When You Are Used to Drama, It Can Be Daunting to Be at Ease
Drama and anxiety can be addictive and self-propagating
Human beings are so controversial in their emotions and actions that it’s a miracle how we got to the top of the food chain at all. Any other species would act in a logical and natural way — when it comes to survival, feeding, mating or socialising.
Us? Not really.
We glorify the inaccessible. We crave and fight for things that we cannot have. We assign an arbitrary value to useless things that are not necessary for our happiness or survival of any kind. We speed up things that could be handled much slower. We set ambitions so high that we face mental issues and incredible amounts of frustration in the wake. We create unnecessary drama and we get so comfortable around drama and anxiety that calmness seems to be disturbing.
If you ask anyone whether they like drama and anxiety, the almost unanimous answer would be that they hate it and they want to avoid it. Yet, we thrive on drama, we cling to anxiety — sometimes because drama can be addictive and sometimes because we simply don’t know better.
Addicted to Drama?
Attention-seeking and drama addiction are real issues. We all need attention, some less, some more — without it we wither and we wouldn’t really be social creatures. But when it’s done to an unhealthy extent, it can be detrimental to us and to those around us. Extreme attention-seeking can manifest in being addicted to drama. And it’s obvious, as drama usually gets attention. In a scientific explanation, creating and seeking drama are causing the pituitary gland and hypothalamus to secrete endorphins, the pain-suppressing and pleasure-inducing compounds of our body, evoking the same sensations as heroin and other opiates mimic.
If you wish, drama can create the same chemical responses in the brain as opiates would, hence it is easy to become addicted to drama. And as with any addictive substance, we can easily build up a tolerance to the chemicals, requiring more and more of the same to achieve the same neurochemical effect. It means, the more drama you surround yourself with, the more of it you will need to get the same thrill out of it.
