As both a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine and an addict in recovery, I have long been asking the question, "How does TCM get and keep someone clean and sober?" Straight-ahead answers have not come easy.
In TCM school, I was offered the NADA protocol as treatment.
How do I treat something I do not have a definition or diagnosis for? This frustration pushed me to search for my own solutions. I needed an accurate and concise way of describing this medicine – one that makes as much sense to a slumped-in-his-chair, 22-year-old heroin addict as it does to a life-hardened, 64-year-old alcoholic; or a middle-aged, middle-of-the-road, Zoloft-abusing spouse. It also had to make sense to my peers; and not just those in my field, but also all of the other medical and mental health professionals who address addiction. Always a work in progress, here's what I've got to begin our conversation.
Addiction Is...
The patterned use of any substance or action that attempts to fill a void, but instead, reinforces the origins of the pattern. Let's break this down.
"The patterned use": Addiction is a cycle; and since I was taught, like you, that the cycle of the five elements is a way to chart all of the cycles in nature, I believed it should be able to accurately plot the rise, fall and perpetuation of addiction. In testing the hypothesis, I've found it does exactly this. (If you'd like to see more, I wrote a short series for AT in 2007-09.)
The five-element system illustrates how the seeds of addiction take root in water, sprout out as planning to use in wood, grow around or burn through any obstacles presented during acquisition in fire, manifest into the rituals of using in earth and evaporate into memory during the decline of metal – which of course, provides the consequence-infused seeds for water's next go around.
"Of any substance or action": Addiction follows universal rules regardless of the form it takes. The "drug of choice" can be a solid, yin, material substance, such as a drug or alcohol; or it could be the insubstantial yang buzz achieved from gambling or gaming. Either way, either form, the same rules apply. Our medicine can follow, chart, predict and treat whatever our client presents to us as their addiction.
"That attempts to fill a void": Addicts understand the void immediately. Taking advantage of this, we can give them insight into our medicine via the simple, clear language of the 8 Principle Theory. From this model, the void is an internal deficiency.
But where did that come from? Using the 8 Principle Theory, we can explain how this internal deficiency of "too little on the inside" was created from an external excess. Appearing in the form of trauma or our medicine's fright or shock, it was just "too much from the outside." While treatment to address the myriad range of components at play in this yin-yang pairing of the void's internal deficiency and the trauma's external excess will be detailed, nuanced and extensive, the model the 8 Principle Theory provides is a clear and simple way of viewing the entire process.
"but instead, reinforces the origins of the pattern": Again, we can use the cycle of the five elements to explain how all of the painful aftereffects of addiction actually plant the same kind of seeds for the next go-round of the cycle. Specifically, it is the metal element's "after the party's over" messages of guilt and shame that imbue the water element's seeds. This not only provides the hidden magic within the seed to perpetuate the cycle, but also strengthens the pull of the void to do the same.
Begin the Dialogue
I have found this definition of addiction to be a wonderful way to begin the dialogue of treatment. The simple elegancy in which it explains complex concepts not only helps our clients, but also opens pathways of collaboration to all manner of medical and mental health professionals. I find this to be extremely important in these times, as I know our medicine has so much wisdom to offer in the area of modern addiction treatment.
Dr. Randal Lyons has helped himself, and thousands of others, achieve sobriety using TCM for the past 27 years. A graduate of Emperor's College of TOM, he's consulted for dozens of world-class addiction treatment facilities; and is the author of Opening the Eyes of the Heart. Currently, his focus is Alchemist Recovery, an online program that creates collaboration among TCM practitioners, mental health professionals and businesses in need of support for those struggling with addiction.