Has Anyone Ever Had a Problem With Drugs or Alcohol ?

[Science Friction]

I was thinking over this holiday weekend how thankful I am to have never become involved with drugs of any sort. I have never smoked(either tobacco or weed) , drank(other than a few beers or some wine), and certainly never have consumed any harder drugs . Even after four years of high school and six years of college, I had never as much as held a marijuana cigarette. So many people are enslaved to those substances for years, oftentimes until their lives have come to an end. I am thankful for a lot of things and never having been a slave to drugs is one of them. Probably the hardest drug I ever took was when I was prescribed Oxycodone when I broke my arm several years ago. I took them for a few days and then threw the rest away when I became afraid of them.

 

Has anyone ever battled addiction to drugs or alcohol and if so how did you overcome(if you did)? My granny started drinking at age 60 and became an alcoholic(she kicked the addiction a few yrs before her death). I have a cousin who became addicted to prescription pills several years ago. He has a four-year college degree and now he bums for money at Walmart. How sad is that? And I know of a lot of others just like him.

 

Thankfully, drugs have just never been an interest, or even a curiosity, for me.

What's your story?

[B-Ball-fan]

With all that I have experienced over the years with drugs and alcohol, thankfully I never experienced the feeling that I was ever addicted.

 

For many years it was just done in a "partying" sense with friends, and then many years of pot usage often alone mostly to inspire creativity to write songs, or enhance watching movies, or listening to music.

 

I had perfect attendance in high school and tech school, and had a great working record of saving my sick time up that any of my usage over the years had never interfered with me being a fully functioning responsible adult, or teen.

 

In tech school when first learning computer programming, the whole class was completely lost in understanding the concept, including myself.

 

One day at lunch a classmate and I smoked a joint, and when I returned to class I instantly understood what the teacher was getting at so much that he was amazed and relieved that he instantly put me in charge of trying to convey my new found awareness to other classmates thinking that I might be able to explain it in plainer terms.

 

Unsurprisingly, my classmate who I got high with was the first to catch on, and little by little a hand full of others started to get it.

 

I was the youngest of 6 kids growing up in an area of Covington where booze and drugs were pretty common.

 

I wouldn't say that any of my older siblings ever were seriously addicted, but from some of their influence, as well as neighborhood kids, I early on developed an interest to see what the buzz was all about, and so much that I snuck my first beer buzz at the age of 8, and continued to sneak drinks, but more so with friends at around age 12 or 13, and first smoked pot at 14.

 

I had a hand full of LSD experiences starting at around age 16 that were interesting as they were draining of my energies for skipping sleep for hours on end.

 

Last time for that was in my early 20's, and though they seemed to escort me into different freaky dimensions that encouraged deep thinking, I never had the urge to revisit it after my last trip.

 

I can fairly well recall something about each experience that has stuck with me to some degree throughout my life enough to spawn reflection on from time to time.

 

I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone as it will wear you out, but it did indeed have an effect that tapped into places in my mind that had me seeing, hearing, and thinking deeper than normal.

 

I tried Coke a couple of times, but never cared for it, and never understood what the attraction was, and thankfully so considering that it's highly addictive. I even tried Crack once, but thankfully didn't like it either.

 

There were a few occasions with pills like ludes or valium, but mostly the idea of that scared me, so I can't claim much usage there, and I've never done heroin or meth, and thankfully while running the streets in my younger days those two drugs weren't freely available, and as an adult and being more sensible, and less likely to be tempted, I was more frightened of trying anything that could turn me into an instant junkie.

 

If I ever had any hard prescription pain relievers over the years after surgeries, I always did them responsibly with care not to get too happy with doing them.

 

There was a short period where just for kicks I tried the freely available in smoke shops, K2, that was supposed to be like a pot buzz, but that crap gave me freaky anxiety and scared the hell out of me.

 

Puzzling to me how pot, that is fairly harmless is illegal, while K2 was too easy to purchase legally.

 

This nutty illogical truth is just about as nutty as a society thinking that alcohol is fine, and is easily obtainable, while pot is not, and typically in the past carried the stigma of being done by loser stoner hippies... but raise your glasses high everyone, and then leave out of the tavern parking lots in your cars to go home.

 

Alcohol use continued throughout my 20's, 30's and a little bit into my 40's mostly as something to do with friends, but pot was what I preferred the most. I never craved alcohol, and could have easily had done without it, and was mostly conscious of chilling on it before getting smashed.

