# Did your youthful heavy drug & alcohol use affect your current mental abilities? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2006, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905 "2006-01-07T17:12:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/21 "2006-01-08T23:28:46Z")
My mental abilities deteriorated mostly due to 1) having to work for a living, and 2) having a child. I am not kidding. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/22 "2006-01-08T23:30:25Z")
At the time, yes. Now, no. About the only long term effect is an occasional phase of a trait common to current and long time users: repetitiveness. Every now and then I’ll catch myself telling an anecdote or joke or something that I’ve already told. Sadly, I usually know I’m doing it at the time, but do it anyway. About the only long term effect is an occasional phase of a trait… ---
**Author:** ![TygerDralion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e19adc/32.png) [@TygerDralion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TygerDralion)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/23 "2006-01-08T23:47:56Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > About the only long term effect is an occasional phase of a trait common to current and long time users: repetitiveness. Every now and then I’ll catch myself telling an anecdote or joke or something that I’ve already told. Sadly, I usually know I’m doing it at the time, but do it anyway. Oh SHIT! My mom’s a stoner?!?!?! Whoa! Please resume your regularly scheduled paranoia. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2006, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/24 "2006-01-08T23:51:05Z")
When I was in my twenties, I spent most of my free time as high as a kite. Packed a bowl continually from six in the evening till around midnight weekdays, and did large quantities of LSD about twice a week for seven years. Throw in occassional use of MDMA, psilocybin, DMT, and mescaline, and some infrequent use of ketamine, cocaine, and opium. Now that I’m in my mid-thirties, it’s rare for me to touch anything apart from beer and the occasional bottle of wine. I don’t think I’ve suffered any lasting impairment. (Can Gödel’s theorum be applied to the system sloshing around in my cranium?) I think the popular image of someone who’s consumed as much drugs as I have over the years is along the lines of Jim Ignatowski from _Taxi_. I look more like a Mormon missionary. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2006, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/25 "2006-01-13T20:58:45Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > I’m 26 and have been doing all sorts of shit since 18. A couple of years ago I started feeling like I wasn’t remembering, concentrating, learning new stuff, or following logical trains of thought as well as I used to. It could well be the drugs. Or it could be that I left uni. Or it could just be aging. But my fave theory at the moment is that it’s because I’ve been an accounts assistant these past three and a bit years. > > Warning: accountancy turns your brain to mush. Just say no. Have you ever considered a career change? Like lion taming, for example? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/26 "2006-01-14T00:37:27Z")
> [@Burrido](#): > > I would have to say it did in my case. Obviously there is no way to really determine if it is just age or my past drug use. I’ve just been noticing that I can’t remeber where I put shit anymore. Don’t worry about it. That’s just a natural adaptation to limit drug use. Eventually, you can’t remember where you put the drugs, leading to moderation. The same basic principle makes you fall over when you drink a lot. Hard to pour another shot from the floor, init? Our bodies are wonderful things. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/27 "2006-01-14T04:29:26Z")
Oh, wow, no, man. Like it _expanded_ my, like, mind, you dig? I discovered I was as allergic to marijuana as I am to cats. But you’d think that, after 35+ years the damned trails would go away-way-way-way-way-way… ---
**Author:** ![M.Meursault](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@M.Meursault](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/M.Meursault)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/28 "2006-01-14T08:22:51Z")
> [@astro](#): > > If you were a heavy duty stoner and/or drug & alcohol abuser when younger, do you feel that this affected your mental abilities later? Do you think that possibly you may have lost some mental acuity along with the brain cells, or are you as keen as you ever were? A little. I was a pretty major pothead in high school and now my short term memory is absolute crap. I cant’ remember anything unless I write it down. Strangely, I honestly can’t remember if I was like that before I was smoking weed every day. I think the decline of mental acuity due to drug will vary from person to person. I have two friends who are still major stoners: one’s an electrical engineer and the other works in a loading dock. The EE cannot remember anything. At all. He has gone out to buy drugs, become side-tracked by stopping to eat, and forgotten to buy drugs, when drugs are really his only hobby. The loading dock worker friend can still recite the entirety of Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” (which isn’t easy) and has had research papers on Keats and Barthes published in scholarly journals. So…yeah. It varies. ---
