After suffering and enduring drug abuse for many years, I expected myself to become intolerant and condemning of those who recreationally use drugs. I expected to look down on them as weak and pathetic. That they need to just stop taking and sort their lives out etc.
Instead I find myself sympathetic and understanding of their mindset. Let me just make it clear - nobody plans on becoming an addict, nobody takes drugs thinking they're going to destroy their lives.
It doesn't happen overnight but by the time you realise you've lost control over your usage, it's too late. One minute you think you have it under control, that you can stop whenever you want... the next minute you realise you have a problem but by then you're addicted.
I see drug abusers now, and I wonder why they got addicted in the first place rather than seeing them as a failure. I see them as people who use it as a coping mechanism because their life dealt them a shitty hand. Rather than condemning them, I try to reach out to them, and I find myself actively defending them against others who would insult them.
It's strange, but in an ironic way, drugs have made me a more accepting and less judgmental person.
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