Understanding addiction and how it has become a trend now

The Intention of this article is not to teach you moral science but to help you know what addiction really is and how it really develops. 

Now-a-days, smoking and drinking has become a trend and if one is not in that category then he is not ‘manly’ enough or doesn’t have guts. So how did this, all new insane nonsensical thought process emerge in the teens? Well it’s because smoking is termed as ‘cool’ and ‘sexy’ which is depicted as such in the various mediums around us. Exposure to such songs, movies and entertainment parcels from a very young age, can have an indirect negative impact on the minds of children.

Showing off and saying that, “hey.. look he is just 17 and drinks and smokes”, because someone else is doing it, or say, peer pressure rages as if tied and forced to do it. Remember a thing, you had, have and always will have a choice to say no and get out of this cycle if you really wish to.

I am not saying that some culture is good or bad but yeah the marketing of these products is so precisely done, which started from the west to showcase that how a brand of cigarette or alcohol stands for some powerful force like being cool or a necessary aspect in some form or the other, then be it through music CDs or movies or some message behind it to make it spread like a wildfire.

There might be a relationship between this type of a strategy and addiction. Some people say that smoking, drinking or taking weed increases their creativity and all the creative people or say performers take it to stay calm and creative and to counter their fears. Some say it increases your focus the day before exams as it reduces pressure while studying. What kind of a thought process is this?

Alcohol or at an extreme case, recreational drugs like smoking weed can transport you to a different world which is completely opposite to the reality as there is neither physical, nor mental pain and whatever you will imagine will be processed by your brain like a virtual reality game, but at the end it’s just a virtual game. And finally when you come out of it, it literally gets converted into a ‘nightmare’ as the pain doubles and if not taken again the mental pressure bar goes up so high that the person finally gets traumatized after a certain period of time. The world slowly seems to become a literal hell.

There are numerous examples of celebs and artists who we consider as idols, many of whom are submerged deep inside the ocean of addiction and boast it and showcase it to the society and the result being, small children and teens trying to enact these guys and end up getting trapped into a chain of addictions.

It’s fine that one should look at the positive side of a person but if this positive side is mixed with such acts of foolishness, of some aspect which could possibly be considered as a fashion statement for a generation or say an age group, to just to fall in a trap to impress someone, is a case to really think and openly discuss about.