Opinion | Matthew Perry and the Loneliness of Addiction
nytimes.com
Opinion | Matthew Perry and the Loneliness of Addiction

addicts are bored or frustrated problem-solvers who instinctively contrive Houdini-like situations from which to disentangle themselves when no other challenge happens to present itself. The drug becomes the reward when they succeed and the consolation prize when they fail.
The artist and the addict both wrestle with this experience of exile. They share an acute, even excruciating sensitivity to the state of separation and isolation, and both actively seek a way to overcome it, to transcend it, or at least to make the pain go away.
Addiction is a disconnection from yourself. Every Friday I get tired from trying to make myself see what’s really happening, and I jump into an addiciton to try and forget who and where I am
Disconnection from yourself is born of something present that you think you can’t face.