“That I might drink, and leave the world unseen, and with thee fade away into the forest dim” - John Keats

“I can stop anytime I want.”

So many of us have either heard this or said this ourselves, either in conversation with a concerned friend or perhaps even in our own inner-monologues. I understand the allure of substances – it feels good to experience a different reality from time to time. When we drink, we forget. The world sways and our inhibitions are forgotten. This is what the above quote is about: a man hears the song of a nightingale (a type of bird) and has the sudden and irresistible urge to drink and dissolve into the forest with the bird, to forget “what thou among the leaves hast never known” (Keats). In “Ode to a Nightingale” (the poem referenced), the bird comes to represent escape from reality, and that road leads to the author’s eventual wish to die… the ultimate escape. Chase not the nightingale.

When faced with reality, it is an understandable (though detrimental) temptation to use alcohol and other substances to escape. Even if it’s as simple as having nothing better to do, the user still succumbs to the temptation of escaping boredom. We escape fatigue with stimulants (caffeine and nicotine), anxiety with depressants (alcohol and weed) and pain with opiates (insert codeine brand name). No matter how you put it, we are still using substances to escape reality. My argument is not that all of these substances are inherently bad – to argue thus is to commit a gross oversimplification of complex moral issues – but my argument is rather that we must not use substances to escape. Reality is good; life is good – so why escape? Even when things aren’t going according to plan, we still have the potential to change our realities rather than escape them. I’ve been there. I’ve drunk to forget; I’ve smoked to not feel. Let me exhort you: escape leads to addiction, and addiction leads to destruction. Chase not the nightingale.

So what? Do we refrain from the use of all substances? Many people, myself included, have witnessed these substances used responsibly. My whole family drinks, and I believe in my heart that the responsible and controlled use of some substances can be a beneficial thing; conversation can deepen, merriment can increase. However, a substance is only a positive thing inasmuch as we control it; we must not let the things we do, the substances in which we partake, control us. The moment we use a substance to escape is the moment it controls us. Chase not the nightingale.

Our society is more hooked on substances now than it has ever been. Bottles of Xanax and Adderall are handed out like lollipops at doctor’s offices, and we are the all-too-willing consumers. Stop escaping your own reality, no matter how painful it might be. Shape it.

Chase not the nightingale.