This artificial distinction between the mind and body has little practical validity for understanding how addiction actually works, because our minds and bodies are actually integrated and function as one in the same. There are distinct chemical pathways that connect virtually every part of the body to our central nervous system, including the endocrine system. In short, we are what we think , what we feel , and do . Everything we experience impacts our psychological and physical health and visa versa. Health then, is the integration and appreciation of the interrelationship between all parts of us, including the less tangible spiritual side of ourselves.
Addiction can be a chief symptom for how that disharmony can become expressed in our lives.
You can develop strong rituals and habits around the behavior and this becomes woven into the very fabric of a person s life. And many of the people I have interviewed for this book state that they need their Internet use in much the same way. The Internet has become out of control for them and has taken a central, and dysfunctional, position in their life. She was charged with neglecting her children while spending all day and night online. She had apparently left her children to live in squalor while she locked herself in a nice clean room with a new computer and modem.