Chakras and Addiction

Addiction has always been a topic of interest to me, as even now with more information coming out that addiction is a disease, a lot of people still hold the bias that these people deserve it or in some way was a self-actualised prophecy.  

I think what people need to understand is that medically, chronic substance abuse or addiction physically changes the way the brain functions.  

The reward circuit is how the brain rewards beneficial behaviours such as eating, socialising, and sex, things that are at our base survival cues. Each time one of these behaviours are repeated, the signal that produces dopamine (the happy hormone) gets quicker and quicker, encouraging the behaviour with a hit of dopamine, causing a euphoric sensation.  

Drugs that hijack this circuit unfortunately are reenforcing this behaviour, encouraging to keep abusing the drugs. As the pattern continues, taking drugs and getting a hit of dopamine, eventually it becomes the number 1 priority to survive, and all a person can think about. Overtime people begin to build a tolerance, more and more of the drug is needed to achieve the same high, causing lasting damage to the brain tissue.   

This obviously influences the chakras.  

As drug use is now the number 1 key to survival, the root chakra will be affected in all cases of substance abuse. The root chakra rules all our security and base needs. As addiction can affect relationships, living situations, and financial stability, this may cause someone struggling with addiction to cling on to the only thing giving them pleasure in their life, drug use, causing their root to become more and more unbalanced. 

As the root is the first of the chakras, this can have a follow-on effect, affecting the other chakras in relation to addiction.  

Recovery from such a life altering condition can be the hardest thing people have to face. Traditional rehabs can help a great deal in the start of healing, but eastern medicine such as Reiki and meditation, can help by rebalancing the chakras and help find inner peace.