Capítulo 54: Why People Like Getting Uncomfortably High - Drugs, Alcohol, & Escaping The Self
Throughout history, the use of mind-altering substances has been inter woven with culture and human intrigue.
Whether it be the use of hallucinogenics by ancient Greek philosophers, the use of opium for religious rituals by the Mesopotamians, the commonplace recreational use of today or any of the countless other examples.
It is clear that substances that alter our consciousness have and continue to seduce the human spirit and there is no sign of this slowing down.
But why is this appeal so deeply a part of human existence?
Certainly there are a variety of ways and reasons for which people consume intoxicating substances.
But one reason that is particularly fascinating and seemingly common, is the desire to experience something foreign and distracting from one's normal state.
In general, drugs and alcohol turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
The mundane into something enjoyable, fascinating, or at least unique.
They create an immediate and irrepressible distraction from one's life and the inevitable problems that might come with it.
When intoxicated, this sense of foreignness redirects attention away from life's problems and on to experiencing a high, on to comprehending and submitting to something.
It is the same reason why people exercise to a point of intensity, why the thought of lying in bed and going to sleep can often sound like heaven, why people become hooked on taking risks and chasing adrenaline rushes.
Because we want something that requires our entire focus and attention.
Something to distract us.
Something to let us escape from our perpetual stream of thoughts and problems.
When I was a young child, there was a joke that my grandfather used to say whenever I would get a mild injury.
If I got something like a cut on my ankle, he would say, "if you want to stop feeling the cut on your ankle, I can punch you in your arm and you'll stop thinking about your ankle."
Although this was of course meant sarcastically, there is some truth in the fact that if someone were to receive a feeling on their arm, they would not be thinking about the cut on their ankle.
Our drugs and alcohol, our way of self administering this punch on the arm, a distraction from the cuts on the inside, maybe, and maybe sometimes drugs are just ways to explore more deeply into our self and heighten our sensitivity and appreciation for thing in life.
Inevitably, humans relationship with intoxicants is complex, not simply bad and not simply good.
But what rings true, is that our everlasting relationship with drugs and alcohol suggests that we are still looking for something, something that we do not have inherently or to get away from something that we do.
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