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Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

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Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#181

Post by jcora »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #176
jcora wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah absolutely not. You can certainly drink and work, just as it's possible to drive drunk without killing someone. These isolated cases without incident don't really matter in the context of society-wide taboo, however. Coffee and cocaine are worlds apart. Most people don't have jobs that would work with a coke addiction. Freud was exceptional and I think he did most of his influential work not under the influence…

What about Stephen King? It seems he has mixed feelings about it today; regret, but he's also not sure he would have been so prolific without it. I say all this as a person with zero cocaine experience, but lots and lots of caffeine experience. Stims don't make you better (usually worse, actually), but they do have a relationship to quantity of output.

I'll let you figure out the difference between 'exceptional and prolific writer' and for example 'stressed out social/office worker who others depend on':)

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#182

Post by jcora »

1_over_n wrote: post #178
jcora wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah absolutely not. You can certainly drink and work, just as it's possible to drive drunk without killing someone. These isolated cases without incident don't really matter in the context of society-wide taboo, however. Coffee and cocaine are worlds apart. Most people don't have jobs that would work with a coke addiction. Freud was exceptional and I think he did most of his influential work not under the influence…

Coffee and coaine are not actually worlds apart in terms of mechanism of action, they both act on the same brain pathway though coffee has a limited ability to activate this pathway in comparison to cocaine.

This is a completely meaningless comparison. Even things that behave waaay more similar than cocaine and coffee in terms of brain chemistry can have even more disparate effects. And I was talking about the effects.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#183

Post by mmjaa »

Nasrudith wrote: post #154
LessDmesg wrote: post #123

I've never taken anti-depressants and don't understand why so many people do. If you can't calm down your own mind, then you've got a problem no pill is going to solve - and the fact that people abuse these pills or keep taking them habitually proves this.

You don't understand depression or antidepressants period. Antidepressants typically take weeks to take effect and have a low efficency rate overall - the reason why so many are approved is because it is a matter of cycling through them to find one which is actually effective and without unacceptable side effects. The closest form of "abuse" aside from idiots who take any random substances to try to get high (in whic…

Antidepressants are a belief system, and like most religions, have both their detractors and promoters. And, like most religions, there is money to be made ... Lots and lots of money.

Antidepressants have the same efficacy as placebo.

Whether or not you believe this depends on if you have a prescription, and/or have understood the studies which point this out.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#184

Post by jacquesm »

Cougher wrote: post #162
Nasrudith wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it obvious personally - you would find it difficult to find an anaestiologist who fears the drugs. Also notably the reason you heard about it was because the hammer of the state, not because the drugs itself ruined his life.

I generally agree about the hammer of the state angle, but another angle here is that if medical people are addicted to drugs and they have access to patients' drugs, they can potentially skim some of the drugs that they're supposed to be giving their patients.

Medical practitioners have a long history with sampling the wares from the drug cabinet.

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#185

Post by 1_over_n »

jcora wrote: post #182
1_over_n wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Coffee and coaine are not actually worlds apart in terms of mechanism of action, they both act on the same brain pathway though coffee has a limited ability to activate this pathway in comparison to cocaine.

This is a completely meaningless comparison. Even things that behave waaay more similar than cocaine and coffee in terms of brain chemistry can have even more disparate effects. And I was talking about the effects.

This meaningless comparison is a fundamental concept in psychopharmacology. Different substances can have different effects whilst acting on the same pathway. And to your point re: "effects"it should be noted the SAME substance can have very different effects (biphasic effects) depending on dose (alcohol being the key exmaple).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesolimbic_pathway

https://jbiomedsci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1423-0...

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9884132

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#186

Post by Cougher »

jacquesm wrote: post #184
Cougher wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally agree about the hammer of the state angle, but another angle here is that if medical people are addicted to drugs and they have access to patients' drugs, they can potentially skim some of the drugs that they're supposed to be giving their patients.

Medical practitioners have a long history with sampling the wares from the drug cabinet.

Of course! Any good cook needs to sample the product to ensure that it's good enough to serve!

Re: Aldous Huxley Foresaw America’s Pill-Popping Addiction

#187

Post by smegger001 »

SilasX wrote: post #77
smegger001 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did he miss the mark? Ask the average person on the street why congress are having impeachment proceedings against the president. most will either regurgitate some fox news conspiracy theory or say something about Russia. while the actual reason is he attempted to extort a personal quid pro quo from the Ukrainian government in exchange for releasing foreign aid funds they were due. Sounds to me like he predicted peop…

The reason has nothing to do with his “firemen”.

To quote the conversation with the firechief Captain Beatty; "There you have it, Montag. It didn’t come from the Government down. There was no dictum, no declaration, no censorship, to start with, no! Technology mass exploitation, and minority pressure carried the trick"
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