Understanding the ISM: The Core of Addiction

Addiction is only a symptom of a deeper disease. You can remove the substance—whether alcohol, drugs, gambling, or any compulsive behavior—but what remains is the "ism" at the heart of this condition. The ism is why we used in the first place, what drove us to the dark corners of our minds, and what will rapidly pull us back into active addiction if left unaddressed in recovery. The disease—the 'ism' of addiction—encompasses far more than the act of using. The ism is what the successful recovering person addresses daily in their ongoing reprieve from addiction throughout their journey of recovery.

Breaking Down the Disease

Alcoholism is composed of two fundamental elements: Alcohol and the ISM.

The Substance or Behavior – The external thing that addicts use: alcohol, drugs, food, sex, gambling, shopping, work, relationships, or any compulsive behavior that provides temporary relief.

The ISM – The underlying psychological, emotional, and spiritual conditions that drive addictive behavior. These isms exist on a spectrum in all people to varying degrees. Specifically, the isms represent our attempts to make life bearable, serving as mechanisms for "interpersonal control and coping." We all need thinking patterns and behaviors to navigate daily life. Most people manage reasonably well, while the alcoholic struggles and spirals downward.

Defining the ISM

What exactly is this “ism” component of alcoholism? Helpful acronyms for ISM include:

  • I, Self, Me – The overwhelming focus on self

  • I Sponsor Myself – The refusal to accept help or guidance

  • Internal Spiritual Malady – The deep soul-sickness at the core

  • Incredibly Short Memory – Forgetting consequences and lessons learned

  • InSide Me – The internal war and self-obsession

  • I Sabotage Myself – The self-defeating patterns we repeat

  • Insane Survival Mechanisms – The twisted coping strategies we develop

In essence, the "ism" centers on the addict and their maladaptive methods of coping with life's challenges. This ism manifests as extreme self-centeredness—a survival mechanism gone haywire. The ism involves far more than the act of using substances or engaging in compulsive behaviors.

In short, the “ism” is all about the alcoholic and how they cope with the many things encountered in life. This “ism” is one of self-centeredness taken to the extreme. The “ism” involves more than the act of drinking. Feelings of inadequacy, isolation, restlessness, anxiety, depression, fear, and guilt are just a few of the “isms” that the alcoholic wrestles with daily. Other “isms” rear their ugly head showing overreaction or just reacting, blaming others, and defending yourself from perceived threats and fears. All of these feelings are internalized and exposed in twisted forms of alcoholic reality to friends and family and treated with alcohol by the alcoholic still suffering from the disease of alcoholism.

The Core Challenge

No matter what, when you remove the substance or compulsive behavior, the underlying traits and characteristics remain intact. The “ism” is why we used. The “ism” must be addressed directly and honestly. We need an entirely new way of living.

Most addicts, for various reasons rooted in biology, psychology, trauma, and environment, cannot cope with life's inevitable difficulties without their substance or behavior of choice. This inability to cope with life on life's terms without an external solution is the “ism” component. Generally, most addicts are egotistical yet insecure, self-centered yet self-loathing. Many are emotionally immature relative to their chronological age. Fundamentally, they use substances or behaviors to "self-medicate"—to manufacture their own coping mechanism for life's pain, discomfort, and challenges.

To stop using is never easy, but if an addict is going to achieve lasting recovery and lead a relatively "normal" life, they must understand that recovery is fundamentally about changing how they engage with life and all its problems. Healing the "ism" side of addiction is more difficult than stopping the substance or behavior, but it must be accomplished successfully for the addict to live a good, substance-free existence.

Fear: The Master ISM

One of the primary isms in addiction is fear itself. Recovery is largely about identifying and releasing fear. Fear produces most of our insane, self-destructive moments. Whenever a reality check is needed, we must pause and ask: "Is there fear driving what I'm doing or thinking right now?"

Common fear demons that drive addictive thinking include:

  • Fear of failure and not being good enough

  • Fear of loneliness and being alone with ourselves

  • Fear of intimacy ("In To Me I See"—being truly known)

  • Fear of risk and vulnerability

  • Fear of pain, both physical and emotional

  • Fear of abandonment and being left behind

  • Fear of rejection and not belonging

  • Fear of looking or sounding foolish

  • Fear of judgment—what someone might think

  • Fear of punishment or consequences

  • Fear of poverty and not having enough

  • Fear of being exploited or taken advantage of

  • Fear of missing opportunities

  • Fear of success and what it demands

  • Fear of change and the unknown

  • Fear of fear itself

  • Fear of letting go of fear (the familiar enemy)

Addiction Protection: The Defense System

Beyond the isms themselves, addicts develop sophisticated addiction protection thinking and behaviors—mental and behavioral patterns designed to preserve the addiction and prevent recovery. These protective mechanisms operate both consciously and unconsciously, creating elaborate defense systems that shield the addiction from examination or challenge.

