Is Addiction a Positive or Negative Human Trait

It is possible for you to make a positive experience out of a tragic situation like you are going through now. My grandfather was a vicious alcoholic that beat my mother. She refused to be like him and I was raised without ever fearing my home life.

Pass on your love to your kids. It will help you heal.

bhavv - being anti-human in this kind of topic is quite common. There will always be an element of 'it's your own fault' to addiction, but you shouldn't let this completely dominate your thinking, there will also always be an element of 'someone else created this situation or hindered its solution' to the problem as well. By being completely anti-human you permit more leeway to the people who put you in this mind-set than those people who might, one day, prove that humanity is not a complete lost cause. You know, as if you're helping the Dark Side to win by assuming they have won before they have etc etc etc.

Hardlicker - That's a very sad story you present there, and yet another example of heroin's naughty ne'erdowelling. I'm amazed your mother made it to 60! Was it a life-long addiction? I only ask because I've never heard an example of a life-longer with heroin, all we, the general schmos, get to hear is about people dying by 30 or before on it.

I think MoonYu gives some excellent advice and comfort and I thank the Moon for that. I'll also add though that it would be great if you could find a way to solve your psychological misfortune from the historical horrors by some means other than prescribed anti-depressants. No long term good can ever come from such a product and, once you are addicted to them, you will never be able to find a better, more total 'cure'.

Mikekowa - Yes, you are very similar to me in all kinds of regards. I think we should bro'mate as soon as possible, LOL. But seriously, lol, although I have been lucky enough to never be addicted to anything stronger than tobacco (I class weed as less powerful than tobacco), I can admit to having a very curious personality, and I am the type who will try rather than take someone else's word for it. I have teased alcohol addiction. I have tickled gamboling addiction. I know from this, and other life-experiences, that I do have quite a strong addictive nature... but I am able to stop if I really want to.

The mere fact that both your and my experiences exist as, essentially, non-experienced in addiction, when the world offers just so much of it, does indeed prove that there is definitely an element of 'choice' to all addictions and that products should not be classed as purely negative just because 'some' of humanity cannot use the product without becoming addicted.

Veta321 - discipline is a form of addiction though. That's the process of replacing one addiction with another. The most common association with the word 'discipline' is 'military'. There have been countless examples of military men who, once removed from the strict discipline of the army, cannot, by any means at all, cope with civilian life and the negative reaction to the loss of their disciplined routine can be as catastrophic as someone coming off a highly addictive drug.


I think, so far, the evidence against heroin (generally) and alcohol (abused) is pretty much hands-down damming, that much is for sure.

I like that Mike has also mentioned Adultery as a form of addiction. Sex addiction is most definitely something which society treats appallingly with regards to knowledge and solutions.

Excellent that you have mentioned Comfortably Numb, one of the most influential music records of the 20th Century. It is without doubt that art can benefit greatly from addiction. Some of the greatest works of art have stemmed from some form of addictive toxication, from 19th Century writers, such as Edgar Allen Poe, to 21st Century pop icons, such as Heath Ledger's Joker and much more in between.

Further, and separate from intoxication, it is even possible to be addicted to creating art...!

Take Pablo Picasso:

"One of the most prolific artists of all time, he produced around 13,500 paintings, even more drawings than that, 2,500 original prints, 1,000 different ceramics, and 700 sculptures in other media. Given that many of the prints and ceramics were released in an average of seventy-five editions (though the edition sizes varied widely), the total number of original Picasso works is over a quarter of a million."

And just to prove his natural addictive tendencies:

"In today's psychobabble, Picasso was an egotistic and abusive male, a sex addict fueled by his own insecurities and inability to connect intimately with women."

In the same way that other forms of addiction are often caused by a desire to escape a certain reality, Picasso would define his addiction by saying:

"Art washes from the soul the dust of everyday life."

Creating art was what made Picasso comfortably numb.