I'm quitting drugs

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

I agree. But getting high every day isn’t really productive. Being unable to enjoy a concert or something without being high is kind of sad. People don’t get physically addicted to weed. I have middle aged friends who still burn one on occasion; nothing wrong with that at all. I’m talking about people who spend most of their non-working hours being drunk or high…that gets to be a pretty pathetic life after a while. Show me someone over 30 who still trips & gets wasted several times a week who is also successful & functioning well in all areas of their lives…?

Spinnie…your thread is getting hijacked!

Good luck being straight!

22

Yeah, I get a feeling we agree on this one Carina.

I count it as a destructive addiction when people get wasted several times a week, no matter the substance they use.

— G. Raven

23

I keep thinking about something Rudy Rucker wrote in his book “Saucer Wisdom.” Rudy is a legendary stoner, but in his latest book, which is semiautobiographical, he says that as he got older, instead of giving him inspiration, it just made him sluggish and unproductive, so he gave them up. I’ve been thinking about that statement a LOT. He says he now likes to THINK about doing drugs more than he likes doing them. Which is a good thing because a lot of his cyberpunk novels have heavy drug themes.

24

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Carina42 *
**

It’s ok. I’d like to see some open discussion on the topic to form.

Chas E.: Yeah, Rudy Rucker’s books are good. But, I mean, come on! Freeware was just insane! The guy should really stop smoking crack!

Carina42 {RE: Lucky Charms}: That’s what I’m worried about!

25

Spinne, I was never much of a drug user, but Mr. Cranky was. Mostly just pot, but he did it every day. He had a bunch of waistoid friends and every story he has to tell about his high school years involved them getting high.

Then he quit cold turkey. He had failed to get into a good college (thanks to lousy grades) and was barely squeaking by in undergrad at a dopehead school. He realized he just wasn’t doing anything or going anywhere, and the opportunity cost of getting high all the time was too great. I suppose he could have just “cut back” but he went cold turkey. He turned his grades around, transferred to a better school, sought counseling for the problems that had made drugs so attractive, and kept on moving up.

The only reason I am sharing this story is that as successful as he is now, he still has a lot of regrets, he says, about the sheer amount of time he wasted. I mean, at some point, getting baked and listening to Pink Floyd’s The Wall for the 89th time while staring at your batik wall-hanging doesn’t bring further mental or spiritual enlightenment. He’d have rather read books, learned more about sculpture, improved his guitar playing, gotten more into computer programming, you name it. He feels like he lost 10 years, which is not a cool way to feel when you’re pushing 40. So I applaud your decision. I don’t think drugs are inherently evil or even particularly wrong–but you can subvert a lot of potential by devoting too much time to enjoying them.

26

Spinne, I wish you all the luck. You truly are doing this for yourself and its a great choice.

No one can really make someone else quit or cut back on stuff like this. Until your friends can see for themselves what they are wasting (hence “wasted”) and value it more than the high, lectures are only whiny words from someone who has no idea… Love them for who they are and be available if and when they want some help getting out of it.

27

I am a 16 year old “kid”. I am also a straightedger. Why?

  1. Drugs are too damn expensive.
  2. Most of the people I know that take drugs I don’t like. I don’t want to be like them.
  3. Play with fire, and you’re gonna get burned sooner or later.
  4. The chance of addiction is not too appealing.
  5. I have more fun when I am conscious. I am witty, smart, and charismatic. Under drugs I am none of these things.
  6. I have seen what drugs do to people first-hand.

Not all “kids” are drug fiends. Many of us don’t want to touch the stuff.

Spinnie, hats off to you! Recognizing an addiction and choosing to do something about it is hard. I wish you the best of luck. If you need any advice, there is a whole community here that wants to help you. You CAN do it.

28

OK red, what’s YOUR issue? I know there’s one there somewhere…

I’ve yet to meet a straight-edger who wasn’t a really overly angry person. They’re nearly always hung-up on something or another, besides their contempt for anyone who uses anything that alters their mind for a while.

You’re the guy at those straight edge punk shows who has all the straight edge tattoos and starts throwing punches in the pit, aren’t you? Yeah, admit it…

There’s no reason to be “straight edge”. If you don’t partake, fine, nobody’s gonna mess with you about it, but don’t be all uppity and self-righteous about it either. It bespeaks serious issues and just tends to piss people off, which seems to be a favorite activity of straight edgers, along with being violent. Now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever met a straight-edger who isn’t reeeeally prone to beating the shit out of people for no particular reason.

I apologize for all the stereotypes present in that post, but I feel that I’m justified in using them because they’ve been my own experience. Obviously not every single straight-edger is like that, but the mass majority are. Oh, and one more thing, calling yourself straight-edge is labeling yourself, which means you apply all the stereotypes of that label to yourself. Just live it, don’t name it.

Lucky Charms (Formerly MarxBoy)

29

Pardon my intrusion, but WTF is a “straightedger?”

30

Hey Red_dragon60 you appear to have touched a nerve. I personally congratulate your reasoning. More power to you. My years of addiction brought a world of pain and lost promise and opportunities, but now my worst day clean is still better than my best day using ever was.

SpinneZiege good luck to you. It is a task worth doing.

31

The straightedge movement is a kind of punk-rock puritanism of sorts… they don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, don’t have promiscuous sex. Lots are also vegan. As far as them all being angry, that’s like saying all hippies are dirty and smelly.

The name straightedge, IIRC, came from the Minor Threat song of the same name.

In case anyone’s wondering, no I don’t consider myself straightedge… I don’t do drugs and rarely drink. I don’t need a label for that. When I was younger I did, but I’ve mellowed out some these days. :wink:

32

Uhmmmmmmmm…completely well-adjusted, non-angry straight-edger checking in. (SanibelMan, a straightedger is somebody who doesn’t do any drugs whatsoever.)

