Drugs

Published on Addictions.

All forms of dependence represent an escape. It is an escape which started by being a quest. What actually happens is that the person literally projects the objective of his search on something he found along the way and decided his quest is over. He is pleased with what he has found. He remains trapped in fear and convenience. Anything can cause dependence: alcohol, drugs, sex, tobacco, gambling, food (bulimia, anorexia),, but also, and even to a larger extent, money, power, rules, fame, influence, knowledge, entertainment, isolation, asceticism, cult, tradition, ancestral beliefs, religion…

The addicted person is the one who stops halfway through his quest. For this reason, he feels empty. And because he feels empty, he needs to fill the void with external substances which confer him the illusion of being balanced.

Basically, we could say that in all humanity, we are all dependents. The difference between the sick dependent and the healthy consumer lies in the quality of self observation, that is, in the awareness of one self, of one’s feelings and path. Dependence is a type of attachment. The non-addicted, non-sick consumer is the one who is aware of his attachments and does not attempt to fill up with exogenous substances, preferring to look inwards, to himself and his unbalances.

Drug consumption is always a manifestation of a quest for love. The person’s life is void of meaning. The person is extremely deprived.

Drugs are a catalyst of a search process which stopped halfway. In fact, the drug addict wants concrete results, fast. He has a problem with the notion of time and the notion of now. He finds it difficult to live the present. It is true that not living the present moment causes anguish to anyone. The drug addict puts an end to that anguish very rapidly, by jumping to a different level and creating the illusion he achieved the result he was craving to achieve.

With these people, it is important to ask them about their relationship (present or past) with the Father, or with the symbol of man, the masculine model they know. And, also, about their relationship with the Mother, if the leading role at home was played by the Mother and not the Father.

All drugs consumed as a form of addiction are like walking canes.

Hashish soothes the person and confers him the desired effect of serenity almost immediately. “Cool!” The effect has been solved. But not the cause.

Cocaine is a stimulant, such as the well known medical drugs that contain amphetamines, only with worse consequences. It has the opposite effect of hashish. It increases performance artificially and may contribute to a faster attainment of material successes (again, here we have the quenched desire for a speedy result). Given that one arrives to the goal faster, anxiety diminishes. However, the problem with the inability to live the present moment remains. For this reason, consumption continues.

As for heroine, it enables one to push aside, or even put behind, the problems of the world. It provokes alienation. And, here again, with immediate results. It may even be on a permanent basis (and always rapidly), through death. Hallucinogenic drugs, such as mushrooms, mescaline, LSD, acids, what some call psychedelic drugs, have a different purpose. They allow consumers to carry out transcending experiences at conscience level.

This way, they quickly change the world they live in, and access higher levels of conscience. The desire for fast results is solved . But when they land after the trip, they do not like the world they see at all, and they wish to get high again. Accordingly, consumption persists.

The well known ecstasy is a mixture of a stimulant and a hallucinogenic drug.

But it is very possible to reach transcendence through other means. The only snag is that the addict is in too big hurry. And drugs satiate his hurry. The result is immediate.

Whichever type of stupefacient one consumes chronically, that is, as an addiction, what the person always looks for is to fill the void inside him. This emptiness comes from two things which are interrelated: difficulty to live the present and difficulty to be patient.

For this reason, the drug addict finds it unbearable to live in a world that does not fulfil him, that is upside down and that needs to be changed rapidly.

© Copyright by Luís Martins Simões, developed by RUPEAL