Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have a fairly weak will all told, so for that reason I will never take narcotics, and trtied a cigarette twice in my life, once as a small 'naughty boy' - I took one drag and coughed and coughed. The other time while a student and drunk. I rather liked the second one, and thus will not dare try a third, just in case I like it too much.

Yet alcohol has no hold over me. I enjoy it, but can do without, in fact I have a good wine and spirit collection and have not the slightest urge to settle into it.

My only real 'addiction' is gaming, to the extent I wonder if it actually is one. We joke about 'plastic crack' enough that I wonder. I don't appear to have to buy, but it takes up a disturbing portion of my income.


How about you?
Do you avoid smoking, drugs or booze because you dont want to get on the hook?
Is there some truth behind 'plastic crack'?

I think we all have our weaknesses and addictions that work to our detriment. Just going down the street, you can tell who likes the groceries a bit much.
I know people who let their porn watching wreck their marraiges. One guy I know is looking at having his house forclosed on in a few months because he can't afford the alimony
, child support, and his own living expenses in addition to house payments. All this due to his self confessed porn addiction that his wife could no longer put up with.
At my FLGS, there was a guy that would be telling his wife he was at class while he was really there playing games. The day his wife came by and saw him is now one of the often told tales by those of us that were there.

The thing is that usually if something gets you, it will be something you didn't expect. Most people that become addicted didn't think, going in, that they were going to become an addict. You won't know you're an addict until you are already hooked.

I smoked from 13 to 33. Tried on a couple of occasions to quit but found that I'd go out and drink and then end up smoking, strangely enough it was Blair banning smoking in pubs, coupled with the great British weather, that finally allowed me to quit for good. Been without cigarettes for 3 years now, quite happy without them. I have smoked a cigarette whilst drunk since and woken up the next day feeling like death warmed up.

From my teens to my 30s I also tried every drug known to me. For whatever reasons, marijuana never has overly appealed, I have smoked it socially but not at home for my own pleasure. Being principally a drinker, I found, more often than not, that it just spun me out and left me unable to move.

I have drunk, heavily, since I was about 13 as well. The British are a nation of drinkers and the Cornish do little else. I was very insistent on having a 'local' when in Cornwall and drank there after work and weekends. On moving to Bristol, less so, but still fairly excessive when I did go out drinking. I realised, on leaving the UK, how I would drink to be drunk. I don't do that now, I don't have the interest in it. Living with my wife, having her here with me, we will occasionally have a bottle of wine with dinner, or a GnT on the porch of an evening and that's about it. Going out with the lads from work, I find that I'm happy to have 6 or 7 pints and then come home and fall asleep, that happens once in about 2 or 3 months now. I was fairly fat when I moved here from the UK, almost entirely because I lived a sedentary lifestyle (sitting in an office then sitting in a pub) and drank then, being drunk, ate gak food. I was never an alcoholic though, my mother was and I recognise the signs of it. A beer could sit at home in my fridge for months and I'd not be tempted to drink it, I liked the buzz and 'the craic' of being in a pub with your mates.

Cocaine and I had a true love affair, it was the one illegal drug that I really dove into, in my later 20s up until about a year before I left the UK. I consumed vast quantities of it and loved every minute of it. It does make you feel very good about yourself and what you're doing, I have always suffered from low confidence/poor self image and this takes that away, allowing me to chat up girls and be the life and soul of the party. It is also unfortunately, really expensive, so I had to choose between GW minis and the coke, coupled with moving to the US, where you go to prison for a million years for even possession, I decided the legal high was the better option...

I suppose you could say I'm 'clean' now, no illegal drugs, no smoking, occasional social drinking. I've lost about 50lbs and working in a manual job now has meant that I'm the most physically fit I've been since my early 20s (when you could do all that gak to your body and it didn't suffer consequences). I have not desire to return to those days and every desire to continue to become fitter and faster again.

I have three addictions.
Mrs S
Tiny toy soldiers
Fish tanks.

