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Original poster

Drugs. Which have you tried?

296 replies

spidermama · 01/03/2006 10:09

Everyone's talking about drugs this morning.

These days I'm a regular user of caffeine and alcohol.

I used to be T Total and caffeine-free in the nineties but I did enjoy cannabis regularly and ecstasy and acid less regularly.

I can't imagine taking those these days (with the possible exception of the odd spliff Wink, because I'm too busy with the kids and can't afford to step out of the real world these days.
I also wonder how I'll feel if and when my kids decide to experiment.

How about you?

OP posts:
dizietsma · 02/03/2006 14:38

Gave up ciggies when I found out I was pregnant and I've never been a big alcohol drinker. Alcohol is a dull drug.

I've been a humongous caffiene addict since my early teens and only really cut down when I was pregnant. Thankfully I now only drink 3 cups of tea a day. The quantities of tea I used to drink were contributive to my anxiety disorder, I've really noticed an improvement in my levels of anxiety since I cut down.

I think weed is a lovely drug and have smoked loads in the past. It can get terribly boring though, it's best used in moderation IMO.

As far as the connection between pot and mental illness is concerned I personally think the studies were quite disingenious in that they did not consider the possibility that people with mental health problems often self-medicate with cannabis figuring that it can't be nearly as damaging a drug as the anti-psychotics they are prescribed by their Psychiatrists. I have known several people diagnosed with a variety of mental illnesses who have self-medicated on this basis. I'm not saying that this was a sensible course of action for these people to take, but I can certainly see why they did it, anti-psychotics are NASTY.

Hallucinogens are my drug o' choice. Obviously with a wee babe in the house they're out of the question, but I shan't rule them out for future use when the wee one can stay over at Granny's. I think the recent classification of psliocybin was silly.

I would recommend the website \link{http://www.erowid.org/splash.php\Erowid} to anyone interested in the effects of psychoactive drugs.

Enid- I'm overjoyed to find another mother who's a Bill Hicks fan!

ruty · 02/03/2006 14:41

am i annoying you with how NICE i'm being rachD? I'm being a non offensive Mumnetter for Lent. Grin

NomDePlume · 02/03/2006 14:42

(another Bill Hicks fan here too)

ruty · 02/03/2006 14:43

[i like bill hicks too.]

dizietsma · 02/03/2006 14:47

I'm interested if those of you who say they haven't taken heroin are aware that the diamorphine they were given whilst giving birth is just \link{http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/heroin/heroin_chemistry.shtml\pharmaceutical grade heroin}? Obviously it was hardly taken in a recreational way, but nonetheless it is still heroin.

dizietsma · 02/03/2006 14:48

Hooray for Hicks fans!

ruty · 02/03/2006 14:57

interesting dizietsma, also will have a look at that website link, thanks.

Original poster
spidermama · 02/03/2006 14:58

Love your post dizietsma. I'm in totally agreement with all of it. I too look forward to a day when I can revisit my pshychadelic places.
These days I keep an eye out in mushroom season and they just don't seem to come to me and I truly believe there's a good reason for this and that they'll come back. Wink

OP posts:
luckytobealive · 02/03/2006 15:40

I never personally had a bad reaction to hallucinogens (and I took a lot) but for some reason I wouldn't be tempted to take them again. Maybe I will feel differently in years to come but i doubt it - I think it is a case of knowing that I might have escaped unscathed until now but why would I want to push fate and test that theory again. My life has grown in so many ways since those days, I just don't feel that I am missing out on anything by not taking them, even if I did enjoy them at the time - I mean, I enjoyed just about every drug i ever took - but that doesn't mean I want to take them again - there are a lot more considerations than enjoyment - like the fact that personally I am much happier in my life now than I ever was before, my life is at a totally different level.

Cannabis i was fine with for most of the years I took it as well however I think if you give it up for a long while it is hard to "dip back" into (as it is too strong if you don't have a tolerance). The first time it makes you paranoid is probably the last time you should be taking it. TBH I found that once I stopped I didn't miss it, especially the memory loss so can't imagine ever taking it up again - it would seem silly when I know it adds nothing to my life (personally!! Not talking for everybody else).

