DRUGS OF EVERYDAY LIFE -BREAKING HABITS AND FINDING YOUR WAY BACK TO YOURSELF
Why we believe we have everything under control - while slowly losing ourselves
Volume 1 of the series "Between the Years"
A man sits high up on a construction crane, talking on the telephone.
From below, everything appears clear:
Responsibility. Success. Control.
And yet sometimes, that is exactly where the quiet distancing from yourself begins.
Not with a collapse.
Not with sirens, withdrawal or destroyed lives.
But with a functioning everyday life.
With work. Relationships. Responsibility. Friends. Success. Motorcycles, travel, conversations and completely ordinary evenings.
And that is exactly the real question of this book:
What happens when everything appears to function on the outside – while inwardly, you slowly begin losing touch with yourself?
“Drugs of Everyday Life” is not a traditional self-help book.
And not a warning manual.
It does not explain how to stop immediately.
It shows how habits emerge. How they settle into a life unnoticed. And how people can continue functioning even after they have already begun distancing themselves from who they are.
Volume 1 of a four-part series about the quiet forms of numbing in everyday life – told through personal experience.
This first volume introduces a continuum running through all four books:
Marijuana. Alcohol. Tobacco. Sugar.
But also heroin and cocaine.
Not as sensation.
Not as collapse.
But as part of a life in which substances and habits often fulfil the same function:
- numbing tension
- smoothing transitions
- covering emptiness
- keeping closeness at a distance
- functioning without truly living
Not spectacular.
Not dramatic.
But effective.
What awaits you in this book
- an honest look at consumption that barely attracts attention
- stories in which nothing escalates – and precisely through that, something is lost
- the quiet shifting of closeness, identity and aliveness
- why habits often exert more power than obvious risks
- the feeling of standing in the middle of life while somehow remaining far away from it
What this book can give you
Clarity instead of self-condemnation
You recognise patterns without needing to judge yourself.
Understanding your own relationship with consumption
Whether socially accepted, hidden or suppressed.
Relief
Because it becomes visible that this is often not about weakness, but adaptation.
Orientation instead of pressure
No programme. No moral finger-pointing. No coercion. Only an honest inner compass.
The way back to yourself
If you sense that you are functioning – but can barely reach yourself any more.
Who this book is for
- for people who consume without collapsing
- for people who function even though something is missing
- for people who sense that everything is running – yet nothing truly feels close any more
- for people who have slowly lost themselves
- for people who want to change something without condemning themselves
What this book is not
- not a traditional self-help book
- not therapy
- not a warning manual
- not a quick solution
It is the beginning of a four-part series about the things that numb us – long before we even notice them.
The series “Between the Years”
DRUGS OF EVERYDAY LIFE – Volume 1
Why we believe we have everything under control. And why that is not true.
WHEN NUMBING BECOMES NORMALITY – Volume 2
About habituation, functioning and the quiet disappearance of closeness. And why we often notice it only when it is too late.
WHEN NOTHING NUMBS ANY MORE – Volume 3
Orientation in an emotionally exhausted world. How to remain standing when nothing protects you any longer.
AFTER THE NOISE – Volume 4
About life after illusion. Not everything was wrong. But much of it was loud.
Bernhard Christoph Lichtinger writes from lived experience – from ruptures, detours, new beginnings and encounters that do not need to be invented. His texts emerge where real life leaves its marks.
If you have not yet read a volume from the “BETWEEN THE YEARS” series, you can begin with one of the following books. The books can be read independently of one another.
Volume 1: DRUGS OF EVERYDAY LIFE
Volume 2: WHEN NUMBING BECOMES NORMAL