I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem • Hacker News Board

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#181

Post by yboris » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:32 PM UTC

supr_strudl wrote: post #39

>When you’re at a wedding reception, alcohol serves as a social lubricant. People are more gregarious. They talk, they interact. The same is true with cocaine at parties, heroin among friends, or opium among friends, NDMA among lovers. It enhances empathy, openness, and forgiveness, all of these pro-social attributes. Please, don't take this horrible advice. Drugs are harmful and can do fatal damage to you and those…

Coffee, chocolate, and sugar are drugs. If a drug is a substance that affects how your mind functions, then water is a drug too. There is no definition of "drug" that cleanly separates the (currently) illegal substances from those that are legal.

The world is full of chemicals that affect us, some more than others. People self-medicate all the time (alcohol, coffee, chocolate, sugar); I see no problem with (after learning and carefully experimenting) broadening one's set of "self-medication" tools.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#182

Post by eurasiantiger » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:33 PM UTC

mabbo wrote: post #134

rmac wrote: post #5

Man, I read this as someone who tried to use opioids and I just couldn't chip. It spiraled into full blown physical dependence. I guess i'm the type with an underlying psychiatric illness which drove my usage and denial. That there exists people like this person who can chip (controlled use of opiates) always intrigues me -- as this drug was the ultimate pathway to euphoria and thus I became the mouse hitting the but…

I can barely control my use of caffeine. Without it, I turn into a raging psychopath. And I'm consuming more and more of it all the time. Heroin terrifies me.

Caffeine, or coffee? They are very different substances: one is a pure alkaloid with well-defined effects, the other is a concoction of hundreds, possibly thousands of active ingredients.

Most relevantly, coffee contains a relatively large amount of Harmala alkaloids, which are a family of beta-carboline monoamine oxidase inhibitors commonly found in Ayahuasca brews (and named after one of its ingredients, Penganum harmala).

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#183

Post by ChrisRR » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

SamBam wrote: post #169

ChrisRR wrote: post #136

This sounds like dangerous clickbait. It's entirely expected that someone whose job it is to study the effect of drugs would have a much better understanding of how to not become addicted His assertion the 70% of all drug users including alcohol and prescription users aren't addicted if anything seems extremely low to me. I'd say the vast majority of my friends drink alcohol and are more than likely on prescription d…

> His assertion the 70% of all drug users including alcohol and prescription users aren't addicted if anything seems extremely low to me. I'd say the vast majority of my friends drink alcohol and are more than likely on prescription drugs but I don't think any of them are addicts Actually, I'm not sure. 30% of alcohol drinkers being addicted might be roughly right (though surprising to me as well). In the US, 50% of…

I'll admit that is an insane amount that I wasn't expecting, but something about those numbers just feels off. Like 10 drinks a day? Many people don't even drink that much water

Maybe we're getting a very different view of the US from the UK, but despite all of America's flaws and how weak the beer is, it seems so unexpected to me that 1/10 of people are opening a new drink every 90 minutes and somehow managing to hold down a job to be able to afford such a habit.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#184

Post by leetcrew » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

ChrisRR wrote: post #136

This sounds like dangerous clickbait. It's entirely expected that someone whose job it is to study the effect of drugs would have a much better understanding of how to not become addicted His assertion the 70% of all drug users including alcohol and prescription users aren't addicted if anything seems extremely low to me. I'd say the vast majority of my friends drink alcohol and are more than likely on prescription d…

> His assertion the 70% of all drug users including alcohol and prescription users aren't addicted if anything seems extremely low to me. I'd say the vast majority of my friends drink alcohol and are more than likely on prescription drugs but I don't think any of them are addicts

> Which means that the other less common drugs must be a lot more addictive to bring the number down to 70%

I don't think your sample of friends is enough to support this kind of conclusion. n is small, there is likely selection bias at play, and you can't have perfect knowledge of what your friends do when you're not around. it's not uncommon for addicts to be able to keep it together for a few hours of socializing. I had a friend in college who would only have a single glass of wine when he was visiting family. for a while, they thought he was very responsible or just not that interested in drinking. the reality was if he had more than one, he wouldn't be able to stop. back at school, he got plastered every day and eventually failed out and had to go to rehab. addicts can be very good at hiding things until they hit the tipping point where their life falls apart completely.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#185

Post by burnthrow » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

diegoperini wrote: post #75

insickness wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a good book on this called Better Than Well that discusses the use of medicine for life improvement rather than treating disease. One of the most interesting chapters was on amputees by choice, people who want to cut off a limb to become handicapped. Doctors were left with the painful decision of helping these people achieve this or having them do it on their own in a much more dangerous way. While most would…

Is there a testimony of someone who went through such surgery? What's the mindset of a person who really needs his/her limbs removed because of such urges?