I gave up drinking completley for the 2-3 years I was at my worse with heroin and justified it to myself by talking about how disgusting and out of coontrol people who drunk were. But nowadays I would prefer to drink (althoguh moderately) precisely because it is not illegal therefore not something "illicit and sneaky" and it has a social side to it which is largely missing in a lot of other drugs. I try to be very careful not to drink to excess though and limit the types of alcohol I drink as some have a terrible effect on me and make me aggressive. There are a lot of people out there who i do think shouldn't really drink at all as they just can't control it.

expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 15:42

lucky for me, i loved clothes, make up and beauty products to ever want to part w/hard-earned cash for drugs.

luckytobealive · 02/03/2006 15:47

Very good point expat - nobody else seems to have mentioned the financial side of drug taking. One of the most destrcutive things about it actually.

Why spend your money on it? Especially if you have others to provide for... there is nothing to show for cash spent on drugs.

noddyholder · 02/03/2006 15:50

This thread is in danger of romanticising

luckytobealive · 02/03/2006 15:51

Agree with dizietsma about drugs given during childbirth, You go through pregnancy taking nothing stronger than a paracetomel then, Wallop, here we are baby have a shot of pethidine/diomorphine….!!

No offence to people who have taken it in childbirth as I know how hospitals all suggest it and I also know how much anything seems like a good idea when you are in that much pain….

luckytobealive · 02/03/2006 15:52

No romance going on here!!

ruty · 02/03/2006 15:54

i turned all those drugs down because i had already had out of body experiences on morphine as a teenager. But had to have an epidural instead. Sad

Original poster
spidermama · 02/03/2006 15:55

I think the thread is actually giving a fuller picture than is customary noddy.

BTW Noddy, if I may breifly digress - what's your top tip for a posh hotel in Brighton for my brother to stay in after he marries here at the reg office?

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 02/03/2006 15:57

Exactly, lucky. My dad started in on the 'have you two tried drugs' lecture. He came into my sister's room whilst we were both in there, stereo on, after yet another successful shopping trip in which we blew all of our babysitting money. I remember I had a MAC lipstick in my hand that I'd just parted w/$13 for, a lot of money back then. I was like, 'Hmm, Dad, drugs for 5 minutes or this killer lipstick for months?' No contest!

dizietsma · 02/03/2006 16:03

Right on, spidermama.

booge · 02/03/2006 16:09

I took whatever I could get my hands on in my teens and twenties but got more and more picky about what I took until my 30s. Now I've either been pg or breastfeeding for the last couple of years and I'm a reformed character, a bit like a reformed smoker. I dread our children taking drugs, I am a lot happier person these days. I just hope we get Saffy syndrome and I have to pull DS away from his homework instead.

zippitippitoes · 02/03/2006 16:11

did no one have any bad experiences thenShock

ruty · 02/03/2006 16:25

some good, some bad, in my case.

luckytobealive · 02/03/2006 16:32

yes I did. My life was shit and I nearly died (twice) although I was in denial and really it is only with the benefit of hindsight I can see it clearly.

II watched my BF (who was a lovely person pre-addiction) destroy himself and nearly take me with him. We had split already when he died but it still wasn't pleasant - he ruined his family's life (I am in contact with his mother). Being with him for the last year or so was truly a hideous existence now that I look back, I really am lucky to still be here and to have been given a second chance. A lot of the people I used to socialise with are now dead, I actually moved to the other side of the world to get away from it all and start again.

But its true that I enjoyed actually taking the drugs most of the time and that I am now fine even though I am not very interested in most drugs and actually find myself, like Booge, becming quite hypocritical about them these days, like a reformed smoker. But the problem with the scaremongering in the press - is that when you are in the reality, it really doesn't seem that bad (usually) in fact it is quite good fun, therefore you are less likley to believe that the real horror stories are ever going to happen to you.

Although the depressions which follow things like Es and speed are a bad experince and something which has put me right off them forever.

chapsmum · 02/03/2006 16:38

you want a bad experience zippi,
I had a young girl come in to work, she was not breathing due to a cocaine od, when we reversed her od she finally came round she wanted to know where her son (5) was, he was at that point in care as she and her partner had left him to look after himself while they took drugs.

Drug addiciton is soul destoying, I admire anyone who has kicked a habbit.

I see an extreme side of drug taking from GBH to cannabis to amphetamines and heroin, and that is enough to make me stick to caffine and paracetamol.

saffy202 · 02/03/2006 16:41

Started off drinking, then ended up smoking ciggies, followed by poppers, cannabis then acid. On my 3rd acid trip - I ended up having a 'bad' trip - freaking out etc and terrified myself into never having anything chemical again.

booge · 02/03/2006 17:37

I've definately had bad times, bad trips, anxiety, depression, paranoia but as luckytobealive says you don't realise it at the time. Worse still we've lost friends in their 20's and 30's and others who are still alive at not really themselves.