The Human Condition
Covid threw everybody into a tailspin. The silver lining is how many of us have become more aware of our emotions. Therapy is on the rise. The demand for mental health treatment continues to rise. Starting in 2019, the demand for therapy has increased by almost 25%.
Therapy began back in the 9th century, attempting to assess the insane. It was in the 1950s when therapy became a person-centric approach to treating emotionally unstable people. The other side of this is self-medication be it drinking or drugs, which has been taking place as far back as 7000 BC.
Society creates problems from inequality to disease to war. Having a drink, smoking a joint, or taking something more substantial has helped people deal or relax. It is the human condition.
In the next decade, through AI, we will learn more about how drugs affect some in one way and others in a different way. We finally acknowledge that drugs like Ketamine can be highly favorable in treating depression. That PTSD can be treated. Depression or bipolar disorder is not treated by checking someone into an institution but by finding the right balance of drugs to help those see the light of day. These are all highly positive steps in the right direction.
There are so many conversations taking place as cannabis is becoming legal state by state but not at the federal level (let’s hope that changes soon) about the negative aspects of cannabis. Why are we not embracing the positive aspects of cannabis, just as we should be embracing the positive aspects of any treatment that makes someone emotionally healthy?
The Sacklers were given the keys to relieve people from pain. Drugs that can be tweaked. Why wasn’t that highly regulated vs. cannabis? Cannabis is a weed, not man-made, that has been given a false stigma because of money for greed and forcing inequality as a society towards Black and brown people. Why is there still a stigma considering the stigma is a bag of falsehoods?
The human condition is people want to feel good, whether taking it down a notch, curing pain, having fun, or just needing an attitude adjustment.
Humans have been experimenting with mind-altering substances as far back as time goes. Life is complicated, and sometimes you need a martini, a beer, or a joint to calm the mind at the end of the day. For others, this could send them down a deep dark hole finding themself a heroin addict. Everyone is different, but not embracing the reality that most people use something is absurd.
After all, life has conflicts, which come with emotions, which are part of the human condition. How about we embrace positive ways to nourish human nature?