Drugs are mental slavery
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Drugs are mental slavery
That's what this is, really. Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs are designed to be the perfect money making tool. You work all day to make money to give to companies that are killing you, to kick you into placidity. So you get up the next day and do the same thing.
You're not working for you, you're working for the tobacco firm, or the brewery, or the guy selling coke on the corner. You're not free.
Using alcohol as the example as I know it better than anything else, how many moderate drinkers do you know who base their whole week on the one day they can drink into oblivion?
Or the guy whose happy to work at a crappy job with no ambition as long as he can come home and get stoned?
We don't notice how messed up this all is until it nearly finishes us off, even then we don't always see it. Because everybody is doing it and it is deeply embedded in all western cultures. Being teetotal is the equivalent of being a freak to some people.
So to those who are worried quitting drinking will make them an outcast to those people, I say, let it. They can't see this for what it is, people who have no care for your health getting you addicted for profit. They're slaves to all this crap just like you were, so get on with your life and find people who don't need a drink to get by. And hope your old friends can find the strength to join you one day.
No relapse, No Surrender
Tom
You're not working for you, you're working for the tobacco firm, or the brewery, or the guy selling coke on the corner. You're not free.
Using alcohol as the example as I know it better than anything else, how many moderate drinkers do you know who base their whole week on the one day they can drink into oblivion?
Or the guy whose happy to work at a crappy job with no ambition as long as he can come home and get stoned?
We don't notice how messed up this all is until it nearly finishes us off, even then we don't always see it. Because everybody is doing it and it is deeply embedded in all western cultures. Being teetotal is the equivalent of being a freak to some people.
So to those who are worried quitting drinking will make them an outcast to those people, I say, let it. They can't see this for what it is, people who have no care for your health getting you addicted for profit. They're slaves to all this crap just like you were, so get on with your life and find people who don't need a drink to get by. And hope your old friends can find the strength to join you one day.
No relapse, No Surrender
Tom
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I disagree. Just because I can't drink in moderation, doesn't mean that others can't. There are many books on the history of man and alcohol. The same goes for some drugs. There are legitimate need for them. There real shame is that because of thier abuse by addicts, it makes it hard for those with legitimate need for some painkillers to obtain them. I agree about tabacco.
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Originally Posted by Db1105 
I disagree. Just because I can't drink in moderation, doesn't mean that others can't. There are many books on the history of man and alcohol. The same goes for some drugs. There are legitimate need for them. There real shame is that because of thier abuse by addicts, it makes it hard for those with legitimate need for some painkillers to obtain them. I agree about tabacco.
Same with weed. Everyone I know who smokes weed talks about it like its something they do once a while and barely impacts their life, and literally every single one of them spends a good amount of their wage and most days getting stoned playing computer games or watching tv.
In fact the only people I've ever met who does both those moderately amounts to one person for both.
Obviously what I'm saying refers to people who have some kind of compulsion. But from what I've seen that's most people to some extent, just because it's not taking over their lives doesn't mean it isn't significant. If someone told them they would die if they didn't stop drinking they'd quit and have no problem, but without that push they'll continue putting a good portion of their short lives into one drug or another.
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Originally Posted by Db1105
I disagree. Just because I can't drink in moderation, doesn't mean that others can't. There are many books on the history of man and alcohol. The same goes for some drugs. There are legitimate need for them. There real shame is that because of thier abuse by addicts, it makes it hard for those with legitimate need for some painkillers to obtain them. I agree about tabacco.
just wondering ?
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Someone posted some interesting stats here recently showing that roughly 30% of people (in alcohol-tolerant societies) don't drink at all, 30% drink very moderately and the last 30 percentile is split between a 20% of heavy drinkers and a 10% of chronic alcoholics who consume something like 60% of the product produced by the alcohol companies. I may have skewed the stats, retrieving them from my once alcohol soaked memory, but it confirms a couple things I believe in.
Alcohol in itself is not a problem for about 90% of the population and they either don't drink at all or can take a drink and leave it at one.
Having said that, I am absolutely convinced that apart from little micro-breweries and vineyards, the big producers of alcohol know exactly who they are producing for: the alcoholic. Like the way the drug companies produce the bulk of their mood enhancers for an addictive group, and they know it, too.
