Let’s think about some of the different fugue states, ways of spacing out, that we all have. Or know, or might have known. I mean, drugs are a classic one. You know -- typical drugs. Any drugs if you think about them. You know, alcohol helps you space out. You know… if you’ve ever been a drinker, or a non-drinker, not an alcoholic, but if you’ve ever had this yearning, “I gotta have a drink.” Now, I haven’t known that for ages but I remember it well. Having one drink and feeling the alcohol burn down my system as it kind of goes down and whatever form it goes in -- whether it be a cosmopolitan or a Manhattan or bourbon or whatever it was -- whatever it is going down, whenever it hits you, you can feel this kind of glow take over you. And in a way, what you’ve done is you’ve fugued. You’ve spaced. You had a little distance between you and life.
In "Disconnecting the Mind," Armand DiMele, founder of the DiMele Center for Psychotherapy and host of “The Positive Mind” radio show, examines the different ways we disconnect our minds from the stresses of everyday life, and offers instruction on new ways to deal with stress without disconnecting from reality. In this excerpt, DiMele talks about using substances to disconnect.
Marijuana -- same thing. Toke on a joint. The kind of thing where you get that feeling, that first, that one puff, I’m dying to have it. Cigarette smoking, perpetual spacing out. You know, the interesting thing about cigarette smoking is it’s always predictable what the person is avoiding. It’s anger. One of the ways of avoiding anger the most is with cigarette smoking. Most cigarette smokers are very angry people who just don’t know what to do with their anger. They’re controlling it at all times. So if you take away cigarettes from somebody who’s a cigarette smoker, they become rageful for awhile. That’s alright; I mean, you know cigarette smoking is not healthy for you. Lock yourself up in a pen somewhere, you know. Make sure you go through your rages. Get yourself one of our soundproof rooms that we have here. Scream, jump, pound, and go through it. But rage is what comes up, and you have no protection against it when you give up your cigarettes.
Other drugs -- ecstasy, ketamine -- really take you out there. Talk about spacing out. Ecstasy takes you into the form of love that we’re going to talk about, which is another way of spacing out. LSD, without a shadow of a doubt.
