Considering the possible positives to addiction.

[izzy31]

If a person was happy and lived for many many years before becoming addicted to amphetamines, they basically must make it past the wall of depression and withdrawls and eventually are rewarded with feeling back to normal. Something I took notice of when this happens is how a person must realize it isn't helping anything, which means they understand that its the source of many problems that will go away when the drug goes away. Also the person knows its not even doing what it did to make them addicted in the first place.


The point here is this -

The user is aware of these and wants to be normal again

Drug addiction =Source of many problems, and overall is the DESTROYER of life for many.



BUT


No one has ever tried dealing with a DEPENDENCY of a drug that is not the DESTROYER of life as it is to others, but actually CREATES a life, and this one life is to forever revolve around the drug that is essential for them to have -

Suggest that a child was put on a drug very young, all the way to adulthood....Its strange that this medication that was there with them every step of the way, helped choose every single choice, and over time it just became very clear that this is a unique situation - one persons death is anothers soul; Since the drug was there when major developments, it effected it somehow someway, sort of like its in the blood after exposure.

The drug that shapes a life from cradle and because all developments were affected and over time the brain body and mind learned while under the spell of amphetamine, and whatever happens while under the spell is non-existant having no gained benefit from it unless under the spell, and for 30 years the drug has become just as needed as a skeleton.

[Sklander]

That was an interesting read. The drug that the addict is addicted to does create a life for the addict that revolves around the substance that the addicted is addicted to. However, who is to say that this person is an addict? Maybe this person is potentiated to a greater degree with this substance and has more to offer the world while under its magical spell. I wouldn't call that person an addict at all.

[Forthesevenlakes]

Originally Posted by Sklander

That was an interesting read. The drug that the addict is addicted to does create a life for the addict that revolves around the substance that the addicted is addicted to. However, who is to say that this person is an addict? Maybe this person is potentiated to a greater degree with this substance and has more to offer the world while under its magical spell. I wouldn't call that person an addict at all.

I've often wondered about this same thing. For example, would a person who does not naturally produce enough endorphins, become more productive when they find opiates? For the first time in their life they'd feel "normal" and capable of taking on the world. Or, is this good ol' SWIM whispering justifications for drug use into my ear? Who can say? Itd be interesting to check post recovery dopamine levels in former cocaine addicts, endorphins in opiate users, etc. to see if these things ever get to "normal" levels after drug use, too.

[Sklander]

This is an incredibly interesting subject that SWIM ponders a lot. Some people just simpy don't start out with the base chemicals to do what they need to do and need a boost, whther that boost be amphetamines, opiets, benzos, or weed, that person needs that substance to be regular like the rest of it us. These peolpl are addicts. They're simply pople ith enough courage to come forward and say, "I need something to get normal, I know that what I am doing is not correct."

[LuLu]

Originally Posted by Forthesevenlakes

I've often wondered about this same thing. For example, would a person who does not naturally produce enough endorphins, become more productive when they find opiates? For the first time in their life they'd feel "normal" and capable of taking on the world. Or, is this good ol' SWIM whispering justifications for drug use into my ear? Who can say? Itd be interesting to check post recovery dopamine levels in former cocaine addicts, endorphins in opiate users, etc. to see if these things ever get to "normal" levels after drug use, too.

Originally Posted by Sklander

This is an incredibly interesting subject that SWIM ponders a lot. Some people just simpy don't start out with the base chemicals to do what they need to do and need a boost, whther that boost be amphetamines, opiets, benzos, or weed, that person needs that substance to be regular like the rest of it us. These peolpl are addicts. They're simply pople ith enough courage to come forward and say, "I need something to get normal, I know that what I am doing is not correct."

SWIM finds the posts in this thread and others very interesting. What prompted SWIM to reply was the statement Sklander made. SWIM believes this to be true, because he spent most of his life (aware of this at a very young age) wondering why he didn't seem to be able to think, feel, process like other people seemed to. As if something was missing. So, SWIM just did the best he could with what he had. SWIM was nearing his middle-age when finally he talked to a doctor that said, "You, SWIM are clinically depressed!" SWIM replied, "It can't be true! I have been tested, evaluated, poked and prodded many times before, and was told, that his brain chemicals were normal!" But, SWIM's doctor kept urging that he try anti-depressant therapy, so SWIM, did. After about three-weeks, SWIM realized that he had been living life in a major depression. Since SWIM remembers feeling this way since early childhood, he feels it is something he was born with, like a birth defect. It is hard for people who haven't experienced life this way to accept this premise. If SWIM could have made it different without any help, he would have. Addiction/dependency is more of a risk for some people than others, just merely saying, I won't do this anymore is not enough. Sometimes the desire to stop is not enough, essential, but help is needed.

Just MHO