In response to receiving a self-help quote from a friend.
The problem is, it's all so unnecessary. I felt so liberated when I was off of Effexor 1 just a month ago. Then I had a really bad day and I went back on the drug. But had laughing gas or coca or opium been available to me (and not outlawed based on fearmongering) I would have gotten thru that patch and continued drug-free.
So, I appreciate all the advice of the Brene Browns of the world, but for me they are what the poet Shelley called "frail spells" when confronting the problems of depression and antidepressants 2.
In fact, I would claim that the entire self-help field is a product of the Drug War because it outlaws everything that works, psychologically speaking. Self-help authors are then reduced to the expedient of describing how a sane person would behave, in the hopes that their readers will be able to translate those words into feelings. This can help, but from my impatient point of view, such help is a "frail spell" - and irritating, too, because almost none of these authors realize - let alone point out - that we have outlawed all the drugs (extant and potential) that could help us achieve these goals, something that their Christian Science biases seem to reject up front.
Meanwhile materialist researchers completely ignore the power of psychological common sense. They do not care that laughing gas 3 would make me laugh -- they do not care that coca would lift me up -- they do not care that opium would give me pleasant dreams. They see no benefits in those things. They are, in fact, blind to everything that would truly help me, as they search under their microscopes for a "real" cure -- which is just a metaphysical search for a sort of holy grail of materialist morality. This understanding of the world has been cemented into the American mind by the sheer money that it has generated for the medical industry, and so it's hard to get a fair hearing, because almost everyone involved owes their very career to the materialist mindset.
Marcus Aurelius had plenty of great things to say about living successfully with oneself -- and it's comforting to read them, something that I did on a daily basis for years. However, he was a big fan of opium , too, and I dare say I might have written some such soothing thoughts were I able to indulge on occasion in that drug, which, despite drug-war dogma, CAN be used safely -- and I believe should be a legal alternative to daily antidepressant use. It would not just be the opium that would help me - but the looking forward to nightly use, as the drinker looks forward to their beer. It's the therapeutic power of anticipation, something that materialist science does not seem to recognize. I see no moral difference between daily opium 4 use and daily antidepressant use - and in fact the former is time-honored while the latter is a modern invention based on the materialist dogma of targeted neurochemical intervention.
In a sane world that recognizes psychological common sense, a vast array of psychoactive drugs could be used strategically on an as-needed basis, such that dependence would not be acquired, unless actually desired.
If the previous paragraphs sound absurd, it is only because Americans (and the world) have accepted a bunch of lies and assumptions as facts thanks to Drug War propaganda - above all, the propaganda of censorship, thanks to which we are not allowed to read or see anything that shows "drugs" in a good light.
But I very much appreciate your concern. Thanks!
I think you raise a good point about lowering one's expectations, however. One does not have to change the world but to simply do their part and should try to be satisfied with that. My part, as I see it, is to try to spread the word about the poisonous tendrils of the Drug War, which has destroyed the 4th amendment, outlawed free speech about drugs, and suppressed religions based on spiritual states. I do this by writing essays and by sending snail mail correspondence to the movers-and-shakers in the psychiatric, philosophical and psychological realms, in the hope of having someone at last say, "Aha!"
One of the reasons the Drug War is tolerated is because the victims suffer in silence, countless millions around the world living with unnecessary grief and pain because politicians have conspired with materialists to outlaw a whole pharmacy's worth of psychoactive drugs in advance, a totally anti-scientific and inhumane situation.
This is why the foes of suicide are doing absolutely nothing to get laughing gas into the hands of those who could benefit from it. Laughing is subjective after all. In the western tradition, we need a "REAL" cure to depression.
Almost all addiction services assume that the goal should be to get off all drugs. That is not science, it is Christian Science.
In the 19th century, poets got together to use opium "in a series of magnificent quarterly carouses" (as per author Richard Middleton). When we outlaw drugs, we outlaw free expression.
Why does no one talk about empathogens for preventing atrocities? Because they'd rather hate drugs than use them for the benefit of humanity. They don't want to solve problems, they prefer hatred.
Kids should be taught beginning in grade school that prohibition is wrong.
The best harm reduction strategy would be to re-legalize opium and cocaine. We would thereby end depression in America and free Americans from their abject reliance on the healthcare industry.
We deal with "drug" risks differently than any other risk. Aspirin kills thousands every year. The death rate from free climbing is huge. But it's only with "drug use" that we demand zero deaths (a policy which ironically causes far more deaths than necessary).
Countless millions suffer needlessly in silence because of America's fearmongering about drugs.
If drug war logic made sense, we would outlaw endless things in addition to drugs. Because the drug war says that it's all worth it if we can save just one life -- which is generally the life of a white suburban young person, btw.
The DEA has done everything it can to keep Americans clueless about opium and poppies. The agency is a disgrace to a country that claims to value knowledge and freedom of information.
This is why the foes of suicide are doing absolutely nothing to get laughing gas into the hands of those who could benefit from it. Laughing is subjective after all. In the western tradition, we need a "REAL" cure to depression.
