I was having a discussion with my brother tonight. I showed him the new bag of…um…stuff…I had purchased a few nights ago. Our discussion took a turn to, “Why do people have a need to escape?”
This does not just refer to drug users, but in my mind, everyone. People use music to escape reality everyday. They also use workouts at the gym, sex, even their careers.
What is it about human nature that requires us to take these “small vacations” as I will put it?
Humans are not only very social, but also very self-aware. They need time to focus completely on themselves, or at least be free from the needs and influences of other.
And yes, unfortunately, some people can use sex for this.
Sometimes you need to rest from the pressures of society. Without breaks, one can break down mentally. The human brain just isn’t designed for a 24/7/365 workout, it needs its rest.
Every night is not enough?
Nope, the brain is made for figuring out how to evade enraged Mastadons, not adjusting font size to match cell size and getting the fax machine to work!! Stupid fax machine!! PC load letter? WTF does that mean?
It makes you healthier and feel healthier. Your lungs work better. I think I even, ah, think better if I exercise. If you exercise enough it releases endorphins. Oh, and there is no way I can keep from smoking (cigarettes) unless I do. I was a nicotine baby, like a crack baby but legal.
I weighed under three pounds when born and was two months premature. Any woman who reads this and smokes while pregnant has been warned, and not just by the pack. I guess the bright side is, labor was a breeze.
I think that the idea of escape is a misnomer. You’re not really escaping. You’re living your life in a different state of conciousness when you play basketball than you are when you mop the floor, or have sex. It’s not really an escape, it’s attending to the other needs in your life to make your life more full.
Erek
I spend my day negotiating family life with my wife. Doing my job for the boss. Making sure the reality of my children is nurturing. I blow a joint at the end of the day, and think about my mind, nobody elses. You can’t take care of anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself. Damn it’s kind of fun too.
I think we all need to forget that we’re us on occasion. Life is like a video game, but there’s no reset button, and if the hero dies then you die. IMHO, that really blows. So, why not use alcohol or drugs to escape for awhile the reality of our own deaths. We will never escape the game we’re trapped in, a game with an end sequence, but we can pretend we will for a little while. Frankly, without alcohol I’d probably be mired in my own misery, in constant anguish over my own mortality. Thankfully, drugs are there to make us stop thinking about death, and start thinking about Smurfs, Roger Waters, and Gundam Wing.
I think that all of us spent our time as children in a near constant state of escape. I know that when I played with legos and GI Joes and video games, I was in a different place.
This urge to create a world for ourselves seems to me to be a completely natural and desirable thing. I’ve never stopped creating new worlds in my mind. Nowadays I don’t just use that ability for my own amusement, but I also use it to gain a touch of perspective on reality. With my ability to escape for a time, I can find out what’s important in my life.
Drugs, music, sex, etc. all fall into this. They are all ways to step outside of our normal selves for a moment, to look at the world from a different place. It can be a very positive and enlightening experience, and I believe that’s a key reason we have a need for it.
Stricker van Gogh
Y’know, if the cops pick you up with that “bag of…um…stuff” and you get to spend 6 months or so in one of Virginia’s finer incarceration spas, the need to escape will probably take on a slightly different but altogether more urgent meaning.
Meantime, I enjoy my own REM sleep. I get to fly and eat foods my diet forbids and such, though occasionally I’m giving a speech naked. As bad trips go, that one is relatively mild. I just can’t stand people bugging me when I’m trying to sleep, occasionally to the point of violence.
Groovy, man.