Whenever we change a long-standing habit, a new pattern is at first unpleasant. After short time it becomes tolerable. After we become accustomed to it, it becomes enjoyable.
Finally, after a time, the new habit becomes dispensible and as strong and habitual as the placed previous undesirable habit was.
Dr. Herbert Shelton quotesRelative to this subject and of great value to our understanding of how the stimulation and depression mechanism works, I quote the brilliant Dr. Herbert M. Shelton in his "Human Life, Its Philosophy and Laws" :
"This Law (Law of Dual Effects) explains the power of habit. The temporary "relief" from symptoms and the short period of exaltation are followed by worse symptoms and depression, so that the individual resorts to the drug for more relief and more exaltation. He cannot tolerate the depression of power that inevitably follows the added impulse of power induced by tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol, opium, or other drug.
"The heightened sensibilities, pleasurable sensations, joyous emotions induced by opium soon pass, leaving the terrors of hell in their wake. The "brilliancy" of thought and intellect and ecstacy of enjoyment give way to languor, stupidity and horror unutterable. The user resorts again to his drug to revive the former state.
"His body does not need and does not demand more opium. It needs and demands rest. But he craves more opium as a means of temporary "relief" from his intolerable suffering. The "relief" produces more suffering, which calls for more relief" which produces more suffering which calls for more relief and so on until death brings complete and lasting relief. As the drug habitue becomes weaker and more nervous, he requires more frequent doses, or stronger doses of his poison.
"A striking confirmation of this view is supplied by the recently discovered fact that when there is no awareness of pain, there is no "craving" for morphine. Vandalistic neurologists have recently devised an operation which they call prefrontal lobotomy, which consists of removal of a portion of the nerve fibers of the forehead to "relieve" unbearable pain. They find that when awareness of pain ceases, the "craving" for morphine also ceases and there are no "withdrawal symptoms", except a transient mild tremor. I interpret this to mean that when there is no consciousness of pain, there is no mental desire for the accustomed means of "relief". I would interpret the so-called "withdrawal symptoms" in the same way. They grow, not out of lack of morphine, but out of fear of pain.
"Relieving" morphine-induced pain with more morphine is the height of medical insanity.
"What temporarily strengthens permanently weakens. Tobacco steadies the nerves only to produce unsteadiness of them; alcohol weakens permanently because it temporarily strengthens; tonics produce temporary strength and permanent debility; a cup of coffee relieves a headache only to fasten the headache upon the user; it relieves depression of spirits only to double the depression when it "wears off". This is the reason cathartics, that seem to strengthen the bowels weakens them.
"Let any habitual user of any drug discontinue his drug for a few days and he will experience in their fullness all the secondary effects - only to find that these may all be made to disappear by a return to its use. Coffee "cures" the headache it has caused; whiskey restores the feeling of strength it has wasted; tobacco the steadiness of nerves it has destroyed."
Stimulants activate and depressTo explain this in other words - All stimulants activate the body initially but depress it ultimately. All stimulants pick you up. Any ingested stimulant which causes the heart to beat faster is a physiological poison and should be shunned like a plague.
In this case, when coffee is given up, the headache symptom which follows is due to the pain felt in the head from the congestion in the brain caused by the presence of the caffeine which is transported by the blood as it makes its circulating rounds through the body to eventually reach the organs of elimination, whence it is discarded.
Now, all addictive habits and compulsions are due to their stimulating character and the more stimulating they are, the more addictive they are and the more they draw us into ever-increasing bondage. The cycle becomes more vicious as the habit is continued.
As stimulation is repeated, in frequency, more recuperation is required than the body is able to receive in a night's sleep, so, in order to get the same feeling of exhilaration or "high" as he received before, the addict feels impelled to increase the frequency of his stimulant. Next, he feels that he needs to increase the amount of the dose.
The more stimulant - the more rest neededBut each increase in dosage leads to a further expenditure of energy, thus necessitating a greater need for recuperation or rest. As the deficit in rest accumulates mote rapidly, this inexorably leads to a greater let-down, thus forcing the addict to increase the amount of the dosage more and more until the whole body - mind system collapses from exhaustion. This is why it is so difficult to give up an addiction. No one likes to go through the feeling of "down" with its attendant depression.
Yet, it is during this recuperation or "down" phase that the body, nervous system and brain, recharges with energy. It is absolutely essential that we realize that this stage MUST be gone through if we are to restore structural, physiological and vital integrity to the body - if we are to restore our feelings, emotions and mind to a state of normal tone and wholeness.
The Law of Vital AccomodationContinuing with Dr. Shelton, another closely related law follows which is called the Law of Vital Accomodation - "Nature's Balance Wheel" which states that:The Law of Vital Accomodation
"The response of the vital organism to external stimuli is an instinctive one, based upon self-preservative instinct which adapts itself to what ever influences it cannot destroy, or control, or avoid".
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"Serious misinterpretation of the fact of toleration has led to grievous errors in practice. Because a habit does not seem immediately destructive, we must not be deceived into believing it is non-injurious, or even beneficial. The steady non-violent resistance to nicotine, for example, that the body must keep up, when tobacco is used, constitutes an equally steady drain upon the vital resources and keeps the user always below par."
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