People warn you against addictions. You
hear your well-meaning friends say, ‘Oh you can have everything in moderation.
Just make sure you don’t get addicted to it.’ Parents are on the lookout for
saving their children from any kind of addiction. Alcohol, smoking, drugs – the
dangerous words. Precisely, because these
things suck life out of you, gradually making you dependent on them.
But there is something even more
dangerous than these addictions. Addiction
of people. Why do we never get warned about 'addiction' of some such people in
our lives? The ones who matter to you, the ones who fall in love with you, the
ones you have 3 a.m. conversations with, the ones you sin with, the ones who
warm up your hearts, the ones who don’t judge you for drinking vodka straight
from the bottle in December, the ones who become your muses and much more. These
are the ones you start getting dependent on. For your emotional needs. The
needs of your soul. Something that your body doesn’t even notice. But the soul?
The soul does.
The soul craves for these addictions when
they leave you. Or when you leave them after realizing that you are addicted to
them. Because you know these people aren’t good for you. Because you know they
have the power over you. Because you can’t have them forever in your life.
Because they aren’t for yours to keep. Because you can love them but never be
loved in return. Because they are a part of your journey but not a part of your
destination.
Just like the physical symptoms of
materialistic addictions, there are symptoms of ‘people’ addictions. The
cravings. The cravings that leaves you empty, anxious, bruised. The cravings
that sometimes make you cold. Towards everything. Mute the noise. Around you.
Though the same cannot be said about the noise inside.
Your soul wants them back. Those
addictions. You almost reach out. Again. Stopping yourself just in time.
Realization. That though they give you a high by making you delve deeper in
yourself, you know they are exhausting you. Though they build your imagination,
you know they are wrecking you. Though they bring in heightened sense of
emotions, you know they are making you numb somewhere.
Isn’t it is much better to get addicted
to those materialistic addictions. Those materialistic addictions merely spoil
your body. But the addiction of 'people'? The addiction of people damages your
soul. The kind of damage that is worse than an ailing body. Because the body
can heal. But the soul? The soul does not.
