Hipocrites of addictions

[MSTarot]

Watching a YouTube video, researching a story, and the lady I'm listening to got me to thinking.

A lot.

She spent most of her twenties as a heroin addict. During her thirties she was in and out of mental institutions, drug rehabs, and addiction centers. And she says she looks back on her heroin years as the best time in her life. The opiates, in her opinion, took care of her mental issues better than anything they gave her in the years that followed.

For her it was what worked.

She said when she mentions this people look at her like she's stupid, but she then pointed out just what a fucking cocktail of drugs the "Normal" person is on, just in a day to day life.

Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol are acceptable. Glorified. Served with presentation, a dozen flavors to each.

Then there are the prescription meds, to help you get through life. Then the antidepressants to get the bad parts over, so you don't end it quicker.

This world is a tough place. I'm addicted to soda, coffee, chocolate, rum and sex. (often at the same time)

I can kill a three-liter soda in a night by myself. Two, maybe three, pots of coffee a day is a norm for most weekends. A bottle of rum a month. And sex ... well I'm hoping to OD on it at some point.

So ... who am I to look at what she was doing and call it wrong? I don't have that right, I can't cast the first stone.

Opinions on the topic, and have you included the use of drugs in your stories?

(coffee makes an appearance in most of mine, I do that deliberately.Thanking the bean for its help as it where.)

 

[GoldenCojones]

Drugs may have been the best part of her life, but for most people who are addicted to hardcore drugs like heroine or crack the drugs destroy them. I personally hate the hard drugs and while I see your point, being hooked on caffeine is not anything at all like being hooked on crack.

That said, addiction truly is a disease much like depression and bi-polar disorder. I don't condemn addicts but I do feel sorry for them when it has got to the point of destroying their lives.

I don't include drugs in my story, at least nothing more than alcohol and even that I don't overdo. I don't recall ever having a character even be tipsy in anything I have posted here. The other side of that, seeing drugs used in a story is a sure back-click event for me. Just me being me.

 

[le_kitty]

I have a friend who brings up this topic from that angle too, that alcohol and tobacco are higher causes of risk and death than other drugs but it's those drugs that are prohibited.

Once upon a time I held a hard opinion on drugs, and that the only path is addiction, which is easy to assume if you grew up being told stories of why you should never do drugs. But I find that people can be a little closed minded where drugs are concerned, that there is only ever one picture. But the truth is there are recreational drug users, they don't look like drug addicts, their not dead and they definitely fly under the radar. But I'm referring to marijuana and psychedelics, I don't know about harder drugs.

Also I find that, being human, for some of us it is natural to want those experiences, no matter what is said about them. Making them illegal doesn't make them go away, only harder to find and much riskier.

I have considered including psychedelics in stories, though I have considered that by doing that I might be glorifying drugs, which... I don't want to be doing.

 

[JaxRhapsody]

Many of my characters smoke, often it's Djarums that they smoke.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I have a pal who is a counsellor for addicts in a rough part of London. He wrote his PhD thesis arguing that the reason the young men he was working with did drugs, was to self-medicate because of the abuse they had lived through as children. There are underlying reasons why people abuse strong drugs or alcohol.

I think there is a big distinction between upper/middle class people who do drugs for recreational purposes - his argument was that this was actually the bulk of the market, and they kept the market going. (This was London in the 1990s, so lots of cocaine-snorting bankers.) Then there are the working class people who traffic drugs and do it for other reasons.

I think I am quite lucky. Even hash has such a massive effect on me that if I smoke some, I am really down for three days. I just have to sit on the edge of my bed telling myself it's just the hash and that I will feel better about life in three days' time. So it was never worth it for me to get into drugs.

I had to give up tea and just drink decaffeinated coffee because I am so wired with the menopause that I can't sleep if I have caffeine . I usually drink proper tea which I make with leaves in a teapot. God I miss that delicious tea! The fragrant brown brew with the sweetness of a full cream milk and a spoonful of sugar ... mmmmm However I missed sleep even more, so I'll stick with the programme until things settle down. I don't get nearly so many hot flashes now I gave up caffeine.

