To understand the brain and how it works in addiction and recovery, take a walk in the woods.
You will probably walk a path. It’s simple that way. Others have gone before and cleared a path for you. It takes you somewhere. It may even be marked.
Consider what makes a path. It starts with small animals collecting nuts, looking for mates, escaping from danger. They begin to wear a path that larger animals take advantage of because it makes their travel easier. Deer and bears began to travel as did squirrels and raccoons. Then people take the same route because they’re chasing deer or running away from a bear and they don’t like briars hitting them in the face.
Plants will not grow in an established path. All these briars, they will grow somewhere else where they will not be disturbed. The more a path is established, the denser and impenetrable the forest will be, but there will be a clear path, free of obstacles.
The brain is like a forest. When it solves a problem, it takes a path. When it often takes a path, when it solves a particular problem in a particular way, the path becomes well-marked and easy to follow. It becomes automatic. You don’t even have to think about it. Other solutions, which are not attempted, become more difficult to access.
If you look at someone with a well-established addiction, their brain is like a direct drug superhighway. Are you having a good day? Let’s celebrate and get high. Are you angry, sad, disappointed? Being high is healing. Did your doctor just tell you your liver shot? Did your probation officer put you in jail? Did your wife just leave? Your daughter won’t talk to you? Get high, get high, get high. The more an addict approaches the drug, the clearer and easier the path becomes.
At some point, the addict decides that the path he has created is not taking him where he wants to go. Then he must make like Lewis and Clark and lead a new way. Recovery involves stepping outside the easy way, entering where all the briars are, and hacking a new way. Recovery is like a bush. It’s hard work, it’s easy to get lost, and it’s tempting to go back to old ways.
Here’s the thing, though: the brain is like a jungle. When it solves a problem, it takes a path. When it often takes a path, when it solves a particular problem in a particular way, without being elevated, that path becomes well-marked and easy to follow. Over time, the old path becomes overgrown and harder to find.
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This post was Previously published at medium.com.
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Photo credit: Miha Raker at Unsplash
