Does drug abuse exist primarily in the mind of the abuser or is drug abuse society's problem? Somewhat of a philosophical question, agreed. Let's get right down into the reality of the matter and skip the pretense.
Drug Abusers Think Society Should Change To Fit Into Their Realities
To understand the boldness of this statement I will enlighten you on what is happening inside a drug abusers head. This may not be pretty, sorry if I use real life examples. But if you found your way to this article, you're ready for it.
How Drug Abusers See The World
They see the same trees, the same cars and the same family members who are upset or distressed by their addiction. But they also 'see' other things.
To continue this analogy of seeing things that aren't seen by everyone else, let's consider the mind as a collection of full picture and sound files in one's personal computer. This personal computer is ones' mind. The mind has millions of memories or files stored of past experience or conclusions or imaginations. All these files are stored in your mental computer.
What happens when drug abusers experience things they don't want to?
Here's the problem: Drugs dull perceptions. Drugs are essentially pain killers. Drugs kill mental, emotional and / or physical pain. That means something that is distressing a person can appear to reduce. The stress seems to go away a bit by the drugs dulling or hiding the experience from the person. They can't see or experience the discomfort as readily. Sometimes these discomforts come from the past. Remember the mind is made up of past experiences or memory pictures.
Drug abusers have been solving their problems by dulling out their abilities to see these problems. At times the problems right in front of them are unseen by a drug abuser. Other times issues from their past are blocked out.
Let's take a look at one way drug abusers dull their perception of the past with drugs and with other mental 'tricks'.
Drug abuse, including marijuana abuse, pharmaceutical abuse and alcohol abuse have one thing in common: Justification
As a drug rehab consultant, I hear more justification for drug abuse and use than most. Here are some rather common and even infamous justifications I've heard over the years.
Mental Justifications:
They don't understand
I just need one more hit, then it'll be OK
What's the big deal, it's just one time
This will fix things and I'll make it through for a while longer
Drug Abusers Are Running Away From Something, Aren't They?
Reactively, most people avoid pain. When the truth contains pain, the truth will be avoided.
Pain is also stored in the minds' memory pictures. When painful experience is re-triggered by life, the painful part also returns. Drug abusers instinctively avoid this pain. That's when justification is put to use by the abuser of drugs. Justification is a method of being right and avoiding the discomfort and pain of unpleasant memory.
The mind must be right. This is the minds' senior command - always be right. Not necessarily truthful, just right. A drug abuser is trying to create a world where they are right in avoiding reality, even if it kills them. That's why they continue to abuse drugs.
