What truely makes someone STS

[Plenum]

When catalyst becomes to much to handle , such as an emotional issue one sure way to forget about it is through the use of drugs or alcohol to get a temporary feel good fix.

yes, I don't think it is in any way a bad thing to get some relief in difficult situations.  Even though I never used alcohol or MJ, I found my own ways of 'tuning out' and not engaging with things.  

If I could generalise (and this is not referencing you, and generalizations don't apply to *all cases*), but the use of substances for the specific purpose of numbing and not feeling is to do with orange ray pain.  The kind of withdrawal/retreat/non-engagement in yellow ray, has to do more with the use of stimulants (coffee, sugar, uppers) to get over the effect of retreat.

so: orange ray pain: use something to numb it
     yellow ray retreat: use stimulants to go 'hyperactive'

again, these are broad strokes (and I'm talking about very specific cases here; there are many many unique uses of substances, and this is only referring to a subset).

So you can see that addictions in orange ray, trying to numb the pain ain't bad addictions for their own sake.  It's the pain that's the issue, not the substance use.

It basically boils down to the rejection of catalyst rather than loving accepting it. The question is, if one knows this, it doesn't necessary mean that one would simply stop drinking over night, you would still logically need to use a great deal of will power in order to let go of the distortion. The knowledge of a distortion alone isn't enough i believe to balance it out. One would need to be able not only to accept and understand the distortion but also to be able to use enough power of will to be able to fully let go of something.

in this case, I think one needs to investigate the issue of the pain, as I referenced above.

This is not easy, because it will usually be buried under layers, in the subconscious.  It can take quite a long time in fact.

The application of the 'Will' in this case, would be the great desire to know the reason for the underlying pain.  

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with the situation you described in the first paragraph, the issue doesn't seem to be addiction as such.  But more the occasional usage.  That's not a problem (at least from my point of view).  3d isn't the easiest place to navigate, and so it's perfectly cool to have a time-out.

also: why I say that MJ and alcohol are used to numb, even though people talk about getting 'high' is that the conscious mind looses control/direction when using both these substances.

when I talk about caffeine/sugar/uppers for yellow ray, it increases the activity of the conscious mind, so that it overcomes obstacles of shyness/retreat.

again, the substances I referenced can be used in an infinite variety of ways; and I'm only talking about specific situations.