I'm pretty leery of addiction. I know that I like my beer, but I think I'm well within acceptable levels. I used to drink 7 pints or more on a night out at least once a week, now, I go out much more rarely and only very rarely do I drink more than 4 pints, usually 2 or 3 is enough for me. What I do find is that after a stressful day at work I quite often fancy a couple of beers to help me wind down. I'm keeping an eye on that.
Never liked smokes, so didn't get into that, and therefore never got into pot or any of that stuff. All my friends in school were, though. I guess I was helped in my stance by a very strict father who would have reacted extremely badly to a pothead son. I've seen several friends spiral into schizophrenia and complete uselessness from overuse of various highs, with pot actually being the main offender. LSD, coke, various other amphetamines and pills - I've never seen anyone's life improved by them, in the long run.
A cousin died to a heroin overdose and put me strongly off anything like that.

The hilarious thing is though, I am doing Drugs Education in school, and the kids automatically assume that as a geeky physics teacher, I must know nothing. I don't share personal experience with them, but god damn they are ignorant as hell to the effects and hidden costs of drug abuse. I suppose they'll find out in time. Between that and the laughable Sex Ed courses I have to teach, I've become very cynical of the "people would make the right choice if only we gave them the right EDUCATION!" mantra. You've got to be receptive to education for it to work. There's always a subset who will go and try this stuff, the only choice you make as a society is how much you support people who make bad choices, consistently.

I shoot up about 4 times a day minimum. Need to get my fix or I can't function....


I think I would like to have an addiction - it could be something to keep you going (like House's addiction to Vicodin) but no real vices other than I'm a bit fat, aforementioned insulin and toy soldiers!

I might be addicted to the internet a bit. It gets in the way of reading and the like.

Da Boss wrote:I'm pretty leery of addiction. I know that I like my beer, but I think I'm well within acceptable levels. I used to drink 7 pints or more on a night out at least once a week, now, I go out much more rarely and only very rarely do I drink more than 4 pints, usually 2 or 3 is enough for me. What I do find is that after a stressful day at work I quite often fancy a couple of beers to help me wind down. I'm keeping an eye on that.
Never liked smokes, so didn't get into that, and therefore never got into pot or any of that stuff. All my friends in school were, though. I guess I was helped in my stance by a very strict father who would have reacted extremely badly to a pothead son. I've seen several friends spiral into schizophrenia and complete uselessness from overuse of various highs, with pot actually being the main offender. LSD, coke, various other amphetamines and pills - I've never seen anyone's life improved by them, in the long run.
A cousin died to a heroin overdose and put me strongly off anything like that.

The hilarious thing is though, I am doing Drugs Education in school, and the kids automatically assume that as a geeky physics teacher, I must know nothing. I don't share personal experience with them, but god damn they are ignorant as hell to the effects and hidden costs of drug abuse. I suppose they'll find out in time. Between that and the laughable Sex Ed courses I have to teach, I've become very cynical of the "people would make the right choice if only we gave them the right EDUCATION!" mantra. You've got to be receptive to education for it to work. There's always a subset who will go and try this stuff, the only choice you make as a society is how much you support people who make bad choices, consistently.

Back in the day, I had to live at a crack house for 6 months because it was the only place I could afford to live. I saw what becomes of a lot of the type of kids you talk about if they get into drugs. I don't do drugs and I don't drink, so I was in a clear headed state of mind as I observed these people and listened to their stories. The big thing they talked of was that it was wrong to have drug laws, and no one should infringe on their freedom of choice, etc.
The only choice they really ended up having was whether to live or die, because they certainly didn't have much in the way of other thoughts except for how stoned or drunk they were going to get or were last night. That was pretty much the sum total of their conversation, along with how good they used to be at something or how they amazed people with their insight.

This may be weird but I have been addicted to being around particular girls in the past.

rockerbikie wrote:This may be weird but I have been addicted to being around particular girls in the past.

That is called stalking, and is a different problem.

Ahtman wrote:

rockerbikie wrote:This may be weird but I have been addicted to being around particular girls in the past.

That is called stalking, and is a different problem.

Not exactly. It's more complicated than that.

I managed to stop smoking, but I drink. In fact I've got a drink on my computer desk right now. I gotta stop that too.

angel of ecstasy wrote:I managed to stop smoking, but I drink. In fact I've got a drink on my computer desk right now. I gotta stop that too.

