The gateway drug
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The gateway drug
I've heard marijuana called 'the gateway drug'.
I've heard many people suggest; "nonsense...it's ALCOHOL".
When I was in middle school, before I'd discovered alcohol, I would go to the convenience store at lunch hour. I'd buy boxes of candy. I'd buy heavily-sugared, caffeinated soda pop. That would take the place of my lunch many a day.
Even long before that, I recall bicycling to the store with a few quarters earned, squirreled or stolen. I'd buy candy cigarettes or cookies or lemondrops. Hide them around the house.
Now I have children of my own. They constantly ask for, crave, seek and pursue candy, treats, sugar. At school, sugar is used as a motivation for doing work. Sugar is served at events and is the basis for every school function's excitement for the children. Even in preschool - sugar is the promise that brings about compliance.
Now I am sober. Working my way through year three. Observing things differently in life. I ate two molasses cookies for breakfast. Had half a pot of coffee. Read an article about what both of these substances do to the brain. Hint; it's exactly the same thing that cocaine and heroin and alcohol do. It's the dopamine surge. It's the seratonin imbalance. It's the highs and the lows. It's the craving, the bingeing, the comedown. Almost every day I say to myself at some point; "I've gotta cut back on coffee and sugar. Need to stop this cycle". Then I get up again, have strong coffee. Eat pie. Make waffles for the family.
I'm a drug-pusher. An addict. I'm sober and I'm clean..... but my brain still gets its 'fix' and in this modern-day society it's almost inescapable. So many homemade foods are forbidden at school these days; they might have peanuts or other nuts or fruits to which some kid is allergic. So those treats that get sent have to be processed, manufactured... "OREOs"!!! The school advises. "Those are safe"!!
We are a society steeped in a gateway drug. We are addicts-in-process from an early age.
And even in clean, sober life..... we are surrounded.
Now at least sugar and caffeine won't overtly lead us to quite the dismal ends that opioids and vodka quite clearly do. But there is a diabetes epidemic. There is obesity. There is inactivity. There is depression and anxiety and heart disease and ADD and ADHD and there is the generalized inability to connect with others - dis-tractability and hyperactivity and conflict and lack of empathy.
How much of all of these are connected back to the gateway drugs that we so innocuously allow into our daily lives, pour into our systems, give to our children. The gateway drugs now include another sneaky entry point, looming perhaps more dangerously than any before; technology. Digital heroin. How quickly, quietly, pervasively it has arisen. Here to improve our lives. Here to be heralded as the savior of our destructive practices as a species. Here to become our children's keeper and our own source of 'connection' - even as it increasingly disconnects us. This morning, my phone appeared to have died. It shut down and overheated and seemed done for good. A mild panic arose. I felt anxious, nervous, afraid. Began thinking of all the photos I'd lost. All the people I'd not be able to contact. Realized how incredibly hooked I am.
Is it really any wonder - in this world we've built - that addiction is such a rocket-rise growing problem? Is it really surprising that we've created for ourselves this mass epidemic.
As we recover from the most obvious, impairing, dangerous addictions - those of us who have begun to see it, perhaps, can play a role in looking more broadly at the problem. At least for ourselves, for our children. For the world.
I drank the coffee. I ate the cookies. I told myself "I need to stop".
I've heard many people suggest; "nonsense...it's ALCOHOL".
When I was in middle school, before I'd discovered alcohol, I would go to the convenience store at lunch hour. I'd buy boxes of candy. I'd buy heavily-sugared, caffeinated soda pop. That would take the place of my lunch many a day.
Even long before that, I recall bicycling to the store with a few quarters earned, squirreled or stolen. I'd buy candy cigarettes or cookies or lemondrops. Hide them around the house.
Now I have children of my own. They constantly ask for, crave, seek and pursue candy, treats, sugar. At school, sugar is used as a motivation for doing work. Sugar is served at events and is the basis for every school function's excitement for the children. Even in preschool - sugar is the promise that brings about compliance.
Now I am sober. Working my way through year three. Observing things differently in life. I ate two molasses cookies for breakfast. Had half a pot of coffee. Read an article about what both of these substances do to the brain. Hint; it's exactly the same thing that cocaine and heroin and alcohol do. It's the dopamine surge. It's the seratonin imbalance. It's the highs and the lows. It's the craving, the bingeing, the comedown. Almost every day I say to myself at some point; "I've gotta cut back on coffee and sugar. Need to stop this cycle". Then I get up again, have strong coffee. Eat pie. Make waffles for the family.