**Author:** ![UselessGit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/74df32/32.png) [@UselessGit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UselessGit)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/29 "2006-01-14T15:52:38Z")
My short-term memory isn’t what it used to be but I can still remember NBA statistics from '92 so it can’t be all that bad. I tend to repeat myself quite a lot, though. I’m still going strong on a 10-year run (heck, I’m high right now!), during which time I’ve started a company from scratch and branched it out to three countries (I’ve had help, mind you). I’m hoping to check into rehab pretty soon–I’ll let you know whether my mental abilities improve after that… If I don’t become president or something. My short-term memory isn’t what it used to be but I can still remember NBA statistics from '92 so it can’t be all that bad. [towelie]You wanna go get high?[/towelie] Seriously, though… stay in school. Winners don’t use drugs. ---
**Author:** ![vibrotronica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a9a28c/32.png) [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/30 "2006-01-14T15:57:02Z")
I’m sorry, what was the question? ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/31 "2006-01-14T23:32:50Z")
I refuse to answer on the grounds that I don’t remember the question. Also, it contains too many big words. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/32 "2006-01-15T00:13:41Z")
> [@M. Meursault](#): > > I think the decline of mental acuity due to drug will vary from person to person. […]The EE cannot remember anything. At all. He has gone out to buy drugs, become side-tracked by stopping to eat, and forgotten to buy drugs, when drugs are really his only hobby. You realize that the distribution of the absent-minded amongst people who’ve never been anywhere near cannabis is about the same, right? It would make just as much sense to talk about the “improvement of mental acuity due to drug use” varying from person to person, based on your anecdote, since recitation of lengthy verse from memory and publication of scholarly work is above the median. While acute impairment of memory due to cannabis use is well-documented, there is little reason to think that it has a significant effect lasting beyond the intoxication. Normally, people only remember a tiny fraction of the information that they process during the day. Attributing normal lapses in memory to past drug use is (mostly) _post hoc_ fallacy. “I can’t find my car-keys because of all that weed I smoked in college” is about as valid as “I lost my job because a black cat crossed my path on the way to work.” Of course, heavy drug use that leads to brain damage due to apnea, stroke, etc. is another thing altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/33 "2006-01-15T00:19:53Z")
I smoked an awful lot of pot in my day and it hasn’t affected ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/34 "2006-01-15T00:32:19Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > How would you know? Good point. A better question would be: So you have known this person from highschool. You know him well. Then he is a stoner all through his early twenties. Then he stops doing drugs. So, how does his abilities and character compare before, during and after? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/35 "2006-01-15T00:37:15Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Have you ever considered a career change? Like lion taming, for example? There’s an opening for a Vegas act. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2006, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/36 "2006-01-15T00:41:05Z")
I’ve never done drugs, except one toke on marijuana at a girl only bonfire. It tasted like a sweat sock and I didn’t get high. Thus ended my brief stoner career. I blame this one fateful inhalation on ruining my short term memory and admitting this will ruin my chances for Presidency. YAY! ---
**Author:** ![nevermore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/37 "2006-01-16T02:23:55Z")
I don’t think it’s affected my intelligence or memory, per se, but I think it’s majorly affected my motivation. when drugs were an everyday part of reality, I got so used to keeping myself grounded and just being laid-back and chill, trying not to be paranoid or act too fucked up, I think I’ve just permanently become like that. too much so, to the point that I’ve trained myself not to freak out about anything, even the important stuff that I _should_ freak out about. to get anything accomplished, you have to actually worry sometimes, and not tell yourself it’s cool no matter what happens. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2006, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905/38 "2006-01-16T02:38:08Z")
My youthful use wasn’t that heavy. I still remember everything like it happened…what do you call that day that isn’t today, but one before? I forget. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-your-youthful-heavy-drug-alcohol-use-affect-your-current-mental-abilities/338905.md?page=1)