I think if you have been a drinker ThmasTT, you probably gathered similar people around you, drinking buddies. but, that may not be a reflection of society in general.
Alcohol in itself is not a problem for about 90% of the population and they either don't drink at all or can take a drink and leave it at one.
Having said that, I am absolutely convinced that apart from little micro-breweries and vineyards, the big producers of alcohol know exactly who they are producing for: the alcoholic. Like the way the drug companies produce the bulk of their mood enhancers for an addictive group, and they know it, too.
I think if you have been a drinker ThmasTT, you probably gathered similar people around you, drinking buddies. but, that may not be a reflection of society in general.
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I agree. Drugs are the perfect business since they addict the user, and thus the user is a certain customer to the industry in the long-term.
Even if I could moderate today, to go back to that, I wouldn't do it. I know too much of the hazards of drugs and their vanity. Great post btw.
Even if I could moderate today, to go back to that, I wouldn't do it. I know too much of the hazards of drugs and their vanity. Great post btw.
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I think everyone is different. I have no problem with alcohol and never did. I honestly just dont care for it but man, painkillers were a whole different story. In the last 3 years I think I have drank 3 days and they were at the beach and it was very little. Dont much care if I ever do again.
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Just to clarify, I know there are people who have a beer like they have a coffee. It's a little treat that had little impact on their lives. However, in my experience there are many, many people who would consider themselves normal drinkers who I believe allow it to control their lives to some extent.
And going back to my main point, which is not to worry about losing friends through sobriety. If alcohol doesn't make much impact on their lives, they won't care. If they do, why does it bother them so much? Maybe they don't like the way your behaviour is making them think about theirs.
It's the whole "hey, you can't be an alcoholic, because that would mean I have an issue as well". Basically, they want you to drink to justify their behaviour, and you don't need those people in your life.
And going back to my main point, which is not to worry about losing friends through sobriety. If alcohol doesn't make much impact on their lives, they won't care. If they do, why does it bother them so much? Maybe they don't like the way your behaviour is making them think about theirs.
It's the whole "hey, you can't be an alcoholic, because that would mean I have an issue as well". Basically, they want you to drink to justify their behaviour, and you don't need those people in your life.
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Frankly I think that the best answer is if you're an alcoholic (and there should be no shame in being one) the best approach is to avoid folks who "let drinking take over their lives 'to some extent'" and then get on with it. I can't change how they act or feel or even how they think about me. How they think about me isn't my business. Sobriety is.
W.
W.
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"I know there are people who have a beer like they have a coffee...""
Hey T-the-T, I actually do drink coffee as addictively as I drink beer. I have a physical dependence in it, suffering painful withdrawal if I stop...
Oh well, that will be the next thing I free myself from! I'm on day 62 sober & day 9 from cigs. I'm letting go of each poison separately, because I can only endure so much intensity & suffering. It is amazing that I am addicted to so many things at once. When did that happen? Waking up without coffee seems inconceivable. & yes, in the end it felt like all I did was work and fill all my free time with the grand chemistry experiment of toxins in my body - balancing them, combining them, stacking them.
Hey T-the-T, I actually do drink coffee as addictively as I drink beer. I have a physical dependence in it, suffering painful withdrawal if I stop...
Oh well, that will be the next thing I free myself from! I'm on day 62 sober & day 9 from cigs. I'm letting go of each poison separately, because I can only endure so much intensity & suffering. It is amazing that I am addicted to so many things at once. When did that happen? Waking up without coffee seems inconceivable. & yes, in the end it felt like all I did was work and fill all my free time with the grand chemistry experiment of toxins in my body - balancing them, combining them, stacking them.
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Heartcore: Like Caroline Knapp (her book "Pack of Two") I entered sobriety only to become addicted to dogs. Before that happened I was self medicating with alcohol in a hopeless effort to cope with anxieties in my personal life. When I gave up alcohol many years ago I substituted dogs for alcohol and "displaced" my anxieties into affection and love of one pet after another- four English Setters who have now all passed away and, currently, an English Cocker. All in a way child substitutes. Addictive but not harmful in the way alcohol is. If the dog dies I have to get another. Self medicating with dogs.
W.
W.
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