The Look of Drugs: These Before & After Snaps Will Break Your Heart — or Give You Hope
The Look of Drugs is as unmistakable as it is unsettling. Gaunt, pallid, shifty and deceitful. It’s not a look you want to run into anywhere. And it’s most certainly not a look you want to adopt. Ever. Unless that is you’ve decided to swap all your cares for drugs. And even then…
But what about the look after drugs? Can a face really regain its composure? Can a person truly restore their glow? Is it possible to scrub a good look into something folks once were afraid to see? Even after the mirror’s been shattered and the friends and family have all scattered?
Well, as you’ll see here, you can get past the look of drugs. And if you peer long enough and hard enough, you’ll see where the secret lies: in the eyes.
Yep, it’s all in the eyes. Just as the look of drugs could be sensed through a vacant stare, the look after drugs can be recognized by the wide friendly eyes. Indeed, the sober look has a certain openness about it. Welcoming and glad to be here, with you. Glad too that you’re here with them. A look that drugs could only half-heartedly pretend to rep[resent, no matter how much happy powder went up the ol’ nozzle.
The Look of Drugs
There’s a good reason why folks post Before and After addiction pictures. A damn good reason. It’s because they’ll shock the drugs right out of you. In fact, such frightful warning signs mark about the fastest route to scared straight you can take without cop cars and handcuffs. Think about it. Then take a look. Or take a look and then think about it. Either way, you’ll arrive at the same conclusion: the look of drugs is not a good look.
Not good to see and not good to wear. Ever. If you’re looking at it — down a dark alley, across the dinner table — you’ll immediately want to protect yourself from the wearer. If you’re wearing it, you’ll immediately want to protect yourself from yourself.
Just how exactly do you protect yourself from yourself? Well, it ain’t easy. Not by a long shot. But it can be done. If that is you’re willing to truthfully face what and who you see in the mirror.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtKDiqbgIPU
Here are a few tricks for those who are intent on wiping that look of drugs off their face once and for all.
Seeing Clearly Now
There’s another song. Just as soulful and stirring as DeVaughn’s “Thankful”. It even comes from the same era. This song doesn’t suggest a way to be though; it describes the way things are once you’ve decided to be a certain way. In this case, it’s the wide open vista a person comes across once the rain has gone and all obstacles reveal themselves.
We’re talking about that “bright, bright sunshiny day” immortalized by Johnny Nash in “I Can See Clearly Now”. The track’s a bona fide gift of the gods (what Robert Christgau deemed “2 minutes and 48 seconds of undiluted inspiration”). It also just so happens to fit right in with our addiction prism. Because once you’ve identified (and removed) all the obstacles in your way, the pain will be gone, the bad feelings will disappear and clear skies will be just what you’ll get. Clear skies that you can see for miles and miles and miles.
But that’s yet another song. (By The Who, natch!). That’s okay. Cue up DeVaughn. Cue up Nash. And cue up The Who. Cue up all the great singers and their songs. Because just as there’s a reason for folks shocking the hell outta you with the look of drugs, there’s a reason singers sing about gratitude and clarity. And when you reach that magical place, you’ll also break out in song. Because a life free of addiction is a life well worth singing about.
Healing Properties knows. Heck, we’ve been providing de facto music lessons for men since 2002. We’ve got tons of great songs on our playlist too. And we’ve taught thousands of men how to sing them. Not just alone in the shower. (Though there is that.) And not just while driving along in the car. (Though there is that too.) No, we’ve taught them to sing from the rooftops, so the whole wild world can hear the sound of happiness. Because the sound of happiness beats the look of drugs every which way you cut it.
Want proof? Real proof? Then give us a ring.
(Image: Top Pictures)
