It is understood very well that drug addiction progresses gradually, and in due time destroys everything on its path. The stronger the will power of an individual is, the quicker he falls into the trap. Good swimmers usually drown in the ocean; someone who doesn’t know how to swim would not enter the deep waters. Nothing is harder than a rock and softer than water, but water with this characteristic sinks into the rock, and little by little finds its way through it, and shatters it eventually.
Drug addiction works like this as well, and destroys the will power no matter how strong one is. We have amongst ourselves very strong willed individuals who are from different walks of life, doctors, engineers, university students, ordinary citizens, etc. that have become entrapped in the net of dark, destructive forces with no way out.
Maybe these individuals suffer from their own addiction and have attempted to quit their habit many times either by themselves or under the supervision of a doctor but to no avail.
Why did they relapse? Why did they go back to addiction after suffering immensely? Does anyone know the reason?
Everyone says: they had psychological issues, or that they were selfish, or lacked the will power. These answers are not true at all.
Let’s not conclude that I’m defending drug addiction here, or endorsing it in anyways; but, I am defending a substance abuser who yearns for redemption from drugs, and desires to lead a drug free life, and has done his best to do so. If you put all the addicts in the same category it might jeopardizes the social rights of the group I just described above, specially the addicts that have tried to quit numerously but were unsuccessful.
Every time there is a conference on addiction treatment and recovery, the experts sum up the meeting by condemning the addicts. They conclude that addicts are society’s baggage, and that they don’t have the will to kick their habit, and so forth.
Has anyone answered these questions thoroughly so far?
1- Why is it that someone goes back to using drugs after quitting many times despite suffering immensely during these periods?
2- Why is it that an addict bears the weight of the humiliation and stereotypes of the society, yet continues his or her habit?
3- Why do they continue their addiction despite being banished from family and work?
4- Why is that someone loses all his material possessions and still continues on with the destruction?
5- And finally why does an individual commit suicide after all these failures?
And many more questions such as these.
Surely you would answer: lack of will power, selfishness, psychological problems, lack of self-confidence, etc. but I say: physical imbalance or bodily dysfunctions.
Because the relationship between the body and the soul or mind of a human being is like the relationship between a rider and his horse, the rider is the soul or the mind, and the horse is the body.
If the rider is a pro and his horse is sick and weak, what happens then? If we see them as one, then all the blame is on the rider whereas his ride is the main problem. However, if the horse is cured and trained to be strong and agile, then the full ability and potential of the rider can be seen. We will explore this matter more closely in the future.
Let’s discuss the literal meaning of addiction and disuse.
Of course our main focus here is the Opium family such as Opium, Heroin, Morphine, and etc.
These drugs affect the physical systems and structures within our body, otherwise weaker drugs like Hashish, Marijuana and the cannabis family is another topic and not included in our discussion. We are concentrating on Opiate group and their damage on the physique due to long term use, and its discontinued use can cause imbalance of the physical body including alcohol abuse.
Now we refer to the dictionary in order to find out the meaning of addiction:
Addiction=a strong desire to do or have something regularly
We do not accept the above definition for strong narcotics; we define narcotics addiction like this:
Addiction=is a disease that the person brings upon himself, whether knowingly or unknowingly makes no difference as it demonstrates lack of awareness and insight.
Addiction=malfunction of the vital systems in the human body, both visible and invisible.
Now let’s take a look at the meaning of disuse:
Disuse=to cease to use, to discontinue the practice of.
Here, we accept this definition for issues such as gambling, pornography, and etc; but when it’s applied to drug addiction, we no longer think it’s valid. We believe that disuse in the area of drug addiction means to be cured and healed completely.
Therefore, according to us, curing or treating addiction is: curing a kind of disease with respect to the time period necessary to repair, rebuild and operate the vital systems of the body and mind that have exited their natural cycle and have become dysfunctional.
Let’s clarify this definition with an example in order to demonstrate that disuse of drugs does not mean perfect cure.
Considering that the structure of a cell is very similar to a city, we liken the human body to a big city and the cells within the body as its residents.
