What is Addiction?

What is addiction?Tuesday, June 13, 2006
* A BRAIN DISEASE: Most scientists now consider addiction a brain disease: a condition caused by persistent changes to brain structure and function. Using drugs repeatedly over time changes brain structure and function in fundamental and long lasting ways that can persist long after the individual stops using them. After a certain amount of a drug is consumed, and that amount is different for everyone, it is as if a switch in the brain is flipped from normal to addict.
* FAILURE OF WILL?: Many people erroneously still believe that drug addiction is a failure of will or of strength of character. Research contradicts that position. However, the recognition that addiction is a brain disease does not mean that the addict is a hapless victim. Addiction begins with the voluntary behavior of using drugs, and addicts must participate in and take some significant responsibility for their recovery. Thus, having this brain disease does not absolve the addict of responsibility for his or her behavior, but it does explain why an addict cannot simply stop using drugs by sheer force of will alone. It also dictates a much more sophisticated approach to dealing with the array of problems surrounding drug abuse and addiction in our society.
* ADDICTION DEFINED: Addiction is defined as uncontrollable, compulsive drug craving, seeking and use even in the face of negative health and social consequences. Very few people are able to return to occasional use after becoming addicted.
* ADDICTED AT DIFFERENT RATES: Some people can become addicted more easily and quickly than others. Estimates are that 50 to 70 percent of these differences in susceptibility to addiction are genetic.
SOURCE: Summary of the paper Addiction is a Brain Disease by Dr. Alan Leshner, from www.drugfree.org

http://www.step12.com/

The Medal of St. Benedict

The Medal of Saint Benedict
by Fr. Bernardine Patterson OSB
The Letters on the Medal

A number of letters arranged in various orders on the side on which the Cross is found remain to be explained. There is nothing hidden or superstitious about these letters; their significance is well known and approved by the Church. The manuscript of 1415 reveals their meaning and proves them to be the initials of Latin words which go to make up sentences explanatory of the object of the Medal and its use. They are in reality for the most part short prayers and imprecations, thought to have been frequently in the mouth of St. Benedict himself.
The four letters at the sides of St. Benedict's Cross: C.S.P.B. stand for Crux Sancti Patris Benedicti. The five letters on the length of St. Benedict's Cross: C.S.S.M.L. represent the first part of a prayer, or ejaculation: Crux Sacra Sit Mihi Lux. The five letters making the breadth of St. Benedict's Cross are N.D.S.M.D.; Non Demon Sit Mihi Dux. The oldest manuscript has "demon" and might be literally translated "Let not the demon be my guide." The manuscript of the year 1415 has, instead of "devil", or "demon", a monster with wings of a "dragon." In the latter case the translation would be: "Let not the dragon by my guide."

The fourteen letters around the Cross, making its border are V.R.S.N.S.M.V.; S.M.Q.L.I.V.B. They come from a Leonine Poem and represent only three of its sixteen verses. The initials stand for the verses:
Vade retro Satana;
Nunquam suade mihi vana.
Sunt mala quae libas;
Ipse venana bibas!

In English:
"Begone Satan!
Suggest not to me vain things.
The cup you offer me is evil, drink the poison yourself!"

These or similar words are supposed to come forth from St. Benedict's lips: the words of the first verse, apply to the temptation that visited him at his cave and over which he triumphed by the Sign of the Cross. The words of the second verse refer to the occasion when his enemies presented him the beverage of death, which he discovered by making the Sign of life over the cup that contained the poison.
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3 Veth, Martin, OSB, The Medal or Cross of St. Benedict, p. 22.

Gratefulness

Dishwashing with Reverence
From Wind Bell, Fall 1968

This July Brother David was head dishwasher at Tassajara, and before he left he entirely revised the washing ritual and retrained the students. Later, from his home monastery in Western New York, Mount Saviour, he sent the work foreman his suggestions for future dishwashers. They ranged from "a little vinegar in the rinse water makes the glasses sparkle," and "the cats do appreciate the milk left in the glasses from the guest table;" to "We should listen to the sound of the water and the scrubbing, to the various sounds the dishes make when they hit each other. The sounds of our work tell us much about our practice... Most people dislike dishwashing. Maybe they can learn to appreciate the touch of the wooden bowls, the pots and mugs and everything they handle, the weight of what we lift up and set down, the various smells and sound. St. Benedict, the Patriarch of Western monks, says that in a monastery every pot and pan should be treated with the same reverence as the sacred vessels on the altar."

From Wind Bell (Publication of San Francisco Zen Center: Vol. VII, Nos. 3-4, Fall 1968, p.17)
http://www.gratefulness.org/index.htm