simco
Bluelight Crew
- Joined
- Aug 20, 2014
- Messages
- 2,246
this is an awesome thread. so much interesting stuff.
thought i'd throw one thing into the mix. i think the extent to which you can be a casual user after addiction has a lot to do with what led you to addiction in the first place. In the 1970s there was a study on heroin addiction. The researchers looked at two populations: soldiers who got addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War vs. people who got addicted stateside, during the course of their day-to-day lives. (There's some nice info on the study here http://www.rkp.wustl.edu/VESlit/RobinsAddiction1993.pdf). the interesting part is what they found: the stateside addicts struggled and struggled to control their using. on the other hand, when GI's got back to the US, most of them went back to their civilian lives, leaving the dope habit back in the jungle. the usual takeaway from the study is that both of these populations were using heroin to self-medicate. but they were medicating different problems. the soldiers largely reported starting the drugs to reduce the stress of war. the junkies back home had started for some reason that, presumably, was implicated in their daily lives.
all this is to say, as i've struggled (for months now) with an on-again off-again dope habit, i've really come to believe that most of us are using addiction to some personal/psychological end. what that underlying problem is must, i think, have a lot to do with what life after addiction looks like.
thought i'd throw one thing into the mix. i think the extent to which you can be a casual user after addiction has a lot to do with what led you to addiction in the first place. In the 1970s there was a study on heroin addiction. The researchers looked at two populations: soldiers who got addicted to heroin during the Vietnam War vs. people who got addicted stateside, during the course of their day-to-day lives. (There's some nice info on the study here http://www.rkp.wustl.edu/VESlit/RobinsAddiction1993.pdf). the interesting part is what they found: the stateside addicts struggled and struggled to control their using. on the other hand, when GI's got back to the US, most of them went back to their civilian lives, leaving the dope habit back in the jungle. the usual takeaway from the study is that both of these populations were using heroin to self-medicate. but they were medicating different problems. the soldiers largely reported starting the drugs to reduce the stress of war. the junkies back home had started for some reason that, presumably, was implicated in their daily lives.
all this is to say, as i've struggled (for months now) with an on-again off-again dope habit, i've really come to believe that most of us are using addiction to some personal/psychological end. what that underlying problem is must, i think, have a lot to do with what life after addiction looks like.