When I think of the level of suffering as written about in this blog or as I witness any other incredibly sad and frustrating happenings in the world of homeless drug addicted people, I used to catch myself wondering why they don’t just stop and move on with life to something healthy. I hear other non-addicted people around me asking these kinds of questions all the time.
Having never been addicted, nor having ever used drugs, I don’t know firsthand what it’s like. I can observe people’s behavior. I can watch them go from not high to high, conscious to unconscious, comfortable to vomiting. I can see them shaking and sweating and hear them apologizing in advance for their possible/probable onset of sudden uncontrollable dope sick diarrhea but I won’t understand why they don’t “just stop” living this way.
This may help:
While you’re sitting there, explain to me how water becomes ice. You’ll say “Water freezes when it reaches the cold temperature of 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius.” You are correct but you’ve answered when water becomes ice. You’ve not answered how.“
For a full explanation on how ice forms, please spend the next hour watching this video presented by a physics professor with an outrageous English[1] accent.
To be candid, I didn’t get past the second minute of this video. Just the length of the video by this English accented physics professor, I took as evidence enough that the “How do’s” of ice formation go beyond my understanding and always will.
And that’s how I see the men and women I’ve come to know and love as they deal with their addiction. It’s enough for me to know as a non-addict and non-drug user that there’s a mystery there that goes beyond my understanding and always will.
It is a mystery to me but not to them. This not-understood-to-me element of addiction freezes them in their addiction.
Is there something to be learned from this comparison of addiction to ice formation? There may be…
I don’t get frustrated or angry with the ice in my tea when I stop to realize it is not tea. Ice in my tea can’t and won’t be tea until it has melted and is no longer ice. Ice won’t melt until it has warmed to above 32 degrees Fahrenheit or 0 degrees Celsius. Although the tea is above 32 and 0, it doesn’t force itself on the ice. It sits there next to the ice and maybe splashes a tiny bit. It sits there next to the ice just being true to itself, being tea, warmer than the ice.
Is your loved one frozen in their addiction?
Be the Tea…
I'll take your word on the ice video, I can think of better things to with that hour that I cannot have back. Nice analogy of their current situation.
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