An Essay On Addiction

An Essay On “Addiction” Date : 11-01-01

A statistic about high school seniors show that fifty-three percent of them are getting drunk at least once a month, forty-three percent are smoking marijuana and thirtysix percent are smoking cigarettes. Alcohol abuse costs the country “a staggering” one hundred and eighty five billion dollars and forty billion dollars are spent every year on drug war. Addiction is certainly an epidemic that is plaguing our society today. But addicts are people who are among every one of us, living in a society or as a nation to deal with social problems such as addiction. However, each one of us as individuals can make positive difference – addict or not – by attempting to take responsibility for our own personal transformations. It is individuals who make a society or a nation. Hence, perhaps our attempt to see an addiction-free society could be achieved by each one of us first experiencing it in our individual lives. There are several reasons such as physical, psychological or sociological, attributed to the problem of addiction but addiction “has to do something fundamental in human beings, and touches on the search for meaning that tends to define what it is to be human in the first place” says Francis Seeburger, author of “Addiction and Responsibility”. While many of us apparently struggle to find a meaning for our lives in a materialistic society, “it is addicts among us who are most in rebellion against the materialism in our society” mentions Seeburger. In the movie, “Traffic” the sixteen year old Caroline seems to struggle to find for herself a place in the society as she says, “I am angry” and don’t know why! Perhaps this helplessness has come from a false sense of self that we gain from the culture that has achieved externally so much from the industrial and technological revolutions. It is perhaps to fulfill this sense of despair that a large number of people among us seek substances that give a “surge of energy”, atleast temporarily fulfilling us. While several methods – from criminalization and prohibitions of substance use to medication and treatment through counseling and therapies – have been adopted to handle the problem of addiction, Steven Duke – author of “America’s longest war : rethinking our crusade against drugs” – insists that “a dollar spent on drug treatment is seven times as effective as a dollar spent on interdiction.” This is the tendency that is catching up in schools too points out Karen Springer in her article, “Rethinking Zero Tolerance”. She says, schools are moving “toward a two-track system of discipline and treatment as the students are not expelled in a few schools but that they receive counseling and support while they are suspended”. “When people are unable to experience the feeling of connection and community in healing ways, they will often find ways that are dark and destructive” says not the scripture but science. Dean Ornish, scientist and author of “Love and Survival” provides

the scientific evidences that love and intimacy are essential for our health as well as for our very survival as human-beings. This aspect of life-experience belongs to each one of us. We were left with hope for Caroline in “Traffic” only when her parents significantly attempted to connect with her. It was essential that the parents themselves undergo a transformation in order to save their daughter’s life. When the channels inside us begin to open for “improving relationships with people, places and things”, we begin to discover the reasons to find a place in our society and thereby help others find themselves similarly. In order to avoid giving up ourselves tragically to addictions, it is necessary that we have a fundamental outlook on life at every stage in our lives. Geoffrey Cowley writes, in his article, “Fighting addiction” the story of Colin Martinez who stayed “free of drugs” after using it for several years. What Colin Martinez says about him and his life is this: “I have friends and a job, and I like who I am”. Perhaps it takes a tragic phase in our lives to be experienced, such as through addiction. But the sense of fulfillment or the sense of self or whatever we might choose to express its essence, is what is required in all of us. We have to learn to give ourselves permission to choose the most positive experience in each moment as Gary Zukav says in his book, “The Seat of the Soul”. It is an attempt that each one of us should make in our lives if we are to prevent the problems such as addiction from controlling our society. To have a fulfilling experience, we have to create access around us to see the way others experience their lives. Therapy, counseling and treatments like ‘Alcoholic Anonymous’ create a positive experience for the addicted people among us. But connecting with our families and friends, neighbors and communities, is one of the primary experiences that we have to bring to our daily lives. What therapies and counseling offer are what we need in our everyday life. It is said that people get addicted or relapse into addiction for a primary reason such as stress, loneliness and isolation. So we have to create opportunities for ourselves to reach out to others and allow ourselves experience life its fullest. While the developments of attitudes to experience love and connection is an effective way that we handle addiction, the challenge lies in balancing our experiences. Dean Ornish says that we have seen our society swing its “pendulum” to the farthest extent of “mechanism”, “determinism” and “physicalism” and now there is evidence that there is hunger for nourishment and spirituality in all aspects of our lives. As he says, we have to create a balance to carefully avoid swinging the “pendulum” to its other extreme, by valuing “reason and intellect” as much as “intuition and spirituality”. It is apparent that “reason and intellect” plays a crucial role in treating the problem of addiction as we see effective treatments coming on the rise mainly through analysis and intellectual experimentation. As we take responsibility as a society and nation to overcome the problem of addiction, changes such as in “social activities, roles and beliefs” is certainly bringing down the rate of substance abuse according to the book, “The Decline of Substance Use in Young Adulthood”. While this fact leaves us with hope, Colin Martinez’s realization on

the nature of life after his recovery, is a journey that is reserved for all of us and not just recovering addicts. This is the change that is required to reverse the phenomenal issue of addiction as well as the other social crisis that may be existing in our society and culture.