00:01The series is essentially about psychoanalysis which is a very specialised branch of clinical
00:09psychology which deals with the understanding of unconscious mind, that it believes that
00:16behind any simple behaviour, habit, action, thought, there is a lot of complexity and
00:23we live a large part of our lives without being really aware of many of the things inside
00:29us, but that these things and these various forces, they continue to influence us.
00:34Another very important thing in contemporary psychoanalysis is that when we speak about
00:42unconscious, so unconscious is not something which exists as a concrete object.
00:47I mean psychoanalysis really does not believe in that, that you can go into a stage and
00:52the unconscious will come out of its soul. Unconscious is more like a clay or a stone.
00:58And you have to give it some form. So unconscious in some way is like mud and through therapy,
01:10you know, in psychoanalysis we develop a language for an unconscious, we develop images for unconscious
01:15so that unconscious starts revealing itself.
01:20Okay, we will now start with today's talk which is on addictions and compulsive behaviours.
01:28So I would like to ask you all that, what do you think are most common addictions that we see?
01:38You know, from your own personal experience or like you know things that you may have seen in your family,
01:43your friends circle, you know, stuff like that.
01:49Drugs. Drugs. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah.
01:52Alcohol. Yeah. Smoking. Yeah.
02:05Drugs. Okay.
02:09Drugs. Yeah.
02:09Drugs. Yeah.
02:09Drugs. Yeah.
02:10Drugs. Okay.
02:12Drugs. Yeah.
02:12Drugs. Okay.
02:15Drugs. Yeah.
02:15Drugs.
02:18Drugs.
02:20So, really, the only thing it is, is it really difficult for me to start doing
02:24what do you think when you want to do?
02:25Anything else?
02:27Procrastination.
02:28Procrastination.
02:29Okay.
02:30Yeah.
02:30I mean, what all you have said, you know, using procrastination, they are related a lot
02:36to addictions and you know, just get used to it.
02:39Other people.
02:39Yeah.
02:40Other people.
02:41Yeah.
02:42Yeah.
02:42Yeah.
02:42You know, people, at times, the addictions can be improved, like, you know, substances,
02:47they can be improved, people, you know.
02:49At times, there are some people who are addicted to relationships, you know.
02:52So, when they are in one relationship that breaks, they then have to go into another
02:56relationship.
02:57They can't be single type of thing.
02:59So, addiction to people.
03:01So, a lot of things.
03:03Right.
03:04Addiction to exercise.
03:05Very.
03:06Addiction to exercise.
03:08Yeah.
03:08Yeah.
03:08Yeah.
03:09Some people who really feel, you know, very depressed and fat if they don't get to
03:14the gym for a single, you know.
03:16You know, I have a client like that whose, you know, muscles would really, like, you know,
03:21tear and sweat and stuff like that.
03:28But, yeah.
03:29Yeah.
03:29Are you sure you're walking yourself, actually?
03:31What?
03:31Walking.
03:32Yeah.
03:33I mean, see, that's what we are going to see in the real face talk.
03:37You know, any activity has a tendency of, like, you know, becoming a compulsion and then
03:44a tendency of becoming an addiction kind of thing.
03:47Right.
03:47So, we would start and I would, in fact, start with a, I would start with a short video,
03:54you know, so that, it's a very nice video made by, like, some group of students on internet
04:00addiction.
04:00It's a very simple one.
04:01It's beautiful.
04:02It, you know, it just gives you the gist of what addiction is.
04:10Can we have the lights?
04:11I'll switch it off.
04:31Hey.
04:32Hey.
04:34Hey.
04:37Hey.
04:38Hey.
04:39Hey.
04:41Hey.
07:07Yeah, so, any comments on the video, you know?
07:12Yeah, typically it is going too fast.
07:17Okay, okay, okay, that I don't have control, you know, sorry about that.
07:22These are things that normally happen to people who start getting familiarized with the internet.
07:26Right.
07:27They happen within a month or two.
07:29Right.
07:29And they can't immediately be branded as addiction phenomena.
07:33Right, right.
07:33But, of course, the rest of the thing, the rehab stuff.
07:37That is useful.
07:38People shouldn't forget all that.
07:39Right, right, right.
07:40Yeah, yeah.
07:41Yeah, see, I mean, you know, it's also that when at times, you know, you make a video, you
07:46are at your creative best, you know, so you don't really, at times, you know, the exact
07:52facts, you know, but I thought this was a very interesting video to give us just about,
07:56you know, what really addiction is kind of thing.
07:59Yeah.
07:59So, anyways, we would, you know, go with that just right away in detail with that, what
08:03an addiction is.
08:15Right.
08:16So, see, when we are talking about addictions, you know, also because, you know, we also
08:22have to understand that all of us have, like, you know, very strong attitudes towards addiction.
