Being Unmedicated on Planet Earth

I know it’s wild, but I think I can make it through life without drugs.

Image credit: Canva

Some people distract themselves from their problems by being glued to screens. Some people turn to the bottle and drown their sorrows. Others use forms of psychedelics to escape. And some others remain on pills prescribed to them to dull the pain of reality. But me? I have decided to face the insanity head-on.

So, I choose to sit in darkness. I choose to acknowledge uncertainty. I choose to battle internally with control versus surrender, grappling with inner polarities of light and dark, all while keeping a smile on my face and pretending to be a “normal” person on the outside.

But I am not normal. I am largely not medicated. And that makes me an anomaly.

Am I weird because I actually choose to experience the pain? What is wrong with me?

Am I actually the insane one for not wanting to take mind-numbing substances that will save me from depression? Lots of people have suggested I need help — someone or something outside me needs to help me because they believe I can’t make it through reality on my own. They suggest a therapist or pills. They don’t believe me when I say this is meant to be. They don’t understand when I say that I meditate, and that is enough.

The worst thing is that people don’t believe that anyone should ever face their own shadows. If I am sad, they think it’s an emergency. I need to be medicated immediately or bad things will happen — like I might actually face the image of my own soul. Imagine that.

Imagine knowing the self and how scary that can be. It’s beyond the imaginings of most humans on this planet.

Nobody needs to rush in and save me from myself. Sadness and darkness are part of human existence. If I choose to run from it now, I will only have to face it in another time and place. People one hundred years ago didn’t have all of these escapes from the self — that’s a newfangled human society thing. Maybe our ancestors actually faced human misery head-on without forcing themselves to pretend everything is okay like we’re doing now.