Hi Everyone,
The answer to the question in today’s blog title might surprise you. This is what I mean.
For anyone who doesn’t know me, I am what people call the curious type. I like to question things and challenge what the majority of the population thinks. One thing that I have questioned lately is the lives of those of us who do and do not use drugs. Again for anyone who doesn’t know me, not only am I drug free and haven’t so much as smoked a joint in over 27 plus years, drugs were never my thing. The only reason drug use is on my radar is because I live in Toronto and it is said to have an opioid crisis.
The majority of people who aren’t drug users, abusers or addicts are of the belief that life is harder for people who do drugs. That may be true for some. In my experience, however, and from the experience of the people I have asked, life is harder when people aren’t on drugs. Just so everyone knows, I spoke to several former drug addicts and one addict. All of them told me that life is harder for people, including them, when they are clean, or off drugs. You read that correctly, life is harder for people when they are clean, drug free.
An obivous reason for this is that when they are drug free or clean they have to deal with their life. And let’s face it, life is not always great or good. Life is life. It is filled with the past memories and present problems. Both of which can be difficult to navigate on a good day. People who use or abuse drugs do so to avoid, not think of the negatives of their life. I get that. There are some things in my life that I want to avoid, not think of too. But here is the thing, the longer I avoid or not think of the negatives the worse they and my life can get.
Being drug free means you have to feel all of the emotions you don’t want to feel. Like anger, sadness, self-pity, self-hatred while you struggle to deal with all of the people and things in your daily life and your memories. When people are on or using drugs they go from feeling shitty about themselves to feeling enthusiastic. Enthusiasm is the highest form of happiness. Being on drugs is like going from 0-100 in a less than 10 seconds! It’s like cutting out the middle men of emotions. All of the crappy memories and the crap that people have and can dump on you are gone.
If that sounds great let me remind you that the “fix” gets shorter all of the time while the high always needs to get higher. Being on drugs erases the negatives until you come down and you recoginize that the negatives have increased. Instead of repairing oneself and relationships people who use drugs cause themselves and the people they claim to love more damage. That cycle can repeat itself for generations causing what is called generational trauma.
Escaping life does not have to include drugs. Watch a movie, read a book, go for a walk, cook a new recipe, journal or volunteer. Get out of your head. As several former addicts have told me, “Doing drugs is its own hell.” My response to them was, “Yea but people choose to do drugs.” Because it is a choice.
Simply put, some of the things that happen to us are just life. I know that I am not the only one who wakes up some mornings thinking, “My life is not perfect.” I, like so many other people, keep at it. Life may be harder off drugs, but it is a hell of lot harder if you have ever used drugs.
Thank you for reading, A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
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