The Filtering Traits  

The Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Filter; Example - Psychoactives          Select the section that interests you.

A Note to Diana Collins Main Page   ← You are here Author's Note Preface Introduction The Big Picture Research Articles      Transcriptional Mechanisms of Drug Addiction      ... and others Commentaries      How Opioids Kill      ... and others Examples of Confronting Addictions:     # 1 - Food Addiction and the Holidays Multiple Filters in Play Issues Moving Forward

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Offered by David Apollo

Author's Note

This is version #2 of the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Ensemble.

In a previous chapter, the Reality Perception Personality Spectrum Ensemble, we discussed a Filter that, when deployed effectively, enables us to discern more or less credibly between what is Real and what is Unreal. Dialed up sufficiently, we are able to distinguish between the Real and the Unreal pretty well. Dialed down, we don't do well at all. Those with low enough Reality Perception Filter settings are judged to be schizophrenic, unable to credibly distinguish between the Real and the Unreal, or the Imaginary. Many of us are dialed by default somewhere in between, and do a good enough job of "understanding" what is "really" going on to be well tolerated among our sane acquaintances. Some of us are more "higher maintenance" than others.

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"What we want to see, where we want to be, is not always what is Real." - David Apollo

"It is our addictions that generate the BS." - David Apollo

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We are going to take a different approach in this chapter and focus on Habit Formation, which often can include the compulsion to repeat habituated behaviors that we have a hard time avoiding.

Thus, we will be discussing the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Filter. It is currently offered as is in order to get introductory information out to the ConserveLiberty audience for their review. Subsequent revisions may include additional material that support sections of this chapter more completely.

→ The Author's Note was last updated 28 Dec 2016 16:00 PST ←

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Preface

We start each Personality Spectrum Filter discussion by reminding the reader what ConserveLiberty means by a Personality Filter. ← Click there.

Now that the declaration that "our personality filters have an organic, genetic basis" is out of the way ... it is also important to keep in mind that since authors are endowed with their own foundational filters, these posts are always written from an unavoidable perspective and expression personality bias.

Finally, we continue to remind that ...

The biological and genetic basis underlying human personality is expected to be quite complex, with many component parts. By no means should it be construed or implied that the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Filter is the result of a single gene. Rather, an ensemble of biological parts are necessary to be expressed and put together just right so that a person's individual place on the Habit Formation Ensemble expression or phenotype scale is determined.

In fact, with regard to the Habit Formation Ensemble, or (when the ensemble components have drifted far enough away from the settings required in order to avoid Addiction) ... its probably a bit more clarifying to reiterate the statements above in a more declarative manner:

There is no single gene, or for that matter a single cause, that is causative of "Preference Towards or Away From Addiction" (or, compulsive repetition of habituated behavior) when it is sufficiently altered. Either by genetic variation, environmental influence, or random fluctuation resulting in recognizable clinical impact. Similarly, there is no single gene, or for that matter a single cause, that results in our ability to adequately control the choices we want to make when those differ from our instinctive urge to that which generates a "reward" response within our brains.

In other words, our own "free will", in one way or another, may be a little less free, or a bit more "predetermined" than we otherwise believe to be the case. And, when that understanding is made, it is usually us suspecting that it may be the "other person" who is not entirely in control of the choices they are making.

The Habit Formation Ensemble - depending on where our default "setting" is, renders one instinctively within a range anywhere from:

• quite prone to Very Strong Habit formation (very difficult if not impossible to break habits or "addictions"), if set near one extreme, to
• a tendency toward Moderate Habit formation tendencies (can or does form some very strong habits, but also fairly weak ones, depending on the specific types of things being exposed to (e.g. chemical, behavioral, and food choices)), to
• more likely to establish Weak Habits (relatively easy to change or eliminate based simply on a personal decision to do so,) if set near the other extreme.

We do develop habits. Habits for the things we are drawn to. (Or, perhaps we are drawn to those things for which we have developed a habit.) Some of us develop stronger habits or preferences or affinities for various things than others. Some find these habits difficult to change, or perhaps have "concluded" that they have no interest in changing those habits at all. Others are comfortable with their habits, but when presented with a compelling opportunity to change them, they may consider altering their habits, or changing course. Those who can or do change or break habits may see their potential adaptations as a challenge, or perhaps as a better way to go. They may see optimization. They may see variety. Change may be more compelling to some than the notion of sticking with a habit or a decision that otherwise is easy to keep going with.

The biological mechanism that we leverage to form habits, how strong those habits become, and how easy or difficult it may be for different individuals to change those habits is what this chapter will concern itself with. Thus, we will be exploring the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Filter.

And, we will find that this Filter is relevant not only to what many might consider to be Habit Formation, and perhaps Hobby Formation and continued participation with it, but also more clinically relevant to issues such as Addiction.

The Habit Formation Filter promises to elicit quite a bit of discomfort, objection, and amusement as it is described herein. We all have this Filter. We all have our default settings for it - whether we are or are not easily drawn into developing strong habits. We have our differing "preferences" for what "types" of things (e.g. foods, intoxicants, spending, sex) we like to engage with. And how we like to engage with them.

With regard to our "Habits" or "Preferences", we all see ourselves or others as "flexible (adaptable,)" or "preferential (obsessive.)"

The reality is that most people enjoy their particular outlook for engaging with the world. Most may experience their "enjoyment" differently. It's a Filter Difference thing. So goes the Habit Formation Personality Spectrum Ensemble.

While it is important to Conserve Liberty, at some point liberty may need to be restricted if the risk of unnecessary harm to others becomes too high.

→ The Preface was last updated 29 Dec 2016 13:15 PST ←

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Consider thoughtfully.

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