People will abuse anything that helps to numb painful emotions. Demonizing the drug isn't helpful; if you get rid of one, people will lean on something else. Th

People will abuse anything that helps to numb painful emotions. Demonizing the drug isn't helpful; if you get rid of one, people will lean on something else. The solution to drug addiction is very simple: give people better ways of dealing with their emotional pain. Of course, actually accomplishing that is the hard part. My personal belief is that we need a two-fold attack: 1) Harm reduction: provide people with less harmful emotional anesthetics (like Kratom) 2) Fix the underlying problem: provide people with better mental health care, better coping strategies, more community and more human connection. Most people agree that #2 is needed, but #1 is controversial. I think that we should treat emotional injuries like physical injuries. When someone breaks their leg and they ask for painkillers, we don't tell them "sorry, but you know that painkillers aren't going to help you heal any faster." Sometimes people need palliative treatments, but we're unwilling to provide these when it comes to psychological pain. As far as I can tell, this unwillingness is based entirely on an aphoristic assumption: "if you want to heal it, you have to feel it." Okay, great, but where's the science? Where's the research? Do you have to feel it completely to heal it, or can you take a drug that helps you feel it a bit less? What's the exact relationship between experiencing distress and healing that distress? We can't allow slogans to guide the treatment of psychological trauma.