What is Your Drug of Choice?

What is a drug? A drug is anything used to change how we think and feel. Drugs come in all shapes and sizes from legal ones (sugar, caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, food, activities, some medication, habitual behaviour) to illegal substances at the other end of the spectrum. In our culture there is often a misunderstanding, in that we focus on the actual ‘drug’ being a problem, but we do not resolve the underlying issues that encourage the use of it. The main problems with any drug if it is regularly used are the consequence of reliance and the consequence of the habit.

The consequence of reliance includes believing you cannot do without the ‘drug’, so that a cycle of belief and behaviour is ongoing. The mind will insist we cannot cope, survive, deal with whatever the issue, so we use the ‘drug’ to cope and that keeps us in the cycle of thinking and behaviour. In this cycle we don’t prove to ourselves that we can deal with life without the drug. 

The consequence of the habit depends on the drug of choice and regularity of use. If the drug of choice is caffeine, and the use is low then most will experience little or no consequence. If the drug of choice is food, and this is used in moderation, again, the consequence will be little or none for most. The consequences begin to challenge our wellbeing when the drug is depleting and the use is too often. Then our wellbeing will be compromised, and it is likely that some relationships and our overall engagement in life will be compromised too. Regular use of any drug generally means there is high anxiety about dealing with life and what it brings.

If we really want to change the consequences of overuse of anything that impacts on our wellbeing, then our energy needs to be put into the underlying issues. Whatever we put our energy into gets bigger – so perhaps we can shift our focus here off the ‘drug’ and onto the anxieties and deal with them using effective interventions that bring long term changes.