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I have known quite a few friends from earlier in my life who became serious addicts and ruined their lives or ended their lives by it. I would not describe a si

by HEmanZ 4y ago

I have known quite a few friends from earlier in my life who became serious addicts and ruined their lives or ended their lives by it. I would not describe a single one as having started using because they were mad at society, sad, or lonesome. It was always some strange kind of strange, arrogant fetishization of drug-life and crime-life. There is an almost "drug life is THE life, and everyone else is lame" attitude in many circles, and I got a little too close to comfort to falling into it at one point in my life. This doesn't mean there aren't a hundred reasons people get trapped in drugs. But a very real one is just because many people come to believe it's cool and tough, and end up fetishizing it until it's too late to get out. And like I said, in my hometown, this was the predominant reason.

Apocryphon 4y ago
Were they bored, did they not have exciting career or family prospects, was it ennui? Low-grade emotions can lead to addictive behaviors, not only high intensity trauma. The decision to subscribe to a malignant anti-authority lifestyle still shows that something is wrong, if it becomes so attractive an alternative to forsake one's life for.
- HEmanZ 4y ago
  Reading HN, I get the strong suspicion many people didn’t grow up around drugs. People don’t always think they are throwing away their lives. They think “this makes me cool” and “it’s no big deal” and “anyone who’s anyone does it”. Often there’s the confident assertion “this ruins other peoples lives but I’m too good/special for that”. And often they don’t even realize it’s a problem, even when they’ve hit rock bottom, even when they’ve ruined their families lives for their drug addiction. I’m not claiming other, much sadder reasons don’t exist. Or that we shouldn’t do something to help people survive and recover, like this vaccine that could mean thousands of lives saved, thousands of fewer mothers crying at funerals. But there is also a lot of personal responsibility involved, and we can’t make this claim, that I see so many people on HN try to make, that people who have ruined their life (and more importantly, often their families lives) thru their own choices have no responsibility. That it’s all fault of vague “society” and if we just ban together with <vague handwavy socialist/utopian/whatever vision>, that people will stop making bad decisions about their lives.
  - Apocryphon 4y ago
    Society doesn’t have to be a big nebulous thing. It can just mean the immediate family, the community, the town, the local economic situation.
- Jerrrry 4y ago
  > The decision to subscribe to a malignant anti-authority lifestyle still shows that something is wrong, if it becomes so attractive an alternative to forsake one's life for. "anyone using [opioids]...wants to die, just a little, i think"

by HEmanZ 4y ago

Apocryphon 4y ago

Were they bored, did they not have exciting career or family prospects, was it ennui? Low-grade emotions can lead to addictive behaviors, not only high intensity trauma. The decision to subscribe to a malignant anti-authority lifestyle still shows that something is wrong, if it becomes so attractive an alternative to forsake one's life for.

HEmanZ 4y ago
Reading HN, I get the strong suspicion many people didn’t grow up around drugs. People don’t always think they are throwing away their lives. They think “this makes me cool” and “it’s no big deal” and “anyone who’s anyone does it”. Often there’s the confident assertion “this ruins other peoples lives but I’m too good/special for that”. And often they don’t even realize it’s a problem, even when they’ve hit rock bottom, even when they’ve ruined their families lives for their drug addiction. I’m not claiming other, much sadder reasons don’t exist. Or that we shouldn’t do something to help people survive and recover, like this vaccine that could mean thousands of lives saved, thousands of fewer mothers crying at funerals. But there is also a lot of personal responsibility involved, and we can’t make this claim, that I see so many people on HN try to make, that people who have ruined their life (and more importantly, often their families lives) thru their own choices have no responsibility. That it’s all fault of vague “society” and if we just ban together with <vague handwavy socialist/utopian/whatever vision>, that people will stop making bad decisions about their lives.
- Apocryphon 4y ago
  Society doesn’t have to be a big nebulous thing. It can just mean the immediate family, the community, the town, the local economic situation.
Jerrrry 4y ago
> The decision to subscribe to a malignant anti-authority lifestyle still shows that something is wrong, if it becomes so attractive an alternative to forsake one's life for. "anyone using [opioids]...wants to die, just a little, i think"