 

Thankfully none of it lead to an addition with me, and never have I ever been arrested on any alcohol or drug related charged. My worst offense ever with the law has been a few traffic violations over the years.

 

Presently at age 51 I am now as clean as a whistle, but not because of having to stop because of problems, but for the most part it's just not part of my "thing" anymore, with pot being next to never, and alcohol even less than that.

 

I've had one beer in the last year and a half, and that was only because it sounded good to go along with a Mexican dinner I had at Rio Grande.

 

It's not completely impossible that in the future I might have an occasional drink, but I really don't desire it, and don't find much reason to tax my liver as I age.

 

I never had any withdrawal of any kind when quitting pot, and have been clean of it now for about 6 years. Once in a blue moon a friend might light up before going to a concert and I've partaken, but I have never bought any since giving it up. I've got enough toes and fingers to count how many times I've used it since quitting.

 

Sadly though I haven't written but a couple of tunes since quitting, and if I ever did revisit it, it would likely be for that reason.

 

Neil Young not too long ago said that he loved pot, but decided that he'd chill out on it to give living life without it a chance just as a way to experience something different than what he had gotten used to, and I can completely identify with that.

 

Someone with similar experiences as I've had could easily sing a different song of addiction, so I really have to count my lucky stars that nothing ever had an addictive effect on me, and chilling out from doing anything for me was always a snap. For that I feel really blessed and extremely lucky.

[Lawnboy13]

The only time I had a problem with alcohol was 4 consecutive trips to Daytona Beach for Spring Break. :lol2:

 

Tried the Wacky Tabacky once on Spring Break, didn't do a thing for me. For all I know I could have been smoking dried lawn clippings :lol:

[mcpapa]

Smoked my share of cannabis back in the day, but never felt it was problematic. Enjoyed it immensely, and would take it up again if it was legal here.

 

Never led to anything else.

[Science Friction]

With all that I have experienced over the years with drugs and alcohol, thankfully I never experienced the feeling that I was ever addicted.

 

 

 

For many years it was just done in a "partying" sense with friends, and then many years of pot usage often alone mostly to inspire creativity to write songs, or enhance watching movies, or listening to music.

 

I had perfect attendance in high school and tech school, and had a great working record of saving my sick time up that any of my usage over the years had never interfered with me being a fully functioning responsible adult, or teen.

 

In tech school when first learning computer programming, the whole class was completely lost in understanding the concept, including myself.

 

One day at lunch a classmate and I smoked a joint, and when I returned to class I instantly understood what the teacher was getting at so much that he was amazed and relieved that he instantly put me in charge of trying to convey my new found awareness to other classmates thinking that I might be able to explain it in plainer terms.

 

Unsurprisingly, my classmate who I got high with was the first to catch on, and little by little a hand full of others started to get it.

 

I was the youngest of 6 kids growing up in an area of Covington where booze and drugs were pretty common.

 

I wouldn't say that any of my older siblings ever were seriously addicted, but from some of their influence, as well as neighborhood kids, I early on developed an interest to see what the buzz was all about, and so much that I snuck my first beer buzz at the age of 8, and continued to sneak drinks, but more so with friends at around age 12 or 13, and first smoked pot at 14.

 

I had a hand full of LSD experiences starting at around age 16 that were interesting as they were draining of my energies for skipping sleep for hours on end.

 

Last time for that was in my early 20's, and though they seemed to escort me into different freaky dimensions that encouraged deep thinking, I never had the urge to revisit it after my last trip.

 

I can fairly well recall something about each experience that has stuck with me to some degree throughout my life enough to spawn reflection on from time to time.

 

I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone as it will wear you out, but it did indeed have an effect that tapped into places in my mind that had me seeing, hearing, and thinking deeper than normal.

 

I tried Coke a couple of times, but never cared for it, and never understood what the attraction was, and thankfully so considering that it's highly addictive. I even tried Crack once, but thankfully didn't like it either.

 

There were a few occasions with pills like ludes or valium, but mostly the idea of that scared me, so I can't claim much usage there, and I've never done heroin or meth, and thankfully while running the streets in my younger days those two drugs weren't freely available, and as an adult and being more sensible, and less likely to be tempted, I was more frightened of trying anything that could turn me into an instant junkie.

 

If I ever had any hard prescription pain relievers over the years after surgeries, I always did them responsibly with care not to get too happy with doing them.

 

There was a short period where just for kicks I tried the freely available in smoke shops, K2, that was supposed to be like a pot buzz, but that crap gave me freaky anxiety and scared the hell out of me.

