Tag: Addiction

In about 11 months, I celebrate my 20th anniversary of being tobacco free. In the first 5 years of that, it was a fight to stay off the nicotine, and the body and mind played tricks to try and get me puffing again. Stress, the after dinner reach for a pack, drive time, all of those things I thought of as pleasurable for so long, reached up from the depths often, in order to regain its hold over me.  Its hold from a time when I was its slave, and it was my benevolent master.

As long as I fed it, the habit made me relax for a time, and I was allowed to live in my skin.

Some folks have compared tobacco addiction to that of heroin, or other narcotics.  Others, to its oft used partner, alcohol.  Though I have never experienced the withdrawal effects of those, I believe I understand them as a result of having had been a smoker for well over a decade.  The 'habit' was more than that.  It was an unchangeable lifestyle; a daily thing that demanded my attention, or the consequences would be hellish.

There is a drug that is worse however.

And it won't be your body or mind reminding you how bad its going to be without it.  It will be active little monsters who also get a high from it, and want you hooked for as long as it takes for THEM to live THEIR lives.

Nancy's "just say no" theme was used to encourage our young minds full of mush to abstain when offered that chance to get high.  Even if the pusher was offering it free, at least at first.  "Your brain on drugs" commercials soon followed, pointing out the scrambled senses you will endure upon taking such things that promote dependence on controlled substances and the effects of your addiction on family and friends with the later occurring "friends don't let friends use drugs" campaign.

It seems some folks recognized the dangers of addiction, and used media and the first lady's profile to advance that such things like addiction are bad.  But now, it has apparently flipped, with Obama playing the pusherman.

What surprises me is that one of our state senators, who by many acts has tried to properly fight addictive drugs, might have missed the addiction he might serve personally to the people in Michigan.  Michigan State Senator Jim Marleau seemingly capitulating to an unconstitutional role that the federal government would force on the state's citizenry, appears to be ready to promise our resources in a way that will keep us addicted to federal handouts and mandates into eternity.

While it seems that no one "forces" the patrons of this business to sample its wares, the "hook" in the ingredients and the savaging of bank accounts and savings that result from the ingestion of its drug keeps them coming back for more.  The never ending cycle once started is near impossible to cure. Ultimately it is quite unavoidable for some.

Consider the consequence..  Take the drug once addicted, and live a relatively benign existence, or refuse the drug and take your chances with a suffering that is both uncomfortable, and potentially deadly. The very worst part of the entire process of habitual obsession and consumption, is that the entire time the user should know it is not natural, and not indigenous to our society, either culturally or otherwise.