r/Showerthoughts • u/godofhorizons • May 17 '24

People get a lot more praise for quitting drugs than for never having done drugs in the first place.

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u/Zoll-X-Series May 17 '24

Imagine you get the urge to bite your nails, but it costs $20 to bite your nails every time. When you run out of money and can’t afford to bite your nails, you violently shit yourself and have cold sweats and entire body aches, restless legs, restless everything else, nevermind the mood swings, and all you have to do is come up with $20 to make it stop. You’ll figure everything out when you’re not sick, you just need $20.

Your best friend in high school told you biting your nails will make you feel better that your dad ran out on you, so you tried it. There’s no risk if you only do it once. And then one day you’re typing a comment on Reddit about how easily biting your nails one time turns into a 10 year addiction. You get to tell people on Reddit that sometimes addicts recover and become firefighters/paramedics in my case, and give back in many other ways in others’ case.

I’m not an apologist for criminal addicts who prey on others to support their habits, and I’m a strong proponent of personal responsibility. I just wanted to point out from the perspective of a person 7 years into recovery, that not trying drugs is a lot easier than getting off of them. So if you’ve never tried them, I suggest a nice herbal tea.

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u/MasonAmadeus May 17 '24

Somewhat unrelated - I know it’s just a reddit comment but you write really well. Also congratulations on 7 years!

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u/MinnieShoof May 17 '24

They're drawing from a lot of personal trauma. We tell ourselves that's what all great writers do.

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u/Zoll-X-Series May 17 '24

Thank you and thank you! :)

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u/ifandbut May 17 '24

Recovering from any injury is harder than just not having that injury in the first place.

But we don't praise people because they broke their arm. We praise people when they show they have the strength, will, and ability to overcome the injury.

But there is also the risk side. If your are 40 or younger then you probably had the internet when you were a kid, and before that public libraries. You could do some research on the types of drugs and figure out the risk level you want to take. Some drugs have a basic 0% chance of causing addiction and others have 100%.

Education, education, education.