Professional Documents
Culture Documents
An Essay On Addiction
An Essay On Addiction
Date : 11-01-01
A statistic about high school seniors show that fifty-three percent of them are
getting drunk at least once a month, forty-three percent are smoking marijuana and thirty-
six percent are smoking cigarettes. Alcohol abuse costs the country “a staggering” one
hundred and eighty five billion dollars and forty billion dollars are spent every year on
drug war. Addiction is certainly an epidemic that is plaguing our society today. But
addicts are people who are among every one of us, living in a society or as a nation to
deal with social problems such as addiction. However, each one of us as individuals can
make positive difference – addict or not – by attempting to take responsibility for our
own personal transformations. It is individuals who make a society or a nation. Hence,
perhaps our attempt to see an addiction-free society could be achieved by each one of us
first experiencing it in our individual lives.
“When people are unable to experience the feeling of connection and community
in healing ways, they will often find ways that are dark and destructive” says not the
scripture but science. Dean Ornish, scientist and author of “Love and Survival” provides
the scientific evidences that love and intimacy are essential for our health as well as for
our very survival as human-beings. This aspect of life-experience belongs to each one of
us. We were left with hope for Caroline in “Traffic” only when her parents significantly
attempted to connect with her. It was essential that the parents themselves undergo a
transformation in order to save their daughter’s life. When the channels inside us begin to
open for “improving relationships with people, places and things”, we begin to discover
the reasons to find a place in our society and thereby help others find themselves
similarly.
To have a fulfilling experience, we have to create access around us to see the way
others experience their lives. Therapy, counseling and treatments like ‘Alcoholic
Anonymous’ create a positive experience for the addicted people among us. But
connecting with our families and friends, neighbors and communities, is one of the
primary experiences that we have to bring to our daily lives. What therapies and
counseling offer are what we need in our everyday life. It is said that people get addicted
or relapse into addiction for a primary reason such as stress, loneliness and isolation. So
we have to create opportunities for ourselves to reach out to others and allow ourselves
experience life its fullest.