 

[LadyVer]

I'd have a difficult time writing about drugs. I saw what heroin did to a brother and bf, both of whom died by the age of 30. The thing with comparing drugs and anything else is that with heroin the user will have less of an issue with shoving a gun in someone's face to get a fix. Self-medication with heroin is, to me, difficult to justify. At some point, people need to learn to cope with life.

I would love to be able to take anti-depressants, but it became a choice between having a squirrel cage in my head or my nerves in my legs twitching like a frog's 24/7. I chose the squirrel cage.

 

[Bramblethorn]

This Huffpo article is worth a read. It makes an argument that we vastly overestimate the chemical aspect of addiction, when we should be thinking of it more as an escape mechanism for people who don't have other options.

I don't think anybody disputes that heroin users tend to have crappy lives, but we shouldn't assume that heroin is always the cause; sometimes it's a reaction.

Nearly fifteen years ago, Portugal had one of the worst drug problems in Europe, with 1 percent of the population addicted to heroin. They had tried a drug war, and the problem just kept getting worse. So they decided to do something radically different. They resolved to decriminalize all drugs, and transfer all the money they used to spend on arresting and jailing drug addicts, and spend it instead on reconnecting them -- to their own feelings, and to the wider society. The most crucial step is to get them secure housing, and subsidized jobs so they have a purpose in life, and something to get out of bed for. I watched as they are helped, in warm and welcoming clinics, to learn how to reconnect with their feelings, after years of trauma and stunning them into silence with drugs.

One example I learned about was a group of addicts who were given a loan to set up a removals firm. Suddenly, they were a group, all bonded to each other, and to the society, and responsible for each other's care.

The results of all this are now in. An independent study by the British Journal of Criminology found that since total decriminalization, addiction has fallen, and injecting drug use is down by 50 percent.

Sounds like a good result all around.

And, yeah, some drug use definitely is self-medication. Schizophrenics tend to be heavy smokers, because nicotine helps damp the symptoms. I have a friend with ADHD who gets prescription amphetamines that help him focus; if he didn't have that option he might well be using the illegal version to get by.

I don't write much about drugs because it's not something I know much about; it took me quite a while to get a good handle on my moods and I've made a personal choice to stay away from stuff likely to mess with that. But I don't want to tell other people how to fight their battles; I haven't lived in their heads.

 

[NaokoSmith]

I'd have a difficult time writing about drugs. I saw what heroin did to a brother and bf, both of whom died by the age of 30.

Sorry for your loss.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I grew up in a home where alcohol and drugs were the rule. It was hell. I was Marilyn in the Munster House. It was hell because the addictions kept the parents in trouble with car wrecks and killings and brawls and all kinds of public drama. And what happened at home didn't stay at home. My ma died in 1971, and I've been to her grave twice in 44 years. Her grave is close by.

I have no problem with anything that makes your life better. I've known folks who fared well with their vices. For some their vices are religion and politics and money and whatever. For myself, I seem to be immune from the fun and interesting effects of drugs and alcohol. I tried most of them and nuthin much happened. So I don't get their appeal. I blame my thalamus, it makes us who we are.

 

[lovecraft68]

Never did any myself, but grew up in a family full of addiction. Wrote of drug use extensively in my SWB series and must have been convincing because I had a lot of feedback from people saying they felt sorry for my battle with drugs because obviously I had to have been a user.

Never a user, but close to many and sometimes we suffer as much as they do watching their slow decline.

This woman in the article sounds to me like she is still justifying her addiction or now that she is clean and facing reality without her fix she in a way sees her drug days as the good old days. Sounds like she needs more therapy

Caffeine and nicotine will not make you rob and steal, they will not make a woman whore herself for the next fix. Alcohol is destructive to an addict and readily available, I agree on that.

Prescription drugs is the weakening of a society and an effect of lazy doctors and a society who no longer understands the meaning of 'suck it up' nope, we don't have to deal with anything anymore, now we're taught to hide behind a pill for everything and deal with nothing.

This starts young, every kid has add adhd, the kid can play a video game for hours, but because he is too lazy to study and mom and dad can't take time away from facebook to work with him so give him a pill.


