To ask the truth about your drug use?

[CantStopTheBeat]

This may seem a silly question but since it’s an anonymous forum I’ll ask anyway. I’ve NC.

If you ever experimented or used drugs, what did you use and what made you choose that drug? I want to have an open conversation with my teenage child about why people may use certain drugs and what situations they will come up in but I don’t have a huge amount of experience on it. I know the internet has information but would like some realistic stories from the ladies of MN.

@adrienneJ

I think its very common to see a separation of prescription/non-prescription drugs when really there isn't any difference.

I think I was trying to say that taking a drug when you are in pain, and stressed and worried (like when in hospital) doesn't give the same feeling as when you are taking it for 'fun' and you're happy and relaxed and on a comfortable sofa! :-)

So when people say they had drug [x] in hospital and it didn't do anything for them - that doesn't mean they wouldn't have enjoyed it in a different circumstance. When in pain its like your body and brain are too concerned with the shit going down to get fun-high.

Whereas take the same situation but you're with old or trusted, kind and positive friends: they will help you turn that experience around. So if you say 'I can see the light coming down from the ceiling at me, is it just me guys?' Someone else might say 'Oh but the light is beautiful, SkaterGrrrrl, it's just a fairy coming to give you a kiss. Let's put on our favourite song and get up and dance with the fairies!" Suddenly your trippy experience is turned into this awesome, playful, fun experience. Or whatever. You get stoned and wonder if love is real and the human condition is to be truly alone. Your mates listen respectfully but keep you positive and make sure you have some jelly babies so you don't whitey

@SkaterGrrrrl so much love for this! i think we have had similar experiences with our friends.

MDMA is amazing though.

@goingonabearhunt1 thats why we say "how do you feel?" - "I'm feeling MDMAMAZING"

Nothing really apart from one tiny line of coke that my flat mates pressured me into taking. Hated it. I had a nice wine buzz going and it totally destroyed it and everyone else who was shoveling it up their noses turned into total wankers.

I do have a hankering to try shrooms though. I don’t know why and it probably won’t happen.

I tried a few things as a teenager.
Coke, pills, speed, and whatever else happened to be popular at the time.

I didnt particularly enjoy them and probably did each one no more than 3 times.

I smoked weed now and then between the ages of 15 and 18 and then pretty much daily from 18-22.

I'm 28 and I don't do anything now, although if you passed me a joint at a party I'd probably have a toke.

Between the ages of 16-19 I did A LOT of coke, occasionally at first and then in the last year it turned into a problem. I only stopped because I fell pregnant with DD at 19.

If I hadn't, I'm quite sure I'd be exactly where all the rest of my friends from that period of my life are now (including DDs dad). Getting by doing shitty jobs, living in a shitty house and getting off my face every night. DDs dad actually lives in a squat now. I can see the path my life would have taken, and I thank God every day that I had the family support and the self control to stop.

I started because I had a mother who was so controlling, critical and neurotic for my entire childhood, that as soon as I was allowed some freedom, I went off the fucking rails. It's taken me a long time to come to terms with the damage that she did to me, and I hope that it makes me a better parent to my children than she ever was. I know she did it out of love, and because she thought she was doing the best for me, I was a surprise 3rd baby much later in life and I think she felt that she had to 'get it right this time'. But it had the opposite effect.

Oh and I haven't tried anything since. I hated weed, and tried a pill once during the coke years, which was fun but I probably acted like a total prat. Every song was my favourite song, and every person I met was my best friend . I was only able to afford coke as my boyfriend at the time was a dealer. He was in the local news a few years back after a raid on his house, where they found 10k worth of coke, 20k in cash and 'an arsenal' of weapons. Lovely guy he was

Tried weed as most young men I knew/lived with smoked weed. Didn't like it.

Tried pills as a student, friends raved about them.. I loved the effect, I felt high on life, happy, loving and much more in control than drinking booze. It just made the nights out more fun.

Speed, age 14 - in school, Had the best hockey game of my life after that

LSD, age 14 - I had a boyfriend who did some smalltime dealing and he gave me a sheet of LSD tabs to look after. He said I could have one. I did and it was brilliant, weird but very interesting. Not at all a bad trip, was probably lucky

Weed, age 14 - with my cousin and her bf who was heavily into it. Can't have been very strong, don't recall any particular effects

Cocaine, age 15 - again with cousin. Rubbish, not as good as speed (but it was definitely real)

Weed smoked from a bong, age 15 - I was on a sort of date and ended up chatting to some people and going back to theirs. They got the bong out and I had a go. Got a hilarious fit of the giggles. great fun

Then I used speed for weight loss for a while when I was 17, probably a month or so

Tried cocaine again a few times in my early 20s, it was always shit. No idea why people get addicted.

Had half an E when I was 25, that was magical but I didn't want to do it again (still scared after Leah Betts)

Nothing really since, age 25 to 33 The odd puff of a joint if there was one around but that really wasn't often... not even yearly. I don't really know anyone that does it anymore.

And now age 38 I don't drink or smoke and I 99% take care of myself so no drug use either (unless you count caffeine and ibuprofen)

Those who have never tried anything have you ever been tempted? I know I tried things out of curiosity at first and then if I liked it would take it again. But would just be interested to know whether you were tempted but feared the consequences or were just genuinely not interested?

Not tempted. I have sat with friends while they had things so had ample opportunity but just never fancied it

Only drug I haven’t tried is Ketamine.

