3) N.A a Social Contagion?

So, is N.A a SOCIAL CONTAGION?

Description From ChangingMinds.Org

 

Description

Emotion can spread rapidly through large crowds, as the massive social proof leads us into extreme states. This explains much of crowd behavior, where ‘normal’ people act in ways they may later deeply regret.

Social contagion effects can also occur when people believe they have been infected by a disease. As more people show the (psychosomatic) symptoms, this is taken as proof that ‘I am bound to get it’.

Example

Just watch football matches and see how the crowd reacts almost as one. Or go along and experience it for yourself!

So what?

Using it

To wind someone up, take them to an exciting mass-audience event, from sports to rock concerts. Whilst they are in the flow of the moment, start whooping and dancing wildly. They may well join in. Then take a photo of them and show all your friends…

Defending

When at crowd events, by all means get swept up in the enjoyment, but keep a part of you separate, watching for inappropriate behavior in other people. Let it step in to prevent you from slipping over the cliff into hysteria.

So, is N.A a SOCIAL CONTAGION?

Emotion and “psychic energy” can move through large crowds. I agree. I have explained this via my “esp explanation” that I discovered when a kid. People on Same Wavelength, POSA (Finnish for Wavelength, Aallonpituus, sounds better – POSW just sounds silly) concept of “my higher power”, replacement for God. My concept of my higher power actually falls within the realm of scientology (almost) and other known and published religious or philosophical trends.

I worked on this very hard for about a week. It works within the science and the art of human brain development (science) and psychiatry (art). It works on all levels. At its most physic it defines the possibility of sharing ideas without the need for external communication.

In a crowd level it will operate at its lowest form.

Those in a group (let’s say a gang) will act and flock together. The old saying “birds of a feather flock together” can also work the other way around ;

It is proven beyond doubt that some plants and animals can change sex if the reproductive systems of the society is threatened.

It is proven that it is not actually having “big balls” that makes the alpha male. Becoming the alpha male actually creates the “big balls”. If you win, and win often, you actually get more testerone responses throughout the body which results in further “big man” behaviour. That is explained at a science (physics, chemistry, biology too) level. There is no argument.

The winner becomes the alpha. I suggest therefore ; The alpha does not pre-exist.

There are a number of changes and effects on the inside of the human that most people probably won’t care about, or not believe. The two people who read this blog are not going to change the world. I know this, as I am one of them. The other is either my ex, some weird young psychiatrist from America or a homeless guy from southern Texas depending on what day of the week it is.

Are all PEER LEAD programmes social contagions then?

Well, I would heavily debate that N.A is *not* a contagion. In the strict sense, it isn’t. People converse, people listen willingly. This is separate from a huge stadium of soccer fans all jumping and acting nuts at the same time. Or people deciding to all catch the flu at the same moment.

The key thing is People On Same Aallonpituus (wavelength). Soccer fans are all on same wavelength when watching soccer. N.A people are all on same wavelength when going to N.A?

Not really quite so much.

The raw power of testosterone, hormones, winning, losing at exactly the same moment with 10,000+ other people is an all enveloping power that can lead people to perform outside their usual boundaries. Someone scores, half the stadium erupts with joy, the other half go glum. This is powerful stuff. You feel part of something larger than you. And you are happy with it. You make new friends in your happiness / sadness. You spill your drink. You don’t care. You are focused on something directly in front of you that is providing raw emotional responses. Instantly. Gratification. The actual example of a football stadium is actually pretty bad. It is a stretch actually. CROWD BEHAVIOUR is really half way between N.A and SOCIAL CONTAGION.

N.A. people are all from different backgrounds and only really share a goal – To stay clean. People talk one at a time. People listen. People compare stories to their own stories. They compare the persons outlook to their own. They are slowly influenced by others. There is a pulling backwards and forwards. It is a gradual process. There is not one clear path, nor any exact moments of shared euphoria or despair. There is shared emotion, but not exactly at the same moment, for the same reasons, at the same level.  This makes it even more unlikely to be a contagion. You have to be open to the ideas expressed. You have to want the ideas. You have to entertain them.

A true contagion would pick you up and sweep you along with it. No argument. You think people want to act out the symptoms of deadly disease without realising they don’t have it? THAT is a contagion.

