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Anything to make us feel better

Life is tough. Between work pressure, social pressure, financial pressure and family pressure, it is easy to get to a point where you feel as if you could detonate. Everyone feels this at some stage in their lives.

It is such a natural thing to do to grab at anything to make you feel better. It could be an over-the-counter painkiller, another glass of wine, a cigarette, prescription or illegal drugs.

We are creatures that live in the present, and very often our present needs will override concerns for the long-distant future.

While many people would think twice before doing anything illegal, there is a slippery slope between abusing prescription drugs and getting into the murkier side of the world of addiction. It happens so easily, and it has already happened to eleven percent of South Africans, who are estimated to have addiction problems.

It is also very easy to point fingers at others from a safe and middle-class position, or from a life that does not involve looking after aged parents, or difficult teenagers, or coping with abuse or unemployment. I have little doubt that if I were living under a bridge and sleeping under a black plastic bag,  I too would have found great solace in heaps of alcohol. In the long run it doesn't help, but boy, it does make the freezing winter's night a little more bearable.

And that's the problem: stuff that makes us feel better right now, might create a problem of its own in the long run. Five cigarettes a day easily become ten, a glass of wine becomes a bottle, the prescription tablets given to us by a friend can quickly become a habit. No one starts taking drugs with a view to addiction.

But while a substance of any kind might make us feel better in the present, it still has not solved the problem which made us want to take it in the first place. When we resurface, it's still there. And if we don't watch out, addiction is another problem that could be added to the list. And that sure doesn't help.

 
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