Corrected: Armed / endangered
Whoops, I forgot to add the story
Life is always unfair and often cruel. Almost everyone self-medicates—with food, alcohol, yoga, shopping, gambling, games, sex, tobacco, exercise, TV, social media, etc.
And of course, with drugs.
Some of those drugs, like antidepressants, are legal and relatively benign. Some, like booze and weed, can be used by most people and never lead to abuse and addiction. Some—opioids, amphetamines, tobacco—raise the odds of addiction and can cling with such tenacity that they strangle joy, health and lives. That they are illegal and expensive adds a whole other world of need, pain, and danger.
Some of us become addicted. Some of us are fortunate in situation, genetics, or blind luck in that the self-medication we choose, or the one that chooses us, does its job: It brings pleasure or relief and calms the demons without entrapping us in a spiral of destructive need.
Some of us are very lucky.
Wow, Terry -- such powerful pictures and text. It's interesting to remember thinking, as a young person, that it was all about hard work, making the right choices, etc. Nowadays, I better understand why humans came up with the idea of karma. You have voiced so clearly and succinctly what I, at age 76, recognize as reality. Thank you.
wise words...thanks