As a therapist of people in distress, I have been frequently exposed to the harsh reality of addicts (substance abusers), their circumstances and their families. Their pain and suffering has deeply troubled me. The overwhelming anguish and helplessness of good and well-intended parents, spouses and children has as a result, become clearly evident to me.
Why has this wave of addiction to substances increased as greatly as it has, only to impact our world with fearsome long term consequences when it not only costs a fortune and serves only to wreck the lives of the addict and its closest loved ones? How does this shocking epidemic breed and always expand when in fact, it should reduce by its very negative reality? We are all aware of the hazards of drug addiction, are we not? Everything about addiction is unconstructive for those of us who are not addicts. The recorded ‘benefits’ for the addict do not impress us and do not make any sense to the non-addicted population. Yet, for the addict, addiction’s apparent advantage is to launch one of the most powerful and destructive bonds that replace and defy all logic.
Addiction grows like a virus within the addict while it marches imposingly into our cities and coerces our children, stealing their lives and damaging their families. The addict’s meaningful lifestyle, social interactions and career are usually diminished with addiction. The addict’s values, morals and ethics disappear from its world. Unfamiliar mental states, altered perceptions, alien personas and new chemically linked relationships develop for the addict in lieu of all else, ensuring the set up of a ’safe’ crowd for a constant supply of the addictive chemical. Hence, the addictive persona arrives uninvited. This persona, by its sheer intensity to control all else, rules the addict’s natural personality, IQ and EQ. Continue reading ‘The Power of Addiction’ »