Yeah, it’s a weaselly way to not take responsibility for your own actions. I’d rather they just say: hey, we’re all human.
Except for those of us who are demons.
Or weasels.
Oh, bullshit. It’s a METAPHOR. Saying that someone has personal demons means that she or he possesses psychological factors that impel her or him to destructive or unpleasant behavior.
What’s a metaphor?
A meta is for speaking colorfully.
What’s anything for, really?
ps Skald, get over to Mello, ya traitor… oh, hang on! Cancel that.
War! Huh! Good God, y’all - what is it good for?
I thought I was pretty clear. I feel that using demons as a metaphor for addiction is a bad idea. We conceptualize complex things by metaphor and the metaphors can then direct how we address those things.
I disagree with what BrainGlutton and cwthree said about demons being internal. Every idea of a demon I’ve ever heard of considers them to be some external cause. They’re like a germ or a poison - something that enters your body and then causes you harm. But demons and germs and poisons don’t spontaneously appear in your body - they always come from outside.
But an addiction is not like that. The drug may be external but the addiction is internal. Nothing entered you and made you an addict.
And nothing will ever leave you and remove the addiction. You can rid yourself of germs or poisons or demons and they’re gone. But you can’t rid yourself of an addiction - it’s always there because it’s a part of you. All you can do is keep it under control.
The harm of using the wrong metaphor is that it helps you ignore that reality. An addict who thinks his addiction has an external cause can tell himself he’s removed the cause and he now no longer has an addiction. “It was the stress of that lousy job that was making me drink too much. Now that I don’t work there anymore, it’s okay if I have an occasional drink. I’ll be able to stop after a few now.”
Except the drugs, anyway.
Personally, I just say “Sorry, I fucked up”.
You’re getting really worked up over nothing, dude. And I say that as a rabid* atheist who opposes foisting off blame/credit to supernatural enties. Of course, I only mind when that’s what’s actually happening.
Seriously, you should mellow out. I think there are things you can take for that.
- metaphorically speaking
But, did you really fuck in an upward direction?
Well, add me to the posters who feel the phrase “personal demons” conjure up an internal, not external, struggle. I have never thought the phrase “battling with personal demons” had any implication of a shift of responsibility to forces from without. I think you’re overthinking the phrase.
So Lothlorien is decorated in 70’s Kitsch? :dubious:
That’s Jesse Garon Presley. Elvis is pure and righteous and good. His evil twin, on the other hand…
Died at birth, my ass.
So when does ivan askitov come along to ask “But what if they are?”
For one thing, it’s not a metaphor, it’s an idiom. An idiom that’s understood by (almost) everyone to mean inner issues.
Second, do you really think that Corey Haim is currently using that idiom to escape the personal responsibility of going to rehab so that he can make the much lazier choice of being dead? (Hint: He didn’t say that about himself.)
Seriously, dude, have a little respect for the dead instead of turning this into a screed about how this country is falling apart.
Awesome! 
Drugs don’t turn people into addicts. Some people are able to use drugs or alcohol casually and stop whenever they want. Other people use the same drugs and alcohol and can’t stop.
In case you missed all of the several times I said it, I understand that demons was being used as a metaphor not a literal reference to supernatural beings.
Most idioms are metaphors. Like this one. An idiom is usually just a metaphor that’s entered common usage but hasn’t reached the point of bing a cliche yet.
And here, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What on earth does my saying demons are a poorly chosen metaphor for drug addiction have to do with the state of the nation? And how is it disrepectful of anyone, living or dead?
Analogies and metaphors are hardly ever perfect. I think what’s happening here is that you are looking into it a bit more deeply than it is intended. Your idea of “demons” means a strictly internal cause, but don’t you think that people are also referring to internal causes, such as a brain chemistry imbalance or other psychological disorder, susceptibility to addictive substances, etc. If the person takes medication to fix the depression that leads them to drinking, has the “demon” been removed? If you want to take the demon part so literally, couldn’t the demon be the genetics this person inherited?
I just find this whole rant to be a needless exercise, since you’re basically taking figurative language too literally.
E: And to bring it back to the point in the OP, this type of phrasing is meant to be a politically correct way of saying that the guy was possibly depressed, prone to rage, etc. Saying it is “personal demons” is a euphemism used instead of listing out in detail the exact psychological problems he had, if they even knew.