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Addiction Potentiation

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blight12

Bluelighter
Joined
Jan 28, 2012
Messages
1,628
After reading many stories of addiction to whatever drug i am wondering how big a part life and circumstance plays in to the addiction.

Some people have hard lives and im almost certain that this plays a big part in addiction when drugs become a way to escape from reality.

Personally I have been able to manage addiction (or at least i think i can) but i have a cushy life devoid of pain many others need to live with. I realised long ago not to judge others when it came to addiction as life and the need to escape it can play such a big role in sticking with your addictions.

Is this true or do you think its purely based on the drug or a "weak" or addictive personality or . I sure dont think so...
 
Agree

In fact ive noticed those with harsh life circumstances deal with addiction better due to having a stronger personality derived from struggles in life so far.
 
It's very subjective. You can't just go and say "People get addicted to drugs because they're trying to escape reality" and you can't say that addiction is due to a "weak" personality.
With that being said, I do believe there are addictive personalities, or people who become addicted to something easier than others/people who resist more than others. There are also stimulant and depressant people, someone addicted to opiates might not have much risk of becoming addicted to meth, and visa versa.
There are different levels of addiction, and you can't just lump everything into addiction. Dealing with addiction, well look, I just can't entertain this discussion. It's far too subjective to make such broad statements in my opinion.
 
This question perplexes me and always will. I come from a family of three siblings. We all abused drugs during the 70's. We did it for fun, to escape reality, to escape our problems and simply because that is what everyone we hung out with did, too. My sister and I just walked away from it at one point and my brother was ensnared in a twenty year addiction.

My two sons experimented with most of the same drugs. My older son has never had a problem. My younger son lost his life before the age of 21, addicted to MDVP as well as other things.

Why? What makes the difference? I know one thing that my son and my brother had in common and even the origins of this are a mystery to me. Both of them could very articulately describe a feeling of worthlessness that had been hidden deep inside for as long as they could remember. Both of them were cherished by their families, caring, smart, good looking, funny, socially accepted individuals and yet they still described feeling this giant hole in the center of their beings. My son used to say that he knew he had a beautiful soul, but as a human being he was "shit". My brother describes it as feeling like a fraud--no matter how much approval he gets from the outside world, inside he considers himself a total failure. Where does this come from and is it a determining factor in addiction? I am all questions, no answer. <3
 
herby, I feel so much like you described from your brother and your son... it's something that is hard to explain to others. At some point I got laughed at by some friends for telling this, because they thought "what? You're joking! You're such a nice, successful, interesting person, you have no reason to self-loath." And at some point I laugh at myself for it because it is ridiculous. However, that hole and the thoughts of being a failure & fraud remain although they're somewhere in the backdrop right now. Just can't explain what it is, maybe that's what they call narcissism.

On topic: I can't understand why everyone who got into contact with addiction believe in this "it's not a weakness"-thing. That means denying what is obvious. Of course it is a weakness. But it is one like lying to peole much, being choleric, unfaithful, lazy, jealous, etc. Everyone is weak at some point and everyone is evil, selfish and careless at some point, that is how human beings are. We need to cherish those sides of us that are often considered the dark ones, in fact most of them are some kind of strength that has gone too far. Anyone who is an addict knows how stressful and complicated it is to keep an addiction going, the lying to hide it from others, the manipulation etc etc. Everyone says that's evil but in fact those are huge skills although used in a wrong way. We aren't good and we'll never be. But who cares if we are at peace with that.
 
We all have our opinions on this issue, and I think that fact speaks to the answer's many forms. In many ways, to express one's opinion on this question is to reflect upon their own past encounters with, or pardons from, addiction and alcoholism and upon the relationship between those experiences and one's unique life circumstances.

Case-in-point, my initial feelings have been in many ways influenced by my pervasive struggle to remain sober once I've begun. I've had now three serious bouts in 12-Step programs, and have accepted the fact that a relapse is not a failure of one's will. It is very often a triumph of my will over my thinking that leads me to diving back into things again. But I firmly believe that my predisposition to seeking and chasing pleasure unhealthily is not a weakness of my personality. As an addict, the hard evidence exists provoding concrete proof that I do not react to drugs and alcohol as others do (those who are "normal") physiologically. I could always drink a fifth of tequila myself and avoid having a hangover or blacking out, and I could always smoke more pot and shoot more dope than many people around me without feeling overwhelmed. I never thought of these things as abnormal in a bad way; in fact, I was proud of my ability to take more, or the laundry-list of substances that I'd tried in my life.

This is where the physiological abnormality ties in with the psychological abnormality. It's clear to me and many others in my life that I am 'afflicted' by something extra-ordinary. Part of me is sick. It manifests its symptoms behaviorally, and appears to be (often enough, truly is) bizarre, erratic and socially distasteful. I can see it being a "weak" aspect of someone's personality if we're using the term "weakness" very casually. But my experience has decidedly shown me that I am sick in a very specific and misunderstood way, and insomuch as having a different kind of progressive and potentially fatal illness is not regarded as being a weakness of personality, neither does suffering from addiction imply that type of weakness, either.

I am unaware of a person who has tried drugs in an attempt to become an addict.
This is only my experience, however.

Interesting question, OP! :)

~ Vaya
 
Addiction seems to be quite multi-faceted...at least in my mind there isn't one single explanation for it. What I find interesting is how the particular substance or behaviour of choice can tell a lot about the purpose that addiction serves for somebody. Think of a huge coke head at clubs each night compared to somebody knocking themselves our with xanax each night. Seems very different!
 
Blue_Jay said:
Addiction seems to be quite multi-faceted...at least in my mind there isn't one single explanation for it. What I find interesting is how the particular substance or behaviour of choice can tell a lot about the purpose that addiction serves for somebody. Think of a huge coke head at clubs each night compared to somebody knocking themselves our with xanax each night. Seems very different!
Click to expand...

Thats a very, very interesting thought, Blue Jay... I hadn't thought of that aspect of addiction variation before.
 
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