Cognitive Distortions and Defenses

The mind constructs powerful cognitive barriers that distort reality and protect continued use. Denial and minimization allow us to tell ourselves "It's not that bad" or "I can handle it," dismissing evidence that contradicts our preferred narrative. We engage in rationalization, creating elaborate and seemingly logical justifications for using, building complex intellectual arguments for why this time is different or necessary. Through projection, we blame others for our problems and behaviors, deflecting responsibility and avoiding accountability by making everyone else the source of our struggles. Intellectualization becomes another refuge—we analyze endlessly rather than feeling and acting, staying safely in our heads where we can theorize about change without actually changing. Selective memory serves the addiction well, allowing us to vividly remember the "good times" while conveniently forgetting the consequences, arrests, humiliations, and pain. We protect our using through comparison, reassuring ourselves that "I'm not as bad as that person," measuring ourselves against those further along in their disease rather than against health. We claim uniqueness, insisting that "My situation is different; normal rules don't apply," exempting ourselves from the realities others face. Perhaps most dangerous is terminal uniqueness—the deep belief that we are special exceptions to recovery principles, that somehow the laws of addiction don't fully apply to us, that we can find our own way where countless others have failed.

Behavioral Protection Mechanisms

These cognitive distortions manifest in concrete behaviors that actively protect the addiction. We engage in isolating, systematically pulling away from support and accountability, cutting off those who might see through our denial or challenge our using. People-pleasing becomes a strategy for avoiding honest confrontation and feedback—we become chameleons, telling everyone what they want to hear so no one looks too closely at what we're actually doing. Some of us master conflict creation, generating chaos and drama to justify using, creating situations where we can claim "Anyone would use under these circumstances." We pursue geographical cures, believing that a change of location will solve the problem, that moving to a new city, state, or job will magically resolve what is actually an internal condition. Many fall into relationship hopping, using romantic relationships as distraction or replacement addiction, jumping from one intense connection to another to avoid facing ourselves. We adopt a victim mentality, positioning ourselves as powerless or wronged, collecting evidence of how life has treated us unfairly to justify why we deserve to use or why recovery is impossible for us. Others swing to the opposite extreme through grandiosity, inflating our importance to avoid vulnerability, presenting ourselves as having everything under control when internally we're falling apart. Perfectionism serves the addiction beautifully—we set impossible standards for ourselves or for what recovery should look like, then use our inevitable failure as justification for giving up or continuing to use. Procrastination allows us to delay recovery actions while claiming intention, always planning to quit "next week" or "after this event" or "when things settle down." Finally, we engage in half-measures, participating in recovery superficially without real commitment, going through motions while keeping one foot firmly planted in our addiction.

Self-Awareness: The Path Forward

With growing self-awareness of our isms, fears, and protection mechanisms, we can recognize when we're thinking or acting from a place of fear, self-centeredness, or addiction-protection. If we identify these patterns as they arise—or better yet, just before we act on them—we can choose differently. We can let go of the fear, release the defense, and remain in the calm, centered space of recovery.

For lasting recovery, this "check-up from the neck up" must become our first response to fear-producing or triggering situations. When fear overwhelms us, when we miss the warning signs and act from our isms, when we employ our addiction protection mechanisms, our lives quickly become unmanageable again.

The Daily Work

Recovery requires:

  • Rigorous honesty about our isms and protection mechanisms

  • Willingness to examine our thinking and behavior patterns

  • Humility to accept help and guidance from others

  • Action to practice new coping skills consistently

  • Connection with others in recovery for support and accountability

  • Spiritual practice to address the internal malady

  • Self-compassion as we learn and occasionally stumble

  • Patience with the gradual process of transformation

The “ism” doesn't disappear—it's managed daily through conscious awareness, healthy coping mechanisms, connection with others, and spiritual growth. Recovery isn't about perfection; it's about progress, one day at a time, addressing the real issues that drove us to seek escape in the first place. When we address the ism rather than just removing the substance or behavior, we don't just stop using—we start living.