On reading Paul Aitken’s article in the OT Magazine this weekend, Everyone is on Drugs, there was one particular paragraph that really caught my attention.
He said, “Modern society provides us with a lot of scope to become addicted. We can get just about anything we want extremely quickly and it isn’t always immediately obvious what to do in order to achieve a stable state of contentment.
It stated that over 80 per cent of the adult population like a drink in the UK. What do you see as a more damaging:
- Alcohol;
- Chocolate;
- Caffeine;
- Cannabis; or
- Cigarettes?
We all surely have a choice in what we eat, drink and smoke?
Paul talked about the examination of drug use as part of the Rat Park – Bruce K Alexander’s exploration into the casual chain of drug addiction.
As Paul mentions, we are hard wired to seek reward and to avoid pain. We take drugs because they are rewarding.
So, my question is ‘what would your stable state of contentment look like, if you didn’t have that strong coffee in the morning or glass of wine with your meal in the evening every day of the week?
Is that ‘stable state of contentment’ near on impossible to find?