“I Can’t Believe I Did That!”

A college student writes an advice columnist and asks, “My friend posted a picture of the weed he was trying to sell on Facebook the other day and although it looked great, I couldn’t help but wonder if there could be any legal backlash.” The answer? “Clearly, those drugs have gone to his head and have killed off far too many brain cells. Because, the real truth of the matter here is that if anybody even remotely connected to the police caught wind of this little drug photo shoot, your friend would surely be taken in and considered (gasp!) a drug dealer.” You see, police tend to frown on people using -or selling illegal substances.

We wouldn’t be that dumb, right? Maybe not, but most of us don’t need pictures to remind us of the not-so-smart things we’ve done under the influence. Did I forget this was an eating disorder site? Nope – it seems that there is a huge correlation between people who abuse substances and people with eating disorders. It makes sense, right? We’ll do anything to escape feeling.

Those same chemicals that help us escape, also lower our inhibitions. As you may know, the results can be disastrous. Even if your addiction doesn’t involve arrests, you’ve still got a lot to lose. Friends are often the first to go. Spending time with an addict gets boring. The conversations get old, the money runs out fast, and you can’t really be counted on for much of anything. School, work, other relationships are soon on the cutting board. And that doesn’t even include the physical effects of drugs or alcohol (or even tobacco).

Einstein once said that the definition of insanity was “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Is that what you’re doing?