Is the Zombie Apocalypse Upon Us?
In discussing the current drug crisis with a coworker, it hit me out of nowhere that we are quite possibly living in the middle of the so-called “zombie apocalypse” that many horror film buffs have always envisioned. Over the last several years, the “zombie” genre of television shows and films gained immense popularity. In these mock-ups of what would happen if people turned into zombies after contracting a strange viral infection, infected people turn into mindless, half-dead (or undead) creatures who lurk around to eat, kill, and otherwise dismember uninfected people. Society as we know it gets destroyed and each day is a test of one’s survival skills—if you have not been infected or had their brains eaten yet.
Of course, this is Hollywood’s version of it but what if the real zombie outbreak already occurred? Perhaps those who are addicted to drugs are the true zombies of said apocalypse. I can attest from my own experiences in addiction, that when you’re completely hooked on drugs, it’s like being an actual zombie having no other purpose other than just merely existing each day while mindlessly consuming substances that further the “zombification,” if you will.
My coworker completely agreed with this sentiment, and this is what he had to say:
“It’s a typical Sunday afternoon and I find myself heading out of the house in order to run my weekly errands. As I get in the car and begin the drive to my local shopping center, I stop at the traffic light and look over at the driver next to me. A middle-aged man sits in the driver’s seat sipping his coffee and fighting the urge to fall asleep. As the light turns green and I continue down the road I notice a younger female walking on the sidewalk. She catches my attention as she appears to be fighting someone who is not there, arms flailing in the air, kicking her feet and screaming at no one.
“As I do my shopping in the store I see countless individuals walking around with no awareness of who or what is around them, bumping into another’s cart, dropping this or that from the shelves and then of course the long line at the pharmacy counter. Then it hits me ‘Am I living in a Zombie Apocalypse?”
“Now as I pull into the parking lot, I’m confronted with a mass of cars backed up waiting on a child’s mother to get the child out of the parking lot with no attention or concern for what is going on around her. As I do my shopping in the store I see countless individuals walking around with no awareness of who or what is around them, bumping into another’s cart, dropping this or that from the shelves and then, of course, the long line at the pharmacy counter. Then it hits me ‘Am I living in a Zombie Apocalypse?’
“In a society where drug and alcohol abuse is rampant and, pharmaceutical companies advertise the latest ’Cure-all’ and ’New Diagnosis’ direct to the consumer it’s no wonder that a large amount of us are walking around not truly knowing what is going on. We experience pain or discomfort and suddenly our TV or Radio is telling us to take this or that in order to solve that pain or discomfort. We listen and get put on this new ‘cure-all’ and not only experience a multitude of side effects but also end up being cut off from the world around us. It’s as if we are a mindless body walking around and going through the motions of life but never truly experiencing what is happening around us.
“It seems to me, the further removed we are from experiencing life, the more we experience new pains and discomforts. We are then placed on some new medication to handle that discomfort, which may work for a while, and yet once again we further remove ourselves from experiencing the life we are living. We ‘zombify’ ourselves even further and wind up in a cycle of wanting to be happy and successful yet continually falling into the trap of deadening ourselves a little more each day. We bring about our biggest fears while attempting to solve them with the next pill, drink or fix we ingest.
“Where and when does the cycle stop? How do we stop the formation of Zombies and bring ourselves, families and society back from this apocalypse? I believe the answer lies in expanding that which we lose through this cycle, AWARENESS. By confronting those issues in life that cause the need for medicating we expand our awareness and our own abilities to handle life and truly experience what is happening around us.”
