Autonomy is impossible as long as one is driven by anything.

Autonomy is impossible as long as one is driven by anything.

... While nervous tension may be a component of stress, one can be stressed without feeling tension.

A long-term substance abuser, a few months before his death, penned this poem: Went downtown, Hastings and Main, looking for relief from the pain. All I did was find a ticket on a one-way train. ... Give me peace before I die. The track is laid out so well; we all live our private hell; just more tickets on the hell-bound train.

The very same brain centers that interpret and feel physical pain also become activated during experiences of emotional rejection. In brain scans, they light up in response to social ostracism, just as they would when triggered by physically harmful stimuli. When people speak of feeling hurt or of having emotional pain, they are not being abstract or poetic, but scientifically quite precise.

Not why the addiction, but why the pain.

The difference between passion and addiction is that between a divine spark and a flame that incinerates.