Addictions -drugs alcoholism etc

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by cardinalkarp »

I know I'm late to the party, but after reading what was a really interesting thread I can add a bit of insight (or at least a viewpoint of someone who went down a pretty dark path & heavy drug use). First of all, I'm very lucky to come out of all of it alive & not permanently messed up....as two out of my four college roommates weren't nearly as luckily and passed away (probably 5-6 years ago) as they were never able to shake the demons.

In high school (and through college) I smoked a ton of pot...being friends w/ the guys who sold certain things (I'll explain further) back in the day seemed like a plus. High school was also a time when I did more acid than a person should really do, and still have their right mind. It was an every weekend thing for the acid, and pot smoking was part of the daily routine.

It was in college that I started to experiment w/ harder drugs like Ecstasy, Cocaine, perscription pills (and injectable painkillers....Nubain was the name of the drug). Unfortunately, I have quite the addictive personality, and that was my downfall. All of these drugs were all a call away & in a lot of cases right in the hand of my roommate (who ended up selling much of it). After the barrier of using a needle was broken, things got worse as shooting coke was something we weren't afraid of....I'm seriously surprised none of us OD'd during college. We would mix alcohol w/ all of the above, which obviously only make things more dangerous.

It started as doing things on the weekends, then it started to become daily. The cocaine binges would go on for a day or two (not sure how a person could go much longer w/o OD'ing)...but it was mostly because we ran out, as cocaine is w/o a doubt the most addictive (especially when doing it). The painkillers were more of a daily use thing, which led to pretty bad withdrawals (and those would last 3 to 4 days). Nothing that a person couldn't get through though.

Luckily for me, I tried heroin once & just didn't like it. While the initial rush was pretty damn good after that initial warmth & euphoria wore off I would just fight to even stay awake.

Through all of this I was a pretty functioning person, as I had jobs throughout college & was never one to just be confined in the house (unless it was during one of the binges). Of course, I didn't graduate either.

With that said, addiction is a [expletive]....and it's always something I have to be aware of (of course all I do these days is drink alcohol)...but those feelings and sometimes temptations are always there in the back of my head. The feeling some drugs give you (well at least speaking for myself) is flat out amazing, so I get first hand why people continue to be addicted & overdose. It's a different battle for each individual, and some just can't get past it.

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haltz
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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by haltz »

You don't necessarily sound like an addict, especially if you can still drink and that doesn't cause you problems.

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by cardinalkarp »

haltz wrote:You don't necessarily sound like an addict, especially if you can still drink and that doesn't cause you problems.
I've definitely turned the page on that part of my life...thankfully. Drinking has never caused me problems, but of course in those days I over indulged as much as the next college student. It's quite sobering when a half dozen guys in my fraternity that I knew pretty well all died from OD'ing...scary actually. Kids: "drugs are bad"

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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

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haltz wrote:You don't necessarily sound like an addict, especially if you can still drink and that doesn't cause you problems.
I fell asleep reading this thread last night before I commented. I don't think that I've ever been addicted to alky. I enjoy it and drank way to much of it in college, I've been told as much as an alcoholic but I never felt like I had to have it or couldn't get by without it.

Now chewing tobacco on the other hand I'd say I'm addicted to. I started chewing at 16 and quit when I was 30. It was very hard to quit but my wife was preg and I didn't want my kids to see me doing it and start later themselves. Probably never would have "quit" if it wasn't for that. I still can't checkout at a convience store without my mouth watering and having a strong urge to buy a can. Pay at the pump helped greatly because I can avoid going in and seeing Copenhagen staring me in the face. I put quit in "" because occasionally ill buy a can, usually when I'm very stressed. Having lots of friends that chew doesn't help. When I do buy a can it leads to more and after a week or so ill tell myself I have to "quit" and will. After a week or so its easier then the first time because I've found I simply don't enjoy it like I used to, but its at that time I've kind of gotten back into the mind set that I need a dip in. There are also things that I do, such as softball that I have to have a dip in. So I may not have actually quit but I feel like its under controllable me when I feel it creeping in that I'm losing that control I can stop. My kids have still never seen me chew and never will.
Last edited by Diddy on December 20 18, 9:53 am, edited 1 time in total.

