[Closed] Drugs, they screw you up. (a reason why to avoid during your formative years)

and on a slightly less reasonable note
ti29er... for you to insinuate that 'people like me' are exacerbating a percieved drug problem and therefor shouldn't exist.. based on your judgement of me from a couple of forum posts.. suggests to me that maybe you should take a chill pill maaaaaan....

Slight parallel - I loved speed 🙂

Heathern.
Get a grip.

humans *have* ... always used drugs of some form

Coffee is a stimulant not a drug.
Do you mean caffeine?
Many cultures do not use alcohol.

No, you're wrong. Stimulants *are* drugs. And, no, not all cultures have drunk alocohol but humans have drunk it for all of known history. Those that have featured no form of psychoactive use have usually done so under prohibition from a religious source - spiritual insight through denial and control etc

To throw our hands up in horror and say that drugs are an evil destroying our society and should be stamped out is hopelessly naive. It hasn't worked and fails to work. The world would probably be a better place with affluent egomaniacs coked up and high on themselves or pissed up lads pushing up against each other like disabled stags but sadly it is a better world that will not come to pass.

They're not going to go away just because you want them to. Sticking your fingers in your ears and shouting, "Go away!" doesn't really work. Accepting that people do, in fact, do drugs might be a useful first step in working out how best to manage drugs and drug users so that they cause fewer problems, where they do cause any problems.

EDIT - saying that, I am pretty unemotional so Maybe MrNutt is right.

Or maybe it's generally the way that a lot of males are brought up (socially as well as in families) and that you both *happened* to take drugs too?

Ti29er - Member

............ certain sections of society will perhaps natrually accept drugs, in whichever form, to be the norm. They are NOT. Never have been, never will be.

Ti29er - Member

.................
Coffee is a stimulant not a drug.
Do you mean caffeine?
Many cultures do not use alcohol.

Many many drugs are used over many cultures and have been back to prehistory. Man can almost be defined as a drug using animal and there is hardly a culture that does not have a drug. Chocolate is a drug, tea is, coffee is, Bhang is, cannabis is, Opium is.

Queen Victoria took cannabis and morphine

Caffine is a drug of course - its a stimulant which is a class of drugs which includes amphetamines and cocaine. Other classes of drugs are the depressants such as alcohol heroin and so on and hallucinogens such as cannabis and LSD

There is absolutluy not good evidence of drugs having effects on the mind long term. There appears to e some links but there are three hypotheses - Cause, trigger or coincidence.

To atate as the coucellor did that drugs cause emotional flattening is simply surmise and opinion. It has no basis in respectable research and should be challenged.

Getting back to the original post, I've had lots and lots of counselling and I found that some sessions/approaches very useful and some not at all useful. The answers are already in you, sometimes you need someone to help you how to find them. If you are getting something out of your sessions with this person, then that's good and I'm pleased for you.

However, I'm a bit uncomfortable with her uncompromising attitude on drugs. You happen to agree with her this time but what if she makes another sweeping statement with which you do not agree? How will that leave you feeling?

For the record, from personal experience, I would say one is f&cked up first and uses drugs as a coping/avoiding strategy.

Judas Priest! Get out and ride now folks.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Mark Berry

[img] [/img]

ahem, drugs have no lasting affects....

Drugs, they screw you up.

In my experience, the thing that can f*ck up one's formative years is having a couple of parents who are better at being arseholes than being parents. Drugs just finish off the job...

👿

drug use is an inevitable teenage rite of passage

Yunki.
I'm basing my comments on your comments, nothing more. I don't know what socio-economic group or community you hail from but don't think your opaque views are those of the norm.

It's always the same when a thread such as this appears, and always rambles off into encompassing the coffee / tea & alcohol / tobacco sub-debate, next you're going to spin me that old chestnut from the 80's that cigarettes haven't been proved to damaging.

There’s really no debate as such, some immerse themselves in the drug culture, some tinker around the edges, but don’t think, not for one moment think it’s a rite of passage for the youth of today (or yesterday, or even 2000 years ago) nor should you consider drug use to be even anything approaching the norm, it is not; it might be from where you hail from, your own socio-economic group or even where you now choose to live, but spare us the idea that you I have no control over your environment tripe and are somehow powerless to make more informed and educated choices in your life.

You’ll excuse me, I have a 4hr training ride and the sun’s just come out. I’ll be joining Hora with the whole speed fix now! 😀

oh

I have smoked weed/dope for years and when younger took LSD, had a rather bad speed habit and took a fair few pills.

Over the past few years I've noticed an inability to display emotion and I do tend to see the bad side of things, as well as having slightly paranoid tendencies and my ability to deal with situations has diminished. Despite being generally 'happy' with my life, I can't remember when I genuinely felt any joy, or sadness - the ability to worry about things is very prevalent though. I have thought before reading this that I may have damaged my ability to produce seratonin and endorphins.

Whether of not I'd actually be how I am if I had never taken drugs I'll never know. I don't regret taking them, as I've had some fantastic times, I just wish I shown a little more self control at times.