You can't live without fluids of some kind, I would think. You might consider just give up unhealthy drinks rather than drinking altogether.

Ahtman wrote:

angel of ecstasy wrote:I managed to stop smoking, but I drink. In fact I've got a drink on my computer desk right now. I gotta stop that too.

You can't live without fluids of some kind, I would think. You might consider just give up unhealthy drinks rather than drinking altogether.

No sir, I will stop drinking completely. Who can be bothered taking a piss every single day?

I had something of a lost weekend for a few years, did pretty much every drug going including crack and heroin, but generally preferred the more interesting LSD, mescaline and DMT kind of stuff. I'm glad I had that part of life though, had some fun and never caused me any real trouble. The thing with addiction is that it is insidious and creeps up on you, you never really realise whats happening until it's beyond the point of return, the only thing that I was ever really addicted to was weed, smoked every day for years, now I smoke weed very occasionally, drink probably too much and smoke tobacco, but don't touch anything harder than that.

The problem with Drugs Education is that mostly they don't have a clue what they are on about, often claiming that you can get addicted to something after a single use, which is wrong, or that cannabis causes schizophrenia, which it doesn't, it can trigger it if you are naturally predisposed just like a death in the family or a messy breakup can. Because of these lies people have little trust for what they have been told and often choose to make their own mind up. Drugs aren't good, I have a friend who can only be described as an acid casualty, but neither are they evil, they reflect the person who takes them, and a lot of the problems involved with drug use would be solved by legalisation.

Gaming is not an addiction can we clear that up now.

My family has a long "history or addiction", My father struggled with drugs and alcohol problems for years and both my Mother and a younger sister both passed away due to complications arising from constant use of alcohol/ pills.
Myself, my younger brothher and my two remaining sisters have all had our share of issues as well over the years, however by and large those seem to be " under control".
I was a fairly " Hard drinker" for many years, in the clubs at least three nights every week, now...I may have a few beers or drinks a few times a week after work, but nothing to the degree in which I used to.
and the odd (?) thing was, even during my " heavy drrinking" era, I never " needed" it...I'd at times go months and not even think about drinking, and now it's really more of my narcisitic mentality that preevents me from drinking a lot ( don't want to be fat/ have a beer gut).
The only substance ( well besides cigarettes, which I'll continuue to smoke until they eventually kill me) that I can honestly say I ever had any real problems walking away from was coke ( not the drink)...I spent quite a few years with a straw up my nose and tto this day ( though I've not touched tthe stuff in over a decade) I still find myself thinking about the " good times" I experianced while indulging with it..
But...now aside from cigarettes ( and coffee), not a hell of a lot I consider myself " addicted to"
...As for " Plastic crack"...meh, stoped fooling with that stuff some time ago as well, can't stand the " Pusher".

Testify wrote:Gaming is not an addiction can we clear that up now.

It is if you do so much of it that it becomes detrimental to your life, addiction can be physical or psychological, the point is that you are doing things which you feel compelled to and the rest of your life suffers.

dæl wrote:
The problem with Drugs Education is that mostly they don't have a clue what they are on about, often claiming that you can get addicted to something after a single use, which is wrong, or that cannabis causes schizophrenia, which it doesn't, it can trigger it if you are naturally predisposed just like a death in the family or a messy breakup can. Because of these lies people have little trust for what they have been told and often choose to make their own mind up. Drugs aren't good, I have a friend who can only be described as an acid casualty, but neither are they evil, they reflect the person who takes them, and a lot of the problems involved with drug use would be solved by legalisation.

I call bs.
I have plenty of knowledge about drugs, and more than the average amount of knowledge about biochemistry and the function of the body. Your statement about cannabis and schizophrenia for example- "trigger" is pretty much the same as "cause" to my mind. You don't know if you're susceptible to mental illness until it hits you, and by then, especially with schizophrenia, it's too late. Add to that that cannabis can have unexpected side effects when taken with something as innocuous as migraine medication, and can have fatal effects on those with certain heart conditions, and you have a picture of a much less benevolent drug than you are making out. I never once told a lie in my time doing that waste of time course, but because of attitudes like yours, the truths I was imparting were often completely ignored. Ah well. Like I said, people will make their own choices, and suffer any consequences themselves. There are plenty of course who manage to take all kinds of drugs with no ill effects, much the same as I am currently drinking a beer without being an alcoholic.

