Pain and the Search for Relief

At some point, all of us have felt the weight of pain.

A headache that steals our calm,

a stomach ache that forces us to stop,

a sadness hiding behind a smile.

And then, without much thought, we reach for relief.

We open the medicine cabinet and swallow a pill.

We brew a tea our grandmothers once taught us.

We decide, for a moment, to be our own doctors.

Isn’t that the same gesture as the one who turns to stronger substances?

The act is identical: a body or a soul in distress

crying out for rest,

seeking to quench the fire of anguish,

even if the chosen remedy becomes a chain.

Addiction, then, is not weakness.

It is the consequence of a desperate attempt to heal.

It is the story of someone who, like all of us,

refused to surrender to pain

and sought, in their own way, a refuge.

If we look this way, with more human eyes,

we stop pointing with judgment

and begin to recognize in the other

the same vulnerability that dwells in us:

the deep, universal desire

to find relief in the midst of the wound.