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Very few of us can point our fingers at someone else and say, "He or she has an addiction, and I don't.   (By addiction, we are referring to out-of-control behavior.)   Can we be honest for a moment?   We are all blessed and cursed with compulsive behavior.  

Natural Compulsions:   Nature gives us compulsive behaviors that are survival mechanisms.   Some of our most destructive behaviors are functions of our nature taken to excess.   Two of the most common ways by which we create problems for ourselves with compulsive behavior are with food and sex.     

Learned Compulsions:   Some of our compulsive behaviors are habits that we learned.   The Addiction to Money and Profits is a learned addiction.    

The question for most of us is, "Can we avoid becoming at the affect of our compulsive behaviors?"   One of the ways to avoid damaging and/or destroying ourselves with out of  control behavior is to redirect the energy into positive behavior. 

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Because we cannot at this time cure an addict of his/her addiction our best chances are to teach people to channel their compulsive behavior in positive ways."   We already have some excellent examples of this.  

Alcoholics anonymous:   This program has been most successful for those who apply themselves to helping others stay sober.    

T. Harv Eker:    Multi-millionaire, author, lecturer and seminar leader T. Harv Eker gives us an example of how an individual can channel what, under most circumstances, would be considered an addiction to money.   He is no longer concerned about making money for himself.   He now spends his time and effort assisting others to become wealthy.  

Dr. Michael Madus:   Today Dr. Michael Madus is a full professor of thoracic surgery at the University of Minnesota.   This is a remarkable feat considering that he was a very bitter, angry, and depressed child in a dysfunctional home with an alcoholic mother and an alcoholic step father.   To escape from his home environment, he lived mostly on the streets where he and his buddies turned to drugs, and the thrill of engaging in crimes such as stealing cars.   He couldn't read, write or even add a column of numbers.   He was arrested 24 times.   Fortunately, as he approached adulthood and the prospect of being tried in court as an adult and sent to prison, he connected to a mentor who helped him turn his life around. 

He says that his life as a surgeon gives him the same internal feeling that he experienced as a child under very destructive conditions.   He says that surgery puts him in a high adrenaline environment, into risky activity, where life and death are real issues.  

Because of his remarkable turnaround, Dr. Madus was included in the documentary "Rethinking Happiness" hosted by Social Pshcyologist, Dan Gilbert of Harvard University in a series of documentaries called "This Emotional life."