What happens if you keep drinking and taking recreational drugs into your 50s?

[FortunesFave]

I'm really curious about it....I'm in my late 40s and gave up all that when I was about 19 or 20. Part of the rave culture I certainly did experiment but got it together and went to Uni late...I've never been very into drinking so only have an occasional glass of champagne or a cider with a pub lunch now.

However it's become clear that a lot of our friends who we've had for years are still doing it and for the past 15 years since kids, DH and I have slowly stopped going to their 'dos' when they get off their faces....we used to go and just drink but they'd all be taking MDMA and coke...all perfectly functional during the week by the way...holding down good careers etc. and we found it uncomfortable.

Lately it's got a bit fake and we don't really fit in any more because we barely drink and they still get off their heads at parties. We have other ways of meeting up with them but then they're talking about this weekend or that weekend where they took whatever...and we don't have that to share...not that we want it but the friendships are running their course.

If, like me, you were born in the 70s you'll know that our parents didn't do this sort of thing into their adulthood....so what's going to happen to Generation X as we age? Will the ones who've never stopped just suddenly die of heart attacks young? It's worrying me a bit as some of my friends I really love...but they're still getting faceless and that can't be good when you're 50 plus!

Totally depends on masses of variables: the frequency, the drugs concerned, the underlying conditions to name just a few.

If you're doing this a handful of times a year I doubt if its any more harmful than a heavy night on the booze. If its every weekend not great. But again probably no worse than regular heavy drinking.

Also most of these drugs if used recreationally as opposed to addictively are not intrinsically worse for you physically than booze. Coke is dangerous if used a lot but so is booze. MDMA is not physically harmful. It might be mentally harmful if you're using it very regularly.

I also take issue with the idea that people who were young in the 70s all grew out of it and became model citizens. I was born in 71 and while my parents didn't really ever get into illegal drugs and certainly not Class As they boozed heavily until their 70s and so did most of their friends. I'm not convinced this is any safer than middle aged ravers who let their hair down occasionally at weekends.

One friend has fits due to getting dehydrated when he's off his head. He has struggled to keep jobs and now has a low paid job far below his original starting wage after he graduated. He is a lovely man but can't remember anything. His short term memory seems to have gone. He looks years older than his older brother.

One friend was first sectioned about ten years ago and has spent most of the last few years in supported living. His family disowned him. He looks ill but doesn't look after himself and is aggressive.

Other acquaintances had their children put into care then given to relatives. They are in prison for drug related crimes.

One moved to a commune farm and looks very healthy. They are into shamanic rituals and seeing spirits.

Most of the others seem to be fine. We've lost touch with a few people. One killed himself. There is often pressure to join in and a lack of care when people aren't being safe or need help.

I tend to think that all the people that are susceptible to drug-related health issues are already exhibiting symptoms by their middle age. Most seem unaffected by their long term drug use.

How do people justify their drug use with county lines?

Not RTFT

'If, like me, you were born in the 70s you'll know that our parents didn't do this sort of thing into their adulthood....so what's going to happen to Generation X as we age?'

Yes they did! Not all of them obviously. Slow down a bit obv!

As for the rest. Depends how often, how healthy otherwise, how hard they go, what they're doing etc etc.

No hard and fast rule.

Sounds to me like you have diverged a bit from your friends. If you still want to see them then you need to put up with it or do stuff where loads of drugs aren't so usual or not from the start at least! Eg bring kids, go to restaurant. Can't say they won't stay sober but unlikely to start boshing loads of whatever.

I honestly dont know how people do it at that age.

If I have a couple of glasses of wine now, it takes me four days to recover... and I'm fit and healthy.

My (now estranged) father dropped onto prescription painkillers instead of his other vices in his later years, he’s 77 now and I’m told now he is bedbound in chronic pain with spondylitis as painkillers in normal doses no longer have any effect at all due to his years of recreational use of dihydrocodeine.

In the last 35 years he has become estranged from his brother and nieces, had three wives divorce him, and eventually estranged from me and my children due to his abhorrent behaviour when under the influence. It’s very sad and I do love him but the things he says when high/on a comedown are too damaging to us.

A 77 year old on drugs is not a pretty thing.

In my circle: dropped dead of a heart attack mid-forties or early fifties; numerous weird cancers and resulting deaths; loads of liver and pancreatic cancer deaths; deaths from burst varices; look ten to twenty years older than their age; tooth loss; existing or dormant mental health problems exacerbated; multiple suicides; fried brains; early onset dementia; wet brain; strokes; brain damage, blind, partially paralysed...

Coke was huge in the seventies, as was speed and heroin. It certainly wasn't just pot; or just Keef and a few dead rockstars who were on the smack.

I stopped taking Coke in my late 30s. I read somewhere, “there’s nothing worse than a junkie granny”. At which point I realised that taking drugs when you are older is not cool.

I'm in this age bracket , and still go,to,things like clockwork orange , promise land etc just to dance really and you can spot the people especially the women who have partied all their lives .. their look awful.. also a LOT of men and women have mental health problems , a lot get ill , Brain tumours heart attacks cancers and their is a extraordinarily high numbers of suicides

@FortunesFave
Pot is much more dangerous than it used to be, especially if you start young. Adolescents who use marijuana are more likely to develop psychotic disorders more difficult to treat on average.

i was involved with LTC placements and those that abused drugs and alcohol often had no family support past 60. no money for life after work and children who themselves were unreliable and unavailable.
because of a multitude of factors they ended up in care homes younger than others their age. a lot of self care deficit and a higher tolerance for disorganization.

