anything and everything is a coping mechanism. Some fare better than others, that isnt bringing us out of a recession.
To some people coping is working out, exercise, interacting with others (never being alone, knitting, playing video games, gambling, drinking, smoking, over eating, reading, building model train sets...
ineffective coping habits are indeed.....ineffective. The occasional blunt, smoke or drink isnt bad, but if your doing it to 'escape' and need it as a crutch of course its going to be more pertinent
For instance, some people (I wont name which star, you can probably guess or have already heard) quit drugs and started running on a treadmill, which was an effective coping habit. Then it got to the point where he was running 4-5hrs a day on the treadmill and eating particularly low as well...thus beginning another cycle of ineffective coping habits.
But I think you knew that.
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Also--where are people obtaining their perspective on 'mental weakness' and how does that relate to substance abuse? Addiction is a disease like AIDS and Cancer, parkinsons, alzheimers.
They body has a physiological response to smoking and drinking. You can 'pray'/focus/meditate/think/daydream/wonder from sundown to sun up....those 'thoughts' which are mental processes arent going to provide any physiological changes. The affect of just doing that all day will, because you wont be eating or drinking, your body will go hungry, blood sugar will drop, energy may decrease etc.....
Now if you want to talk about cognitive behavior choices or ineffective coping methods then your talking logically, but people comparing the act of 'praying' or literally thinking to physically putting a substance in your body are fukking laughable.