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Thomas Lee Abshier, ND
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Avoidance

By: Thomas Lee Abshier, ND

 

Coping with Pain: The positive purpose of denial is to protect the delicate inner man from the pain associated with the experience of life.  When pain overshadows the psyche’s ability endure it, the inner man retreats, goes to sleep, goes unconscious, or leaves.  Pain by its very nature causes retreat.  But, to understand the severity of the implication of pain, the inner man, the core spirit, the pure essence of consciousness is incapable of experiencing any pain at all.  Thus, for the spirit to live inside of man, and to endure the unavoidable pain of

 

Denial: One of the methods of coping with the pain is to deny the reality of the circumstances, or the personal responsibility in creating the situation and its painful outcome.  Again, this is a natural response to avoid the experience of pain.  By going blind to the outcome, or the situation causing it, the pain is decreased in the conscious mind by making it invisible.  Likewise, by denying personal responsibility and attributing the actions to others, totally outside of personal effect, the burden of personal failure and the pain of culpability removed.  In other words, a healthy psyche must adopt various strategies to cope with the pain of life, to protect that inner pure spirit which can see and experience only a life free of pain.  Various personalities take the pain, experience it, and filter the pain to the inner man, giving him messages which ultimately say in various ways, “I will be able to protect you from this situation, I have it handled, and things will be fine.”  

 

Addiction: Usage of a particular strategy to avoid pain over a period of time can lead to a dependency on that strategy.  But, ultimately addiction is a secondary effect, having at its essence the avoidance of experiencing pain, and a reciprocal pursuit of pleasure.   Addiction typically involves:

1) A tight causal link between using substances or activities for pleasure or avoidance of pain.  

2) Withdrawal of its “use” produces an accentuation of the experience of pain.

The solution to addiction is the proper handling of the pain inducing stimuli.  We should protect the inner man from the various pains of life.  The temptation to pursue analgesia, and experience only the unopposed stimuli of endorphins is great, and this can lead to an inappropriate dependence upon pain killing drugs and activities.  

 

The human will can resist any temptation to illicit/inappropriate pleasure, and thus can avoid pursuing the pathways of addiction.  But making the choice to resist temptation depends on having the will to establish alternate pain-coping strategies.  Life will always have pain in it, and there is always an appropriate method by which to frame the pain so that its bite is absorbed and the alter egos can truly say, “It’s all right, I have you protected.”  

 

Usually a person who has yielded to temptation of analgesia and excessive pleasure, will experience a pain of withdrawal when stopping the use of a substance or behavior.  Physiologic dependence sometimes requires tapering and weaning to maintain life and the stability of metabolic and regulatory functions.  

 

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