Drugs and Creativity

[starise]

I've done a lot of research on this these last few days. When I went back over these comments I couldn't help but think that it looks like a dual mentality....like we're saying , " hey don't do any of this but many of us have and many famous people have" . My comments about a certain kind of possible transcendece probably didn't help either. Those possible benefits can be gained in other safer ways.

 

If mental sensory imagery is hyped or distorted this isn't really anything but a drug induced wonderland. The only deluded person is the user. I've never really seen a "successful" substance abuser..never. If you abuse a drug it will eventually catch up with you. If there's one thing drugs seem to be good at it is giving the user the sense of control and mind expansion when the opposite is true. Most successful people who have done drugs at one time or another are successful in spite of the drugs not because of the drugs.Drugs give the delusion of success and grandeur. Once you put that drug inside yourself, there's no turning back. Best case you'll loose some valuable time, worst case, it might be the last day you spend here alive.

 

Drugs are admittedly an escape for some people and then they get addicted to the substances. The negatives far outweigh the positives in any form of hard or psychedelic drug use. 

[MonoStone]

 

7 hours ago, starise said:

I've done a lot of research on this these last few days. When I went back over these comments I couldn't help but think that it looks like a dual mentality....like we're saying , " hey don't do any of this but many of us have and many famous people have" . My comments about a certain kind of possible transcendece probably didn't help either. Those possible benefits can be gained in other safer ways.

 

If mental sensory imagery is hyped or distorted this isn't really anything but a drug induced wonderland. The only deluded person is the user. I've never really seen a "successful" substance abuser..never. If you abuse a drug it will eventually catch up with you. If there's one thing drugs seem to be good at it is giving the user the sense of control and mind expansion when the opposite is true. Most successful people who have done drugs at one time or another are successful in spite of the drugs not because of the drugs.Drugs give the delusion of success and grandeur. Once you put that drug inside yourself, there's no turning back. Best case you'll loose some valuable time, worst case, it might be the last day you spend here alive.

 

Drugs are admittedly an escape for some people and then they get addicted to the substances. The negatives far outweigh the positives in any form of hard or psychedelic drug use. 

 

I'm not sure what you mean by 'control'? There's no sense of control whilst you're on a trip...quite the opposite. And psychedelic drugs are not addictive (well, only in the way that riding roller-coasters could be addictive... There's no physical/chemical addiction to LSD) so 'control' in terms of the deluded 'I can handle this... give it up if I want to' doesn't come into it. 

 

And I'm not sure which drugs give the delusion of success. 

 

Bit too much to say that all 'drugs' start as an escape and then you get addicted. It's kind of going down the road of 'smoking cannabis is just the start...you'll be on heroin next!'...  

 

EDIT - Actually I'm wrong about the roller-coasters... they could be more addictive... bad analogy...

Edited May 26, 2016 by MonoStone

[starise]

One thing I didn't want to do was make anyone feel uncomfortable about sharing an experience. Bill Gates has tried drugs for goodness sakes! I would have been surprised if no one had any experiences. I think it shows we're all human. We all do things differently when we're 20. I know I've done some dumb ass things. I'm certainly no better than anyone else.To this day I still need to get myself in line on certain things. I believe that these experiences can help us later in life.

 

I personally didn't want to give anyone the Impression that I was condoning drugs. This was the main reason for my follow up comment.I would personally feel pretty bad if someone read this thread and decided to try. I was indeed curious about how something like this could help creativity. It was interesting to read real experiences.

 

The kind of control I was referring to is indeed the thrill seeker kind of attraction to these substances. 

Think there is a certain cockiness that some heavy users have in thinking that they are invincible." I'm in control of this situation, I can handle it". This is much different than your experiences which were one time experimental IMHO. This is the delusion, to think nothing can happen because it isn't addictive physically, however it has made people jump from 30th story Windows believing they could fly.

 

Some studies say creative types are sometimes more prone to have an addictive predisposition. We've probably all read a few rock star biographies and seen how these types will try anything. It isn't really a chemical dependence but more an addictive personality which usually ends up chemically dependent.

 

I hesitate to admit this. I have schizophrenia in my family. My grandmother sadly was given to go off the deep end occasionally. One of the things they say about LSD is that it can be really bad if a person has mental disorders in their family. Certain individuals can have bad lasting effects if they take the drug. I'm never going to find out unless someone slips a tab in my coffee.

 

 

 

 

[john]

Don't worry Tim. Drugs are a personal choice, fuelled by many reasons including environment, experience, mind set, availability and a whole host of other reasons. Whether you condone or not is not going to impact it, and certainly doesn't make me re-assess my opinion of you.

 

Most people understand that drugs are harmful on some level. Most people understand that there is at least some aspect of a drug that is appealing to that individual. Managing that (or not managing that) is where people tend to differ.

 

As an aside, most families have a family member who suffers from some mental health issue or another. Usually several. I don't think it is something to feel anything about "admitting" it. They are health issues, not something to be ashamed of or hidden away. Be concerned for someone's privacy, maybe, but never feel it is something that should be hidden for any other reason.

 

Interestingly enough I just read a paper last week which was all about using psychoactive drugs, specifically magic mushrooms and LSD for treating depression and psychosis! It seems counter intuitive, who knows. Probably more of an issue at triggering a psychotic response is skunk. It's a very high THC version of cannabis and is known to trigger psychosis in people who have a genetic predisposition towards psychosis, such as those who could have latent bipolar or schizophrenia. It is also widely available as most grass on the street is now of a skunk variety.

 

I think creative types are more likely to be experimental risk takers... that is a different issue to psychological addiction, and completely separate to physical addiction or having a genetic predisposition to any and all of them. Certainly everyone can develop psychological addiction to substances. Indeed OCD is partly the same thing applied to activiies rather than substances.

 

Additionally,being expermental and being creative are almost the same thing. That only means that a creative is perhaps more likely to TRY drugs. That is most definitely NOT the same as psychological dependence or physical dependence, or the genetic predisposition to either.

 

All good stuff Tim. It is good that these things get debated. That you are not a drug user, other than alcohol, means that you want to get a handle on it.... which is notoriously difficult in any area, never mind drugs. Try understanding the joy of a motorcycle to someone who has never even been in a car. They understand exhiliration, but their frames of reference would be limited. It is good to grapple with concepts. That aside... of course drugs have benefits and appeal. Otherwise why would anyone take them? To deny that is like denying that riding a motorcycle is fun and focusing only on all the crash injuries and deaths.

 

To have a realistic view we have to understand appeal, risk and potential damage.