how this common misconception fuels the vicious cycle of shame & stigma in addiction; and how to do recovery in a more sustainable way - an essay inspired by "The Outrun"
Love this! It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. As long as I’ve been using cannabis daily, and was briefly in what I would define as addiction, I’ve been working towards a healthier relationship with the substance and with joy in general. I thankfully have never planted these problematic narratives into my own life, but I’ve observed them given out to other people as solid advice, which has always concerned me but it took me a while to figure out if it was discomfort with the truth (and what it meant for me) or discomfort with the false truth these ideas present. You have such a well rounded way of looking at this issue that I appreciate greatly. There are in fact use cases for strict thinking in addiction recovery, but the way we let addiction seep into personhood is so toxic. It’s like trying to flip the preexisting internal environment, one that tells you your addiction is essential to your life and who you are, into one that tells you recovery from that addiction is all you are. Addiction is a symptom and a behavior! Not the *core* of the way you were built.
thank you very much for sharing your thoughts! I believe cannabis is quite a tricky substance as it might seem harmless or even beneficial for most people, plus it's socially accepted similar to alcohol, that we often forget that it is still a (powerful) drug. I know a lot of people who are able to consume cannabis in a healthy or healthy-ish way, but I also know some ppl who can be ignorant about its negative effects (especially when it's combined with social isolation and getting high alone at home). I would say, as a useful rule of thumb, that using any substance/behaviour alone at home is much more dangerous in terms of addiction than restricting it to only social contexts (not that this is without its own dangers).
as always it's important to find the right balance of being aware and mindful of the dangers of substances/addiction, while at the same time not catastrophising them or stigmatising all drug consumption as "junky-behaviour" and having to go straight edge.
I really love your point about "addiction is a symptom and a behavior, not the core of the way we are built"! I wrote this down in my notebook :)
Love this! It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. As long as I’ve been using cannabis daily, and was briefly in what I would define as addiction, I’ve been working towards a healthier relationship with the substance and with joy in general. I thankfully have never planted these problematic narratives into my own life, but I’ve observed them given out to other people as solid advice, which has always concerned me but it took me a while to figure out if it was discomfort with the truth (and what it meant for me) or discomfort with the false truth these ideas present. You have such a well rounded way of looking at this issue that I appreciate greatly. There are in fact use cases for strict thinking in addiction recovery, but the way we let addiction seep into personhood is so toxic. It’s like trying to flip the preexisting internal environment, one that tells you your addiction is essential to your life and who you are, into one that tells you recovery from that addiction is all you are. Addiction is a symptom and a behavior! Not the *core* of the way you were built.
thank you very much for sharing your thoughts! I believe cannabis is quite a tricky substance as it might seem harmless or even beneficial for most people, plus it's socially accepted similar to alcohol, that we often forget that it is still a (powerful) drug. I know a lot of people who are able to consume cannabis in a healthy or healthy-ish way, but I also know some ppl who can be ignorant about its negative effects (especially when it's combined with social isolation and getting high alone at home). I would say, as a useful rule of thumb, that using any substance/behaviour alone at home is much more dangerous in terms of addiction than restricting it to only social contexts (not that this is without its own dangers).
as always it's important to find the right balance of being aware and mindful of the dangers of substances/addiction, while at the same time not catastrophising them or stigmatising all drug consumption as "junky-behaviour" and having to go straight edge.
I really love your point about "addiction is a symptom and a behavior, not the core of the way we are built"! I wrote this down in my notebook :)