EvErYoNe'S a DrUg AdDiCt

We have drugs in our heads, they've been there since birth and exist in more or less ample supply. We experience the effects of these chemicals in a fit of rage, a fit of laughter, with feelings of lust, love, sadness, anxiety. Sometimes it's involuntary, but often, whether or not we're conscious of it, we take actions that intentionally catalyze these chemicals.*

I'm a fan of altered states, in particualr the self induced variety, and people often ask me if I'm high when I'm really just enjoying the madness of life and being slightly mad myself. I think this is great. But there's a more destructive cluster of neurotransmitters that I've been trying my best to stay away from. The best way to identify this cluster most generally is to say, they're the ones that make you wanna hit someone...or maybe just yell at them a little bit. They're buried deep within the most primitive reptilian portions of our brain but they are some of the easiest chemicals to call forth.

Now, it's easy to spot an addict to these particular neurotramitters. They tend to embody the following characteristics: a worldview dominated by cynicism, an predisposition for self-pity and/or victimzation, and sporatic or regular outbursts of agression towards other people. The occasional existential dilemma doesn't qualify someone as an addict, and sometimes these are merely character traits, but I do advise, if you find that you or someone you love identifies with two or more of the aforementioned characteristics, you may want to re-evaluate whether you've slipped into a self-induced chemical addiction.



* Funnily enough, this addiction may be the key to maintaining loyalties in partisan politics, from an MSNBC article published last year:

"Democrats and Republicans alike are adept at making decisions without letting the facts get in the way, a new study shows. And they get quite a rush from ignoring information that's contrary to their point of view."

EDIT:

There was a preacher preaching at my school today. There was something so perverse about it. There was a white guy standing with a sign enumerating symptoms of demonic behavoir, and a thin, well dressed, bible salesman looking black guy being attacked by the hormone laden college students like a whipping boy. People were so ready to snarl, to bite, i was just wondering what it would take for them to kick and kill. All these students who sleepwalk around campus suddenly ablaze with passion, hatred. How do you source this incredible energy? The preacher is so effective at harvesting it, but it evaporates, does nothing but flows through the bloodstream being sure to avoid the brain. I imagined putting something on his back, an advertisement for actually thinking, or trying to capture that energy in a container to be released later. Or creating a scene around the man, staging a performance, making the whole thing a play, an incredible fiction, a live demonstration of the state of the world.

Later, I found this (see "enjoying agression")

Sun, Dec 23, 2007  Permanent link