Addictions

Drugs and Happiness

By  | 

Many people have always felt like something is missing from their lives, although they can’t put their finger on exactly what, until the first time they try their drug of choice. Most drug users who become addicts end up trying and using a variety of drugs, but they also usually have this preferred drug, which acts as a sort of orb of power around which the other drugs orbit. Different categories of drugs create different chemical effects in the brain, so it makes sense that people with different personalities and different existential needs are drawn to different types.

The commonly held point of view looks down upon drug users, making them feel weak and deficient for needing a chemical substance to be happy and fulfilled. But doesn’t this prove that at bottom addicts just want to be happy and fulfilled? It’s a positive and life-affirming idea, and a bastion of hope to grasp onto during recovery. The goal all along was happiness and fulfillment. But using drugs to get there will only ever temporarily do the trick. All that drugs can do is cover up the important existential aspects of our lives for a time, allowing us to blissfully drift while intoxicated. They can never solve these existential issues. We have to do that ourselves.

If you are currently addicted to a substance and want to recover, you can either get down on yourself for being weak, or come to realize that all you ever really wanted was to live a happy life. The fact that you have been happy while intoxicated proves your capacity to be happy as a human being. You’ve got to make the firm commitment to work a lot harder for your happiness now, using all of the available healthy routes to get there, routes that take longer to work and don’t offer the instant, spiking high that drugs do. The happiness that drugs and alcohol offer is a mirage and not lasting. Relying on them for happiness will always lead to unhappiness.

Related posts:

  1. Anxiety and Drug Addiction “Those drugs you got won’t make you feel better and pretty soon it’s the only little part of your life you’re keeping together.” -Elliott Smith Elliott Smith describes an interesting oddity of the unconscious reasoning process for a person who is addicted to drugs. He will let everything around him fall apart to keep using […]...
  2. Getting High Just To Get By One of the factors that delineates recreational drug use from addiction is that addicts cease trying to move from normal functioning into the altered state, but start from a sense of deficit and are trying to reach that baseline state of existence with the aid of their drug of choice. A shift happens where they […]...
  3. Using Drugs to Feel Better A big warning sign for addiction is that you are using drugs to feel better, that you are self-medicating. This idea might sound so obvious that writing an article about it is not worth the time, but for people who fall into the trap it’s not always obvious at all since denial plays such a […]...
  4. Drugs Hinder Creativity A rationalization creative types often use to try to legitimize their continued drug use, in the eyes of others as well as their own, is that their drug of choice is an indispensable aid in their creative process. They cite the works of art and music that were created by artists while intoxicated, and swear […]...
  5. Drugs And Loneliness “You don’t deserve to be lonely but those drugs you’ve got won’t make you feel better.” – Elliot Smith Drugs temporarily solve the problem of existential loneliness and this is one of their biggest draws. They start out acting like good friends, creating the illusion of connection, filling up those lonely hours with their intoxicating […]...
  6. Drugs and Alcohol Only Cover Up The Problem We tend to use drugs and alcohol when we’re feeling really good as well as when we’re feeling really bad. To deny that they are capable of making you feel better would be to deny direct experience. People who drink at weddings also drink at funerals, and their motivations in each case are obviously quite […]...
  7. Happiness Is A Byproduct Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.” – William S. Burroughs If you ask people what they want out of life the answer is almost always “To be happy.” That’s all well and good but the problem is their lack of insight about […]...
  8. True Happiness We’ve got to define happiness before we can talk about the factors that might be keeping you from attaining it. From our existential point of view the desirable positive affect that most people call happiness is actually just one of the manifestations of the deeper sense of fulfillment that comes from living a life that […]...
  9. Money And Happiness A documentary called ‘Happy’ explores some of the psychological factors in the search for and attainment of happiness. We will focus on one of the more interesting assertions made in the movie and then use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to help explain it. It’s no secret that many people equate money with happiness. They structure […]...
  10. Escaping Happiness Some people, when confronted with wanted environmental conditions that make them happy, respond not by embracing those conditions but by trying to escape from them, either through physically leaving it or by conspiring, consciously or unconsciously, to make things fall apart. Though they consciously tell themselves they desire happiness and fulfillment in their lives and […]...
  11. Happiness Now The only way to insure your happiness is to realize that you have all the conditions necessary for it right now in this moment, and the only thing stopping you from attaining it is you. We tend to take the things we already have for granted until they are taken from us, things like our […]...
  12. Seeking Happiness What is the route to happiness? A common answer is to seek pleasurable experiences and avoid painful ones. But this hedonistic lifestyle doesn’t really work. For one thing, psychological inquiry into the nature of sadomasochistic relationships shows that some find pleasure in pain. In a more general sense it doesn’t work because sometimes we have […]...
  13. Happiness “To the European, it is a characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to ‘be happy.’ But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to ‘be happy.’ Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being […]...
  14. The Way To Happiness The way to happiness is to become that which you are, to develop your unique potentialities and turn them into actualities through the process of self-actualization. Fame, power, wealth, prestige, all of the commonly agreed indicators of happiness, they might eventually become byproducts of your self-actualization and they might not, but if you make them […]...
  15. Permanent Happiness is an Illusion If someone were to tell you “I’m so sad, I’m going to be sad for the rest of my life,” or “I’m so angry, I’m going to be angry for the rest of my life,” you would probably respond “I know it seems that way right now, but believe me, these feelings will pass. You’re […]...
  16. Happiness is Based on Perception No matter what your situation is right now, it could be made better and it could be made worse. There are people out there who would trade places with you in an instant, and there are probably people out there you would trade places with in an instant. Setting up happiness as a goal to […]...
  17. Finding Happiness Through Meaning “It is characteristic of the American culture that, again and again, one is commanded and ordered to ‘be happy.’ But happiness cannot be pursued; it must ensue. One must have a reason to ‘be happy.’ Once the reason is found, however, one becomes happy automatically. As we see, a human being is not one in […]...
  18. Happiness Is Allowing Ourselves To Feel Sad Sometimes If you ask most people what their deepest desire is they’ll say it’s to be happy yet for all that thinking and planning and action that goes into bringing about the wanted state happiness eludes them. A paradoxical reason why is the erroneous assumption that negative, unwanted emotional states can be smothered out to make […]...
  19. Happiness And Loss Marlene Lauda: “What’s the matter?” Nicki Lauda: “Happiness is the enemy. It weakens you. Puts doubt in your mind. Suddenly you have something to lose.” Marlene Lauda: “When you call happiness an enemy, then it’s too late. Then you’ve already lost.” (From the movie Rush) What a great response by Marlene. The specter of impermanence […]...
  20. Happiness Through Subtraction We usually think of happiness in a positive sense, meaning that by adding certain elements to our lives the state of happiness will be attained. These might be money, possessions, knowledge, fame, recognition, friends, or whatever. But maybe we’ve been going about it all wrong. In yoga class you’ll often hear the instructor say “Cast […]...
Related Items