In going through the news today, I was struck by a story about how Americans taking mind-altering drugs”. First, consider the size of the problem. 22 million Americans are taking mind-altering chemicals of one sort or another.
You need to think through that for a minute. When you consider how such substances alter the thinking and behavior of people, is it any wonder that there are so many affairs happening?
When you’re not thinking straight, you’re not making good choices. Instead of making conscious choices, you are reacting to the world around you.
Part of those reactions include being vulnerable to suggestions. When the media and pop culture is filled with suggestions of having an affair, it’s no wonder that so many affairs happen.
When your mind is incapacitated, the ability to say ‘no‘ and resist is not working the way it needs to be. When you can not say ‘no’ and mean it, you are vulnerable.
You’re controllable by others. You may not have wanted to have an affair, yet when you are ‘under the influence’, you are likely another person.
What you wish and what you end up doing may be two totally different things.
Perhaps the headline to the story should read, “22 Million People are Vulnerable to Affairs“. Such a headline would be truthful, yet the uncomfortable reality of such a headline would make many people squirm.
Although many drugs have warnings on them, I haven’t seen one that warns “Taking this medication will make you highly suggestible and vulnerable“. Instead they have warnings about operating machinery or driving.
It may be that you were a exploited and now want to take such drugs to deaden the pain. The guilt and emotions surrounding affairs often haunt you for years.
Mind Altering Chemicals are one way to keep from remembering what you don’t want to remember. It’s a way of blocking out the unwanted.
Sure it works fast, but the consequences are that you have to keep taking the drugs to keep blocking things out. You become vulnerable to dependency.
A variation on this is that your spouse may be keeping you on such drugs in order to ‘control’ you. By keeping you on the mind altering chemicals, they are able to manage you.
In such cases, the drugs function as a chemical straight jacket. They keep you from thinking, from resisting, from saying ‘no’. They make it hard to set boundaries.
What I do know for sure is that 22 Million people is a large number. That large number of people are vulnerable to exploitation, whether intentional or accidentally.
Having 22 million people that do not have full conscious control of their lives represents a potential threat. Not only the threat of them having an affair, it is also the threat of them attempting affairs.
With such a large number of people incapacitated, it will impact you sooner rather than later. The issue of mind altering drugs and affairs is not just something out of the movies. It’s real and it’s happening.
If your spouse is one of those 22 million, the time for action is now. You can take steps focused on improving your relationship or pick up the pieces of your relationship.
One way of improving your marriage relationship is the video “How Can I Trust You Again?“. In it, you’ll discover ways of improving trust and thereby making your marriage stronger.
Best Regards,
Jeff
