Personalism, Addiction and the Moral Approach.

Let us now examine an ever present problem in modern developed nations. This problem is one of addiction. Addiction can be to visual violence, pornography, pills prescribed by a doctor, legal and or illegal intoxicants to name a few. Why do we have these problems when it seems that we all live above some sort of standard of poverty?

It might be inherent in our capitalist system in which competition is championed to an unhealthy degree. This pressure to succeed or pressure to remain famous and or wealthy breaks down the soul. It may be a degree to see what you may find valuable in life. If money is all you are after, then for some females they might have to put starting a family on hold so long that when they choose to have a family it may be too late.

For a male, being famous will be difficult because your whole life will be under a microscope. What you did in the past might come back to haunt you and it is quite disheartening. People live grow mature and have to live the lives they have to understand what is important in life.

For me it was the start of a family and what I choose to measure my wealth in. It took along time to realize that alcohol is the worst drug out there. Not only does it change your ideals and what you think is acceptable it lowers your ability to make rational and clear decisions. Also, an alcohol dependent individual can see severe damage to the pocket book with irrational unnecessary decisions. Even somewhat normal people find it hard not to binge on buying too much goods on amazon; nevermind, an alcoholic whos late night amazon binge can only be good for the delivery industries.

While some who drink can get into a lot of trouble. Drunk driving, sextual encounters which can go sour, and most devastating introduction to the world of hard substance abuse. Yes, it is possible. Ask anyone you know and you will hear stories of known individuals from good families whos young are dying from hard drugs.

If you take your high school year book and can name 10 or more who have died early from addiction, then the community must know they have a problem.

Since I am relying on Personalism and the Moral Approach to addiction one must realize that addiction is a very serious issue in modern day developed nations. The why questions do not matter when a loved one perishes due to substance abuse. So, the Moral Approach relies on community education and philosophy of personalism to educate each individual. It is then up to the individual to understand and make the plethora of choices necessary to understand that hurting oneself also hurts others.

This education should start young and be constant life long bombardment if we are to make sure to rid our society of this cancer. Just as smoking is looked down upon in the west, and anti smoking campaigns have a some what success rate the same should be for all harmful life altering substances. I have to admit, I do smoke cigarette’s but eventually will quit. My allure to smoking is from the existentialist movement and hoped their could still be smoked filled rooms to talk philosophy. But, unfortunately that is no more.

The Moral Approach looks at substance dependency as a weakness in character. It is your choice, but some get duped into the lifestyle. To fill the void of emptiness in a society in which excess is affordable for most we are in big trouble. Many cannot cope with the excess and always find emptiness. Being happy in solitude is also a personal choice one quite frankly must be brave to be alone. No one around to help, sometimes no one around to talk to on any occasion. So, if we are to treat people with dignity we must first understand happiness is different for different people we all do not have to fit in a cookie cutter lifestyle but when things go crazy and get out of hand we need compassion to reintegrate these individuals somehow. Are all people and communities ready for this definitely not, yet that is what is needed.

For example, my time overseas I met an Evangelical Lutheran minister. His wife told me a personal story about him and he shared it with everyone. This story might have sent a lot out the door but his weakness was his strength overcoming addiction to know what is really important. As a result, it was an inspiring moment in my life, one that I will always remember if he could do it why could not I on my path to recovery.

With this all said an done, nobodies perfect do not let the little things overcome and make ones life a living hell.

I’ll let you figure out what the little things are.

On a positive note, I have to express true gratitude to my family who has helped me unconditionally in my path to recovery.