 

Puzzling to me how pot, that is fairly harmless is illegal, while K2 was too easy to purchase legally.

 

This nutty illogical truth is just about as nutty as a society thinking that alcohol is fine, and is easily obtainable, while pot is not, and typically in the past carried the stigma of being done by loser stoner hippies... but raise your glasses high everyone, and then leave out of the tavern parking lots in your cars to go home.

 

Alcohol use continued throughout my 20's, 30's and a little bit into my 40's mostly as something to do with friends, but pot was what I preferred the most. I never craved alcohol, and could have easily had done without it, and was mostly conscious of chilling on it before getting smashed.

 

Thankfully none of it lead to an addition with me, and never have I ever been arrested on any alcohol or drug related charged. My worst offense ever with the law has been a few traffic violations over the years.

 

Presently at age 51 I am now as clean as a whistle, but not because of having to stop because of problems, but for the most part it's just not part of my "thing" anymore, with pot being next to never, and alcohol even less than that.

 

I've had one beer in the last year and a half, and that was only because it sounded good to go along with a Mexican dinner I had at Rio Grande.

 

It's not completely impossible that in the future I might have an occasional drink, but I really don't desire it, and don't find much reason to tax my liver as I age.

 

I never had any withdrawal of any kind when quitting pot, and have been clean of it now for about 6 years. Once in a blue moon a friend might light up before going to a concert and I've partaken, but I have never bought any since giving it up. I've got enough toes and fingers to count how many times I've used it since quitting.

 

Sadly though I haven't written but a couple of tunes since quitting, and if I ever did revisit it, it would likely be for that reason.

 

Neil Young not too long ago said that he loved pot, but decided that he'd chill out on it to give living life without it a chance just as a way to experience something different than what he had gotten used to, and I can completely identify with that.

 

Someone with similar experiences as I've had could easily sing a different song of addiction, so I really have to count my lucky stars that nothing ever had an addictive effect on me, and chilling out from doing anything for me was always a snap. For that I feel really blessed and extremely lucky.

 

 

You are superb at relating stories about your life- so honest, so reflective, and deeply personal. Immensely refreshing.

[B-Ball-fan]

You are superb at relating stories about your life- so honest, so reflective, and deeply personal. Immensely refreshing.

 

Thanks for your kind words.... Oh... and I forgot to add that I'm severely brevity challenged, and am borderline OCD. :laugh:

[Science Friction]

Thanks for your kind words.... Oh... and I forgot to add that I'm severely brevity challenged, and am borderline OCD. :laugh:

 

Don't worry about it. I am as well as you probably have noticed. You keep writing and I'll keep reading.

[Lawnboy13]

Thanks for your kind words.... Oh... and I forgot to add that I'm severely brevity challenged, and am borderline OCD. :laugh:

 

Don't worry about it. I am as well as you probably have noticed. You keep writing and I'll keep reading.

 

One of you is enough. :lol:

 

Keep up the good work fellas. :thumb:

[B-Ball-fan]

Don't worry about it. I am as well as you probably have noticed. You keep writing and I'll keep reading.

 

Thanks...and you can count on it.

 

I've requested to be buried with my laptop so if my fingers inadvertently and spontaneously continue to wiggle after death I can still keep posting from the grave.

[Science Friction]

One of you is enough. :lol:

 

Keep up the good work fellas. :thumb:

 

Thanks. I enjoy reading your posts as well, especially your amazing musical knowledge. Love the trivia.

[Science Friction]

Thanks...and you can count on it.

 

I've requested to be buried with my laptop so if my fingers inadvertently and spontaneously continue to wiggle after death I can still keep posting from the grave.

 

Sounds like a great plot for a Stephen King novel. :scared:

[B-Ball-fan]

One of you is enough. :lol:

 

Keep up the good work fellas. :thumb:

 

Holy crap...from what I understand the Guru has had to upgrade the site solely to allow for more storage space. It couldn't be because of me and SF could it?

[mcpapa]

Thanks for your kind words.... Oh... and I forgot to add that I'm severely brevity challenged, and am borderline OCD. :laugh:

 

And I'm a borderline liberal.

[mcpapa]

And I'm not making light of substance abuse problems. Devastating for millions. Just not for me, thank goodness.

[Science Friction]

And I'm a borderline liberal.

 

I'm a Madonna-esque liberal - WAAAY over the Borderline!

 

[video=youtube;6h-g7748vdw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h-g7748vdw