The Perfect Humanoid Symbol, 4

The compared examination of the two trends on the graph highlights some facts: One, the state of the addicted is always worse than that of the non−addicted, at any given time, worse than it was before the addiction, worse than it could and would be without the addiction. Two, the state of the addicted is further worsened by the stress of being never allowed to count on stability, and inexorably subject to an incessant succession of ups and downs, a little ball captive in a pinball machine, totally effect. And in the long term being totally effect is not devoid of effects… adverse effects, if a bit difficult to detect as it is the very observer the one that worsens. Three, things worsen even further when stress steps in; outer stress and stress caused by the addiction somewhat amplify one another, again worse than it would be without the addiction, based on the outer circumstances alone. Fourth, the addicted does not realise despite all such evidence. How come?

The whole trick on which the criminal swindle of addiction is based is that the addicted sees only one side of each saw tooth in the trend; incredible as it may seem, he or she sees only the increases and looks away from the decreases. Even in the beginning the individual sunk into addiction by looking away from the fact that consumption worsened his or her state, until he or she got “inured” to it – that is, the addictive factor begun to overcome the revulsion; instead, it is that fact that sunk into oblivion since then. The addicted is subject to the abstinence inducing an abject craving for relief, and such is the pressure that the addicted grasps to the increase without the lucidity and the courage to face the fact that the increase is mere relief from decrease, and decrease is but decrease; the sense of getting lost astray in the ups and downs pushes the addicted to barricade within the narrow scope of the current increase, when the immediate present looks like the only bearable time span to yearn for, and forget about before, after, and all the rest. A cage whose bars cannot help but keep on narrowing.