I'm a drug-pusher. An addict. I'm sober and I'm clean..... but my brain still gets its 'fix' and in this modern-day society it's almost inescapable. So many homemade foods are forbidden at school these days; they might have peanuts or other nuts or fruits to which some kid is allergic. So those treats that get sent have to be processed, manufactured... "OREOs"!!! The school advises. "Those are safe"!!
We are a society steeped in a gateway drug. We are addicts-in-process from an early age.
And even in clean, sober life..... we are surrounded.
Now at least sugar and caffeine won't overtly lead us to quite the dismal ends that opioids and vodka quite clearly do. But there is a diabetes epidemic. There is obesity. There is inactivity. There is depression and anxiety and heart disease and ADD and ADHD and there is the generalized inability to connect with others - dis-tractability and hyperactivity and conflict and lack of empathy.
How much of all of these are connected back to the gateway drugs that we so innocuously allow into our daily lives, pour into our systems, give to our children. The gateway drugs now include another sneaky entry point, looming perhaps more dangerously than any before; technology. Digital heroin. How quickly, quietly, pervasively it has arisen. Here to improve our lives. Here to be heralded as the savior of our destructive practices as a species. Here to become our children's keeper and our own source of 'connection' - even as it increasingly disconnects us. This morning, my phone appeared to have died. It shut down and overheated and seemed done for good. A mild panic arose. I felt anxious, nervous, afraid. Began thinking of all the photos I'd lost. All the people I'd not be able to contact. Realized how incredibly hooked I am.
Is it really any wonder - in this world we've built - that addiction is such a rocket-rise growing problem? Is it really surprising that we've created for ourselves this mass epidemic.
As we recover from the most obvious, impairing, dangerous addictions - those of us who have begun to see it, perhaps, can play a role in looking more broadly at the problem. At least for ourselves, for our children. For the world.
I drank the coffee. I ate the cookies. I told myself "I need to stop".
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Join Date: Mar 2015
Location: New Hampshire
Posts: 82
Very well put FreeOwl. I absolutley feel the same way about cofee (luckily not sweets), and sometimes technology, as if I feel an urge log turn to the internet in any quiet moment in my life. In fact I have 1/2 coffe down and online after waking only 30 minutes ago. Unfortunately, another one is prescribed medication, and I am on 1 for anxiety/depression and 1 for ADHD, both crutches, quick fixes, like booze used to be. Think about this a lot and although they are need and helpful now, wonder how long do I need them? Thanks again
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Join Date: Feb 2016
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Originally Posted by FreeOwl 
I used the gateway drugs (sugar, caffeine, then later pot) - WHILE playing fantasy.....
lol
lol
What I meant was, fantasy was escape from reality and how I felt. Then I learned to use alcohol and other drugs to escape in a more reliable manner.
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Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 379
Wow. What a fantastic post!
When I was growing up we didnt have alot of sugar products in the house. No soda or sugary cereals. No ho hos or twinkies or cakes or pies. Sugar was a special occasion thing...holidays and Halloween when others gave it to us. We didnt have th money and my mom had great insights about sugar and others things. She was a 'green, clean foods' mama when it wasnt cool to be, sort of someone straight out of Mother Earth News. To this day she still lives that way and I asked her the other day how many medications she takes and she says ZERO ( shes 87 years old!) But anyways...
I was thinking about my sugar restrictive upbringing and remembering:
**Eating 52 boxes of Girl Scout cookies over a period of two weeks!!
**Dipping whole sticks of butter in sugar and eating them
**Talking my little brother into going to the groecery and stealing pounds and pounds of Brachs candy and he and I eating all of it in one sitting!
**Riding my bike to the dime store and buying packs of bubble yum or juicy fruit gun and stick the WHOLE pack in my mouth at one time.
These are just a few examples of my sugar seeking behaviors, long before I took my first drink!
so yeah, even though my mom really tried to limit our sugar I definitely am well aware of the fact that I was probably showing early addiction to the dopamine rush even as a young person. As I got older the sugar in those goodies was replaced with alcohol ( wine specifically).
Now that I am sober Im watching thesee behaviors ( sugar and caffeine). There are multiple studies around sugar/caffiene and relapse ( seeking the dopamine, the mood swing or change). Attempting to replace the dopamine rush of our drug of choice with sugar and caffeine ??
Anyway, thank you for this post! giving me something to look at for sure!
