is insomnia addictive?

civilizational Munchausen syndrome.

Everyone has a stress reaction. Even people who are extremely low in stress have stress reactions. All humans are capable of feeling stress, just as all humans are capable of feeling pain.

A person with no stress (negative affect) would very quickly be a psychopath or sociopath. This is because empathy is usually experienced as a form of stress. For example, you see a baby crying, and you become stressed. Empathy is a form of stress that allows us to feel the pain of others vicariously. Only someone without empathy can truly live a stress-free life — or a hermit in the woods who never interacts with other humans. But for most people, we have a sense of loneliness, which is the stress we experience from a lack of humans. Most of us prefer to have flawed and sometimes stressful relationships over total loneliness.

Everyone has a different stress reaction. Some people become sad, some people become angry, some people become depressed, some people become manic. I’ve had the opportunity to watch people become violently angry under stress, even when violence could not possibly improve the situation.

For example: you are driving on the road when a nail punctures your tire, making you late for an appointment. There’s no Uber or Taxi service in this area. This appointment is very important, and being late causes you stress. How do you react? Do you:

1. Start screaming, kicking the deflated tire, punching your car, throwing rocks at the car, ripping your clothing off, pounding your fists?

2. Lie down on the ground in the fetal position and cry?

3. Call a friend or family member on your phone and cry to them, even though they are far away and can’t help you?

4. Do you choose to cry in view of passing cars, or do you hide in the woods and cry alone? Do you want people to see you cry, or are you embarrassed?

5. Do you call 911 in a panic? “Hello, yes, I’m late for an appointment and uber isn’t responding — can you give me a ride? It’s an emergency!”

6. If you are a woman, do you lift up your shirt, exposing your breasts, in the hopes that someone will stop to give you a ride?

7. If you are a man, do you strip naked in a desperate attempt to catch people’s attention? Maybe a gay man will stop for you?

8. Do you get angry at passing cars, and start throwing rocks at them? “WHY WON’T YOU HELP ME?”

9. Do you stand in the middle of the road and attempt to get someone to stop?

10. If you possess a gun, do you go so far as to attempt to hijack a car?

All of these choices represent different extreme stress responses.

Some people have low levels of stress. That means that their stress responses are not visible or pronounced. For example, in this situation, they might calmly sit down and wait for a tow truck, and play a game on their phone. Some might lie down in the grass and listen to the cars pass. Some might pray to God. Some might laugh at their misfortune and remember that “when God closes one door, He opens another.”

However, at some point, every empathic human will have a stress response. Even sociopaths and psychopaths become stressed when they feel threatened or angry. But different people have radically different stress responses.

Or let’s consider cheating. Let’s say that your partner cheats on you, and you’ve just found out. How do you respond?

1. Attack your partner physically, to the point of killing them.

2. Cry hysterically.

3. Become erotically fixated on the idea of being cheated on; fetishize the act

4. Blame yourself for not being “good enough” and promise your partner that you will do better to satisfy their sexual needs. Try to negotiate changes in the relationship. Tell your partner, “I’m willing to do anything for you, just please don’t leave me!”

5. Shut down emotionally and stop speaking with your partner. Start a totally new life and avoid thinking about them. Compartmentalize that part of your life and try to move on by eliminating all traces of them.

Attacking a human being is generally not thought of as “a way of coping with stress,” but this is because “coping” is generally thought of as a “way to repress an outward, aggressive, or explosive response to stress.” In this way, coping is just one type of stress response, and there are many forms of coping.

In situations which are hopeless, it makes no sense to have an “outward, aggressive, explosive” response. For example, when your car’s tire bursts, attacking your car won’t make it work better. However, from the perspective of evolutionary biology, if a lion kills the cubs from another male, this act of infanticide will give its own offspring a genetic advantage. One of the reasons why domestic violence is so common is because historically violence was one of the easiest techniques of conflict resolution. “I am stronger, so I win.” Other forms of conflict resolution are much more sophisticated and often require more time, energy, and intelligence than violence.

This isn’t to advocate for violence, but to recognize that psychopathy is sometimes the most efficacious strategy for conflict resolution. If you’re dealing with a criminal swinging a knife at you, violence is the correct and logical answer. If instead of shooting the criminal, you run away, the $40k a year that will be spent on “rehabilitation” in a prison environment means that this money will not go toward programs to uplift children around the world. Because resources are limited, spending $1 million dollars over 25 years to keep someone in a cage is stealing the future of children who desperately need those resources, and who are much more deserving of them. Some of those deprived children will, as a result of neglect, go up to become criminals themselves. The cycle continues. There are no solutions, only trade-offs.

Conflict resolution is one form of stress resolution, because conflict is one form of stress. Coping is one form of stress resolution, and coping is usually not teleological but habitual. Coping generally doesn’t attack the problem itself, but attempts to manage the secondary emotions which result from the problem.

insomnia as an addiction.