14-20 spiralled into massive drug addiction and destroyed my life ultimately ending up with a huge heroin addiction.

Managed to recover and rebuild my life and not touched anything other than alcohol for over 20 years (and yes that is also a drug).

I don’t know if anyone can really use drugs recreationally and when you do you take the gamble of ending up with an addiction which is like being in hell.

Pooley I agree, I know plenty of people who say they're recreational users, but in reality their behaviour changes on the days when they haven't used. I think recreational drug use is only possible in the very beginning, after those first few times you try it to see what happens, it quickly becomes addiction.

The usual: weed, speed, MDM, cocain. It was normal when I was young and amongst my peer group. I stopped when o realised that I was smoking a joint each evening to help me relax. That was as I reached 30. I haven't touched anything since, except alcohol

Myusernameismud

Yes, I don’t know many people who sustained “recreational” heroin use (normally smoked it) they always went down the rabbit hole eventually.

Didn't start on alcohol til 18, which was rare in my peer group.

Weed daily since I was 20, a few times before. I credit it with getting my degree: I was failing and suicidal (god I hate being having an ASD), within 6 months it turned my life around - no insomnia, my first girlfriend and a year later a 2:1 degree from a Russell Group university. Now in a settled long term relationship, decent job and a much better relationship with my family.

Shrooms - back when they were legal, my best friend and I would grow a batch each year. Great experiences and made me a much happier individual. After the clouds have turned into demonic faces that tried to suck my soul into the sky little really phases me. Haven't had them for years, but would jump at the opportunity to meet the Great Squid God Beyond Death again, that was a fantastic trip.

Smoked heroin - waste of time. I'm needle-phobic, so that's one thing I'm never going to try. Cocaine I'll take a line if it's someone elses, but it's a shit drug, too expensive for what it does.

MDMA is just lovely. Sex on MDMA is the best thing ever. I've cut back to around four times a year, which seems reasonable. Only worthwhile with a friend or partner though.

Of all the friends I have, only one could be said to have suffered from drug use and, to be honest, his shitty homelife and pre-existing depression are likely to have had a bigger impact.

I've never knowingly taken any drugs - I had my drink spiked in a nightclub in my 20s and it was a terrifying experience, complete loss of control and nearly got thrown out as the bouncers thought I was drunk.
So I will never knowingly take anything now.

When were Mushrooms legal?

They have been illegal since 1968....

Another "no" response from me - as one of my (similarly square) friends once put it "I like being in my head too much to want to get out of it, and besides, I'm a bit worried I might not find my way back." However, I did have a lot of friends who were into drugs (of all varieties) and took a lot of them, and I've been to a lot of parties where people were taking them.

My (anecdotal) feeling is that, like alcohol, it's largely down to luck of the draw. Some people could use socially and still get on with their lives, and never seemed to become dependent. Others became dependent and then often screwed up education/jobs. There's also other interesting side effects. One of my friends (who couldn't stop smoking ordinary cigarettes) once joked that weed had been his gateway drug to nicotine - and in all honesty, cigarettes are far more likely to kill him than weed (and nicotine is one of the most incredibly addictive substance out there, much more addictive than many class A drugs).

In discussing drugs with my kids, particularly my teenager, I found using online resources like BBC 3 - their website has quite a few pretty open videos about drug use - to be really helpful. Watching them together made it easier to discuss both what people enjoy and why people take drugs seeing it from different people alongside here are the risks, this is how to make things safer, here's what to do if things go wrong.

I haven't done any recreational drugs (was even teetotal until I was 30), just surrounded by some who did like my parents and their friends, my siblings and their friends, my own friends and schoolmates, so my experience is mostly caring for others on drugs and cleaning up after it.

I had wonderful 'opening the doors of perception' spiritual type experiences using lsd in my early twenties. Since then I haven't bothered with much else, apart from mdma which I found lovely but vomit-inducing, and tried coke but didn't like myself much on it. I'm in my late 40s now and I've 4 kids so I don't feel the need to take illegal drugs any more but I'm not against it.

When were Mushrooms legal?

Until around 2000, 2001ish. It was legal to grow and consume them fresh, but drying them or chopping them up turned them into a Class B drug, so we just didn't do that.

Great days.

*When were Mushrooms legal? confused

They have been illegal since 1968....*

They were only illegal if prepared in some way, such as drying and grinding for tea. The fresh ones were perfectly legal until 2005 - they'd be openly sold on stalls in Camden Market, for example.

I aware of the law regarding them being dried.

I have never IRL heard of anyone eating them fresh. Hence the law.

I don’t know if anyone can really use drugs recreationally and when you do you take the gamble of ending up with an addiction which is like being in hell.

The vast majority of people manage to maintain a recreational drug use. Most people who take drugs, take them for a period of time, have fun and then slow down and stop as they get older and/or life changes.

If most people who started taking party drugs became life long addicts, you would know about it.

Do you really think that most people off their tits on pills in Amnesia every night of the summer in Ibiza go on to be drug addicts?

Most drugs are not physically addictive (heroin is). Drugs like coke are psychologically addictive. Drugs like mushrooms are less psychologically addictive but can be habit forming.

Rhetoric like "try ket once and you'll end up a heroin addict" does young people a disservice.

However about 75% of the people who post on MN probably would end up in a bad way - all the crazy behaviors like not opening the front door, refusing to go to bed in anything other than daily washed bedding, falling out with people at the drop of a hat, not being able to use their voice to speak to people to resolve situations... Not traits that are good with drugs.