Why People use Drugs and Alcohol

People use drugs and alcohol as a means of escaping reality because sometimes reality isn’t that great; because sometimes reality is bitter or weak or doesn’t live up to their expectations or because sometimes it’s easy to fantasize about what reality should be like and then come to see that it isn’t what you’d hoped it would be at all.

People drink because it gives them confidence, or because it lets them be less shy or less worried about what other people think. They drink because it takes the edge off, or because it helps them relax. Or they drink because it’s more fun to watch football with beer and because it gives you hope that maybe one day you’ll get to be with a girl like the one in the commercials. They drink because it’s easy, because they can, and because nobody can make them stop.

People use drugs because it’s sort of like dreaming when you’re awake, the feelings are all there, but the reality of it is so much easier to take. They take drugs because it feels like maybe the day won’t be so horrible or as long or as stupid as all the other days have been.

Or they take drugs to impress their friends or because they think it will help them meet other people or because they hate other people and taking drugs makes seeing anyone else just slightly bearable. Or they take drugs because they hate how they look, or who they are or how short they turned out to be. Or because they never got picked first in gym class or to the prom or because it’s ever so much easier to take drugs than it is to bang your head against the cement floor all day.

People drink because it tastes good, because it goes so well with smoking cigarettes, because so many people have told them not to that to, so it would be a sure sign of weakness if they didn’t. They drink because it’s cheaper than drugs and much more legal and because other people drink and that makes it okay. They drink because there father drank, or their mother or sister or maybe their uncle. They drink because it makes them tipsy, and becomes other times it makes them drunk, and because everything about life seems so much more bearable when you’re drunk, or at least tipsy.

People take drugs because they’re poor, or stupid or can’t remember why they started, or they take drugs because it’s the only way to stop from feeling like such a loser all day, or because they sometimes can’t stop crying.

People use drugs and alcohol as a means of escaping reality, because reality sometimes, or maybe all the time, just isn’t worth being there for.