Some people, when they feel stressed, take drugs. Many drugs are very effective at lowering stress. However, their effects are temporary. As a result, drug users become “addicted.”

Addiction is simply a state of dependency upon the stress-relieving effects of an action. People can become addicted to sex and anger. Depression is a kind of addiction to negative thoughts and beliefs, because depression acts as a protective behavior from other sources of stress, like anxiety and fear.

Insomnia could be a stress responses, or a coping response, or an addiction. Insomnia is often thought of as a biological response to blue light, as a result of screen use, or as a result of “overthinking.” However, many people spend their entire day on the computer and don’t struggle with insomnia. Similarly, many people overthink compulsively and neurotically, but they still don’t suffer from insomnia, and instead cope in other ways.

Insomnia is not a result of external factors of stress, but is a method for the externalization of internal stress. Insomnia is not the cause of stress; rather, it is an attempt to cope with stress. Like drugs, it is a coping mechanism which has nasty side effects. Insomnia is not the result of external factors, but a product of internal choices.

Choices become habits, habits form character.

When a coping mechanism becomes habitual, to the point of dependency, it becomes addictive. Insomnia is addictive through the same neurological process as any other behavioral addiction, like gambling or sex.

This is not to say that insomnia is enjoyable. Insomnia creates headaches, irritability, and it lowers cognitive functioning. A lack of good quality sleep every 16 hours results in lower levels of testosterone, slower recovery from injuries, decreased athletic performance, worse spatial intelligence and coordination, slower reaction time, less muscle growth from exercise, and premature aging. Sleep deprivation ages the muscles, bones, skin, and organs. People who don’t sleep make themselves less attractive. It worsens every health problem imaginable. Not sleeping for long enough can result in death.

But, drugs also do bad things. Drugs have “withdrawal symptoms,” which are often worse than insomnia symptoms. Drugs like opioids have a much higher fatality rate than insomnia. People can develop extreme dependencies on their addictive behaviors, and are willing to tolerate extreme side effects. Insomnia is no different.

Insomnia is a coping strategy for stress in a number of ways:

1. It artificially induces exhaustion and lowers general affect.

2. It suppresses cognitive activity, and with it, overthinking.

3. It temporarily slows down metabolic processes, specifically digestion, which reduces stress (similar to meditation).

4. It is often paired with other process addictions, like “doom scrolling,” drug use, or porn use.

Running to the point of exhaustion for 15 miles straight results in a strange “runner’s high.” When the body is pushed to the breaking point, it passes out of the uncanny valley of pain and enters a euphoric state. Insomnia also can induce a kind of “high.” It can even induce hallucinogenic states and paranoia, similar to psychoactive drugs.

I believe that pre-modern shamanic cultures artificially induced insomnia in order to take advantage of these properties. New military recruits have their sleep artificially constrained to create “group cohesion” or collective bonding with the unit and forge a common sense of identity. Insomnia, like other drugs, is not always bad, if it is viewed as part of a sacrificial ritual of the individual for higher gain. However, when it becomes habitual, it is harmful.

Insomnia can also be viewed as a form of self-punishment. Why do people cut themselves, or act in anti-social ways? Why do people procrastinate and self-sabotage? Why are people self-destructive? It may have to do with unconscious guilt. In this perspective, insomnia is a form of “self-spanking,” where pain is induced privately in order to feel “sufficiently punished” for some sort of fault.

For example, when a child’s parents divorce, children may internalize guilt over the separation and feel that it was somehow “their fault.” If this guilt is never resolved or forgiven, it may externalize in self-punishing behaviors.

People can feel guilty for all sorts of reasons. For example:

1. Not earning enough money;

2. Not making their parents proud;

3. Not having enough friends;

4. Not being sexually successful;

5. Not being fit, healthy, or athletic;

6. Not being physically attractive;

7. Not being accomplished, special, unique, or amazing.

Another theory of insomnia is that it could be induced by a state of constant paranoia or fear. This is especially obvious in the case of existential fear. Because sleep resembles death (the stillness and passive positioning of the motionless body, lack of consciousness, letting go of control, darkness), it can remind us of our mortality. People with existential fears of death or hell might avoid sleep because it reminds them of their mortality.

The guilt theory and fear theory can also be combined together: people who feel guilt might believe that they deserve to die, because this is the greatest punishment. Since the act of sleeping reminds them of death, it reminds them of their guilt, and this creates a cycle of stress which leads to insomnia or sleep avoidance.

how to fix insomnia?

I’ve presented some theories as to why insomnia can be modeled as a form of addiction. This isn’t necessarily accurate, because there are many different causes for insomnia. For example, the body may release insufficient amounts of melatonin. Perhaps insomnia is the result of a genetic defect or “chemical imbalance.”

Perhaps insomnia is caused by loneliness or a lack of companionship. Having a sleeping partner who can help externally regulate a sleep schedule can be helpful. This isn’t a solution for “incels,” who are actually “unroms.”

