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Don't take this as a disagreement but I wonder from reading your comment: Is there a right way to live life? Your statement appears to be passing judgement to

Don't take this as a disagreement but I wonder from reading your comment: Is there a right way to live life? Your statement appears to be passing judgement to an adult using marijuana as a coping mechanism. Do you also have the same feeling for someone who takes a prescribed medicine for similar emotional regulation? I get there is a line here with certain mental disorders but if someone finds themselves better off (in their own opinion) by using marijuana who are you, or I to judge? Similarly, I don't judge the person who picks up their monthly Rx at the pharmacy, if it makes them feel good. At the end of the day people are just trying to live their life and be comfortable.

ludston 2y ago
So long as they are choosing to live in such a way that improves the lives of the people around them to some degree of their abilities rather than burdening the rest of us then it's fine. Do all the drugs you want.
mc32 2y ago
As Tom Cruise[1] is wont to say, it masks rather than solves. I suppose it’s up to the user to decide the acceptance of not addressing the root cause, but hiding it with chemicals. [1]Sure, he’s out there with religion and stuff but he’s pretty clear-headed there.
BoingBoomTschak 2y ago
>Don't take this as a disagreement but I wonder from reading your comment: Is there a right way to live life? This question has had a clear answer for millennia, although one too uncomfortable for modern feelgood relativists: confronting your problems with strength and willpower.
- Teever 2y ago
  That's a lot of words to just say "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps like the stoics."
roughly 2y ago
> Your statement appears to be passing judgement to an adult using marijuana as a coping mechanism. Do you also have the same feeling for someone who takes a prescribed medicine for similar emotional regulation? I get there is a line here with certain mental disorders but if someone finds themselves better off (in their own opinion) by using marijuana who are you, or I to judge? I think there's a point where it becomes clear use of the drug is leading to sufficiently negative life outcomes that the drug's doing more harm than good. Alcohol's an easy case here (and a trigger word, so: I'm not comparing alcohol to weed from a health perspective) - many of us will have a pint or a glass of wine now and again to relax, but when you start drinking enough that it's regularly preventing you from meeting your obligations (or desires), you should re-evaluate. It can happen with prescription drugs, as well - a friend of mine was prescribed something for anxiety that wound up effectively rendering them homebound. At that point, it's not really serving its purpose as a coping mechanism.
tombert 2y ago
I don't think it's equivalent. If you're taking something like an antidepressant or something, it's because a mental health professional has indicated that they think you'll be better-able to deal with your issues with this thoroughly-tested, regulated item. At least in theory, the professional will be much better-suited to find the exact medication that will help you emotionally regulate. I've never done weed, but I have gotten drunk plenty of times when I was young (though not in quite awhile), especially when I got dumped by a girl that I really liked. Alcohol can be great in a very temporary sense to make you feel better and ignore your problems, but it's terrible at actually addressing the core issues, and it has a ton of other awful side-effects that might even make the underlying problems worse. I already said that I have a hatred of weed culture, and I stand by that, but as someone who does take mental health meds for depression, I do understand how appealing coping mechanisms can be, and I absolutely sympathize, but I think there are enough differences between prescribed meds and recreational drugs to where I don't think it's fair to claim that the former is a coping mechanism.
- ludston 2y ago
  I think it is equivalent. It's not by default, a bad thing to take drugs in order to help control your mood. I am certainly an enjoyer of alchohol on rare occasions. It just becomes a problem when your dependence on it causes you to become anti-social and/or generally a burden upon the people around you. For example you end up in the psychiatric hospital, costing the tax-payer 100's of thousands of dollars to baby-sit you whilst you recover from your latest meth bender.
TeMPOraL 2y ago
> Do you also have the same feeling for someone who takes a prescribed medicine for similar emotional regulation? We don't need to go even that far. Upwards of 50% of people in the US, and some 20-30% people on the planet[0] are emotionally self-regulating with coffee. 13% of the world[1] regulates themselves emotionally on tobacco. And let's not even look at alcohol consumption rates. Or sugar. This is not to demonize any of it - just to point out that approximately every adult[2] uses some mind-altering substances in a ritual of emotional self-regulation. The drugs I mentioned above are some of the more potent ones, but they're so deeply embedded in our cultures, that we don't even notice it. -- [0] - If we go with random stat I found here: https://coffee-rank.com/world-coffee-consumption-statistics/ https://coffee-rank.com/world-coffee-consumption-statistics/. I'm taking it at face value, since it feels close enough, and the exact number doesn't change my argument, unless it's a fraction of a percent. [1] - As of 2019, via https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01169-7/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6..., going with 1 billion smokers over 7.7 billion people on the planet. [2] - The numbers I gave above may not feel impressive, but note that the averages in the west are much higher, and then all those numbers are dragged down by including people aged 0-18 in the denominator.
- tombert 2y ago
  I definitely feel like caffeine can absolutely be used as a coping mechanism; if nothing else it can help you ignore the "why am I not getting enough sleep?" question, for decades if you let it. I've never really drunk coffee because it always tasted like an ashtray to me, but I've had other things that gave me an unhealthy dependence on it. I don't drink caffeine anymore and it did force me to acknowledge a lot of bad sleep habits (both physiological and self-imposed) that I was able to (mostly) solve them as a result.

