Addiction

Have you ever thought of something when reading about smokers, drug addicts and alcoholics? How do these people get addicted to something that everyone knows for a fact that it can only be bad to your health? Why? How? What?

Cat used to wonder about this issue too. How on earth can a person get addicted to anything? Well, now..cat has a theory on this. (Groan..cat and her theories again!:p Do give cat a chance will you.. At least she is keeping her chin up and still have her sense of humor inside her. Because the day this cat loses all her smile will be the day she gave up on everything including writing).

There are cases where people are just being curious. They wonder if they could fare better if they were in those addicts' shoes. 'Wonder what beer/drug tastes like. If I just try one glass/injection, it wouldn't hurt surely. Just one..I should be able to stop whenever I want to.' Curiosity kills people as well as a cat. As you finish a glass, evil whispers and taunts from friends and Satan urge you to have a second glass. Voila, one more person joining the numbers in the statistics.

Secondly, this might happen when you lose someone or when everything seems to be going against you. Or knowing that you have a serious illness that left you feeling helpless and vanquished. Life seems so full of sorrow, depressing and with no one to turn to. Pain is fiery, consuming and unsettling. Sometimes, you just feel a sadness that is so deep, suffocating with no signs of ending. What if at that time you find a drug that can make you feel happier, make you forget all the worries and helps you sleep at night? Wouldn't you want to continue taking it?



Addiction, dependence on certain substances (for example alcohol, tobacco and other drugs), which crosses the blood-brain barrier once ingested, temporarily altering the way your brain works. Addiction can also be dependency on an act such as gambling, food, sex, pornography, computers, video games, internet, work, exercise or spiritual obsession. Hmm..Everything in life is to be taken with moderation and it's not that easy to throw away a habit or an addiction. It would be easier to just succumb to the addiction than to fight it.

As Dr Albert Lim Kok Hooi says: When the chips are down, it is time to take charge. Time to dig deep within your psyche and find that last bit of strength to help you go through the trials. It would help also to have someone who cares as it gives life a meaning and a purpose.

Cat has found her survival kit in writing and reading (especially biographies, poems and motivational stories). Poems, actually, comforts the heart by giving meaning to your emotions and by reading them, you feel that you are not alone in your suffering. The refrain of an unforgettable poem, like the lyrics of a song,lingers on in your mind and pops out at times when you need them most.


An evergreen poem written by Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) goes as such :

If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain,

If I can ease one life from aching

Or cool one's pain,

Or help one fainting robin,

Into his nest again,

Then.. I shall not live in vain.

Let's go out and enjoy the sunshine.. Night time is dark enough as it is.
Let's join Batman and distract him from his work tonight...

Signing off,
Cat