(This is Part 1 of a continuing series.)
This series of articles will look at the subject of symptoms versus causes as it relates to various areas of life.
To set the stage, let's look first at a commonplace area—stimulants of various kinds—and see what they might tell us about symptoms and causes, or to put it another way, between primary effects and secondary effects.
We take a stimulant, whether it be caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, methamphetamine or whatever. The result is that the body feels "juiced up" for awhile. But let's ask: Where does that extra energy come from?
It comes from the body. It can't come from anywhere else. The stimulant provides no energy, it's just an irritant. The body provides the extra energy but—and this is the crucial point—it provides more energy than it wants to at that moment, more energy than it considers optimal to provide.
This results in a bodily deficit which must be made up at a later time. Thus, after taking a stimulant and feeling more energetic for awhile, there must come a later period where we experience less energy than normal while the body works internally to make up the deficit.
So continued frequently over a period of time, the use of stimulants gradually exhausts the body—as the body falls further and further behind in making up its energy deficit.
Note that this gradual exhaustion of the body is the exact opposite of the original reason for taking the drug, that is, to experience more energy.
Thus we see a primary effect—the immediate, obvious, short-term effect—of more energy. But we also become aware of a secondary effect—which is the real, hidden, long-term, long-lasting effect—of less and less energy, the exact opposite of the primary effect.
A stimulant is taken in order to achieve more energy, but no cause is being addressed. If we're feeling low energy we can do positive things to assist the body such as eating more raw living fruits and greens, getting better sleep, exercising, etc. Such measures are addressing the problem of low energy at a causal level and have a high probability of achieving the desired result.
On the other hand, taking a stimulant is merely working with the symptom. The body responds to the stimulant-poison by working vigorously to neutralize it, but no new energy is actually being created. Thus the secondary effect, the long-term deficit of energy, is what eventuates. This is what results when we approach something at the symptom level.
(This is the end of Part 1. Go to Part 2.)
—jim sloman, 9.18.04 for Oct 28
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