When I was growing up we didnt have alot of sugar products in the house. No soda or sugary cereals. No ho hos or twinkies or cakes or pies. Sugar was a special occasion thing...holidays and Halloween when others gave it to us. We didnt have th money and my mom had great insights about sugar and others things. She was a 'green, clean foods' mama when it wasnt cool to be, sort of someone straight out of Mother Earth News. To this day she still lives that way and I asked her the other day how many medications she takes and she says ZERO ( shes 87 years old!) But anyways...
I was thinking about my sugar restrictive upbringing and remembering:
**Eating 52 boxes of Girl Scout cookies over a period of two weeks!!
**Dipping whole sticks of butter in sugar and eating them
**Talking my little brother into going to the groecery and stealing pounds and pounds of Brachs candy and he and I eating all of it in one sitting!
**Riding my bike to the dime store and buying packs of bubble yum or juicy fruit gun and stick the WHOLE pack in my mouth at one time.
These are just a few examples of my sugar seeking behaviors, long before I took my first drink!
so yeah, even though my mom really tried to limit our sugar I definitely am well aware of the fact that I was probably showing early addiction to the dopamine rush even as a young person. As I got older the sugar in those goodies was replaced with alcohol ( wine specifically).
Now that I am sober Im watching thesee behaviors ( sugar and caffeine). There are multiple studies around sugar/caffiene and relapse ( seeking the dopamine, the mood swing or change). Attempting to replace the dopamine rush of our drug of choice with sugar and caffeine ??
Anyway, thank you for this post! giving me something to look at for sure!
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 6,613
Is it the substance that is the problem or is the substance merely a symptom? What are we looking for? Something to make us feel better? Something to fill the spiritual vacuum, the hole in the soul?
I ask because not all addictions involve toxic substances.
There is food, gambling, shopping/spending, love, sex, emotions and many more addictive/compulsive behaviours that create the same sorts of tragedies as the chemical addictions.
What is the cause? So often these days we try to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
I ask because not all addictions involve toxic substances.
There is food, gambling, shopping/spending, love, sex, emotions and many more addictive/compulsive behaviours that create the same sorts of tragedies as the chemical addictions.
What is the cause? So often these days we try to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 486
I'm not giving up my coffee, but I am in agreement with you about horrible foods and just unhealthy lifestyles without exercise and concern for health. Everything is toxic in high amounts, even seemingly benign things.
And IvanMike: You are my new best friend. Wow, mine was fantasy too....fueled by BOREDOM. Now when I'm bored I get off my butt and DO something about it.
And IvanMike: You are my new best friend. Wow, mine was fantasy too....fueled by BOREDOM. Now when I'm bored I get off my butt and DO something about it.
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Join Date: May 2014
Location: usa
Posts: 3,938
I totally agree...sugar is so bad for children aND they are gI've lots of it....
I look forward to my sweet coffee everyday. I've cut way back on sweets...but not with my coffee. Right now I'm drinking a cup with caramel pecan almond milk creamer.
I know it will give me a lift...but then I'll crash. I cant image giving up the coffee, I don't need the sugar. I'll think about this.
I look forward to my sweet coffee everyday. I've cut way back on sweets...but not with my coffee. Right now I'm drinking a cup with caramel pecan almond milk creamer.
I know it will give me a lift...but then I'll crash. I cant image giving up the coffee, I don't need the sugar. I'll think about this.
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Join Date: Jan 2014
Posts: 8,637
Originally Posted by Gottalife
Is it the substance that is the problem or is the substance merely a symptom? What are we looking for? Something to make us feel better? Something to fill the spiritual vacuum, the hole in the soul?
I ask because not all addictions involve toxic substances.
There is food, gambling, shopping/spending, love, sex, emotions and many more addictive/compulsive behaviours that create the same sorts of tragedies as the chemical addictions.
What is the cause? So often these days we try to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
I ask because not all addictions involve toxic substances.
There is food, gambling, shopping/spending, love, sex, emotions and many more addictive/compulsive behaviours that create the same sorts of tragedies as the chemical addictions.
What is the cause? So often these days we try to treat the symptoms rather than the cause.
I'm not qualified to answer that - but for me, I believe there isn't a clean line between cause and symptom. I believe that addiction is a complex, interwoven set of things emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, that evolved over time.
I think that as a small child - I was not yet troubled by addiction. But that as I grew, sugar began to present my brain with its physical effect. We can demonstrate and validate this effect because; science. And so at an early age, I experienced the rush, the escape, the thrill, the pleasantness of the dopamine rush that sugar brought me.
Also at a relatively early age - I began to experience trauma. My family situation led to emotional upset, to psychological trauma, to an inability to understand those feelings and things that happened to me. But what I COULD understand, even back then, was that there were effects of a substance that could help me feel good, regardless. I think that is where the pattern began - and from there it evolved.
