Addiction and Anxiety: Function and Types of Addiction

•  Function of Addictive Patterns

Another interesting similarity that addictive organizations and individuals share is that the addiction can take on several different patterns. Peter Steinglass, general editor of The Alcoholic Family, notes that there are several types of addictive patterns. These patterns serve various functions. The first and most important is self-preservation. Whether real or imagined, perceived danger or threat to one’s fragile, anxious world will trigger addictive reactions.

A second and related function of addictive response patterns is to manage internal anxiety levels. Highly irrational and reactive behaviors can be demonstrations of the release of addictive anxiety. Often this anxiety is targeted—usually unfairly—at specific persons.

Highly intense reactivity, abruptly ended communication, and other otherwise inexplicable relationship breakdowns can often be attributed to reactive responses characteristic of addictive types of anxiety. A very tragic consequence of these reactive episodes is self-sabotage. Individuals with addictive anxiety not only hurt those around them, but they also hurt—or destroy—themselves. Their highly anxious state prevents them from being able to regulate their negative behavior, frequently with negative results.

A third function of addictive responses is to maintain a façade of calmness; projecting a false sense of security gives the appearance of being in control. As soon as this façade is threatened, addictive individuals fear that others will discover their painful secret—that they really are fragile, vulnerable, fearful, and very anxious. Their addictive response enables them to maintain the façade without having to face their truth. Their addictive response also keeps them from learning how to have healthy relationships. This task consists of being able to learn three key elements of healthy relationships: the capacity to talk and share oneself; the capability to trust in oneself and others; and the ability to learn, share, and accept one’s true feelings.

•  Types of Addictive Patterns

Like alcoholics, some anxious churches demonstrate their anxiety in "binges." This happens when suddenly, out of the calm, the church becomes consumed by anxiety. These binges, or anxiety eruptions, often occur at regular intervals. In these churches, it seems that there is a natural inclination to demonstrate addiction-based behaviors (like jettisoning a pastor) on an almost predictable timetable. This was the case with the church described earlier, which was on a seven-year cycle; every seven years the congregation would experience an anxious "binge" resulting in the ouster of its pastor.

Other churches, like chronic alcoholics, cannot go through a single day without being anxious. They need to maintain an unhealthy addictive equilibrium by satisfying their urges every day. No matter what day you arrive, they’re sick—and often not willing to recover. In these churches, manifestations of chronic anxiety can be observed, the most obvious being intense emotional closeness or intense emotional distance.

Those responding with intense emotional closeness often demonstrate a type of gang-like enmeshment. In this scenario, both the extremely strong leader and the enmeshed followers are driven by anxiety typical of addictive individuals. When anxiety erupts, the response is usually instant warfare. Large groups of individuals are almost instantly energized with more than necessary force to remove the source of the threat. Many conflicts, especially more extreme ones, are of this nature.¹⁴

Those whose anxious response is characterized by emotional distance tend to avoid interaction with the source(s) of anxiety at all costs. On the surface they may appear friendly, but this friendliness often masks an inability to appropriately confront wrong, hold others accountable, and otherwise engage in healthy relationships. These congregations offer unhealthy excesses of "trust." This false trust results either in (1) minimal or virtually nonexistent procedures, guidelines, and policies for appropriate organizational accountability, or (2) excessive development and enforcement of policies and guidelines. Either extreme mitigates against healthy flexibility, reinforces unhealthy control, and provides a framework to ensure that certain predictable patterns will continue to reoccur ad nauseum.

These churches are doomed to remain vision-less, ineffective, and passive. Their only hope is that they, like the enmeshed group above, learn healthy relationship skills. In addition to learning how to talk, trust, and feel, they need to learn anxiety management, boundaries, and how to maintain a healthy sense of self (so-called "self-differentiation") in groups.

14. Cf. Speed Leas’s Level IV and Level V Conflict.