In part 1 of this two-part article we discussed the hierarchy of needs as proposed by Abraham Maslow in the early 1940′s. In that theory he outlined six steps that need to be progressively attained and worked through to eventually attain happiness and spiritual fulfillment.
In this, the second part of our article, we will relate these different levels directly to the effects of being in active addiction and in addiction recovery, and take a look at the interrelationships. We will see how the use of drugs and alcohol interfere with the capability of living life with joy and happiness. To summarize briefly, the five levels were:
Level 1: Physiological needs
Level 2: Safety needs
Level 3: Love and belonging needs
Level 4: Esteem needs
Level 5: Self actualization needs
Level 6: Transcendence needs
Level 1 physiological needs are those that help a body to survive. These include having food, shelter and health. It is not a far stretch of the imagination at all to see how one in active addiction could suffer from poor health brought on by HIV, hepatitis, malnutrition and a host of other maladies common to drug and alcohol users. It is also not unusual for chronic users to have lost their shelter and become homeless.
Level 2 involves safety needs. I believe this level to be the most critical hindrance to attaining happiness that people in active addiction have in their lives. When I was studying as intern, my mentor told me that when people enter addiction treatment, no matter how they present on the surface, be at anger, guilt and shame, depressed, or anxious, the one thing that is a dead certainty, is that the underlying a motion is fear. Fear is the exact opposite of safety. For an addict this fear can be the fear of discovery, the fear of life, or even the fear of looking at themselves. Most addicts get and remain stuck in this cycle of fear and lack of safety.
Maslow says that level 3 involves love and belonging needs. This is the primary human need to love and be loved. There’s a simple fact of the matter here, and that is a person in active addiction is not a very lovable. Almost by definition, they are self-centered in the extreme, looking only to perpetuate their own use, and have little regard for anyone who cares about them who would interfere with their use and would do almost anything to continue to use. Ironically, people in active addiction feel isolated, alone, and have a great need to be loved. However they bring little to the table in terms of emotional presence or stability to form a successful relationship.
The next level has to do with the esteem needs. Almost all people active in addiction have difficulty with low self-esteem. Even those that still have worldly goods about them generally do not feel good about themselves. Why? I believe that it is because people in active addiction, though they cannot stop on their own, are really aware that they are damaging themselves and those around them, and this is in conflict with who were and who they want to be.
The next level that is blocked by addiction is self actualization. This is where happiness and self-fulfillment become possible. I think it is rather easy to see in light of the four previous levels how a person in active addiction cannot hope to get to this level where happiness occurs. They may not be meeting their physiological needs; they are stuck in an attitude of fear with low self-esteem and poor relationships. These conditions do not make for somebody who is happy and self a filled. Changes need to occur.
And finally we have self transcendence needs. These are also referred to as spiritual needs. It is beyond the scope of this article to get into a discussion of spirituality, but it is interesting to note that almost all forms of addiction treatment address the aspect of spirituality as a necessary component for treatment.
To sum things up, a person who turns to alcohol or drugs to fill the ‘hole in the soul’ is definitely looking in the wrong place. But their road to happiness and fulfillment is blocked on many levels. It has become apparent to me that the most primary level where movement is blocked is living life being grounded in fear. Read Part 1 Here