ludston 2y ago

So long as they are choosing to live in such a way that improves the lives of the people around them to some degree of their abilities rather than burdening the rest of us then it's fine. Do all the drugs you want.

mc32 2y ago

As Tom Cruise[1] is wont to say, it masks rather than solves. I suppose it’s up to the user to decide the acceptance of not addressing the root cause, but hiding it with chemicals. [1]Sure, he’s out there with religion and stuff but he’s pretty clear-headed there.

BoingBoomTschak 2y ago

>Don't take this as a disagreement but I wonder from reading your comment: Is there a right way to live life? This question has had a clear answer for millennia, although one too uncomfortable for modern feelgood relativists: confronting your problems with strength and willpower.

Teever 2y ago
That's a lot of words to just say "Pull yourself up by your bootstraps like the stoics."

roughly 2y ago

> Your statement appears to be passing judgement to an adult using marijuana as a coping mechanism. Do you also have the same feeling for someone who takes a prescribed medicine for similar emotional regulation? I get there is a line here with certain mental disorders but if someone finds themselves better off (in their own opinion) by using marijuana who are you, or I to judge? I think there's a point where it becomes clear use of the drug is leading to sufficiently negative life outcomes that the drug's doing more harm than good. Alcohol's an easy case here (and a trigger word, so: I'm not comparing alcohol to weed from a health perspective) - many of us will have a pint or a glass of wine now and again to relax, but when you start drinking enough that it's regularly preventing you from meeting your obligations (or desires), you should re-evaluate. It can happen with prescription drugs, as well - a friend of mine was prescribed something for anxiety that wound up effectively rendering them homebound. At that point, it's not really serving its purpose as a coping mechanism.

tombert 2y ago

I don't think it's equivalent. If you're taking something like an antidepressant or something, it's because a mental health professional has indicated that they think you'll be better-able to deal with your issues with this thoroughly-tested, regulated item. At least in theory, the professional will be much better-suited to find the exact medication that will help you emotionally regulate. I've never done weed, but I have gotten drunk plenty of times when I was young (though not in quite awhile), especially when I got dumped by a girl that I really liked. Alcohol can be great in a very temporary sense to make you feel better and ignore your problems, but it's terrible at actually addressing the core issues, and it has a ton of other awful side-effects that might even make the underlying problems worse. I already said that I have a hatred of weed culture, and I stand by that, but as someone who does take mental health meds for depression, I do understand how appealing coping mechanisms can be, and I absolutely sympathize, but I think there are enough differences between prescribed meds and recreational drugs to where I don't think it's fair to claim that the former is a coping mechanism.

ludston 2y ago
I think it is equivalent. It's not by default, a bad thing to take drugs in order to help control your mood. I am certainly an enjoyer of alchohol on rare occasions. It just becomes a problem when your dependence on it causes you to become anti-social and/or generally a burden upon the people around you. For example you end up in the psychiatric hospital, costing the tax-payer 100's of thousands of dollars to baby-sit you whilst you recover from your latest meth bender.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

> Do you also have the same feeling for someone who takes a prescribed medicine for similar emotional regulation? We don't need to go even that far. Upwards of 50% of people in the US, and some 20-30% people on the planet[0] are emotionally self-regulating with coffee. 13% of the world[1] regulates themselves emotionally on tobacco. And let's not even look at alcohol consumption rates. Or sugar. This is not to demonize any of it - just to point out that approximately every adult[2] uses some mind-altering substances in a ritual of emotional self-regulation. The drugs I mentioned above are some of the more potent ones, but they're so deeply embedded in our cultures, that we don't even notice it. -- [0] - If we go with random stat I found here: https://coffee-rank.com/world-coffee-consumption-statistics/ https://coffee-rank.com/world-coffee-consumption-statistics/. I'm taking it at face value, since it feels close enough, and the exact number doesn't change my argument, unless it's a fraction of a percent. [1] - As of 2019, via https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01169-7/fulltext https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6..., going with 1 billion smokers over 7.7 billion people on the planet. [2] - The numbers I gave above may not feel impressive, but note that the averages in the west are much higher, and then all those numbers are dragged down by including people aged 0-18 in the denominator.

tombert 2y ago
I definitely feel like caffeine can absolutely be used as a coping mechanism; if nothing else it can help you ignore the "why am I not getting enough sleep?" question, for decades if you let it. I've never really drunk coffee because it always tasted like an ashtray to me, but I've had other things that gave me an unhealthy dependence on it. I don't drink caffeine anymore and it did force me to acknowledge a lot of bad sleep habits (both physiological and self-imposed) that I was able to (mostly) solve them as a result.