Addictions, Interconnections & Us
5 th Jan, 2006
Phase Five started the year 2006, pushing itself beyond the usual Phase Five profile to deal with the issue of ‘addiction' and the diverse aspects in our society that breeds addictions. We were invited by the Kapila Khandwala Teachers' Training college to help the teacher educators build their skills and knowledge base, required to carry out a preventive education programme towards addiction in schools .
While creating the programme for the teachers we realized a need to address addiction as a complex issue interwoven with different societal realities. To a large extent if we don't deal with this problem in totality, we can't change the situation. It was essential therefore to re-define addiction in a new light.
We looked at the double standard that we maintain as to the differentiation between drug or alcohol addiction while certain addictions of other types are almost acceptable. Addictions to work, money, exercise, food, relationships, television and many others that we fail to recognize as addiction even when they make a person dangerously dysfunctional in their relationships with themselves, with their families and society.
We considered various values and issues of our age that predispose people to addiction like:
- Disconnected Living: from people & from nature
- Aggressive Economics
- Conveyor-belt culture
- Meaningless Occupations
- Thoughtless Development
- No limits to growth
- Helplessness and drop-in-the-ocean syndrome
- Apathy
And hence demand from us the move towards acknowledging our involvement and responsibility in these spheres.
The learning process was the initiative of the teachers in that they discussed and debated questions related to the above concerns among themselves and presented their views and standpoints to the entire group. A range of ideas, beliefs, stereotypes, and innovative approaches emerged which were further opened up in a Q& A session which was emotional, exciting and informative. A deeper understanding of the theme evolved.
For Phase Five it was a platform that established our belief once more in the concept of interconnections between our actions and their long term consequences, which are often sidelined due to short term goals and fulfillments. Addiction seems like a personal problem triggered by a factor in the immediate environment of the addict but the river runs deep and we need to break boundaries and investigate a larger environment.