Aug 17, 2007
Overuse Into Abuse
Overuse
No major American decision was ever made without the influence of alcohol, nicotine or caffeine‑often all three. —Peter McWilliams
Yet all intoxicants can be overused. This is the ‘tox” in intoxication. Use any intoxicant too much or too often and its positive promise invariably turns poisonous.
The overuse of any intoxicant has a temporarily sickening effect upon one’s body and mind. The stumbling stupidity of too much alcohol, the hacking cough of too much tobacco, the wired agitation of too much coffee, the glazed over eyes of too much marijuana: any intoxicant can be overused and such overuse always results in a short term loss of wellness.
It must be noted, however, that our experiences with specific intoxicants are subjectively determined and therefore personal. One person’s happiness enhancer is another person’s poison. Some people can derive pleasure from scotch, some can’t. Some people can enjoy chocolate every day, some shouldn’t. Even for the individual, moderate use at one time in one’s life might constitute overuse or abuse at another time. All of which argues for social policies that encourage individual responsibility, rather than the promulgation of oppressive dogma and fruitless punishment.
The effects of intoxicant overuse are mostly temporary. They serve as clear feedback to help the individual to moderate any future use of the intoxicant. In some cases, a single instance of overuse (or even just witnessing overuse by another person) may be enough dissuade the individual from ever using a certain intoxicant. Or, some experience with overuse may lead to moderate use, ie, “I never drink more than one beer or “I only get high on weekends.” Or, the individual may miss the lessons of overuse and fall into destructive abuse.
Abuse
Getting high from time to time may be necessary to our physical and mental health, just as dreaming at night seems to be vital to our well‑being. —Andrew Weil, MD
Regular overuse of an intoxicant constitutes abuse. When an individual persists in overusing an intoxicant despite all the negative feedback (from body, mind, family and society) that he or she is receiving, then the effects of the overuse turn seriously abusive (to body, mind, family and society) and ultimately addictive.
Ironically, the intoxicant abuser experiences few of the positive effects that once came with moderate intoxication. For the abuser, any happiness enhancement is fleeting at best. Likewise, the acute effects of intoxicant overuse gradually turn more chronic. Though there is still a poisoning effect, the abuser experiences it more as a chronic condition than as an acute warning. Tragically, it is extremely difficult to learn from and grow out of chronic conditions.
The crux of intoxicant abuse is the loss of self‑control. The intoxicant abuser is out of control of his or her life. There is no longer any free choice to use or not to use a specific intoxicant; rather, it is as if the power to choose has been transferred to the substance, over the individual. One’s whole life comes to be dominated by the daily necessities of continuing abuse. One is, at this point, addicted — trapped in the chronic abuse of a toxic substance.
Thus, the intoxicant abuser/addict suffers from both a chronic’ poisoning of body and mind and from a loss of the free will and personal autonomy that makes one fully human. This is truly a depraved condition with dire consequences for the individual and society.
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