I actually agree with you on legalisation though, with two provisos. 1. No treatment of any drug inflicted health problems (bar addiction itself) on any nationally funded health service. You poison yourself by your own free will, you die or suffer the consequences yourself. 2. Tax the everliving crap out of it.

Probably a bit inhumane, but I have become really tired of the excuses culture surrounding drugs("I only stole it because I'm addicted to heroin!"), alcohol ("the beer went mad, I didn't mean to hit her!") and bad life choices ("I'm entitled to state aid for this kid I landed myself with cos of an ill advised fling!").

I used to smoke and still get strong urges, but managed to stop when hearing my dad had cancer. Drink was never a problem, and gave that up because I never enjoyed it. I may have one or two other addictions but thats another thing.

Coffee and smoking is my only adiction I've going for me right now.
Back in the days along with cofee and cigs...was Everquest...then World of Warcraft..
Since I'm no longer deploying....I'm stocking up on cigs as trading material come the end of 2012

Da Boss wrote:

dæl wrote:
The problem with Drugs Education is that mostly they don't have a clue what they are on about, often claiming that you can get addicted to something after a single use, which is wrong, or that cannabis causes schizophrenia, which it doesn't, it can trigger it if you are naturally predisposed just like a death in the family or a messy breakup can. Because of these lies people have little trust for what they have been told and often choose to make their own mind up. Drugs aren't good, I have a friend who can only be described as an acid casualty, but neither are they evil, they reflect the person who takes them, and a lot of the problems involved with drug use would be solved by legalisation.

I call bs.
I have plenty of knowledge about drugs, and more than the average amount of knowledge about biochemistry and the function of the body. Your statement about cannabis and schizophrenia for example- "trigger" is pretty much the same as "cause" to my mind. You don't know if you're susceptible to mental illness until it hits you, and by then, especially with schizophrenia, it's too late. Add to that that cannabis can have unexpected side effects when taken with something as innocuous as migraine medication, and can have fatal effects on those with certain heart conditions, and you have a picture of a much less benevolent drug than you are making out. I never once told a lie in my time doing that waste of time course, but because of attitudes like yours, the truths I was imparting were often completely ignored. Ah well. Like I said, people will make their own choices, and suffer any consequences themselves. There are plenty of course who manage to take all kinds of drugs with no ill effects, much the same as I am currently drinking a beer without being an alcoholic.

BS on what? That Drugs education is flawed and ineffective, you said so yourself. That cannabis is a trigger not a cause, well it's well known you can't catch schizophrenia, you are either at risk or not. That you can be addicted to something after using it once, not a chance.

I never claimed benevolence for drugs of any kind, in fact you will note I called them amoral, neither good nor evil.

The side effects while on medication would be less prevalent if people were honest about their drug use as they are with alcohol when talking to their doctor, everyone asks can I drink on this, noone asks is it ok to snort a few grams of charlie. But that ties in with...

I actually agree with you on legalisation though, with two provisos. 1. No treatment of any drug inflicted health problems (bar addiction itself) on any nationally funded health service. You poison yourself by your own free will, you die or suffer the consequences yourself. 2. Tax the everliving crap out of it.

1. As difficult as it would be to distinguish between drug related and non drug related I kind of agree, there is a drug called apomorphine which is known to stop people being addicted to things, but it will make you very, very ill while you take it, so offer people that and if they don't want to be sick, they don't want to give it up enough. In fact that is what we should be using now.

2. If you are to tax it heavily you cannot preclude those who will pay for the NHS from the NHS, it's like with smokers now, they pay far more in than they take out.

Testify wrote:Gaming is not an addiction can we clear that up now.

