Grass, booze, hash, speed, crack, heroin, TV, shopping, sex... Whatever your drug of choice is, have loads of it.

People take drugs to change the way they feel, they look for the deep sense of satisfaction that the drug seems to bring. At first it all looks rosey, but after a while the effects start to wear off. The warm rosey glow is now just a normal part of life - and this is where you get the chance to develop some misery!

Because now you've upped the anti, you're habitually taking drugs and they aren't even doing any good. You can't stop because then your life would be really empty, you wouldn't even have the drugs! The only path is to have more. More shoping, tv, weed, crack, food, whatever it is. And if you carry on down this path, then it's a sure fire winner for misery.

My favourite drug was sudoku, it started of innocently enough, a line here, a 3 by 3 there. But soon I was doing mental arithmatic before breakfast and my whole life was ruled by numbers. The only joy was getting a complete solve and all else was darkness... Nowadays, I'm off the 'doku but I will do an occaisional word search at a party. Just to be sociable.

The only way to get those warm cosy feelings with any kind of lasting effect is to build a meaningful life up over a passage of time. Building relationships based on trust takes time and effort but brings great rewards. Our culture is based on advertising which tries to sell you a quick fix to whatever problem you might have. Got a pain? Here's a pill. Feeling inadequate? Here's an Audi 911. Feeling down, here's some drugs... Nobody is trying to sell you prolonged effort - because it won't make them any money.

So, here's my tip, if you want to be miserable, get stoned, if you want to be happy, you're going to need a clear head to enjoy all of the good times.