I Want To Write My Random Thoughts And Feelings
[b]Addictions & Pleasure [/b]
It's interesting to me how pleasure and pain are often so closely related to each other. And yet, when viewed separately, they are completely different experiences.
Pleasurable things feel good and painful things generally don't. But there is an obvious cross-over point between both of them, whereby pleasurable things can actually start to become painful for us, and painful things become pleasurable.
When we first start out experimenting with drugs, for instance, it's fun and enjoyable. It's something new. Something different. But over time this drug use turns into a slippery slope down a very slow path to addiction - which forms almost without us even being aware of it. It really does sneak up on you.
They take us away from reality for a while, but eventually all substances wear-off, as do all highs, climaxes, and thrills. And when they wear-off, we have to go back to reality the way it was before, and to face all of the underlying miseries and burdens within our life - things we've buried and hidden away, things we don't know how to solve. Drugs offer us a quick and easy escape-route, albeit temporarily.
This temporary escape becomes the pain itself - especially when we start becoming aware of what's happening. We can never quite capture that nirvana state and bring it back with us, that ultimate, care-free bliss. We're always chasing it and following it; from one dose to the next, or from one substance to the next - constantly trying to kid ourselves that all we need is one last time, one last high. But that last high quickly breaks out into more and more "last highs", and thus the addictive pattern continues (and gets worse). There's really no such a thing as a "last time". At least not in my opinion. You either stop completely or you stick with the game...
The next phase of addiction is the utter helplessness and despair of not knowing how to end the game, of literally being trapped between pleasure and pain itself: the pleasure of the high and the pain of knowing it eventually ends (as it always does). It's a game we play with ourselves, ultimately. We talk ourselves into whatever story or narrative we want to believe just so we can keep the game going, so we can keep revisiting that nirvana state for a while and to get away from the world.
We like the game, but we also absolutely hate the game, because it always, without exception, wears-off. Being held captive to something pleasurable is one of the most difficult things to accept and to overcome. Because it's so incredibly easy to just fall back and continue with the cycle (however much you hate it). You reach nirvana yet again, and at the time it feels amazing and worth it. But it will forever and always slip beyond our grasp each and every time, and then we're back to square one again, and for the cycle to repeat...
Joy might not feel as good as pleasure, but it certainly lasts a whole lot longer. And ultimately, it's a much more fulfilling avenue to go down. It doesn't need to cost anything, nor do you need a specific reason to feel joyful. Drug use is fun for a while. But it too easily becomes impulsive and habit-forming for it to be an effective remedy.
It's interesting to me how pleasure and pain are often so closely related to each other. And yet, when viewed separately, they are completely different experiences.
Pleasurable things feel good and painful things generally don't. But there is an obvious cross-over point between both of them, whereby pleasurable things can actually start to become painful for us, and painful things become pleasurable.
When we first start out experimenting with drugs, for instance, it's fun and enjoyable. It's something new. Something different. But over time this drug use turns into a slippery slope down a very slow path to addiction - which forms almost without us even being aware of it. It really does sneak up on you.
They take us away from reality for a while, but eventually all substances wear-off, as do all highs, climaxes, and thrills. And when they wear-off, we have to go back to reality the way it was before, and to face all of the underlying miseries and burdens within our life - things we've buried and hidden away, things we don't know how to solve. Drugs offer us a quick and easy escape-route, albeit temporarily.
This temporary escape becomes the pain itself - especially when we start becoming aware of what's happening. We can never quite capture that nirvana state and bring it back with us, that ultimate, care-free bliss. We're always chasing it and following it; from one dose to the next, or from one substance to the next - constantly trying to kid ourselves that all we need is one last time, one last high. But that last high quickly breaks out into more and more "last highs", and thus the addictive pattern continues (and gets worse). There's really no such a thing as a "last time". At least not in my opinion. You either stop completely or you stick with the game...
The next phase of addiction is the utter helplessness and despair of not knowing how to end the game, of literally being trapped between pleasure and pain itself: the pleasure of the high and the pain of knowing it eventually ends (as it always does). It's a game we play with ourselves, ultimately. We talk ourselves into whatever story or narrative we want to believe just so we can keep the game going, so we can keep revisiting that nirvana state for a while and to get away from the world.
We like the game, but we also absolutely hate the game, because it always, without exception, wears-off. Being held captive to something pleasurable is one of the most difficult things to accept and to overcome. Because it's so incredibly easy to just fall back and continue with the cycle (however much you hate it). You reach nirvana yet again, and at the time it feels amazing and worth it. But it will forever and always slip beyond our grasp each and every time, and then we're back to square one again, and for the cycle to repeat...
Joy might not feel as good as pleasure, but it certainly lasts a whole lot longer. And ultimately, it's a much more fulfilling avenue to go down. It doesn't need to cost anything, nor do you need a specific reason to feel joyful. Drug use is fun for a while. But it too easily becomes impulsive and habit-forming for it to be an effective remedy.
26-30, M
