Didn’t intend to suggest they were the same, only that people don’t find being sober depressing and unbearable after experiencing an altered state of consciousness once. People get “high” at the doctor’s or dentist all the time and the risk of addiction from that is all but non-existent, but if someone seeks out the same drug outside a hospital setting the risk of addiction is much higher. Why? Because drugs don’t make people addicted, they keep people addicted. People become addicted when they begin to use drugs as a maladaptive coping mechanism (typically for mental illness or environmental factors, i.e. poverty), and only then does the chemical component of addiction come into play.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound argumentative.
You are making a lot of good points.
If I’m understanding you’re saying that people who have a higher risk for drug addiction could suffer from addiction after being exposed to it in a completely legal and legitimate setting (example dentist pulled your teeth and you got prescribed codeine, you liked how it numbed your emotional state, and now you want to use it to cope with your other non-related mental issues)?
Didn’t intend to suggest they were the same, only that people don’t find being sober depressing and unbearable after experiencing an altered state of consciousness once. People get “high” at the doctor’s or dentist all the time and the risk of addiction from that is all but non-existent, but if someone seeks out the same drug outside a hospital setting the risk of addiction is much higher. Why? Because drugs don’t make people addicted, they keep people addicted. People become addicted when they begin to use drugs as a maladaptive coping mechanism (typically for mental illness or environmental factors, i.e. poverty), and only then does the chemical component of addiction come into play.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to sound argumentative. You are making a lot of good points. If I’m understanding you’re saying that people who have a higher risk for drug addiction could suffer from addiction after being exposed to it in a completely legal and legitimate setting (example dentist pulled your teeth and you got prescribed codeine, you liked how it numbed your emotional state, and now you want to use it to cope with your other non-related mental issues)?