08:27You know, we can be pro it, we can be against it, we can be ambivalent about it, you know.
08:32So, we would, you know, in diagnosing addiction, that who is an addict, in treating an addict,
08:40and also in dealing with our own selves, if we have an addiction, it would be highly influenced
08:45by the kind of attitude and assumptions we are holding in the world's addiction.
09:04Yeah.
09:05So, we have to, you know, keep in mind that we should be coming to that, but when we are
09:11talking about addictions, you know, so some people are experimenters, I think a lot of,
09:17you know, us, you know, may have, you know, at some point in their life experimented with
09:23something, you know, that we have gone to a party or we have gone on a vacation, you know,
09:27or maybe we are, like, you know, somewhere and we see someone and we just feel like, you
09:31know, trying to, you know, eight times, you know, we have, like, you know, saying a big
09:38occasion and stuff like that, so we kind of, you know, would, like, you know, want to try
09:43something, you know, which could be addictive.
09:47Like, you know, someone here was talking about, you know, like, you know, getting addicted
09:54people.
09:55So, one of the clients whom I found was very interesting that he had, you know, he had a
10:00very strong, moralistic bent and a very stable marriage, and one finally he just decided
10:07to pack up and go to, you know, bank walk on a vacation kind of thing.
10:10And there, as a part of it, he kind of, you know, experimented with, you know, with his
10:17sexuality kind of things, you know.
10:19And when he came back, he, you know, really felt like having casual sex again and again
10:25kind of thing, you know, so much so that it almost sort of, you know, became an addiction,
10:29you know.
10:30So, yeah, but, you know, coming back to it, not all classes of behaviors and
10:37you know, like, simply the use of an addictive substance would not be called an addiction.
10:41You know, there need to be several things in place which would, you know, may qualify
10:46as an addiction.
10:47I am really not going into the medical criteria because that's where we drive talks in terms
10:52of, you know, various things.
10:53But we just, you know, look it from a very simple angle.
10:57You know, that someone gets addicted to something, you know.
11:01And addiction, as I said, would be to anything when that addictive object or substance or anything
11:08that they are using, they start using it to deal with what they are unhappy about, to deal
11:15with what they are distressed about or to deal with whatever is missing in their life, you know.
11:21So, that's the time that, you know, that they would start coming into the grip of addiction.
11:27That they would be unable to renounce this high regardless of, you know, various dangers
11:31and threats and time wastage and money wastage which may be associated with it, you know.
11:38So, that's what it is.
11:40And I'll just, you know, to illustrate this thing, I'll just read out a short, you know,
11:46tiny entry, you know, which was written by one of my patients who was in, like, you know,
11:52who was into multiple substance use, you know.
11:55So, he wrote this short tiny entry after, like, a long while in therapy.
12:00So, he wrote that, as a child, I loved my silky blanket.
12:04I took it wherever I went.
12:08I never slept without it.
12:10I grew up and blanket became smaller and smaller.
12:14Still, I refused to give it up because no one was there.
12:20I felt alone.
12:21When blanket became too small, too very small, I put to cannabis.
12:28Cannabis has been the best friend.
12:30It takes away everything.
12:33Tension, stress, anger, fear, excitement, and it puts me into a relaxed state.
12:41So, if we look at this very small tiny entry, so, you know, when I was reading it out and
12:47when you were hearing it, so, what would you, like, you know, make out from it?
12:53Any reactions to it?
12:56Yeah.
12:57Escapism.
12:58Escapism.
12:59Okay.
12:59Yeah.
13:01Parents and child, I mean, he was alone.
13:04Yeah.
13:05He was having a problem of loneliness when he was in childhood.
13:09Yeah.
13:10Your word is very relevant and we'll be coming to it when we come to the third part,
13:14how do we deal and heal with these numbers.
13:17See, actually, habit is a phenomenon that is very difficult to leave because when you remove
13:24H, a bit is left.
13:26True.
13:26When you remove A, a bit is left.
13:28When you remove B, it is left.
13:30True.
13:30True.
13:31Yeah.
13:31Yeah.
13:31So, as you said, what this person is essentially talking about, now we may have an attitude towards
13:38it that he's right, wrong, he's an escapist or not an escapist.
13:42I mean, let's really not go into it.
13:44Let's take it at the face value for the moment, you know, we have time to go into it.
13:48So, this person is essentially saying that there has been something very deep and chronic
13:55missing in his life from a very, very long time, you know, and he has been forming attachments,
14:00you know, so the first attachment was to a blanket and then the attachment was to cannabis.
14:06In between there were other attachments also, but for the same of like, you know, putting
14:10it in a very succinct form, I have edited that entire thing.
14:15So, that's what a compulsive drug use or addiction is, that when you start using it to
14:20take care of, you know, whatever is problematic inside.
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