The time is 17.09 and I’m drinking a coffee. I enjoy coffee, sometimes I really enjoy it and most days it’s the thing that quietens the screams, makes me feel normal again and allows me to start the day. One liberating moment in life is the one in which your ego gets kicked in the balls as you realise you are not unique, there is with certainty at least one other human being, most likely about one billion, that does, thinks or enjoys the same things as you. In the instance of my relation to coffee the one billion number seems inadequate, because – standing up in the circle – I am an addict. What is interesting with this though is that circle contains over seven billion people because I guarantee there is not one person on earth who is not addicted to something, whether that is coffee, heroin, sugar, running or self-deprecation, everyone out there has that something that makes them feel normal again.
Of course I suspect I know little about addiction in general and mean not to offend as this is understandably an emotive topic, but I have my own observations of myself and although that is only one reality, it is not always easy to go on anything else. There have been times when I have had addictions to cigarettes and considering the fact I crave them for a moment as I think about this it is perhaps the case that addictions never really leave you. Renton certainly said something along those lines about heroin. Then there have been times that I’ve just needed a beer but I wouldn’t say I’m an alcoholic. Part of that necessity was possibly the sugar in the beer or dehydration, but it could very easily have been the habit of consuming that beer be that after work or by the beach on a hot day.
A friend of mine goes to the pub most afternoons and drinks three or four pints but he very rarely drinks anywhere else. He told me once that having grown up with parents running numerous pubs it was more the environment he was going for than the alcohol. After spending a month hanging out with him, it became clear that this repetition was habitual as much as anything else. If changing environment changes habits and is recognised as a way to get over certain addictions, then there must be a link. Is addiction nothing more than habit, our habitual response to a perceived need in the moment.
Perhaps this is common knowledge and I’m just catching up. Perhaps I’m oversimplifying a complex issue. But perhaps we should start focusing more on our habitual responses and we won’t simply find a new thing to be addicted to every time we overcome the other.
Observations and Misunderstandings 