Not every claim of gaming addiction is an accusation against gamers everywhere (though at times it seems that way with how the media handles the subject).

dæl wrote:

Da Boss wrote:

dæl wrote:
The problem with Drugs Education is that mostly they don't have a clue what they are on about, often claiming that you can get addicted to something after a single use, which is wrong, or that cannabis causes schizophrenia, which it doesn't, it can trigger it if you are naturally predisposed just like a death in the family or a messy breakup can. Because of these lies people have little trust for what they have been told and often choose to make their own mind up. Drugs aren't good, I have a friend who can only be described as an acid casualty, but neither are they evil, they reflect the person who takes them, and a lot of the problems involved with drug use would be solved by legalisation.

I call bs.
I have plenty of knowledge about drugs, and more than the average amount of knowledge about biochemistry and the function of the body. Your statement about cannabis and schizophrenia for example- "trigger" is pretty much the same as "cause" to my mind. You don't know if you're susceptible to mental illness until it hits you, and by then, especially with schizophrenia, it's too late. Add to that that cannabis can have unexpected side effects when taken with something as innocuous as migraine medication, and can have fatal effects on those with certain heart conditions, and you have a picture of a much less benevolent drug than you are making out. I never once told a lie in my time doing that waste of time course, but because of attitudes like yours, the truths I was imparting were often completely ignored. Ah well. Like I said, people will make their own choices, and suffer any consequences themselves. There are plenty of course who manage to take all kinds of drugs with no ill effects, much the same as I am currently drinking a beer without being an alcoholic.

BS on what? That Drugs education is flawed and ineffective, you said so yourself. That cannabis is a trigger not a cause, well it's well known you can't catch schizophrenia, you are either at risk or not. That you can be addicted to something after using it once, not a chance.

I never claimed benevolence for drugs of any kind, in fact you will note I called them amoral, neither good nor evil.

The side effects while on medication would be less prevalent if people were honest about their drug use as they are with alcohol when talking to their doctor, everyone asks can I drink on this, noone asks is it ok to snort a few grams of charlie. But that ties in with...

I actually agree with you on legalisation though, with two provisos. 1. No treatment of any drug inflicted health problems (bar addiction itself) on any nationally funded health service. You poison yourself by your own free will, you die or suffer the consequences yourself. 2. Tax the everliving crap out of it.

1. As difficult as it would be to distinguish between drug related and non drug related I kind of agree, there is a drug called apomorphine which is known to stop people being addicted to things, but it will make you very, very ill while you take it, so offer people that and if they don't want to be sick, they don't want to give it up enough. In fact that is what we should be using now.

2. If you are to tax it heavily you cannot preclude those who will pay for the NHS from the NHS, it's like with smokers now, they pay far more in than they take out.

Drugs education is not ineffective because of lies told by educators, rather it is ineffective because of unreceptive students. You can take a horse to water, but you can't make him think. I don't see much difference between a trigger and a cause, but I feel that a semantic argument is unlikely to be beneficial to either of us.

It's easy enough to know the direct drug related problems, I'd be alright with more indirect ones being treated.

And I think smokers should be denied NHS treatment. Don't care if their taxed for it.

I'm addicted to Powerthirst; it's like crystal meth in a can.



(It's crystal meth in a can.)

Da Boss wrote:And I think smokers should be denied NHS treatment. Don't care if their taxed for it.

On what grounds exactly? because if it's "they caused it themselves" then there must also be no diabetes treatment for overweight people, no treatment for broken bones by motorcyclists who have fallen off etc.

The motorcyclist point is a good one! I'd be okay with no NHS treatment for that except that Motorcyclists can be injured by the actions of others. Smoking related problems are entirely self inflicted.

Also be fine with no treatment of alcohol inflicted injuries and illnesses.

Well, I must raise the point of people who have attempted suicide as well, people who often are in the depths of depression, and therefore it's debatable whether it was wholly their decision. The point I am attempting to make is that any form of legislation or blanket ban will often cause a small amount of cases where an injustice occurs.

Of course, any system of laws or rules attempting to cater for a diverse and large population will be subject to the law of unintended consequences. For example, the current system of making up for people's bad decisions has created some spectacularly feckless and antisocial people.

What about those affected by secondary smoking? Should they be denied? What about former smokers, do we get the right back? You cannot deny people basic rights allowed to others because of something they choose to do.

Yes you can!
See: Prison.