We’re All On Drugs
What drugs are you on? And for that matter, what are drugs? As someone who grew up in the 80’s and 90’s, I was well aware of the War on Drugs, and as a child who was eager to do the right things in life, I dutifully learned the cultural differences between good drugs and bad drugs. It was pretty easy, or so I thought. Good drugs are legal, bad drugs are illegal. Simple enough. Good drugs are namely those made by big pharmaceutical companies, intending to relieve pain, decrease symptoms, and/or regulate different systems of the body. Bad drugs were pretty much everything else: marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, meth, LSD, magic mushrooms, heroin, and so on. I was told they were dangerous, to be avoided at all costs. It’s not long before the astute observer says, “But wait! What about alcohol and tobacco?” They are both legal drugs, so they must…good? Ot at least not dangerous, right?
Somewhere in my late teens, I realized that the legal/illegal dividing line wasn’t as clear as I’d hoped it would be. So how can you tell which are good drugs and which are bad drugs? Maybe it’s not exclusively which ones are legal and which ones aren’t. Maybe to begin I need a better working definition of drugs.
A “drug,” according to dictionary.com, is “any article, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body.” Ok, that works for me. But doesn’t that then make everything we put into our bodies drugs?
First and foremost, I don’t know why food gets a pass in that definition. I know that culturally we do not think of food as a drug, but maybe we should. I mean, it seems quite obvious to me that food alters the functions of the body. In many ways, that’s its purpose. But some foods seem more like drugs than others. Let’s start with the obvious: sugar. I will be the first to tell you about my lifelong love affair with sugar, but at this stage in the game, I try to eat it sparingly, because I feel the intensity of what sugar is doing to my system. I feel its drug-like effects. Sugar is so intense, and so addictive, that it is now behind two major health epidemics in our country: diabetes and obesity. Speaking of which, have you ever heard of Mountain Dew Mouth? (Be careful if you do a Google image search, but be advised, it is a very real thing.) Some people, mostly in the Appalachian states, drink on average 8-10 cans of Mountain Dew a day, consuming little to no water, and consequently it rots all their teeth, much the same as meth-addicts. Why is Mountain Dew the soda of choice? Because it has more sugar and caffeine than others sodas.
Of course that’s an extreme example, but have you ever watched a child eat a cupcake and then scream and bounce around the house? That’s a kid being high. Most adults have their own complicated relationship with sugar, and if you start reading labels, you’ll be surprised to see how much sugar is in our food (ketchup, cereal, peanut butter, etc.) It’s a way of life, and it is so common and accepted that of course we don’t think that sugar is a drug. But cheering yourself up by eating a whole pint of Ben & Jerry’s? What’s not drugs about that?
What about people that cannot function in the morning until they’ve had their coffee? Isn’t that drugs?
What about the energy drink craze in this country? Completely legal drugs.
What about bread? People have emotional relationships to bread. Have you ever noticed that?
And cheese? If you tell a cheese-lover that they can’t have cheese anymore, I daresay the reaction would be much like any other addict who can’t get a hold of more drugs.
So food is, for all intents and purposes, a drug. It is something which alters and affects the mood, chemistry, and functionality of the body.
So clearly there are good drugs, and bad drugs. Good drugs, I would say, are anything that you put in your body that supports your vital essence, promotes holistic wellness, increases your overall health, and/or fosters a healthy connection to Spirit. Bad drugs, then, would be anything that drains your vital essence, treats symptoms instead of root causes, decreases your overall health, and becomes a tool of the ego, essentially used as a substitute for your connection with the divine.
I am not someone who practices lumping things into 2 categories, so I will make it a point here to say that, NO, I don’t believe everything is as easy as labeling it “good” or “bad,” (nor do I truly believe in “good” and “bad” at all, but that’s another topic.) For the purposes of this article, I am trying to illustrate that the way we treat our bodies can be seen as that which supports health and wellness, and that which does not. There are always exceptions. Here are two:
Too much of any good drug can easily become a bad drug. We must consider balance.
Sometimes a bad drug may be good, most notably “emergency medicine”, which literally saves people’s lives, but does not address the root cause.
I encourage you to examine what kinds of drugs you are on. Are you putting things in your body to promote your overall health and healing, or are you looking for the quick fix, the short-term pleasure, the mood adjuster? Have your drugs caused you to “settle” in your search for expansion, in becoming the highest, best, version of yourself? Are they just helping you to get by?
Now let’s replace the word “drugs” with “medicine.” Shamans look at the whole world as though it is medicine. Everything you consume, physically or energetically, can been seen as medicine. I have been specifically talking about drugs in this article, and what we put in our bodies, but really everything can be seen as medicine, everything has “drug-like” effects, be they intense or mild. A good conversation is medicine. Think of a hot (or cold) shower. That’s good medicine. Did you get a solid night of sleep last night? That’s really good medicine. Listen to your favorite song. Good medicine. Think of an abusive relationship. Bad medicine. Or when you have one of those draining conversations. Bad medicine. Getting high every single night. Bad medicine. You get the point.
This has been a helpful teaching for me, and a great way to look at the world. What medicines do I take? What do I need? What drugs am I on? Is this healing me, or just temporarily relieving my suffering? As Ram Dass liked to say, “Do you want to get high, or do you want to get free? Find the medicine that will help you become free.