ARE WE ALL ADDICTS?

Joan shares he thoughts.

Monday November 8th - Edges Personality of the Year Awards. A time to celebrate, young men and women fighting the war against addiction making tremendous progress and turning their lives around. I applaud them. Where did their addiction start? Who is to blame? Are we all part of the drug culture? Ask anyone "Are you a drug taker?" 99 times out of 100 the answer is no! But what about the smokers - the drinker. Tobacco is a drug, as is alcohol, yet on the whole smoking and drinking are part of the social norm.

The tiny baby is given drugs for colic, teething pains, we have a cold, toothache, headache, backache, the answer is take a couple of paracetamol or a couple of asprin. Nobody queries any of this yet they are drugs.

Television adverts press us with the latest cure, each one a wonder drug which will remove all pain. Maybe they will, but does that not make us drug takers.

All through the last 50 years of the health service drugs have become part of everyday life and have made life worth living for sufferers of many illnesses. Anti-inflammatory, steroids, antibiotics, we could not face modern living without them.

So on the 8th November I wondered as I applauded the young achievers, are the rest of us not just one step away from following their addiction? What made them go on to cannabis, crack, heroin, and other hard drugs? After all they have seen us all popping pills at one time or another. Dad takes his headache cure, Mum takes the 'Pill', Grandma and Granddad take the heart pills, water pills, and pills for arthritis etc!

Their idols in the film world, or the modern music industry, use drugs to achieve their hectic lifestyles. Then one day the news hits the headlines another idol has died. Prematurely from drug or alcohol abuse.

Against this constant bombardment is it any wonder that 'drugs' are a part of the youth culture? That young people see no harm in taking soft drugs to enhance their enjoyment of the nightclub scene? Or just generally to give them a 'high'.

This downward spiral to hard drugs is easy to take but the road back from the gutter where it leaves you is long and hard. We are all blinkered that it won't happen to me, to my son, my daughter, so is it not time we all stopped and looked at ourselves and asked are any of us blameless? Can any of us point the finger at the 'druggy' and not feel a little guilty and uncomfortable? We can not be self-righteous and judgmental, making excuses he/she comes from a broken home, has lived in poverty on poor housing. Not every person from such a background becomes an addict.

We are all to blame. Perhaps if we just take time out to talk, to listen, and to learn from our youngsters, just now and again turn off the television, shut down the computer and sit and talk and try to understand the pressures that we as a society put on our young people then maybe the old-fashioned TENDER LOVING CARE would remove the need for drugs to make them feel they belong and fit in with the crowd.

To be loved is to be strong, knowing as you step out into the world that you are loved, that someone will listen to you and hear what you have to say hopefully removes the need for drugs to make life better and endurable.

As I applauded on the 8th November I also wept and silently begged pardon for not always seeing the 'druggy' as a last human being, as a wounded Christ I once passed by.