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It is very unlikely that so many kids that are not even 21 years old are self-medicating. The article does not mention it very clearly, but these are actually
by jvdh 17y ago
It is very unlikely that so many kids that are not even 21 years old are self-medicating.
The article does not mention it very clearly, but these are actually results on a study following kids from birth, interviewed at roughly 5,14, and 21 years after birth.
- jey 17y ago"Self-medication" doesn't necessarily mean you read medical journals then decided the objectively optimal thing to do is to toke up. Instead it means that someone 1) decided that getting high sounds like it could be a pleasant experience or otherwise worth trying (i.e. possibly correlated with feeling unhappy or off-kilter to begin with). 2) this person decided to keep toking up because it improves their mental state somehow.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- strlen 17y agoYeah, that is what I meant by self medication (similarly, many do this with alcohol and nicotine).
- jvdh 17y ago"possibly correlated with feeling unhappy or off-kilter" Very likely, it's called puberty. To me that does not mean they are "self-medicating" though.
- TomOfTTB 17y agoBut everyone goes through puberty while only a few are driven to heavy drug use. Given that I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that heavy drug use is related to some existing mental health problem. Since mental health problems could also make someone prone to psychosis I think the theory of self medication is a valid one.
- jvdh 17y agoIf over 30% of a group that were born in a three year period in the same hospital do heavy drug use (>3 years), then there must be a pretty big problem in that area.
- GiraffeNecktie 17y agoYou're still missing the meaning of 'self-medicating' which is a lot more broad. Drinking a cup of coffee to become alert, smoking a cigarette to calm your nerves, smoking a joint because it modifies or muffles your anxiety etc are all types of self-medication.
- jvdh 17y agoMy apologies, IMO self-medication would be taking medication or something that actually helps you. Sure, coffee/alcohol/tobacco all can help very temporarily. If you're using that over prolonged periods of time, I would call that substance abuse. I know that marihuana can help with or provide pain relief for a lot of ailments. But these kinds of ailments are typically not found in kids under 21.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]