A couple of weeks ago, I read a book called "In the realm of hungry ghosts: Close encounters with addiction." Author and physician Gabor Mate (there's an accent on that last "e" but I can't figure out how to do it on my computer) who has spent numerous years as doc in residence of a residential treatment facility for drug and alcohol abuse, explores the epidemic of addiction in our society.
While the good doctor's patients are at one end of the spectrum, he takes a decidedly compassionate approach to their plight based on his own addictive tendencies.
What follows is a completely frank and honest examination of his obsessive thinking patterns. For it's not just drugs and alcohol that can destroy your chance for happiness, he argues, it's tobacco, work, food, sex, gambling,shopping and inappropriate spending. ANYTHING that can take over and unbalance your life.
Doc cautions that while society derides certain types of addictions -- the street crack addict, for example -- it supports and even institutionalizes others. He points to the perceived normalcy of the workaholic, slogging away 12 hours a day, glued to their "Crack"berry, missing out on real life.
In short: we're all addicts, in one way or other.
I thought of old Gabor this morning. I ran out of milk yesterday and forgot to buy some on the way home. So I decided to forfeit my usual morning coffee until I got into the office.
On the way into work, I noticed my thought patterns were muddled. I'd lost the usual zing in my step. I felt tired and irritable.
I didn't just want coffee. I needed it. Bad.
And then I saw it. Starbucks.
It's got all the requisite drug paraphernalia -- shiny espresso makers, a community of like-minded users, unquestioning devotion, and a language all its own. My own private crack house.
What a great reminder on this Friday morning.
2 comments:
As long as it's not in excess, I think having a little p'tit bonheurs provide mini moments of happiness. And that's a good thing.
option e, then e again = é
I am there with your point(s). I am addicted to the rush of work. I can become so busy I forget what time it is. I like work. But being so busy I miss out on life is - well - ludicrous.
I also love my coffee. Being an early riser I have fallen into the habit of reading and drinking coffee. The reading is the meditating to me - as it centers to and has become a ritual.
I think the bad part of any addiction is when reality becomes distorted, harms you or others, and/or runs your life versus you running it.
My thoughts on this (and maybe just a little rationalizing/justifying/defending).
PS - thanks for the Churchill quote. Needed it. Like Winston. I laugh when I think of it as well as heed it.
PPS - I really dislike running out of my half & half & only remembering it in the morning.
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