So addiction is everywhere and yes its to more things than ever, but drinking to much soda will never equate to being a heroin addict nor will smoking two packs a day(but it may kill you, just slowly)

So comparing soda, cigs, drinking fairly responsibly and sex(with a steady partner or any consensual sex)) to heroin is pretty ridiculous. Its also disrespectful to anyone who has battled serious drug issues. So I think the entire opening post here is past lame. Someone with no real addiction issues pretending tio understand what a hard core drug user goes through.

Truly an example of the woe is me modern day individual

But I could be wrong, people can fee free to cite facts of people they know who have been in soda rehab.

 

[Quiet_Please]

I don't understand the hypocrite part of your title.

I'm an alcoholic, not yet reached my bottom ... when you hit your bottom, you only begin to move upwards .... sobriety, spiritualism, the 12 steps .... and what the 12 steps do is teach you that your life doesn't have to suck.

I have no doubt heroin was the best part of this lady's life because her life was undesirable until she found a power greater than herself that brought her peace.

An addiction is something that takes over your life. It becomes your life to the detriment of it. In the past the cure to alcoholism was either jail or death (and now a days, all addictions could fall into that). In the mind of an addict, you ask them ... addiction and death or follow a plan that lets you live and their first instinct is ... 'well, how long can I live my addiction before I die?' ...

Addiction ruins your life, otherwise no one would care.

You ever have a person stop talking to you because you drink to much coffee? I'm going to guess that's a no.

A.A. began with alcoholism, but it's helped many forms of addictions that weren't known ... back then, before Ebby Thatcher, Dr Bob, Bill Wilson and Dr. young, the Oxford group no one understood the the mind of an addict.

I live in fear. Constant fear and when I drink I am everything I want to be. I know how to talk to people, I can handle any situation, people like me .... but when I'm sober, I'm not that person ... but eventually you need more and crave more and then you cross the line ... you are no longer sociable, because inside you want to feel better, need to feel better, but as you feel better, you're saying things and doing things that normal people think, 'what the hell is going on ... with this person?"

 

[NOIRTRASH]

There are addicts, and there are addicts. Addicts are addicts for all kinds of reasons; crushing anxiety, physical pain, and self criticism, mostly. God gave me a pip-squeak thalamus so I feel little anxiety, pain, and low self esteem. Booze etc cant make me feel better or calm my nerves or enhance my conceit. I like booze, I like its taste, I don't like the calories, I don't like its sedative effects. Its a sleep aid for me.

 

[SusanJillParker]

Coffee (caffeine) is my only vice. I can't write without it.

I drink Starbucks French Roast. I grind my own beans until the coffee if a thick paste. I drink a full pot in the morning, twelve cups, equal to six mugs. If it wasn't for the coffee (caffeine), I couldn't focus enough to write my own name.

Then, I wonder why my heart beat is faster than what it should be at my age (lol).

Yet, I don't drink (anymore), never smoked, don't even drink soda. Unless caffeine is hidden in other foods, coffee is all that I need to get me going for the day.

 

[jsmiam]

Specific to the question buried in the post, putting drugs in a story, i would expect it to draw out a few extras one scores from people who feel strongly against drugs, especially since there's no category for drug use. It'll be somewhat unexpected to the reader (big authors note required), but nonetheless, just expect more negative scores and comments no matter where you put it.

 

[hoosieryank]

Addiction is a difficult subject for me. I lost a wife to alcohol and a sister-in-law to crack. The biggest difference I saw was that one was legally purchased. Both people involved would lie about using and both at one time or another resorted to stealing to get their fix. Both women sold their bodies to feed their addition. Both women suffered through the last months of their life in exactly the same way. Their urns now sit side by side on a shelf in my home.

I am currently watching a brother suffer from alcoholism and a step-son throw away his life to crack. With that said, I condemn no one. I have my vices too. Caffeine, tobacco, alcohol and yes, I smoke some marijuana (legally purchased in Arizona with a medical card). Caffeine and tobacco are the ones that I can't seem to do without.

Everyone has a coping mechanism. Unfortunately for some, it is chemicals that get us through. Some are prescriptions and some are self medications. Addictions occur with both. I don't have the answers and I don't think anyone does. When it comes to real life all I can do is help pick someone up after they hit bottom.