Incel colloquially means a misogynist who hates women and refuses to hire a prostitute. “Unroms” (short for unable-to-romanticize) want a romantic partner, but are unable to for whatever reason. Some unroms may even be able to hook up with girls on Tinder, but struggle with the emotional vulnerability needed to commit to a relationship. It’s time that we have some sympathy for these sex-addicted, soul-tortured, dark-triad chads.

If insomniacs hate themselves because they feel guilty for something that happened in the past, or they feel guilty over their lack of accomplishment and low self-image, then this means that insomniacs are going to struggle with attracting women. Women are generally not attracted to people who appear guilty and self-hating. Even if a romantic partner would help regulate insomniac behavior, it’s not a solution that is available to “unroms.” Additionally, some people are in long-distance relationships, and are unable to be physically present with their partner.

Behavioral insomnia (as opposed to genetic or neurochemical insomnia) is a specific coping strategy which is employed for many diverse sources of stress:

• Fired from your job? Don’t sleep.

• Girlfriend broke up with you? Don’t sleep.

• Poor? Don’t sleep.

• Chronic health issue? Don’t sleep.

• Avoiding or procrastinating a deadline? Don’t sleep.

• Afraid of the future? Don’t sleep.

Of course, insomnia doesn’t solve any of these issues, and the sense of exhaustion-induced stress-relief it provides is temporary and double-edged. Insomnia can be treated like any form of addiction: identify the root causes and address them at their point of origin. Treating the symptoms as they express in the form of insomnia is less effective.

How does an insomniac solve problems of existential fear and guilt? How does an insomniac deal with stress, pain, and the suffering of life? These aren’t just questions for insomniacs, but for all sorts of people: people with chronic depression, those with anger issues, and those with other forms of addiction. Therefore, the solutions to insomnia are going to sound very similar and have much in parallel with treatments for other kinds of addictions.

It may be that everyone is entirely unique, and treatment plans must be individualized rather than generalized. It’s also possible that psychology, as a field, is a total failure, since mental illness seems to be increasing even as psychology becomes wealthier and more authoritative.

Medical science has demonstrable benefits, and has increased our lifespans. Psychological science, on the other hand, has not proven, at the level of society as a whole, that it has any positive effect. Maybe it solves some problems, but maybe it makes others worse, and the net effect is negative.

Now, this might just be because we are more aggressively diagnosing and identifying illnesses. However, this could also be a form of “civilizational Munchausen syndrome.” Instead of ignoring problems (which is a legitimate coping strategy), we hyperfocus and hyper-fixate on them, making them worse. In this way, modern psychology has created a generation of wounded narcissists who spend all their time making excuses rather than pushing through problems.

It’s not clear that obsessing over mental health, or being aware of mental health, is actually leading to better mental health outcomes.

just go to church bro.

One of the problems with “just go to church” is that it denies the social context integral to traditional religion. Outside of brief periods of religious revolution, religion has never been a choice. 99% percent of people do not “choose” to be Christian, Muslim, or Buddhist. They are simply raised that way. Telling people to “just go back to church” doesn’t make sense for people who weren’t raised in church.

Church, historically, gave people mental stability and helped people avoid or recover from addiction. However, it’s difficult to separate the effects of church from the effects of community. When church becomes a separate thing from the community at large, because the community at large has disappeared, it’s not clear that church has a magical ability to confer benefits through divine or spiritual power. Rather, it’s the individual placebo effect, the nostalgia for childhood, the pattern of thought ingrained by upbringing which gives church its power. Without this, you might as well be trying to seduce a lesbian with a lumberjack. Church only works because the parishioners believe in it. It’s the power of belief that makes church effective, not the building or the structure itself.

People are free to prove me wrong by picking up a Bible and joining a church. But it’s difficult to “fake it till you make it” and force religious belief where none exists. This is especially true when there is a conflict between K-12 education (belief in women’s rights, the scientific method, or evolution) and church doctrine.

Telling someone to “just join a community” is like saying “just get a girlfriend.” Easier said than done; and it’s probably easier to form a romantic relationship with a single person than to form a communal relationship with a collective.

This isn’t to dissuade people from trying new things or exploring different options. However, forcing a non-believer into a church isn’t necessarily going to fix the internal problems that person has, because all of our data on the positive effects of church-going relies upon it being a voluntary behavior, not one cynically motivated by a desire for self-help. People go to church because they believe in God, not because they are cynical atheists who read a study. The placebo effect only works if you believe in the placebo.

Unless there is some extreme external force, like imprisonment or a natural disaster, most addicts persist in their addiction until they die or make an internal decision to change. It is true that some people find church or psychology to be helpful, but others see a therapist or go to church and persist in their problems. Some people are extremely self-aware of their mental illness, and never get better. It is not clear that thinking about these things leads to resolution or progress.

In fact, the solution is not thinking. Meditation is one of the best coping strategies for dealing with stress. It’s not about coming up with a plan to outsmart stress, but rather, limiting affect by observing thoughts themselves and disengaging with them. Forms of prayer may also act as a meditative process.