I'm sorry if people don't feel Scotland's drug deaths are relevant here. I think it is symptomatic of an aging population of drug users. I understand that it's easy to exercise exceptionalism but I think the ravers in Surrey are part of that spectrum.

Evidence about MDMA recreational use: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071023/

Concludes: What should we tell ecstasy users? (Abbreviated)

The young people most at risk are likely to reject out of hand any “scare stories,”since they feel that there have been only a few well- publicized cases of harm from the drug. These numbers are small compared to the numbers of individuals who use MDMA regularly.

Nevertheless, health care professionals should be aware that cognitive disorders, mood disturbances, and increased risk of cerebrovascular accidents are among the possible long-term, negative consequences of MDMA exposure in humans.Although subtle at first, these effects may develop into major deficits over the lifetime of an otherwise healthy individual. In particular, minor short-term deficits may be exacerbated by interaction with normal aging processes in the brain, or as a result of subsequent exposure to physiologic or psychologic stress. Even if these long-term effects are confined to a subpopulation of particularly susceptible individuals.....consequences of MDMA exposure could develop into a major health care problem for the future.

I did find another that dismissed any effects but they realise PWD it was on a campaign webpage to allow more drug use..

newatlas.com/study-effects-ecstasy/10995/
“there are definitely noticeable declines in some areas of cognitive performance, and a slight extra tendency toward depression, the evidence seems to show that moderate Ecstasy users suffer few ill effects in the long run”

It goes on to say that MDMA use is associated with other drug or alcohol use which may be confounding the effects.

My experience of anyone using alcohol or drugs to chill is that some cope fine and others cannot manage it.

Like smoking...not everyone gets lung cancer or vascular disease. You just increase your risk.

This thread is typical of Mn discussions on drugs, there's no middle ground, it's so extremist. Why can't we have a sensible conversation about such things?

You either get the puritanical posters, or those referring to anyone who has ever had a single spliff at Uni 30 years ago as Shaun Ryder.

Manzanilla :

"Substances are likely to lead to premature aging and bodily decline. Not to mention innumerable cancers. For the majority of those living risky they are unlikely to make 70. Early death in my view (though not medically qualified here)."

Is there any medical evidence for this, AT ALL? Cancer you say? I think not.

What about booze? More damaging that most other things surely? And I love a glass of wine!

I know a lot of heavy coke users (still they'd consider it recreational though) who died of heart attacks in their early 50s. I think they really were on the heavy side of recreational though.

How do people justify their drug use with county lines?

I would also like to understand this too.

The cognitive dissonance is amazing. We get better at it as adults as our brain matures!

@Oblomov21

This thread is typical of Mn discussions on drugs, there's no middle ground, it's so extremist. Why can't we have a sensible conversation about such things?

You either get the puritanical posters, or those referring to anyone who has ever had a single spliff at Uni 30 years ago as Shaun Ryder.

Its amazing isn't it. You either get "yeah I still do this every weekend" or "I would divorce my husband if he smoked a spliff" with nothing in the middle.

I totally get why people are disgusted by heavy drug-taking in middle age and don't want it near their kids etc: I wouldn't either. But I don't really understand the puritanism and the wide-eyed Mary Whitehouse posturing you get on here about drug-taking.

Surely the concept that some people take drugs recreationally and some of them are more or less healthy people can't be a completely alien concept? As a society we've lived with this for about 45-50 years. Not everyone who takes an illegal drug ends up in prison, the gutter or the loony bin.

Don't know. All the addicts in my family died before they got to 50.

If you are using illegal drugs please stop, campaign for them to become legal then use again. Unless you like to support organised crime and criminal gangs I don't know how you square this with yourself. I know this isn't what the thread is about.

This. We have some friends who will only buy organic U.K. grown produce, are veggie because of their ethics, fair trade coffee/tea, ethical clothing etc etc and do coke at weekends. I find the hypocrisy about the ethics of the supply chain way more unpalatable than whether their drug of choice is legal and damaging (naice wine) or illegal and damaging.

My dad wants to try DMT for the first time at 70. It’s a very safe psychedelic, not a amphetamine so I’m fine with it.

I am 42 and an occasional user of mushrooms, DMT and MDMA. Like a couple of times a year, not every weekend, although I do vape weed a bit more regularly.

I’m very excited about the increasing understanding of the benefits of these drugs in treating mental health problems, I work in this area myself and there’s a real need for alternative options to standard psychiatric medications, some of which are terrible for you, awful side effects and can shorten your life by 20 years.

The dead celebrities, that’s over use of prescription painkillers/benzodiazepines with alcohol in most cases. Prescription medications can be far more dangerous than the illegal ones and much more regularly abused.

I think humans have used substances to enhance knowledge and understanding of the world for millennia and I think prohibition has been awful for society generally.

This thread is typical of Mn discussions on drugs, there's no middle ground, it's so extremist. Why can't we have a sensible conversation about such things?

It certainly shows a lot of white, middle class privilege as it completes ignores county lines, etc. I guess BLM doesn't in this case.

I grew up in a very diverse & what was then rough part of London. Most learned quickly to stay away from drugs, for one if you were not white you were far more likely to get stopped & searched & far more likely to get a charge even though white people are more likely to use drugs. Still the same today.