*gets ready for mental breakdown in later life*

but spare us the idea that you I have no control over your environment tripe and are somehow powerless to make more informed and educated choices in your life.

I'm really rather proud of the choices that I have made.. I drink slightly too much hot sweet builders tea and I like an occasional sociable pint.. with open minded friends and strangers in the rather quaint and very hospitable and friendly town centre that I choose to live in..

not really an out of control menace to society..

(I must admit that I made these choices based on personal experience)

I still love you though..x

All my early clubbing experiences (1993ish onwards) were completely substance-free - I just liked dancin'.

I did, however, pretty much lose my mind on account of a certain raven-haired, er, raver - but then I've always liked the inherent melancholy in most [url=

dance music[/url].

Ti29er - Member

There’s really no debate as such,

correct - all human societie use drugs to a greater or lessor extent and have done back to prehistory. This is absolutly clear, good or bad thing, damaging or not is debatable but the capacity and wish of humans to get out of their faces is clear and obvious.

Alcohol is the western drug of choice nowadays with cannabis and cocaine not far behind. Other societies use different drugs. All societies use drugs

Back from my natural high folks 😀

"Coffee is a stimulant not a drug"

lol 😀

Interesting how people use/abuse 'mind altering' substances of any kind, then seem surprised when they have exactly that effect....

I've done my fair share..

I have to say that in general I agree with Yunki on drugs and teenagers. Their generation has been exposed to drugs in a way that no other has, it is rife. Obviously not all will get involved but a far higher percentage will than any other generation that has passed before.

I remember hearing on the news approximately 15 years ago that 95% of £20 notes had traces of cocaine on them. If you stop and think about that it is a staggering fact even more so when you consider that when that news report came out ecstasy was still the recreational drug of choice and before the explosion of cocaine use you have now. How can you say drug use is not prolific with facts like that?

hmm, its not that I'm cold; I too am very empathetic, outgoing and quick witted. Perhaps this will explain my point a little better:

Yesterday I was helping a friend out and a once mutual friend of ours turned up. Now he didn't have the sense to get out of that scene when I did and my god does it show now.

He too is what could be considered "fully functional", he's even getting married next week. But the situation that arose highlighted this effect a little more clearly to me.
Almost 9 years ago he stitched me up, left me and my misses with no home between christmas and new year and was throughly unpleasant in his behavior towards me & her, none of which was deserved.
Needless to say I had nothing more to do with him since, now although I'm now friends again with a few people of that period I never want to be considered a friend of the likes of him.
Yesterday he came in whilst we were all working in a very busy kitchen and proceeded to behave like a child, continually trying to question me along the lines of "why do you still hate me", "we used to be great friends, come on your friends with them now" etc, despite explaining that I was a) very busy and b) had no interest in being a friend of his he still continued to persist, this involved repeatedly popping into the kitchen and even following me and confronting me when I went to collect some stuff from through the bar. It stuck me that he was behaving exactly as he did when we were all a lot younger, nothing had changed in him, the difficult teenager still remained and he's never "grown" out of that.

It is that effect on personality and emotional development that I was referring to.

Now thats not to say childishness doesn't have a place within everyones personality its just some folk have self hampered their character development through the use of drugs and drink.

I don't believe that its too late for people and that once you're self aware you can learn to deal with situations etc in a more measured,intelligent and adult manner. (typing that I still considered the word "adult" to belong to the likes of my parents, even though I'm 35)

Now I'm not taking all the councillor has to say as gospel, but I am finding it helpful in focusing on my personality and the way I approach and deal with life.

I'm certainly not weak willed or emotionally crippled, I'm just keen to have the best possible future I can.

I think self awareness and self control are the keys to a descent, stable, happy and fulfilling future. At least thats the path I'm taking, I'll keep you all posted 🙂

The problem with studies / hypothesise which suggest mental health problems in later life are associated with drug taking is that they forget about proving a causal link. Do more teenagers with mental health tendencies choose drugs as a coping mechanism, and therefore there is a correlation between drug use and mental health issues; or were they all perfectly normal and the drugs somehow changed their development. Personally I think it's the former - but I have no evidence to back it up...

[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7506157.stm ]Read & weep![/url]

Yes - that well known dangerous drug alcohol allied with tobacco

Like youth, drugs are wasted on the young.

haha too right chakaping, I couldn't agree more!

One thing that strikes me about some people who continue to smoke weed is that they are fantasists and/or compulsive liars. A friend of a friend even went to the length of holding a fake telephone conversation to support one of his stories. Now are people with fantasist tendancies drawn to drugs, does it help them to escape from their lives, or does the drug taking itself promote this behaviour?

What are other people's experiences / opinions?

One thing that strikes me about some people [s]who continue to smoke weed [/s]is that they are fantasists and/or compulsive liars

You cannot really make sweeping generalisations about drug use. Many have used them without any serious side effects. many on here drunk at an early age but have managed to avoid living in the cutter and drinking petrol as a consequence- Toxic Terry.

