ICRAVE Personal Freedom Over Numbing

Americans today are more debt-ridden, obese, medicated, and addicted than we ever have been.

  • For the first time in history, the centers of control and prevention (CDC) has announced that automobile accidents are not the second leading cause of accidental death in the US.
    • The leading cause is now drug overdoses.
    • More people die from prescription drug overdose than from heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine drug use combine.
    • Even more alarming is the estimate that less than 5 percent of those who died from prescription drug overdose obtain there drug from “street corner drug dealers?”
    • Dealers today are most likely to be parents, relatives, friends, and physicians.

We are desperate to feel less or more of something.

  • To make something go away or to have more of something else.

A primary drive of our numbing would be our struggles with worthiness and shame.

  • We numb the pain that comes with feeling inadequate, and less than

Anxiety, disconnection and shame also emerge as drivers of numbing    

  • The most powerful need for numbing seems to be coming from a combinations of all three
  • Anxiety seems to be fueled by uncertainty, overwhelming and competing demands on our time, and social discomfort
  • Disconnection – loneliness, depression, isolation, emptiness, and disengagement.
  • The strong pattern of shame spreading through the anxiety and/or disconnection.
  • Our anxiety is compounded and made unbearable by our belief that if we were just smarter, stronger, or better, we would be able to handle everything.

Numbing becomes a way to take the edge off of both instability and inadequacy

Re-source: Reconditioning

craving from “Daring Greatly” by Brene Brown

resource from “Balance In Me” – balanceinme.com