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Life's Pleasures Quote by Steven Adler

"I just got tired of being sick and tired and feeling down. Unfortunately, you don't realize this until you're getting sober but the reason why you're depressed all the time is it's the drugs that are depressing you"

About this Quote

Adler frames sobriety less as a moral conversion than a practical rebellion: he got bored of his own misery. The opening phrase, "sick and tired of being sick and tired", is a well-worn recovery slogan, but in his mouth it lands like road-weary rock honesty - not inspirational poster stuff, more like a backstage confession said without makeup. It signals exhaustion, not enlightenment. That matters because addiction culture often sells the myth of the tortured artist: pain as fuel, chemicals as creative lifelines. Adler punctures that mythology by describing depression as a side effect, not a personality.

The most pointed move is the temporal twist: "Unfortunately, you don't realize this until you're getting sober". He's naming a trap that keeps people using - the drug doesn't just medicate the sadness; it manufactures it, then offers itself as the only relief. That feedback loop is the subtext of countless celebrity spirals, especially in scenes like late-80s hard rock where self-destruction was practically a brand asset. By admitting the causal arrow ("it's the drugs that are depressing you"), he reassigns blame from some vague inner darkness to something concrete and changeable.

There's also a quiet argument here about agency. "I just got tired" is small, almost casual language, but it's doing heavy lifting: recovery begins when the story stops being romantic and starts being intolerable. Adler isn't offering a neat redemption arc. He's describing a grim practical insight - the kind you only earn after the high stops working and the low becomes the main event.

Quote Details

TopicMental Health
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Adler, Steven. (2026, January 16). I just got tired of being sick and tired and feeling down. Unfortunately, you don't realize this until you're getting sober but the reason why you're depressed all the time is it's the drugs that are depressing you. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-just-got-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-and-97551/

Chicago Style
Adler, Steven. "I just got tired of being sick and tired and feeling down. Unfortunately, you don't realize this until you're getting sober but the reason why you're depressed all the time is it's the drugs that are depressing you." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-just-got-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-and-97551/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I just got tired of being sick and tired and feeling down. Unfortunately, you don't realize this until you're getting sober but the reason why you're depressed all the time is it's the drugs that are depressing you." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-just-got-tired-of-being-sick-and-tired-and-97551/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

Steven Adler

Steven Adler (born January 22, 1965) is a Musician from USA.

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