Now imagine this city has a very large population and its residents are busy doing their work or carrying out their duties. Every day, many groups enter the city in the form of a celebration carnival. (Using drugs or narcotics)
1- In front of this carnival of joy, there are bartenders who provide ample supply of a special cocktail which has a very intoxicating effect on the residents so that they don’t notice the destructive agents entering the city.
2- In the second row, the termites and worms are ready to damage and destroy all kinds of wooden structures.
3- Right behind the termites and worms, are rats that are ready to build tunnels under the buildings and cause extensive damages. Of course, all these groups are camouflaged so that the residents wouldn’t be able to recognize them.
4- A group of grasshoppers in charge of destroying agricultural products.
5- A group of flies and insects that want to contaminate the food products while the residents are drunk.
6- And finally in the last group, there are creatures that damage metals, water pipes, gas pipes and electrical poles using a substance that they carry with themselves.
Every day this carnival enters the city and distributes the magical cocktail among the residents which make them totally intoxicated. Of course the effect lasts only a few hours, but that gives enough time to the destructive agents to carry out their destructions. While the residents are busy enjoying themselves, the destruction is carried out, and then the agents leave the city.
The trick here is that as soon as the intoxication is over, the residents feel the extent of the damage done, and in order to reduce the terrible feeling, they demand the cocktail once again. After some time, this feeling of intoxication becomes normal and being merry is no longer the case, just like someone who has a toothache and uses painkillers to soothe the pain. The main problem is the rotten tooth and painkiller is only a temporary remedy.
Now after 5 years, we observe the conditions of the city:
*all the wooden structures of the city have been destroyed by the termites.
*rats have dug holes under the foundation of all the buildings causing their immediate collapse.
*all the agricultural products have been destroyed by grasshoppers.
*all the remainder of the foods have been contaminated by the flies and other insects.
*all the electrical wires have been short circuited due to the collapse of the poles.
*all the gas and water pipes have been damaged and are leaking.
Now we are going to attempt to rescue this city, a city that has been turned into ruins with all of its infrastructures completely destroyed. It’s either the ruler or the residents of this city want to be rescued out of these horrible circumstances, or they are going to be forced into a rescue attempt. If the second scenario is true, then the ruler and the residents are not interested in any kind of assistance, and assume that life is great under the present circumstances. At the moment, we rather not deal with this group. However, let’s think of certain strategies for the first group who are completely dissatisfied with the current conditions of their city.
This is exactly like an individual who is tired of drug addiction, and has turned his body into a ruin, and desires redemption from the bottom of his heart.
Now the ruler of this ruined city is ready for assistance just like a patient who has gone to drug treatment clinic, or has asked his family members for help. We’ll divide the people who want to help into two groups.
1) The extremists who believe in quick, decisive, and harsh actions.
2) The moderates who believe in understanding and a gradual approach.
The extremists say: close the gates of the city and do not let any carnival enter. No magical cocktail, no harm done.
The moderates say: closing the gates immediately is not a wise approach as the residents are used to drinking the cocktail regularly, and if it’s suddenly cut, certain problems are created.
This second group, for example, would recommend that the gates be monitored on a daily bases so that only a part of the carnival enters the city. They continue this method and close the gates on the tenth day, or the twentieth day. Of course, during this period, they would give the residents some of their own so-called harmless cocktails. (Chemical drugs, etc.)
However, something that both groups do after their experiments is testing the exit gates. To the ruler of the city they say: as you can see no member of the happy carnival is seen leaving the exit gates of the city, therefore, we can conclude that the city is safe.
This is just like what some of the addiction clinics say to their patients after a urine test. It means that if the test is negative, the person is no longer a drug addict. The negative result is a display of successful treatment and a full recovery according to them. However, the important point is that the city (physical body) is still a complete ruin and in disarray. The real cure takes place only when all the ruins are rebuild, and all the systems completely functional. No wonder the individual goes back to addiction sometime after.
The realness of something is very different from pretending it to be real.
In reality, one cannot rebuild a city that has been bombarded and completely destroyed overnight. It needs time and a through planning. Just like how residents of a war-torn city can rebuild their city better than what it was, cells of a human’s body can do the same given the right circumstances and enough time.
A part of the Crossing the zone 60 degrees below zero written by Hossein Dezhakam