Addiction Concepts - Healthy Self-Esteem by Steven East
Steven East is a staffer who is becoming a respected expert in the field of addiction treatment. He shares some thoughts about the human ego and self esteem in this blog entry.
Self Deception Strategies
Self-deception strategies are one of the main attributes of the human ego. These strategies allow us to be deceptive with our perceptions of events in order to maintain healthy self-esteem. The self-serving bias is nothing more than the natural ability to accept the prestige of accomplishment and allege omission of responsibility for ones inadequacies. To illustrate this concept lets take a look at the paradigm of people arbitrarily told they had been successful in a puzzle solving endeavor. It seems they were quick to accept success, but when told the results were inaccurate and they really had failed they were quick to disavow culpability to such outcomes.
Self-Enhancement Motives
This concept refers to the fact that we have a natural tendency to furnish an unbalanced view of ones self. This self-enhancement motive seams to be in competition with other noted motives, such as the appraisal motive, but in times of conflict the Self-enhancement motive will emerge victoriously. In such cases an individual is likely to respond as if bearing no association to unfavorable concepts.
Self-Handicapping
Closely related to the concept of automatic egotism is the concept of self-handicapping. This concept refers to the emplacement of obstructions in ones path based on a prediction of possible failure. In this scenario ones self-esteem is protected by assigning blame to the obstruction rather than risking the chance that ones ability could be the reason for lack of success in such endeavors. An example of this is how famous musicians develop addictions in order to self-handicap based on their fears of possible future failures.
- Steven East, CADAC II
Denial: insanity's fuel
I have been clean almost five months. I agree with the idea that I have a mental and physical disorder. This condition subtly, yet profoundly, affects my perceptions, memories, and actions. It is essential that I understand, and accept I am an addict: that I cannot use randomly, seldom, and in low doses. I hope I never choose to forget the pain, failure, confusion, and shame I experiance when my addiction is active.