At the end of the day everyone in N.A thanks the literature and the books and doesn’t argue with the books.

For fucksake, you had better not argue with the damn books. You had better say “it is good to be in a meeting”, “this is a good meeting” and “I have enjoyed the meeting” every week or god will cut off your penis and sell it on E.Bay.

But I cannot even comply with the first step. They constantly call addiction a “disease”. This really pisses me off. And most people at N.A will not be swayed on this. They are, actually, simply too unintelligent to look at a different model.

ADDICTION IS NOT A FUCKEN DISEASE.

The biochemical basis of disease. Some diseases, not illustrated here, also have a social and psychological basis. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A disease is something. Addiction is not. By the time you read a lot about attachment theories (Gabor, please write a concise 500 word example and paste here, thanks) you start to realise that addiction is caused by anything other than disease. Unless you call your Mum and Dad “Disease” on a regular basis. In which case I take your point and cut off my left toe.

My “addict brain” is not responsible for the irrational and sometimes psychopathic way I deal with objectionably inclined people. *I AM*. It is me. I acted like that years ago. I do not blame disease. It is me. What created me this way? Mum and Dad maybe….

If your Mum and Dad are not named Disease, then that can rule “disease” out of causing addiction. And put in “adverse childhood events” or ACE. (acestudy.org)

Legit pain reasons. These are also so similar to Mum and Dad (emotional pain) that the difference is not worth noting. Therefore we have 95% of addictions from non disease sources. Science. Not bullshit.

By the way – Almost 100% of female addicts have been sexually abused (and an amazing amount of males too actually… I know of probably one in ten male addicts who identify to this – One of them is constantly treated for PTSD. He has been in recovery ten straight years and is finally doing work on this to such a level he can now talk openly about it amongst a group of N.A.zi people)… 

I feel that the addict (me for example) “just likes drugs”. The reason here is that they provide something I am lacking. I am self medicating at first, without even realising it. There is two simple reasons in my book.

The other common one is people “just like getting wasted”. These people may not present as addicts. They may be Friday night Fiends… However, they may slip out of “control” and more into addiction… I suppose these account for the remaining 5% not covered by PAIN.

Addiction, I was told thirty years ago, comes from an old word meaning to be a slave – An addict was enslaved to a master. The master nowadays is drugs. I could have this wrong, but it is interesting to note that I am not DISEASED to my master. I am enslaved to a master. Either of my will or not, I am his addict. I am addicted to him.

SO – N.A says ADDICTION IS A DISEASE. It, quite clearly, IS NOT A FUCKEN DISEASE.

Is mental health a disease? I don’t think so. But it is treated like one. This is the whole problem with the medical model here. You have idiots saying “you have anxiety, here is a pill”. They constantly want to be god and have a clear problem and treatment protocol.

Anyway….

IS N.A a CONTAGION?

No. But, willing people, on the same wave length, will help each other along on each others journey. A contagion would take one person into a group and take the group on the same journey together.

Addiction is not a disease. Curing it is not an ANTI-CONTAGION. There is no miracle of everyone becoming clean and staying clean and shaking a disease. It doesn’t happen. In the opposite, a bunch of right leaning red necks whom all go to the same school may all start clicking and ticking together. This shows all the signs of a certain neurological disease, but only one or two of them actually have it.

IS ADDICTION A CONTAGION?

No. Addiction is caused by non hereditary, non genetic, non contagion issues. Addiction is the result of liking to escape pain. Most likely causes of pain are psychological, but also can be physical. In my case, severe amounts of both.

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT PEER LEAD RECOVERY CAN BE CONTAGION?

No. More of a virus. An algorithm that can be mathematically predicted, relatively precisely.

CAN WE SIMPLY BOMB EVERYONE WITH GREAT BIG HYDROGEN BOMBS?

Yes we can. Do it now. Release a few into the atmosphere above silicon valley and wipe out half the internet. Just don’t do it above the server with all my work on it. I will cut off your knees and chase you with with my car.

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http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/attachment.htm (attachment theory in five hundred words….After reading more than Gabors books on it, including Brain Based Parenting, there is no way I can argue anything different. *ALL* the brain, pysic books, neurology… They all point to this as it happens…)