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by cardinalkarp »

Strangely enough, I've never really smoked or dipped. Had tons of friends around me in high school that did, and I tried it a few times but absolutely hated nicotine buzzes. All it did was make me dizzy, upset stomach, & light headed.

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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by Vidor »

Just the other day I read about how Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous who went thirty-odd years without taking a drink, started asking for liquor as he was slowly dying of emphysema, and yelled at the nurses when they wouldn't give it to him.

Anyway, here's a feature about the out-of-control heroin epidemic in, wtf, Vermont.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/us/a- ... rrer=&_r=0

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haltz
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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by haltz »

I'm drunk, but whatever. I just let my friend stay on my couch for a week while he kicked a habit. He's been one of my best friends since I was 14 and I couldn't say no. It wasn't that bad and I think he's going to be fine (although it's been 10 years and he's done this before), but it was really stressful and heavy. I felt responsible simply because it was my house and worried while I was at work.

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Re: Addictions -drugs etc

Post by jim »

karp - that's some story, having met you I never would have guessed you sent something like that.

diddy - I chewed from the time I was 16 until 44, Copenhagen was my preferred brand but I went through a can a day and that got expensive so I would often do the cheaper knockoffs. I quit a couple of times for a day or two, but in 2007 I got a white patch in my mouth and needed a biopsy (it wasn't cancer). That scared me, I decided to quit for good, and I went through hell the first week. Cramping up in my calves was the worst, middle of the night, at work, wherever. It was awful. For about 3 months I still craved it even though the physical dependency was gone, but after about 6 months I did not. Even being around it I wasn't tempted, and I thought it was completely in my rear view mirror. But recently I've actually thought about it, and even had a notion once to buy a tin. I've had a rough patch recently and I think I'm just wanting a crutch. I guess you really never are over it 100%.

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Re: Addictions -drugs alcoholism etc

Post by Freed Roger »

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-ha ... 06936.html

Guy with a book. Interesting theory about addiction. Theory probably has some truth to it, though I'm not sure if it's so cut and dried.
Professor Alexander built Rat Park. It is a lush cage where the rats would have colored balls and the best rat-food and tunnels to scamper down and plenty of friends: everything a rat about town could want. What, Alexander wanted to know, will happen then?

In Rat Park, all the rats obviously tried both water bottles, because they didn’t know what was in them. But what happened next was startling.

The rats with good lives didn’t like the drugged water. They mostly shunned it, consuming less than a quarter of the drugs the isolated rats used. None of them died. While all the rats who were alone and unhappy became heavy users, none of the rats who had a happy environment did.

At first, I thought this was merely a quirk of rats, until I discovered that there was — at the same time as the Rat Park experiment — a helpful human equivalent taking place. It was called the Vietnam War. Time magazine reported using heroin was “as common as chewing gum” among U.S. soldiers, and there is solid evidence to back this up: some 20 percent of U.S. soldiers had become addicted to heroin there, according to a study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Many people were understandably terrified; they believed a huge number of addicts were about to head home when the war ended.

But in fact some 95 percent of the addicted soldiers — according to the same study — simply stopped. Very few had rehab. They shifted from a terrifying cage back to a pleasant one, so didn’t want the drug any more.

Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you. It’s your cage

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Re: Addictions -drugs alcoholism etc

Post by tlombard »

Addiction scares me. I think that's why I can't even drink a beer by myself at home. If there isn't somebody else drinking with me then I can't even finish one if I open it. I still have two beers in my fridge from the night of Game 5 of the NLCS in 2012 after a friend's bachelor party when a drunk friend insisted that I not leave the two beers left in our bucket after I called a cab because he passed out at the last bar. At this point I'm holding on to them in there just because.

I've had one uncle die of an overdose. One my family couldn't get to clean up and he eventually took of for California and was never heard from again until we found out he was dead in his 40s a few years ago. And then another uncle who is finally cleaned but ruined his life with drugs and being in and out of jail because he was stealing to feed the habit. My dad is also a functional alcoholic. In my mind I have the fear that drinking alone will lead me down that path and I just can't do it.

But get me in a bar with people drinking and it's on if I'm in a good mood. If I stay away from shots I'm fine but once people start buying shots, I will drink too much. I really need to start going to another bar where I don't know everybody so well and aren't always buying shots.

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