Perhaps cold people use drugs to open up, perhaps risk takers take risks with drugs - Yes Luke the pleasure beach on mushrooms is certainly an experience 😯

Many people are anti- drugs and use science to support this but the evidence is not really there. In reality some people who do drugs end up f@cked up most dont - like alcohol and gambling. Whether they do drugs because they are f@cked up or the drugs trigger this or exacerbate an underlying problem is the real question.

Whether they do drugs because they are f@cked up or the drugs trigger this or exacerbate an underlying problem is the real question.

That is precisely my question!

Although as a smoker for too many years, life has certainly become better without!

Just wanted to show my hand - I too was a happy, prolific soft drug user for most of my youth. I kind of missed out on the whole culture of drinking cans of cooking lager in back lanes and trying to snog teenyboppers, but view this as a positive thing - in fact I didn't start my drinking career until I was in my mid twenties. I was too busy skinning up. Also, IMO a good thing.

Had a lot of amazing times with good friends - camping / biking trips with a bit of pot and a few tabs. A few not so good times too (300 mushies baked into a cake gave me a full on death trip) and my memory hasn't quite managed to block out the occasional shivery, shakey, nightmarish comedowns.....

But I feel fine now 🙂

not really noticed any difference tbh over the years and i have been fairly hardcore across the board to nearly non existent now - odd weekend of smoking. Not really seen any damage to immediate friends who also dabbled and none of us really do anymore. Got a dead mate from alcohol who was anti drugs.

I agree recreational drugs will not help you overcome personal issues but they czn help you have a lot of fun

I took a lot of drugs when I was younger. that must be why I didn't cry when Princess Di died. Or Michael Jackson.

Some people get away with it, some people don't. Some people won't realise until later in life, others will never have a problem. There's plenty in life to make it entertaining enough without them, why bother? Or at least that was my view as a teenager, surrounded by drug users at school.

drug use is an inevitable teenage rite of passage these days and will highlight, magnify and sometimes compound any underlying emotional and mental problems that an experimantal teenager might be having..

Disagree also, there are plenty of non-drug tarnished teenagers, even alcohol. It's a choice, a bad one IMO, but it's not the only way to have fun as a teenager. My lack of drug taking and (heavy) drinking (unlike many of my mates) led me to seek other forms of entertainment and have experiences that I don't think I would have sought if I had had chosen ready access to my highs through a dealer. I think I'm a bit more rounded and experienced because of it.

Still doesn't make dealing with emotional and lifes general ups and downs very easy, but at least I'm fairly sure I've got nothing causing me particular extra difficulty, for which I'm grateful to my parents and family for their guidance when I didn't know any better.

Michael Jackson prevented you from shedding a tear when Princess Di died.
BBSB, you really do need to clean up ! 😉

This is quite an interesting piece:

[url= http://www.guidetopsychology.com/bpd.htm ]Borderline Personality Disorder[/url]

now there are a couple of passages in it that refer to childhood (inner child as a two year old etc) but if thats substituted for an "inner adolescent" then it does ring quite true.

I've just spoken with my GP about all of this and he has confirmed that what I'm talking about is actually a widely recognized occurrence, he did tell me the actual medical term but sadly the minute I stepped outside his door I forgot it! (I'll find it out shortly).

Its also worth reading the final paragraph in the section: "Sorting Out Adolescence from Puberty" here: [url= http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=10056 ]The DANA guide to brain health[/url] as well as the following passage "Behind the Scenes in the Adolescent Brain". Its no wonder that prolonged drug use during those formative stages will cause repressed emotional maturity once you understand the facts. If you think you've been unaffected you're probably not that self aware or your not being 100% honest with yourself.

Its all too easy to hide within a Narcissistic belief served with an occasional side order of self destructive behavior and believe that you're 100% fine and that "everyone just needs to let off a bit of steam now and then". But its when you sit down and ask yourself straight questions like "why do I behave this way, what are the triggers and how can I make myself a better person" that you can take the steps to making yourself a better person.

At least thats what I'm doing.

note: there's a fair amount of negative stigma attached to this kind of shit, the reason I am being public with this is that I know that if I had read or spoken to someone about this open and honestly before it may have helped save me and others upset, stress and hurt.

Its a personal thing but making yourself a better person shouldn't be frowned upon or sneered at because at the end of the day everyone benefits from it.

Well, sounds like a great theory.
I (famously) have very little emotion or feelings for anybody (emotionally defunct apparently) and I have always been utterly drug free

Haven't read the thread but have to comment on this classic piece of ignorance.

The OP said that drug use can cause emotional problems. He did not say emotional problems are ONLY caused by drugs, did he? You are attempting to use totally flawed logic to rubbish an argument - which is pretty thick.

As for others pontificating as to whether or not drugs cause this or that - looking for definite 100% causality is similarly stupid. The question is whether or not drugs MAY CONTRIBUTE towards psychological problems and how strong that possibility is. So there's no point posting on here saying 'I did drugs and I'm fine' and using that as evidence that it's all perfectly ok.

One thing that strikes me about some people who continue to smoke weed is that they are fantasists and/or compulsive liars

Being from Yorkshire can make you emotionally unresponsive too.