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Catholic Detachment and the Science of Addiction

Catholic Detachment and the Science of Addiction

Last updated on: January 3, 2024 at 12:02 pm by Jennifer Fitz

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Catholic Detachment and the Science of Addiction 2024-01-03T12:02:38-05:00 Jennifer Fitz

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As I’m thinking through the Magnify 90 spiritual disciplines, what stands out is how tightly they are aligned with the types of addictions women are commonly prone to, and their corrective antidotes (stronger relationships, for example).

I don’t think the Catholic concept of attachment and detachment can be boiled down to addictions-and-that’s-it, but it is certainly a reasonable starting place.

Here are a couple podcasts from Huberman Lab to shed light on the science behind parts of the Mag 90 plan (embedded videos are captioned, btw):

Dr. Robert Lustig: How Sugar & Processed Foods Impact Your Health This is a huge tour through a pile of nutrition-related topics, and it rolls fast. If you aren’t familiar with all the concepts, it’ll firehose you. But it’s a fantastic overview of the state of the science.

Cutting to the chase: I was already on board with the no-sugar-no-alcohol part of Mag 90, because those were already health goals I try to hit, and I was totally game for something to kick me firmly into 100% adherence. The podcast helped solidify and clarify that for me.

Dr. Anna Lembke: Understanding & Treating Addiction If you click the timestamps tab, you can cut ahead to the portion on social media and the importance of phone-free, real-life relationships. But then, reaching back into the general dopamine-fix paradigm of addictions earlier in the discussion, one of the things I’m thinking about is: How do I make sure my Mag 90 time isn’t just a journey of discovering other, different, ways to get that hit?

Christian detachment, of course, goes much deeper than just shaking off the tendency to reach for Twitter the moment I’m bored. For example there’s detachment from material goods generally — a spirit of holy poverty, solidarity, and generosity — all that Gospel stuff I so easily spiritualize away and hope Jesus is giving me a First World Problems Pass.*

A spirit of detachment also applies to not just physical possessions but everything we tend, in practice, to treat as more important than complete love of God. It’s a long list.

So in the week ahead this is what I am thinking about: How do I make the most of this time of intentionally pulling back from some of the things that have too much of a grip on me?

How do I use it as a chance to reorder my life (and in the process rewire my brain a little)?

And what does my life, reordered, look like?

What is my actual life, not the mythical, fantasy saint haunting my imagination, but the actual me in the actual time and place and constraints and gifts with which I live?

*Jesus alludes to quite the opposite.

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