Pharmacological Slavery

Our goal then should not be to never make mistakes. On the contrary, our goal should be to always make new mistakes (i.e., never make the same mistake twice). This means that each new day provides us the opportunity to ‘Grow Spiritually’…. To take full advantage of this opportunity, we cannot afford to let our sense of pride, or our arrogance, or our sense of hopelessness and helplessness, prevent us from listening to our heart. We must ‘eavesdrop’ on our conscience—lest we will indubitably drown in our own apathy; while our actions and thoughts will become vapid, effete, inert and repetitious…..Just as perfecting any desirable skill takes practice, so too does perfecting any undesirable skill…..The bottom line is that people get really good at whatever they do (whether it is ‘good’ or ‘bad’) through practice and experience. This most certainly applies to drug addicts: We get ‘really good’ at being addicts: We become ‘consummate professionals’. After all, active addiction is a fulltime occupation—we become ‘combatants’ in the “War on Drugs”. There are two sides to this “War”. There is the ‘War out There’: The enemy then becomes law enforcement personnel, drug dealers, thieves, con artists, other addicts, charlatans, non-addicts, our bosses, our families, our friends and society at large. Then there is the ‘War Inside of Us’: This phase of the “War” is like being a soldier wherein we are our own worst enemy: we are at ‘War with Ourselves’. And like any war, our [two-sided] “War on Drugs” is a 24/7/365 stint of duty (and 366 during leap year!).   Unlike other wars however, your ‘tour of duty’ ends the moment you decide to become a ‘Conscientious Objector’… The beauty of this decision is that you are then freed from the ‘brig’ (or ‘Pharmacological Prison’) as opposed to being ‘sentenced’ to it! What we need to learn then, are the techniques to prevent ourselves from ‘reenlisting’; as it is a “War” that cannot be won: There are no victors, only victims…If feasible however, we need to seek forgiveness where possible—we need to make amends to others. Given that this is not always possible, we must at least ensure that we do not harm anyone else in the future.   We cannot right all our wrongs: no one can…Likewise; we must learn to trust ourselves—as well as others. This requires that we become ‘in tune’ with our feelings. Most of us knew in our active addiction that what we were doing was wrong, yet we were unsuccessful in our attempts to change our behavior. Now it is up to us to truly listen to ourselves—in short, to trust ourselves. If we now expect others to trust us, we must extend ourselves and them the same courtesy…Relapses (or ‘Runs’ as some would say) are analogous to hurricanes: The period of active addiction is the hurricane: Stopping the consumption of drugs is parallel to when the storm ends. Sure, the hurricane has passed, but now you must deal with the tragedy and destruction left in its wake. One may be so discouraged as to simply give in and continue abusing drugs. But it then becomes important to ask oneself: Is another hurricane [relapse] really what is needed to pick up the pieces and mend the damages of the previous hurricane [‘Run’]? (Just ask the good folks in New Orleans!)