I would never do it, but there's some convincing evidence (the experience of eunuchs) that castration evens out the male/female longevity difference.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#186

Post by jshevek » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

read_if_gay_ wrote: post #114

sneak wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Opioids are insanely and instantly addictive. This is the kind of FUD that TFA is specifically addressing. Namely, that this is not always a true statement. Of course, for many people, it is, which is why people make such sweeping (and incorrect) statements. Your warning is valid, your claimed facts are not.

So even if it's not true for everyone that's a practically useless observation because how are you going to find out it's not true for you without risking becoming instantly addicted?

That you cannot imagine an approach doesn't mean an approach doesn't exist. It may be possible to form a generalized understanding of an individuals predisposition based on testing with other substances, just as one example.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#187

Post by dariusj18 » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:36 PM UTC

ChrisRR wrote: post #136

This sounds like dangerous clickbait. It's entirely expected that someone whose job it is to study the effect of drugs would have a much better understanding of how to not become addicted His assertion the 70% of all drug users including alcohol and prescription users aren't addicted if anything seems extremely low to me. I'd say the vast majority of my friends drink alcohol and are more than likely on prescription d…

This is like the textbook overconfidence that addicts have. They all think they have a complete understanding of their body and the chemicals they use.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#188

Post by yboris » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

altcognito wrote: post #103

Because one person thinks he has it under control at this time, I don't see how advocating for wider acceptance of drug classes that have killed and destroyed the lives of millions every year is even a story that deserves a platform. This was a good story to flag.

It is interesting to me how ready we sometimes are to dismiss others' self-reports. This is akin to doctors in early 1900's (and even now) simply ignoring women's self reports of pain.

When a person reports something about their own life and internal state, you need to have overwhelming evidence before you can dismiss what they are saying. On what grounds do you dismiss the author's claims about their life? He clearly has his life well-enough-together to get an essay published in a reputable science magazine.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#189

Post by loves_mangoes » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

sillysaurusx wrote: post #167

How many of you want to decriminalize drug use? Be honest –– raise your hand. Now, how do you square that with almost everyone here universally claiming that these words are dangerous ? > The statements that make people mad are the ones they worry might be believed. I suspect the statements that make people maddest are those they worry might be true.

Hey there! Hand raised, and happy to disagree =)

Giving people the autonomy to live their life, means there are many dangerous things you can say about things that are legal, and should be legal.

I believe people should be responsible enough to drive a car, drink alcohol, and with or without prescription take a drug without risking a prison sentence.

Now my advice is: It's not okay to drive while extremely tired, it's not healthy to drink yourself uncounscious (even if you're not an alcoholic), and you should probably continue to not treat heroin lightly.

I'm okay with all those things being legal. I'm not okay with people equating legal with safe. Of course words can be dangerous. That's why we call them out, but that's not a reason to send people to federal 'technically your life is not over' prison.

Re: I am a heroin user. I do not have a drug problem

#190

Post by globular-toast » Thu, Feb 18, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

I recommend David Nutt for more logical analysis of drugs and their dangers. Essentially the way drugs are classified makes no sense and is mostly a result of corruption and political, religious and even racist ideologies.

Drugs have had a profound effect on my life. Like many, I started with alcohol - the most boring and most dangerous drug there is. I later used cannabis, which I decided had an overall negative effect on my life, and MDMA. The latter I only used a few times but it changed me. I don't need to take it any more but it has improved my life no end. Now I only use caffeine (in tea and coffee). I haven't used other drugs for almost two years at this point (my last drink was around May 2019 and it ruined my sleep, as it always does, for the last time).