I have included alcohol in my stories but only socially. I mentioned marijuana in one story and in another it played a bigger role. I understand that this will turn a few people away from the story and I am alright with that. I also know that marijuana is becoming more mainstream and I don't see where including it should be an issue, but that is just one man's opinion.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Watching a YouTube video, researching a story, and the lady I'm listening to got me to thinking.

A lot.

She spent most of her twenties as a heroin addict. During her thirties she was in and out of mental institutions, drug rehabs, and addiction centers. And she says she looks back on her heroin years as the best time in her life. The opiates, in her opinion, took care of her mental issues better than anything they gave her in the years that followed.

For her it was what worked.

She said when she mentions this people look at her like she's stupid, but she then pointed out just what a fucking cocktail of drugs the "Normal" person is on, just in a day to day life.

Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol are acceptable. Glorified. Served with presentation, a dozen flavors to each.

Then there are the prescription meds, to help you get through life. Then the antidepressants to get the bad parts over, so you don't end it quicker.

This world is a tough place. I'm addicted to soda, coffee, chocolate, rum and sex. (often at the same time)

I can kill a three-liter soda in a night by myself. Two, maybe three, pots of coffee a day is a norm for most weekends. A bottle of rum a month. And sex ... well I'm hoping to OD on it at some point.

So ... who am I to look at what she was doing and call it wrong? I don't have that right, I can't cast the first stone.

Opinions on the topic, and have you included the use of drugs in your stories?

(coffee makes an appearance in most of mine, I do that deliberately.Thanking the bean for its help as it where.)

An unforgettable quote from Jesse Stone...

"I'm not in the right or wrong business, I'm the legal and illegal business."

Personally, I have A cup of coffee in the morning. An ice tea in the afternoon and massive amounts of water the rest of the day. I do have a couple of beers with dinner and maybe a 12oz. soda with lunch. (it all depends on what's in the fridge)

I have, in the past, been prescribed antidepressants, but have long since quit taking them, they made me not care about anything. And I have to admit to smoking marijuana, but never really liked the way it effected me.

 

[R. Richard]

This world is a tough place. I'm addicted to soda, coffee, chocolate, rum and sex. (often at the same time)

Mixing soda and coffee has to be a terrible mistake. The hot coffee will de-fizz the soda and ruin the soda effect. The cold soda will kill the temperature of the coffee and leave you with a subnormal coffee experience. JMHO

 

[Hypoxia]

Mixing soda and coffee has to be a terrible mistake. The hot coffee will de-fizz the soda and ruin the soda effect. The cold soda will kill the temperature of the coffee and leave you with a subnormal coffee experience. JMHO

Quite. "Don't drink and drive; you might hit a bump and spill your drink." That passed as wisdom a couple of generations ago.

I include chemical experiences in my stories because such are definitely part of human life. Yes, many many people consume many chemicals of varying legality. IMHO the most serious addictions are to alcohols & sugars. (Chemically, sugars ARE alcohols.) I have tried many substances; fortunately, heroin and cocaine do not agree with me. I am 'addicted' to certain prescribed medications, without which I would die. I find that correct dosages of alcohol and cannabis greatly enhance orgasms.

And I do find much "anti-drug" propaganda hypocritical and inaccurate, and "anti-drug" campaigns seem to benefit cartels. Illegal stuff get premium pricing; imagine that. Do you think maybe some legislators get campaign contributions from those profiting from illegality?

 

[legerdemer]

I include chemical experiences in my stories because such are definitely part of human life.... I find that correct dosages of alcohol and cannabis greatly enhance orgasms.

And I do find much "anti-drug" propaganda hypocritical and inaccurate, and "anti-drug" campaigns seem to benefit cartels. Illegal stuff get premium pricing; imagine that. Do you think maybe some legislators get campaign contributions from those profiting from illegality?

All of the above.

Titration and portion control on all our intakes are critical - but to be able to do this without overdoing it, one needs control. That is harder (or impossible) to keep with the more addictive substances, so I've stayed away from those.

