Bittersweet

Bittersweet
When I was 17 years old, I’ve read a book called bittersweet by Willy Pederson. The book was written in 1998, but he wrote another in 2002, this book is 8 pages longer, but about the same. The book is about young people and their relationship to alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. He is not judgmental, he is neutral, and that is also how he writes. In the book he tells about the bad sides, and the good sides about everything. The book is called bittersweet for a reason, it’s because everything has down sides and up sides. In other words everything is bitter and sweet. I started reading the book because of my values. I started asking myself: what is a value? And what is a good value? But what I forgot was to ask what a good value to me is?

A value is a belief, a mission, or a philosophy that is meaningful. Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, everyone has their own set of personal values. A value is what makes us who we are, its how we think, dream, act and how we solve our problems. Values are also psychological objects. Although we cannot see or touch them, they are every bit as real as any physical object. A life without values, can’t be a life at all. Just think of it. What are you without your values? You are a doll attached to strings. The meaning of that sentence is. You can’t think for yourself, you just nod your head, and say yes. Because you don’t know any better. For me that is no life. There is a reason why we don’t use lobotomies anymore. Who am I, and what do I stand for?  That is a question you should ask yourself when you are wondering what your values are. According to Morris Massey values are formed during three significant periods: 1. Imprint period from birth to 7 years of age. 2. Modeling period from 8 - 14 years. 3. Socialization period from 15 – 21 years.

In the book Willy Pederson has done research, he has interviewed people from the age of 13 to 24 from 1987 to 1998. Here you can read about people’s experiences with alcohol, drugs and cigarettes. You start to notice that there are many similarities in the stories when you start to read the book. For example: People who start with this ‘’stuff’’ usually had a bad childhood, or their parents were addicts. And I think what Professor Pederson is trying to make us realize, is the connections and similarities, and what influences us the most. According to the book, what influences us the most is our parent’s norms, our parent’s relationship to drugs, our friends, and our friend’s relationship with drugs. He also says that one narcotics, leads to a stronger one. He has actually made a stair to this: First it starts with alcohol, then cigarettes, then cannabis, then amphetamine, then ecstasy and then you are heroin.  Because there are no addicts that have started on heroin, there is a way you have to go, or up a stair. Another thing he writes about is the reasons why people start. Like, he has one chapter on why people start to smoke. The reasons that he has concluded are: copying you parents habits, your role-models, friends and your siblings. But the most important reason is because the young people want to be grown ups. To some people it can be a symbolic way to say that you are not a child anymore. It also says that it is harder for women to quit smoking then men. Because a woman uses the cigarettes to conquer loneliness, sadness and depression. And they also use it to keep their weight.

Basically he writes about the drug, effects, bad sides, good sides, and personal experience from the people he interviewed. I am that kind of person that has a value called curiosity. And I wanted facts about this subject. Now I know more then ever about how people think, why they do what they do, and a little more of how the brain works. And this is very useful for me, because I am very interested in psychology. I want to know how people think. It changed my sight on drugs. Now I don’t look down on a person who uses drugs, I have compassion. Because the heroine addict in Oslo, didn’t want it to be this way. No one wants to become an addict, its simply bad influence and bad care. On the other hand this is also about choices. When you start to use a drug it’s a one way street. And people should know that.