7 ms·
I’d suggest that not taking a drug (weed/lsd/mushrooms) that alter ones perceptions of our very existence is a good way of staying mentally sound. If you take
by RHSman2 9y ago
I’d suggest that not taking a drug (weed/lsd/mushrooms) that alter ones perceptions of our very existence is a good way of staying mentally sound.
If you take ten 16 yr olds, allow them to experiment, 1-2 will drop off the world, 2-3 will have major, life changing changes to the way they view life (border line changes in said spectrum) and the rest handle it fine although with a significant change in lifestyle.
As someone who has had a close call with the boundaries of perception I believe weed is of significant concern. It has a ‘benign’ perception but for those it effects it can take their heads off to places which are not healthy for fitting into normal, standard life. Aka the general ‘schizophrenic’ term
- adammunich 9y agoHow do you mean? Most folks I know who regularly use marijuana aren't close to anything I'd call schizoaffective. Those who I know whom have gone off the deep end so to say, seem to have had other troubles in life which compounded to become too much to handle for them.
- mercer 9y agoIt's probably a bit of column A and a bit of column B.
- chris_wot 9y agoThe plural of anecdote is not data.
- RHSman2 9y agoAre you replying to me? So, you are suggesting my story is lies? I guess you should study stats to know that there are more than 60 people in this world.
- RHSman2 9y agoClearly weed has not helped me comment on HN . Wrong reply
- hnarn 9y agoTake this however you want, but I know that a significant source of anxiety for me when I tried weed was the severeness of the consequences if I had been caught. I'm not sure about "the boundaries of perception", from what I remember weed didn't alter my reality much more than getting really drunk does. I don't think it's helpful to put cannabis in the same baket as literally hallucinogenic substances like LSD or "magic mushrooms". (By the way, I don't smoke weed anymore and possibly never will again.)
- coldtea 9y ago>a significant source of anxiety for me when I tried weed was the severeness of the consequences if I had been caught. In most of the civilized western world (EU etc), usually not even a slap on the wrist.
- mattmanser 9y agoWhat a load of crap. My home town was in the middle of nowhere and a port. A lot of people I know experimented. Like 50 people in the periphery of friends etc. And hundreds of people in the years above and below. Never heard of a single one that had problems. 50%? You're ignorant and alarmist.
- mercer 9y agoYour anecdote and needlessly aggressive comment do make a very compelling argument. But in all seriousness: can you explain why you feel so strongly about this? EDIT: the person I responded to edited their comment to make it 'milder'.
- nnfy 9y agoProbably because he has a problem with fear mongering.
- chris_wot 9y agoIt’s not fear mongering. The Lancet published an article about continued and discontinued use of cannabis after psychosis. http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(15)00363-6/fulltext http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-03... But it states that there is a well established link between cannabis and psychosis.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- gabuzome 9y agoWhile the experience itself may resemble psychosis at times, lsd/mushrooms, when taken in a proper setting, will not turn you mentally unsound. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747247/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747247/ "21,967 respondents (13.4% weighted) reported lifetime psychedelic use. There were no significant associations between lifetime use of any psychedelics, lifetime use of specific psychedelics (LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, peyote), or past year use of LSD and increased rate of any of the mental health outcomes. Rather, in several cases psychedelic use was associated with lower rate of mental health problems." Now everyone agrees 16 yr olds shouldn't be abusing any psychoactive drugs while their brain is still developing, but don't ruin it for us adults, it is an important part of the human experience (though it isn't for everyone, since for psychedelics, expanding the way you view life is generally the end goal.)
- StavrosK 9y agoGranted, I haven't really taken any large doses, but for me psychoactives don't expand my perception in any way. They're just a really really fun thing to do a few times a year, when I have nothing else to do for 8 hours. I never experienced the spiritual element, or oneness with the universe, etc. Maybe I need to take more than 100ug. I definitely feel it's a pity that it's illegal and so demonized, though. It's the most fun I've had with $4, and I unreservedly recommend it.
- stephengillie 9y agoCould you be more descriptive about the "close call" you had "with the boundaries of perception"? I've been using cannabis daily for over a decade to be a normal person, having found that it removes my anxiety, and allows me to operate as a normal individual in society. When I am not using, I become a terrible anxious mess who can't even talk to clerks in stores. Also your last sentence seems incomplete - did you intend to complete your thought, or at least use punctuation?
- cmrdporcupine 9y agoThe problem with cannabis is its extreme variance of effects. Some people like yourself seem to have very positive effects. Myself, I've consumed a whole wack of different drugs including the usual psychedelics plus various dissociatives over the years and cannabis is easily the most unpleasant in its effects on me. Paranoia, very unpleasant thoughts and paranoia, sad feeling, accentuated body pain (I have chronic back/hip pain), headaches, anxiety. It's basically the opposite of what THC advocates seem to describe. And I've consumed quite a bit of it. Hopefully along with legalization we can see a lot less proselytizing and some more realistic and scientific analysis.
