opiates, infantile trauma and timothy leary's first-circuit model of consciousness
Was just reading an old post from u/tylerisdead that said
Some people even can play with it a bit and put it down without thinking about it. But for that portion of people that feel like opiates almost... Complete something that was missing in them. It will catch up to them eventually. Because if it seems too good to be true, it is.
And it's true. You either get addicted to opiates, or you don't get the hype. To some they're just painkillers that make you feel queasy. To others, they're the missing link, the lost piece of the puzzle, the bit of glue that finally sticks together some broken piece of childhood or sense of self.
But what is it? People - myself included - say it's different for everyone, but I'm not so sure. I'm wondering if there's not a specific type of trauma - sure, perhaps a fairly broad classification of traumas, but something specific nonetheless - that binds opiate users.
Robert Anton Wilson's summation of Timothy Leary's 8-circuit model of consciousness led me to suspect that opiate users were denied love during early childhood and developed the belief that love, which was thus barred from being received from Outside, was something we had to build walls to protect ourselves from. Or rather, from the pain of being denied love.
Opiates, according to Leary, activate the first-circuit of consciousness which is likewise activated when we're in infancy, particularly during moments where we're completely taken care of: warm, fed, happy, comforted. He likens it to suckling the teat, where your every need is fulfilled and there's nothing to worry about except drifting off into sleep.
A lot of people didn't get that, though. I don't come from an abusive or violent family, but there was certainly a lot of negligence. I wouldn't be surprised if I was denied that sort of love at crucial times. I certainly have walls up to protect myself from letting anybody in, just like everyone else I know who does opiates.
I think this should open up a line of inquiry and study into opiate users and specific types of infantile trauma to see if there's a link. If there is it could really reduce the amount of time spent trying to identify the root cause of opioid addictions and also allow for the recognition that people with different addictions tend towards certain substances to fulfill certain lacks or desires.
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