Do Drugs Make You Happier?

Here is a random musing that I wrote stream of consciousness this summer. I thought it was interesting to share.

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I was at a concert the other day and I overheard someone say he didn’t think people could be happy without drugs (meaning weed, cigarettes, alcohol). That it just isn't possible to be legitimately happy without a substance making your mood better.

It was surprising to me, and a little sad. But I think I get it.

People don’t know what to do with their emotions. They fear feeling bad so they opt to feel ‘good’ with drugs. With the term drugs, I include all kinds of addictive actions: phones, games, shopping, in addition to the traditional substance drugs like alcohol, weed etc.

Drugs cause a false sense of good though. It’s manufactured, it’s not natural, it’s on demand. You get to pick when to feel good and opt to never feel bad. Drugs are used in a way to never feel bad and never acknowledge your thoughts or the things you want to change in your life.

The best highs are the ones that are spontaneous, short, small, random, natural.

And the way we get to that is by opting to feel bad once in a while. Embrace feeling frustrated, bitter, rejected, sad.

Turning to drugs like cigarettes, alcohol, PHONES, to avoid your feelings will make you feel good in the short term, but you’ll stay stuck in that pattern for the long term.

The urge to reach for it is a hard habit to break but it can be done, but it requires you to look at your feelings – to understand and accept yourself where you are now and move forward from there.

If you don’t like your personality qualities, the only way to change them is to accept them first.

You have to look at yourself to know who you are and decide who you want to become.

It’s easier to give in to the urge to reach for the phone/drugs, rather than have the discipline to move toward your long term goals. If you don’t embrace yourself and start moving toward the person you want to be, you’ll guarantee you’ll stay the same.

I think people CAN be happy without drugs/our phones. Of course they are fun and exciting, but to believe you can’t be happy without them is disempowering. We can and have lived without these and we’ve been conditioned that we can’t live without our phones.

If you want to change into a person you’re proud of, look at the feelings you’re avoiding, sit with the urge to reach for your phone/drugs, feel the sadness or anger or shame, write them down, ask yourself why you feel that way and come up with new ways to alleviate the feeling without drugs. Maybe it's just sitting with the feeling or reading a book instead or facing the thing you are procrastinating doing.

When you look at yourself and your feelings, then the urge to reach for the phone/drugs will subside and it will be easier to change into who you want to be.