This article is about how every individual has needs, and we recognize that there are many differences among individuals meeting those needs. In beginning, the three of us (the staff of Changed Life Ltd.) - Father Nyther, Darlene and I, however, have one common theme that makes us very much alike: servicing those that have addictions. We have decided that there are a set of commonalities of basic needs that people require access to fulfill life itself. How we think about or satisfy these are why this vehicle is important.

We believe at the heart of achieving a successful life is a paradoxical knot- We have more food, more clothes, more cars, bigger houses, more central heating, more foreign holidays, a shorter working week, nicer work and above all, better health. Yet we see that more people not happier but addicted to more types of stuff. Despite all the efforts of government, teachers, doctors, businessmen, human happiness has not improved and addictions are growing. So as we attempt to meet our own demand for happiness, - the question arises how are our attempts to meet these needs related to taking drugs and other forms of addiction?

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), an American psychologist, developed what has become known as a hierarchy of human needs. This hierarchy begins at a low level with very basic human needs that all of us must satisfy in order to exist; it peaks with a need that only some of us ever accomplish. This hierarchy is generally characterized in the following five categories.

1. Physiological needs such as food, drink, and oxygen.

2. Safety needs for protection and security, including things shelter, clothing, and confidence that one's physiological needs will continue to be met.

3. Belongingness and love needs, which require relationships with others, identification with groups, and affection.

4. Esteem needs, which include the need for self-respect, status, and prestige.

5. Self-actualization, which is the need to ''be all that you can be" -- to be able to develop oneself to one's full capacity.

Running throughout the stages of accomplishment is the overall theme of being happy. To that point we turn to the psychologist Martin Seligman and economist Richard Layard as exemplars. Their views are both involved in defining a new science focused on Happiness. Professor Seligman defines his new discipline as PP. His effort is built of three pillars:

1. The study of positive emotions

2. The study of positive traits, foremost among them the strengths and virtues, but also the "abilities" such as intelligence and athleticism.

3. The study of the positive institutions, such as democracy, strong families, and free inquiry, that support the virtues, which in turn support the positive emotions

Professor Layard, attempts to update Jeremy Bentham's the nineteenth century notion of society, the one where the citizens on average are happiest - utilitarian: "Greatest Happiness principle". The underlying theme here is that in the long run average of everyone - their satisfaction is the best policy. It is fundamentally egalitarian, because everybody's happiness is counted equally. He describes it has fundamentally humane; because it says that what matters ultimately is what people feel.

These needs are basically hierarchically arranged and they are also contextual and dynamic; that is, an individual must satisfy the needs at the lower levels before accomplishing or satisfying higher-level needs. Yet no level is reached that back sliding does that place. Then there is the notion of how the collective affects those efforts that the individual attempts.

Individual behavior is motivated in all its twist and turns by unmet needs at each level. Unfulfilled needs can lead to deficiencies in the individual and, at higher levels, result in what Maslow called meta pathologies such as alienation, apathy, and cynicism.

Maslow's hierarchy of needs is only one of several major theories that seek to explain motivation for behavior and growth of an individual. There are others, but we choose at this point to focus on the Maslow paradigm and its relationship to another hypothesis posited by Simeon Weil in her book "Waiting for God" (1951) where she explores her own religious life and analyze the individual's relation to God, the spiritual shortcomings of modern industrial society, and its horrors - that life needs both spiritual and economic features in order to thrive.

Imagine yourself when you were a youngster 4 to 10 years old. Every youngster is different and therefore likely to engage in a variety of activities to satisfy curiosity, to remain active, or to socialize with others. Think about some of the activities you engaged in for those purposes. Now take this one step further and try to think about some specific activities you engaged in that you think all your friends also engaged in. Now take a giant step forward and try to picture which activities you may have engaged in that perhaps every youngster who ever lived probably did also.

If you are stymied, try some examples. Have you ever spun yourself around until you became dizzy? Of course you have. Well, probably everyone else has also at one time or another. Have you ever threatened to hold your breath for a very long time? Probably! Have you ever fantasized about being somewhere else, or doing something that you will probably never do? It is very likely that you have done some fantasizing. These are all examples of activities that youngsters often engage in and very probably have been done by almost all youngsters who ever lived. Why do we do these things? What do they accomplish?

Think carefully about what these activities are. They are all means to alter consciousness. They take us out of our 'ordinary" consciousness to what Weil terms 'non ordinary" consciousness which is presumably pleasurable. We continue to engage in these activities because we ''enjoy" the results. Now imagine that this motivation or drive to experience this non ordinary consciousness was a basic need, as in Maslow's hierarchy. It seems possible, then, that children engage in certain specific activities to satisfy one of the basic needs for growth and maturation-the need to alter consciousness or to experience non ordinary consciousness.

As we grow older, spinning around until we become dizzy is less socially acceptable and holding one's breath for long periods of time seems to be deviant; therefore we look for more acceptable ways to satisfy the unmet need to alter consciousness. Some people succeed in experiencing non ordinary consciousness by engaging in risk-taking behavior, some of which seems socially acceptable (mountain climbing, shopping, skydiving, even meditating etc.) and others less socially acceptable (e.g. high-speed driving or playing any one of a wide variety of "chicken games", video games or even sex). Some people succeed by stretching their bodies to the limits of pain, endurance, or skill (such as training for and taking part in any one of many sports, some of which involve competition against others, some of which involve competition against oneself) or by studying ways to extend our senses through natural means (such as with meditation, yoga, or the martial arts). Some people succeed in altering consciousness by using drugs or viewing porn recreationally.

Let us summarize briefly at this point. There are many ways that human growth and development have been studied and explained. One of the most widely accepted paradigms used to explain motivation for certain behaviors and drives is that of Maslow (1976), who proposed that all individuals have sets of needs that must be met. These needs are arranged in a hierarchical structure, so that before higher-level needs can be addressed, the more basic needs must be satisfied. Before we can satisfy our needs for self-esteem, we must first make sure that our basic physiological needs for food and water, our safety needs, and our belongingness and love needs are satisfied.

Without placing it anywhere in Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Weil (1951) proposes that an additional need not identified by Maslow may be the need to experience non ordinary reality-to alter consciousness - through uniting with God. This need, like many other human needs, is satisfied in different ways because of individual differences among those seeking to satisfy this need. Some people satisfy this need by using drugs recreationally. Taking a drug is a relatively easy, rapid, and effective way to alter consciousness. It is therefore a widely accepted approach among many individuals. We must, however, carefully make an important point here. Drug taking is not a basic need. It is only one means by which some people satisfy what has been proposed as the basic need to alter consciousness.

Although Weil's view may be controversial, it does seem to explain reasonably why some people become obsessed is a form of addiction to an array of experiences, including drug taking. We believe that recreation is a legitimate reason to use any of a wide variety of obsessive behaviors to alter consciousness. Making a responsible decision to use a drug recreationally, however, is only the beginning point of our major responsibility, that is, to engage our addictions with responsibly and in a manner warranted in the particular situation.

What does this all mean for the staff of Changed Life?

First it means that all obsessive behavior is an outcome of some need that has being missed managed. This imposes on us the necessity to judge not the moral character of the patient but the application of sound principles of analysis. Secondly, it means that all experiences have the possibility of becoming obsessive or an addiction. Therefore, this knowledge dictates that our skills need to grow in complexity to meet the ever growing expression of these addictions. Lastly, that success in treating such conditions has to seen in management terms not abstinence or failure.