Sugar, then caffeine, then alcohol, then marijuana, then alcohol and marijuana and opium and LSD and cocaine and extasy..... and various combinations of all of the above - became a patterned means of responding to things in my life's environment that I had not developed healthier ways of responding to.
Now, I am a work-in-progress. I am re-inventing and re-learning and re-developing ways to respond to life that are healthier. As I do so, I recognize the subtler ways that these patterns arose in my life and - even in sobriety - the subtler ways they still are with me today.
The 'cause' may be an emotionally-trying day, frustration at work, a sense of being overwhelmed by commitments. The 'response' may be an impromptu candy binge and too much coffee..... or it may be a recognition that these things are pressuring me, and a choice to go to an AA meeting, go for a run, meditate, log off the computer.
I don't think - for me - it's as simple as there's a root cause and there's a symptom. I don't think that I can simply 'be in balance' and then be able to drink or do drugs casually or even - perhaps - drink coffee without the potential for caffeine abuse. It may be that the course of decades of these patterns has created biological changes in me (there is mounting evidence that long term addiction actually changes our very DNA and can be passed on to future generations), which may mean that even 'innocent' addictions like sugar can have troubling consequences for me.
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Thank you for the post, FreeOwl.
I was a sugar addict all my entire life - until I quit it altogether about 3 years ago. Quitting drinking made me reconsider and question lots of things that I considered to be "normal".
Sugar is poison. It doesn't kill or debilitate in the way alcohol and drugs do, but it's a slow killer. I 've recently read a systematic review of the health-related quality of life and economic burdens of eating disorders - pretty discouraging.
As for "substances" per se - processed and hyper-palatable foods are substance too. Sex addiction and gambling is not related to consuming substances, but addictive substances are generated by brain in higher amounts. Emotions cause certain body reactions, including chemical ones.
Of course, a human being has more needs that just physical, but to pin all to the spiritual side without taking into account neurobiilogy of evolutionary reward mechanism inherited by modern people from ancestors is oversimplificaiton.
A child can get hooked on sugary products without even realizing that he/she has spiritual needs, and develop food addiction pattern.
Just my 2 cents.
I was a sugar addict all my entire life - until I quit it altogether about 3 years ago. Quitting drinking made me reconsider and question lots of things that I considered to be "normal".
Sugar is poison. It doesn't kill or debilitate in the way alcohol and drugs do, but it's a slow killer. I 've recently read a systematic review of the health-related quality of life and economic burdens of eating disorders - pretty discouraging.
As for "substances" per se - processed and hyper-palatable foods are substance too. Sex addiction and gambling is not related to consuming substances, but addictive substances are generated by brain in higher amounts. Emotions cause certain body reactions, including chemical ones.
Of course, a human being has more needs that just physical, but to pin all to the spiritual side without taking into account neurobiilogy of evolutionary reward mechanism inherited by modern people from ancestors is oversimplificaiton.
A child can get hooked on sugary products without even realizing that he/she has spiritual needs, and develop food addiction pattern.
Just my 2 cents.
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Join Date: Nov 2015
Posts: 2,031
This is very interesting. While my drinking didn't start until I was well into adulthood (I was a social drinker for many, many years) this sugar stuff rings so true to me.
My mom didn't think anything of my having coffee and cake for breakfast ever since I was in elementary school. I started drinking coffee when I was five, mostly milk and a LOT of sugar. And oh, how I recall getting a bag of gumballs and stuffing them in my mouth all at once AND then getting home and rolling the gum in sugar. Coffee and sugar.
For years now it's been the coffee only. I'd rather have a second helping of dinner than dessert . Cakes, cookies, pies, etc. just don't interest me anymore.
Thanks for bringing this up, Free Owl. It's definitely food for thought :-)
My mom didn't think anything of my having coffee and cake for breakfast ever since I was in elementary school. I started drinking coffee when I was five, mostly milk and a LOT of sugar. And oh, how I recall getting a bag of gumballs and stuffing them in my mouth all at once AND then getting home and rolling the gum in sugar. Coffee and sugar.
For years now it's been the coffee only. I'd rather have a second helping of dinner than dessert . Cakes, cookies, pies, etc. just don't interest me anymore.
Thanks for bringing this up, Free Owl. It's definitely food for thought :-)
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Sugar never really gave me a "high", and I think it's truly because I was undiagnosed ADHD. Same with caffeine. Never drank a cup of coffee until I was 39. Now I just enjoy it but don't abuse it. It gives me a tiny lift, but I drink it black.