- stephengillie 9y agoWhich terpenes are in the plant can have a subtle but powerful impact. And THC can leverage terpenes in other foods too. Some are very calming. And then there's the non-intoxicating CBD parts, that are becoming popular for those who want the relaxation, but not the head high. Alcohol has a very broad scope as well, ranging from toxic cleaners, to light dessert wines, to tripel beers and "four loco" drinks. It's very easy to have a bad trip, or a fun night turn deadly.
- empath75 9y agoMost of those feelings are pretty common if you smoke too much pot. I have a very low tolerance for it and while I had a few good times with it, I had what you describe happen more often than not. But the feeling you have while on drugs generally goes away when you’re not on them. I wouldn’t assume that because taking a drug gives you a feeling that approximates a psychological problem that it would necessarily be a cause of that psychological problem beyond the time you were intoxicated.
- azernik 9y agoPsychedelics (LSD and mushrooms) are VERY different in their effects than weed. Have tried both categories.
- scruple 9y agoSo have I, and I've had extreme reactions to both. LSD was actually the easiest on me if I consider my worst experiences together. A bad mushroom trip, being the worst of the worst, left my personality in tatters and it took me over a year to truly recover from the experience. Marijuana induces crippling anxiety in me. I was having issues sleeping a few years ago, so I got a medical card. Even one hit was overwhelming. When I was a late teenager, I would smoke a couple times a week and it was generally fine. I'm not sure how or why my body responds the way it does but, personally, it's not at all fun and not at all relaxing or mind expanding in the ways most people suggest. It's just a really shitty time and it's mostly impossible to talk to other users about it because they don't have these responses and don't understand it.
- ionised 9y agoA bad trip will happen if you take a psychedelic when you are not in a particularly good mood. If something has been recently bothering you, or you are stressed or depressed or angry about something, those feelings are going to come up to the surface and manifest in very unpredictable ways, given the nature of hallucinogenics. I learned that lesson myself. Never take a psychedelic unless you are in a good place, emotionally.
- scruple 9y agoIt's a moot point for me, at this point in my life. Hopefully it's good advice for someone else. With the psychedelics, we're talking about a 2-3 year period of my life that started roughly 20 years ago. And what you're saying is all common knowledge to myself and my then-friend group. I honestly have no idea what my frame of mind was but I don't recall ever starting a trip in a bad state of mind. I just know that I had good trips and I know that I had bad trips. And the bad trips went very, very bad and grew over time in both frequency and intensity. Maybe I was taking too much? It didn't seem like it, at the time, at least in retrospect. Who knows. But then, I can't reconcile these things with my experiences with medical marijuana in 2012, either. I was a recreational smoker for probably 4 or 5 years of my life before the bad mushroom trip (after which, I wholesale quit drugs the very next day and also didn't have a drop of alcohol for 5-6 years). I never really experienced much anxiety from marijuana in my youth, but when I went back in 2012 it was a totally different ball game. I worked with my dispensary to try to sort out a strain that would help me and came up short. FWIW, I opted instead to address the utter lack of physical activity in my life and it sorted out the sleep issues and has persisted to today.
- hutzlibu 9y agoI agree. Weed (etc.) can not be healthy "for fitting into normal, standard life". But there is a different view to it, than just claiming "drugs are bad". Because there are quite some people claiming, that a "normal, standard life" with a 9 to 5 job and bounded by many weird social customs in a hectic enviroment which very often rewards lying and assholeness - is in itself not healthy. And some drugs can enable people to step outside and see things from a different angle, that "normal" is maybe not allways good. And that a different "normal" might be possible. The main problem arises if those people now decide to escape into the psychodelic world, instead of using their insights to actually do things differently. Most of them will mentally break down, sooner or later. And btw. "If you take ten 16 yr olds, allow them to experiment" ... most 16 yr olds will experiment, whether you allow them, or not. Which I think is good in general, for progress for the new generation, but I think the chances are much higher for things go dark, if you push them too much into illegality. Then it is much harder to help them find moderation and balancing. So I would argue, drugs can be and are beneficial for society to develop. But they are powerful and therefore dangerous.
- I_am_tiberius 9y ago"very often rewards lying and assholeness". How true.
- RHSman2 9y agoI don't disagree BUT there is a cost with consumption In My Opinion. p.s. I was part of the ten 16 yr olds. I am very aware of how far it can go.
- hutzlibu 9y agoFor sure there is a cost. But there is a cost with everything. And I know that it can go very far. And also very far down. Actually I have to deal with exactly that right now. Someone who started of dreaming of a better world, but now reduced to a lying, selfish asshole, who now only cares, on how to sneak money out of people around him, so he can continue doing nothing and smoke his last brain cells out, while blaming everyone else. No wonder this person developed a heavy psychosis. So I know of the dangers. But still, this person is an excemption, because otherwise allmost everyone I know of my generation, smoked weed (or more) at some point, got new experience of it or just had fun - and now lives a ordinary life.