Warning: Reading this article may cause anger, anxiety, aneurisms or anal leakage.
When we get depressed, the new American way is to run to the doctor for a pill to fix it or otherwise medicate it away. It can work in the short term by lessening the pain so we can continue to drone away in semi-complacency and avoid having to deal with the real issue.
And if that pill doesn’t work—if your wonderful pain is still telling you that drugging yourself is not the answer—there are, according to TV ads, booster pills to crank up the octane and quiet that voice as well. Of course, there’s a possibility you’ll want to kill yourself or will simply fall down dead, but give it a whirl, at least you won’t have to actually do anything to change what’s wrong in your life.
Yes, I know I have just pushed a lot of buttons and it’s necessary—it is a message we all need to hear. If we are using anything—drugs (prescription, street or otherwise), alcohol, sex, shopping, you name it—to avoid dealing with what we know we need to, it’s time to admit it, face it and make different choices. Dulling the pain so we can keep doing what’s causing it is insane.
When I was very young, maybe three or four, I was playing with my dolls under the light of the lamp by the front door (exceptional detail to memory for someone who remembers next to nothing about her childhood, but you’ll see why.) For reasons known only to Little Me, I decided the bobby pin I’d stuck in the doll’s hair would be equally amusing inserted into the electrical outlet on the wall.
Now you know why I remember. The shock was fast and fierce. It made a believer out of me and I never ever wanted to feel like that again. I gathered up my toys and found a new place to play that didn’t hurt. I learned about electricity—and life—in a way children today can’t, all protected from themselves and their stupidity by covers, caps, traps and all manner of devices.
Yes, I suppose I could have been killed, and if I’d done it a second time I deserved to be. Seriously. Because we all know that if it hadn’t hurt me bad enough that first time, I would have tried it again, either to see the sparks fly or for the adrenaline jolt. The only worse option for that scenario would have been for me to take a pill so I could do it again and hang on longer.
Now, I know there are a lot of people struggling and juggling with situations that seem to have no good solutions and the best they feel they can do is take a pill to keep them going to get through it. Maybe that’s okay in the short term—maybe—to keep from cracking like an egg. But at what point is it just another avoidance tactic to keep from having to actually face the unpleasantness and make the tough choices?
The sad fact is, as long as we can tolerate it and get by, we won’t actually do anything that could make things better for us in the long run. Just like duct tape, it’s only temporary unless it works to get us by.
However, we have to realize that the pain is there for a reason. We feel bad because things aren’t right, and if we take a pill to avoid feeling bad, the only thing we’re really changing is us. We’re simply muddling our brains so we can tolerate what we know we need to change.
When you get that first hit of pain, don’t go back for seconds. It is a whole lot easier to deal with it the first time and move on than to ignore it and hope it will go away. If you’ve been ignoring the problem, stop. It’s never too late. If you need help get it, but please, don’t just take the easy way out. Hold yourself accountable and do what you know you need to do.
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Paula Renaye is motivational speaker, life transformation coach and author of The Hardline Self Help Handbook, which has won Four National Book Awards. Visit http:/hardlineselfhelp.com for more inspirational articles and free stuff.
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