I think we have to be careful about taking EVERYTHING away because that's just another source of black and white thinking. That puts us in danger of taking all joy out of life. We fall prey to Stoicism.
But sugar IS a major problem, I agree. And dieting. But in moderation, I think it's fine. I guess if you can't moderate certain things, though, like we can't with alcohol, maybe it IS good to evaluate and give it up.
I felt that way the other day about Facebook. Like I needed to deactivate. No, I just need to NOT log on when it bugs me.....
I have always felt like we crave what is bad for us. I have never liked sweet things, and diabetes does not run in my family. But I crave salty, and high blood pressure/strokes MOST CERTAINLY does. So I do get you....
I think we have to be careful about taking EVERYTHING away because that's just another source of black and white thinking. That puts us in danger of taking all joy out of life. We fall prey to Stoicism.
But sugar IS a major problem, I agree. And dieting. But in moderation, I think it's fine. I guess if you can't moderate certain things, though, like we can't with alcohol, maybe it IS good to evaluate and give it up.
I felt that way the other day about Facebook. Like I needed to deactivate. No, I just need to NOT log on when it bugs me.....
I have always felt like we crave what is bad for us. I have never liked sweet things, and diabetes does not run in my family. But I crave salty, and high blood pressure/strokes MOST CERTAINLY does. So I do get you....
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Join Date: Jan 2014
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Originally Posted by Leezer
Sugar never really gave me a "high", and I think it's truly because I was undiagnosed ADHD. Same with caffeine. Never drank a cup of coffee until I was 39. Now I just enjoy it but don't abuse it. It gives me a tiny lift, but I drink it black.
I think we have to be careful about taking EVERYTHING away because that's just another source of black and white thinking. That puts us in danger of taking all joy out of life. We fall prey to Stoicism.
But sugar IS a major problem, I agree. And dieting. But in moderation, I think it's fine. I guess if you can't moderate certain things, though, like we can't with alcohol, maybe it IS good to evaluate and give it up.
I felt that way the other day about Facebook. Like I needed to deactivate. No, I just need to NOT log on when it bugs me.....
I have always felt like we crave what is bad for us. I have never liked sweet things, and diabetes does not run in my family. But I crave salty, and high blood pressure/strokes MOST CERTAINLY does. So I do get you....
I think we have to be careful about taking EVERYTHING away because that's just another source of black and white thinking. That puts us in danger of taking all joy out of life. We fall prey to Stoicism.
But sugar IS a major problem, I agree. And dieting. But in moderation, I think it's fine. I guess if you can't moderate certain things, though, like we can't with alcohol, maybe it IS good to evaluate and give it up.
I felt that way the other day about Facebook. Like I needed to deactivate. No, I just need to NOT log on when it bugs me.....
I have always felt like we crave what is bad for us. I have never liked sweet things, and diabetes does not run in my family. But I crave salty, and high blood pressure/strokes MOST CERTAINLY does. So I do get you....
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: MI
Posts: 626
Very good post FreeOwl. Thank you.
Also, I agree with you as far as addicts go. What I do ponder is....... This is not to say "everyone" is affected like addicts are by these things that create that rush of dopamine? (Serious question) for most people... They don't need to keep feeling this rush only to find out later that they have no control over it and feel the need to feed it? (Also a real question)
Or do you suppose these things early on in life "create the addict?" Or must you have the "addictive traits" for these things to affect you?
Addicts born or created? Would love to hear your thoughts. And realize there is probably science to prove a little of both.
Always love your posts!
Also, I agree with you as far as addicts go. What I do ponder is....... This is not to say "everyone" is affected like addicts are by these things that create that rush of dopamine? (Serious question) for most people... They don't need to keep feeling this rush only to find out later that they have no control over it and feel the need to feed it? (Also a real question)
Or do you suppose these things early on in life "create the addict?" Or must you have the "addictive traits" for these things to affect you?
Addicts born or created? Would love to hear your thoughts. And realize there is probably science to prove a little of both.
Always love your posts!
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Join Date: Jan 2016
Posts: 1,462
I have always believed I was born an alcoholic. I don't do anything and I mean anything in my life a little bit. It's always as hard as I can go. Work, hobbies , sports everything 100 miles an hour. I'm 53 years old now. More than three decades ago before I had an alcohol problem I tried cocaine one time. Even at that young age my instinct told me to never ever do it again. I just knew that it would grab me by the throat and never let go and at that point in my life I don't think I even thought about addiction but some how I knew to fear it. The alcohol thing just eased into my life at a snails pace.
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