The underlyings

One of the weirdest statements I have ever heard, which put me in a position where I had to take a couple of minutes to think thoroughly is:

“Addictions are not problems, but solutions.”

People, including myself, have always seen addictions as problems other people battle with. Once a while, or many times actually, you will find someone with a drinking problem, as popularly termed and the generally passed judgement is that this person needs to stop drinking.

In a lot of ways, these judgments are poor because these things aren't the problem. The person, ironically, needs to drink, not to stop because there is an underlying problem, present and causing the demand for a solution.

I was very uncomfortable hearing it.

For someone who actually drinks, though not to escape any problems, but simply because I want to drink at that time, I felt uncomfortable having to accept that people who have drinking problems are actually having drinks as a solution to a secondary problem.

So, drinking solutions? (See how that sounds?)

Surely, I do not live under a rock, so I have come in contact with people who will say things like “drink away your sorrows” hence the idea of a secondary problem is something that cannot be new to me, but that never really stops me or most people from judging people's drinking addiction first, before thinking about how the underlying problem can be addressed.

The same goes to having to embrace the idea that drug use isn't the problem, but a solution.

When I slowly came to understand the statement and accepted it, I figured that solutions are not all-rounders, so one should not expect that they would bring positive outcomes for a person in every aspects of their lives.

This helps one understand that alcohol or drugs use, bringing temporary ease to a person's state of mind makes it qualified to be considered a solution. The fact that it results in other problems developing does not change that it began as a solution to another problem.

Tackling addictions should begin with identifying the underlyings that creates a need for things like alcohol or drug use.

This could be career struggles, unhealthy relationships with people, poor self-image, basically so much out there can put a person in a place where they begin to search for an easy “fix” to get away from their troubled state of mind.

Sometimes the lack of adequate human interactions and connections can lead one to slide into this dark place and as a result, develop a hunger for substance use to distract away.

An addict most times is running from something. Those addictions are the only fix they can access in their capacity, thus helping out begins with looking to understand the underlying cause, triggering these urges to find a quick fix.

^{Image credits: Pinterest (edited with AI)}