LOVING TO GET HIGH SYNDROME

Jeff Bridges plays a down and out alcoholic country singer in the movie “Crazy Heart”. It is absolutely an award winning performance.

Alcoholism looks different for an adult than the “loving to get high syndrome” does for an adolescent. The role of Bad Blake gives us a glimpse of what  loving to get high turns into if not dealt with.

On the soundtrack you get a musical sense of the power of alcoholism. The song Fallin’ & Flyin’, written by Stephen Bruton and Gary Nicholson does a great job of showing the heaven and hell aspect to drinking.

Fallin’ & Flyin’ by Stephen Bruton and Gary Nicholson

“I’m going where I shouldn’t go,

seeing who I shouldn’t see,

doing what I shouldn’t do,

being who I shouldn’t be.

A little voice tells me it’s all wrong,

another voice it’s alright.

Used to think that I was strong,

but lately I just lost the fight.

Funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’, for a little while.”

Funny how fallin’ feels like flyin’, is what’s behind loving to get high. Without the sense of flying no one would ever fall in love with getting high.

Thank you Hollywood for understanding alcoholism and addiction,  now you need to figure out where it starts, with Loving to Get High.

This is a powerfully, edgy blog post by a rock musician. I don’t know anything about who he is, what kind of music he makes, or where he lives. All I know is that he “Loves to Get High” and he articulates it in a very powerful way.

People think my addiction is a weakness. They say it is “humiliating” or “degrading” to watch me chase drugs or get high. But I say humiliation is a relative term. It’s only humiliating if I’m humiliated, and it’s only a lonely lifestyle if I feel lonely. Sure, the first time I tried drugs; it might have been motivated by weakness, by loneliness, but not anymore. I mean, consider all the acts committed out of loneliness or weakness that turned into great meaningful pursuits.

And now I’m completely in motion, I can’t even stop if I wanted to and I love every minute of it (not every minute, but that’s true of any great work). “Yes, but what are you producing? What are you creating?” That’s what most people claim is the difference between what I’m doing and what I’m drawing parallels with.

But I say that I’m creating my own perceptions, I’m creating sensual symphonies and emotional masterpieces. When my world falls and crumbles to pieces, in a matter of hours I can whip up the wind of my personal life into a froth of manipulation and borrowed money and bummed rides and pawned accessories and with my face down in the f–king dirt, surrounded by the foulest scum of the earth, I can feel as high as the damn clouds. I feel like, with my mouth open against the gravel or the pavement, that I could swallow the whole world. I can shape my mind into a mountain, and stretch my body over it like a rubber band, and snap, snap, snap, against the bottom just for fun. I have access to another plane of existence; it’s like a magic power that takes certain expensive keys and all of my energy to perform. I merely dabble in the world you call “The World” and my place is not here, it’s a step above. Sometimes I sink back down here, but it’s not long before I’m back up where I belong.

Parents, it’s important to realize this is a personal testimony by a Rock Star that your kids look up to. The scary thing is that your son or daughter may agree with him 100%. It’s time to wake up to this possibility.

Posted by Bent Ruth a member of a Canadian rock band http://www.gramophone.com