My overarching principle for myself is that I need all my neurons for as long as I can keep them. Stimulating them is good, killing them off or inactivating them - definitely bad. But I have known people -very smart, highly productive people- who have benefitted from doing some self-medication, generally with pot or alcohol. These folks definitely tended to be the super type A's for whom drugs took some of the edge off.

I've included weed, alcohol and even mescaline (I'm dating myself) in stories I've written for here, but the use was not abuse, but rather experience enhancing. I can imagine writing characters that abuse these substances but haven't yet.

One that I struggle with daily is my chocoholism.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I went to school with a gifted brainiac who became a famous surgeon and perfesser.

But he couldn't leave the drugs alone, and he lost it all. Medical license, perfessership, practice, and etc. Became a bum.

 

[JackLuis]

I found myself drinking to excess a lot, when I was in the Army, but cut it way back when I got out. I still drink a bit here and there but smoke way too much and can't break the habit.

Drugs in stories turns some people off and some people on, I think it's social conditioning and bad experiences.

I recently became addicted to the Ukulele. They are small and I can keep three next to my computer, to rip off a song or two as I read the news. It is a lot more acceptable socially and I don't have to step outside at least not until I've driven everyone crazy with "House of the Rising Sun".

 

[NaokoSmith]

I grew up in a home where alcohol and drugs were the rule. It was hell.

Sorry for that.

I live in fear. Constant fear.

I have been in situations where I felt like that, where I was going round and round my depression not seeing a way out of it. I used to describe it as life is like surfing. If you are in a good place mentally, you can surf the big waves and it feels great, but it you are struggling and get thrown off the board, you just get tossed around by any wave that comes along.

Sorry that you're struggling with life just now. Hope writing/reading gives you something to hold onto at least.

Addiction is a difficult subject for me. I lost a wife to alcohol and a sister-in-law to crack. ...
I am currently watching a brother suffer from alcoholism and a step-son throw away his life to crack.

Sorry for your loss. It must be very hard to watch more of your family go down that same destructive path.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Caffeine and nicotine will not make you rob and steal, they will not make a woman whore herself for the next fix.

You'd be surprised what people will do for nicotine when they have nothing else to occupy them. There's a reason cigarettes are used as currency in prisons; we recently had major prison riots when the Vic system went smoke-free. Attacks on guards doubled when Queensland did the same thing.

And, yeah, people do sell sex for cigarettes. Happens in Australia too.

 

[Handley_Page]

I found myself drinking to excess a lot, when I was in the Army, but cut it way back when I got out. I still drink a bit here and there but smoke way too much and can't break the habit.

Drugs in stories turns some people off and some people on, I think it's social conditioning and bad experiences.

I recently became addicted to the Ukulele. They are small and I can keep three next to my computer, to rip off a song or two as I read the news. It is a lot more acceptable socially and I don't have to step outside at least not until I've driven everyone crazy with "House of the Rising Sun".

I got cured of a smoking addiction. I caught a cold; Turns out it was 'bird flu' or something and I got the "Tamiflu" pills. The pills were worse than the problem; if I had a fag, I'd cough my guts up in no uncertain manner. After 3 weeks of staying off the fags, I figured I could manage without; I've been off them for a 7 years or so, so far.

A year after I had given up, I was told "Yes, you have cancer," and off we went into Radio therapy, chemo therapy and a lot of pain. One nurse looked at me with a glaring gaze and said in a forceful voice: "Do You Smoke?"

I looked at her and replied in a similar voice "NO; not for 13 months"
She was quiet after that. I got the impression that nobody had replied to her question in quite the same way and it raised a smile or two.

But I think I'm OK now; final check-up next week.


Now listen to a uke master

 

[le_kitty]

A year after I had given up, I was told "Yes, you have cancer," and off we went into Radio therapy, chemo therapy and a lot of pain. One nurse looked at me with a glaring gaze and said in a forceful voice: "Do You Smoke?"

I looked at her and replied in a similar voice "NO; not for 13 months"
She was quiet after that. I got the impression that nobody had replied to her question in quite the same way and it raised a smile or two.

But I think I'm OK now; final check-up next week.

I love it when people try to assert themselves over you from their position of "authority" and get stepped on.

I hope things turn out well for you.