Growing up in the 1980s and 90s there was a unique belief system that emerged from somewhere, that was, “Do you what you want. As long as you aren’t hurting someone.”
It was a way, I believe, to simplify the somewhat complicated moral social code. It may have come from the medical community, doctors Hippocratic Oath. “Primum non nocere” meaning “first, do no harm”.
It didn’t really address what happens if you were hurting someone but the advice seemed to be, “If you are harming someone, get help. Get therapy.” That went along with the idea of, “If you bring your problems to the light it becomes light.”
In other words, talk to someone and get help or tell people you trust about the problems you are going through.
But it’s also impossible to go through life or have any relationships without the potential for “emotional damage”. Not stating a absolute, but if you get in a relationship, it’s natural someones feelings will be hurt over time. Even if you don’t, if you are alive, it is difficult to avoid hurt. Another way to look at it is pain is a sort of biological message system.
This belief is different from previous generations in that they did what they were told. “You have to get married (to this incompatible) person because that person became pregnant.” Despite the fact that they would end up divorced in the future.
If you grew up in with a religious background you are well aware of the sometimes overwhelming rule system that doesn’t address societal challenges that have never existed before.
This somewhat goes along with the harm reduction model.
Harm reduction, or harm minimization, refers to a range of intentional practices and public health policies designed to lessen the negative social and/or physical consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction is used to decrease negative consequences of recreational drug use and sexual activity without requiring abstinence, recognizing that those unable or unwilling to stop can still make positive change to protect themselves and others.
Harm reduction is most commonly applied to approaches that reduce adverse consequences from drug use, and harm reduction programs now operate across a range of services and in different regions of the world. As of 2020, some 86 countries had one or more programs using a harm reduction approach to substance use, primarily aimed at reducing blood-borne infections resulting from use of contaminated injecting equipment.
Everyone has heard that, “So and so will stop using when they hit rock bottom.” That belief system says that if a person goes through enough of the consequences they will simply choose to stop an addiction.
But an addiction is, “Behavior that continues despite negative consequences.” An addiction could be anything. Eating, drinking, television, etc.
Addiction is generally a neuropsychological disorder defining pervasive and intense urge to engage in maladaptive behaviors providing immediate sensory rewards (e.g. consuming drugs, excessively gambling), despite their harmful consequences. Dependence is generally an addiction that can involve withdrawal issues. Addictive disorder is a category of mental disorders defining important intensities of addictions or dependences, which induce functional disabilities. There are no agreed definitions on these terms — see section on ‘definitions’.
Repetitive drug use alters brain function in ways that perpetuate craving, and weakens (but does not completely negate) self-control. This phenomenon — drugs reshaping brain function — has led to an understanding of addiction as a brain disorder with a complex variety of psychosocial as well as neurobiological (and thus involuntary)[a] factors that are implicated in addiction’s development.
We didn’t create our own biology. But we have to deal with it and with the ways our society and things in it interact with our biology.
While an evolutionary reward system helped us gather food in the jungle of Africa, the same reward system may fuel a gambling addiction.
It can be difficult to make sense of and go through life. Our ancestors job was to hunt for food during the day and come back to the tribe at night. Now, we are expected to navigate through an astroid field of things we have never encountered before.
As with any issue and with weeds in a garden, if you merely trim the weeds instead of pull them up by their roots, they will simply grow back.
And more discussion is better than less discussion.
