed, 30 Mar 2011 20:37:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jimbo http://bananapeelproject.org/2009/09/04/controlled-addiction/#comment-999 Jimbo Tue, 28 Sep 2010 23:54:49 +0000 http://bananapeelproject.org/2009/09/04/controlled-addiction/#comment-999 For thirty years I have had a controlled "addiction" to alcohol. I drink three beers on weekends, never on nights before I work the next day and keep it under control that way. Three beers never gets me drunk, and I never drive after taking any amount of alcohol. More recently, after having surgery, I have learned to do the same thing with hydrocodone. For two years I have been taking 10 mg. of hydrocodone, (with 325 mg. of acetaminophen because that is the way the medicine comes) with no ill effects. I do not have the desire to take more, and because I only take it two nights a week my tolerance has not built up like it does in those who use it more often and tend to increase their dosage. My point is that I am a college-educated, productive, law-abiding citizen and see no harm in what I am doing. I will soon run out of hydrocodone then will be out of luck. Even though I would like to continue using it recreationally I will not break the law to get it. My point: Self control can make habits enjoyable, non-destructive and improve the mental well-being of controlled users like me. I would love to hear from others who have had similar experiences. For thirty years I have had a controlled “addiction” to alcohol. I drink three beers on weekends, never on nights before I work the next day and keep it under control that way. Three beers never gets me drunk, and I never drive after taking any amount of alcohol.
More recently, after having surgery, I have learned to do the same thing with hydrocodone. For two years I have been taking 10 mg. of hydrocodone, (with 325 mg. of acetaminophen because that is the way the medicine comes) with no ill effects. I do not have the desire to take more, and because I only take it two nights a week my tolerance has not built up like it does in those who use it more often and tend to increase their dosage.
My point is that I am a college-educated, productive, law-abiding citizen and see no harm in what I am doing. I will soon run out of hydrocodone then will be out of luck. Even though I would like to continue using it recreationally I will not break the law to get it. My point: Self control can make habits enjoyable, non-destructive and improve the mental well-being of controlled users like me. I would love to hear from others who have had similar experiences.

]]> By: carl http://bananapeelproject.org/2009/09/04/controlled-addiction/#comment-437 carl Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:01:19 +0000 http://bananapeelproject.org/2009/09/04/controlled-addiction/#comment-437 It IS interesting how addiction is defined in terms of a loss of control. Control of what? Of self. But then: The body? The mind? One's actions? One's intentions? One's will? One's desires? One's identity? I'm thinking of the Nietzschean duality of the Dionysian and the Appolonian, and addiction as a loss of control seems to be a way of defining the boundaries of self: between the body imagined as a self-contained entity and the drug as an external actant, between the rational thought of a singular mind and an obsession that seems to be a force alien to it, between the self as will to act and abandonment to desire... if the self is a function of control, discipline, and form, then addiction is the bleeding of self into what had been exterior, what needs to be exterior for the self to be defined. Controlled addiction is the management of the functions by which the self is maintained in relation to its exterior. Another example of controlled addiction: the "functional drunk," or for that matter, "the functional junkie," who is able to nurse a habit while keeping their shit together, that is, while holding down a job, paying their bills, raising a family, etc. Functional = productive member of society; not hustling, stealing, or dealing; not locked up in an asylum. Methadone treatment is another form of controlled addiction: it's been called a "functional drug" - one that allows the addict to function in society, to be productive (and Eli Lilly makes a lot of money marketing drugs targeted at controlling the self in the interest of social function and productivity). Control, then, while it has something to do with managed uptake (unlike lab rats self-administering cocaine until their hearts stop), is transcribed into categories of social functionality, which are often measured in terms of productivity - that is, the productive relation of the self to the social within established institutions of production and reproduction. So, coffee addiction is cool, and so were cigarettes until we started looking at the social cost. And methadone's great because even though it's an endless deferral of dependency, it gets the addict back in the workforce. Alcohol, pot, coke, junk... all tolerated until the point where "a deterioration of self, health, or mentality" becomes evident, which is usually determined at the point where the addict can no longer function as a productive member of society. It IS interesting how addiction is defined in terms of a loss of control. Control of what? Of self. But then: The body? The mind? One’s actions? One’s intentions? One’s will? One’s desires? One’s identity? I’m thinking of the Nietzschean duality of the Dionysian and the Appolonian, and addiction as a loss of control seems to be a way of defining the boundaries of self: between the body imagined as a self-contained entity and the drug as an external actant, between the rational thought of a singular mind and an obsession that seems to be a force alien to it, between the self as will to act and abandonment to desire… if the self is a function of control, discipline, and form, then addiction is the bleeding of self into what had been exterior, what needs to be exterior for the self to be defined. Controlled addiction is the management of the functions by which the self is maintained in relation to its exterior.

Another example of controlled addiction: the “functional drunk,” or for that matter, “the functional junkie,” who is able to nurse a habit while keeping their shit together, that is, while holding down a job, paying their bills, raising a family, etc. Functional = productive member of society; not hustling, stealing, or dealing; not locked up in an asylum. Methadone treatment is another form of controlled addiction: it’s been called a “functional drug” – one that allows the addict to function in society, to be productive (and Eli Lilly makes a lot of money marketing drugs targeted at controlling the self in the interest of social function and productivity). Control, then, while it has something to do with managed uptake (unlike lab rats self-administering cocaine until their hearts stop), is transcribed into categories of social functionality, which are often measured in terms of productivity – that is, the productive relation of the self to the social within established institutions of production and reproduction.

So, coffee addiction is cool, and so were cigarettes until we started looking at the social cost. And methadone’s great because even though it’s an endless deferral of dependency, it gets the addict back in the workforce. Alcohol, pot, coke, junk… all tolerated until the point where “a deterioration of self, health, or mentality” becomes evident, which is usually determined at the point where the addict can no longer function as a productive member of society.

]]>