The “speed” I speak of here is not an actual drug, though in some cases, amphetamines would apply. The speed I am referring to is our addiction to instant gratification, the NOW generation's need for immediate ecstasy. Technology is constantly being reinvented, almost on a daily basis, to provide the fastest, most efficient, and technologically savvied way to meet our communication needs. In a way, technology has become a substitute for our thumb.
When we were children, many of us were thumb suckers, while toting a blankey, or ragged stuffed animal around. At the very least, we were dependent on our mother's constant care of being cradled, changed, and fed. All of which were introductions to the experience of instant gratification to quell a crying, moody baby. Today, it is safe to say that addictive behavior is possible in the very things we have come to be passionate about, such as eating, sex, jogging, watching TV, exercise, and the latest technological endorsement for living a faster life. Even eating grandmother's soup can be an addictive pleasure. When these passions are used excessively as mood-calming activities, they can be similar though more subtle versions of alcohol or other drug addictions.
We are a generation of many more stressors, one of which is the constant need to do more and more, faster and faster, with resources at our disposal that create more to be accomplished in less time. Technology doesn't relieve of us our duties, it just creates more advantages to do more in less time. Our brains become transfixed on the “fix” of speed it receives on a daily basis. Road rage is a good example of being addicted to “speed,” when we become impatient at the stop light when the car in front of us doesn't move instantly on the green light. Another example might be when we become impatient while waiting in line at the grocers when a new cashier is in training. Or when we become agitated at a fast food restaurant when the sandwich we ordered is not readily available. Isn't that kind of impatience legit? After all it is a fast food restaurant, we shouldn't have to wait.
Products are also being marketed for their efficient speed. I remember my wife slaving over daily washing of baby diapers, making formula, sterilizing bottles and nipples. She was a couple generations too late to enjoy the disposable diaper with a guard against chaffing built right in and no need for those terrible rubber pants. She didn't have the instant gratification of putting in a plastic bottle liner to avoid the need for sterilization. Although, while it was a safety issue, we could just plop the kids in the back seat of a car and take off without the complexity of strapping our kids into a car seat. My point here is not to chastise the more efficient products that make our lives less complicated (in most cases), it is to show how we have come addicted to speed in the most innocuous ways.
More and more schools report ADHD among boys, who are prescribed “speed” to counter the effects of the disorder. Transitions are one of the more difficult aspects of having ADHD, following simple rules is another, while sitting still for those ungodly long block classes (touted as being able to teach more in less time) is a killer (and a matter of “speed”). Yet, in my work with these boys, I have often witnessed their astute ability to master the complex regimen of a computer game. These games seem to be geared to the speed with which their brains work, therefore, making the classroom experience painfully slow for them. In the classroom they are unable to get the instant jolt they receive from the speed of their Ritalin and the speed of their Nientendo games. Even the soft drinks our children drink are being filled with more sugar and more caffeine, to give the effects of speed.
And I just took a telephone call from a man I know (younger than I), whose music was blaring in the background. I jokingly asked him if he could hear his music and he responded, “Well, you know I've gotta get the brain resituated.” We both chuckled. It wasn't like it was the ecstasy of classical music syncopated with life's harmony, it was music that induced a more “speed-like” effect. I explained to him that his comment was timely since I was writing an article on the effects of speed on our lives. Certainly, music qualifies as an addiction in many instances when used in a compromisingly excessive way as a mood-calming element, even classical music. I'm not suggesting this young man is addicted to his music, although he could be addicted to rush it gives his brain.
Whatever substance or activity that tends to reduce pain has a soothing effect on our emotions. It is also possible that when our passions become mood-altering activities, endorphins are being released into the brain. This decreases the number of neurotransmitter molecules that are released into the synapse. When there is a need for instant gratification, behavior of any kind tends to be repeated, releasing the endorphins and enkephalins (opiates naturally produced by the body) that produce a salient alteration of our mood. In other words, when behaviors are used as tranquilizers, we can develop an insatiable craving for the very thing that sedates us, such as food, sex, work, exercise, alcohol and other drugs. Each of which have a physical and psychological impact on one's emotional state.
In my work with my clients, I have found using an approach of behavior modification and cognitive restructuring to be an effective way for most people to take charge of their various addictions. First, the client must have a burning desire to overcome that which holds him or her back from succeeding. Second, they must be committed to the process of change, growth, and renewal. Third, the client recognizes our work together is a coaching process, whereby, they take responsibility for their change and recognize they are the lead person in the development of their restructuring. The process is fundamentally a “moving forward” technique that essentially replaces the effects of the client's moodiness with a variety of healthy alternatives that are less dependant to change mood as they are to enhance one's life process. When clients take responsibility for their own destiny, they begin to live their lives not as victims of their circumstances, but as self-advocates for better living. They become advocates for their own destiny. And the need for “speed” becomes less important.