Opioids "make the world appear more meaningful"

 5/6/2021--I often have trouble explaining how the Death of God leads to the deaths of despair--that it, addiction, suicide, overdose etc. Helen Epstein had a very helpful insight in that regard in the New York Review, the March 26, 2020 issue, reviewing Deaths of Despair by Anne Case and Angus Deaton and We're Still Here, by Jennifer Silva.

Epstein writes of the power of opioids that they stimulate teh dopamine system in the brain, which "helps make the world appear more meaningful."

That is the point of the Death of God. Under its influence, we lose our sense of a meaningful world/universe. Drugs, and much else, rushes in to fill the void.

We need to fill that void in healthy ways.