Yes, I’m straightedge, but no, I am not “prone to beat people up.” In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever been in a fight. Many of my good friends partake in drugs, but I don’t get preachy about it. If they showed signs of not being able to handle it, I’d step in, but as it is I’m perfectly cool with it.

You wanna take drugs? Be my guest. However, don’t label everybody who doesn’t take them as an “inherently angry person.” The reason that I don’t take drugs is because I feel no need to do so. Hell, I do crazy enough stuff when I’m sober (ie giving speeches in crowded restaurants for no good reason), and don’t think that I’d have any more fun if I was stoned.

I like to think of myself as a very well-adjusted kid. I get good grades, have a wide variety of friends, many of whom I am the stand-in psychiatrist for, and just generally have a whole lot of fun with life.

I harbor no “contempt” for anyone who uses drugs. In fact, I don’t think I harbor contempt for anybody, except maybe my Physics teacher. I used to go to school with SpinneZiege, so if you need a witness, ask him.

Anyway, I’ll get off the topic now before this turns into too much of a debate for this forum. I just wanted to let you know that yes, there are nice straightedgers out there. I’d also like to remind you that saying “I know that I’m using stereotypes in this post” doesn’t make it any better. I like you, Lucky Charms, and from what I’ve seen of your posts, you’re smart enough to know better than to label people like that.

[/incredibly long, tangent-style hijack]

-Walt

33

OK, I am aware that I stereotyped in that last post, that’s why I apologized. I made sure to say that I didn’t believe that you were inherently violent if you were straight edge, it just makes you a suspect. The same goes for hippies and smelliness. I still don’t understand why people label themselves with the names of movements though, suddenly people associate them with the feelings of a lot of other people, and they lose their personal identity to a certain degree.

Be yourself and live without labels. Nobody can ever call you a poser that way, for one thing. I do avoid straight edge shows because people there do tend to be too violent, I don’t know what it is, but angry people do tend to be attracted by the Straight Edge movement.

Lucky Charms

PS: Re the statement I made about straight edge shows, don’t say I’m a pussy who can’t handle a pit. I’ve been in some insane pits, but they were always friendly insane, where songs end in severely bruised/bleeding people laughing together, hugging and thanking each other for being there. Don’t see that much at SE shows.

34

Hum… DRUGS Hum…
Well back in the day (a year or two ago) I used to smoke anyone into a coma. But, then it just got old like the rest of the drugs have been I don’t think I ever bacame addicted to any of them. I never had the “need” to get high. I spent my 5 1/2 or 6 years getting lit, but now it’s just old, it doesn’t have the appeal factor it once did. I mean I still smoke pot, and last friday I had a little bit of coke, but that was a first in along time. I just did it because I was bored, and I was hanging out with a bunch of my druggy friends.

I think for certain people, drugs are okay. Although you don’t know if you can handle something like that or not. Until you’ve done it for a while. I’ve had a bunch of friends who couldn’t handle their shit and now they’re working telemarketing jobs living in little apartments.
That sucks. Then a couple people I’ve know started selling to cover their own habit which landed one of my friends in jail for the next 7 years, and the other one is still selling and is constantly paranoid.

So for me it worked out okay I had my experimental days, and now I might smoke pot twice at the very most in a month. I never became addicted, why I don’t know? I wouldn’t reccomend anyone try drugs not even pot. Because you just don’t know how strong it will take a hold of you, until it already has.

SPINNEZIEGE-good luck, the fact that your quitting because your girlfriend wants you too is really cool. Just don’t lie to her and go behind her back and get wasted. She wants you to quit because she cares for you and your well being. The fact you are quitting shows her how much you value her.

35

Hey red, I didn’t mean to diss 16 year olds. Actually both you & Lucky sound quite mature and articulate. I was just pointing out that Lucky’s attitude may be attributed to the fact that he is several decades younger than some of the other respondents, which may not be apparent unless you read his profile. (My attitude when I was 16 was probably closer to his than yours, actually. I wasn’t knocking it; rather explaining it. :))

red, good for you.

And Lucky, you sound too smart to piss it away. Keep your spirit…just don’t let playing get in the way of growing!

36

“Total abstinence is the ultimate addiction.”
-Larry Flynt

37

Well, all good luck and good wishes to you, Spinnie. But remember-you don’t need drugs with the Pressed Fairy Book!

Remember-lots of chocolate is better.

38

Yeah, thanks Guin. I noticed today that my girlfriend still has the pressed fairy windshield sticker on her back window. Certainly brightened my day.

And, Nicklz: thanks for the post. I was about to pretty much say everything you just said. I’ll just reaffirm the point.

Oh, yeah…

I really hated that bitch. Come to think of it, I think she did do a lot of drugs in college. I mean, anyone who could electrocute herself during class has got to have a few screws loose!

39

What is up with all this hostility to "straight-edger"s?

I abstain from totally all drugs, as well as cigarettes and alcohol (mostly).

Why? Cause it’s bad for you. I don’t like my close friends doing stuff like that either, 'cause it’s bad for them, too. Not necessarily from a mental aspect (although there is that) but also from a physical aspect.

I’m trying to analyse why I have this deap-seated dislike for mood-altering anythings. It really does bother my when people I am close to do that. Maybe because I see it usually as escapism, which isn’t good.

The point is, I’m not an angry, pent-up individual. I don’t think that I have any right to tell you what to do. But I still reserve the right to keep clean, and encourage the people I love to do so as well.

40

These two things are well said. And they apply more than to drugs, they apply to friends as well.

Cut some slack to the people who care about you. All of you.