The Other Side

When you hear about someone having an addiction, specifically in regards to drugs, what kinds of questions comes up in our minds? Is the addict a criminal? How many times does this person take the specified drug? Is he or she even human? We may consider questions that only speaks about the person when he or she is addicted to the drug. The question that rarely gets asked is “Why is the person addicted?”

We always see the negative through the outcome of the addiction, yet we never seem to understand the addiction as the outcome. What can drive a person to seize drugs or even alcohol and take them in large amounts? We may not always know what that person goes through. We may not even know what problems he or she faced. We are so wrapped up on what the person has become because of the addiction that we almost forgot what experience that individual has gone through to become overwhelmed by addiction.

We usually never get the whole story of what the addict has gone through. Of course there are people who serve to help the addict, but they may not get a sense of their experience. We typically see addiction is a bad thing due to the damage it causes on a person, but have we considered it as some form of escape?

Maybe there’s more to the addiction as some need for the drug. It may serve as an escape from reality. Just think about. The addict could have gone through so many bad experiences: divorce, loss of a loved one, traumatic events, etc. There are endless things that can drive someone towards the drug addiction. They want some form of escape from the reality they live in. Sometimes we never take to chance to understand that addicts are human as well. Sometimes we never get the chance to hear the other side of their stories.