tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post6218583622263021578..comments2023-10-05T04:44:25.174-05:00Comments on Addiction Inbox: The Losing Battle For Perpetual RewardDirk Hansonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07429793255785560043noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post-80891183916687241832015-05-13T19:22:33.196-05:002015-05-13T19:22:33.196-05:00Hi, interesting blog you've got!
I just wante...Hi, interesting blog you've got!<br /><br />I just wanted to expand on the above comment. I hear from older family and friends that legal drug dependency was noticeable at times with their friends and coworkers and neighbors but they really just weren't so savvy in those days and did not recognize it as such. They would just say, "Jane was always sleepy" or "Bob was a really manic guy" and shrug it off.<br /><br />Think about all the differences in perspective back then too: 1) drug addiction was viewed as a voluntary, counter cultural phenomenon - eg, if it was happening in the middle classes and suburbs, it wasn't an addiction. 2) they lacked the lingo to describe pharmaceutical addictions - no Trainspotting or Breaking Bad back in those days!! 3) pharmaceutical addictions were not recognized as a phenomenon because people tended to trust the doc and would therefore see themselves as undergoing treatment, not having a drug problem. I could go on. But perhaps the biggest differences are that today, people talk about every last detail of their lives online and describe their feelings about what the doctor gives them, which leads to a lot of anecdotal evidence being given and the truth coming out. People in the past either his from the truth or had it hidden from them, much more often than today.<br /><br />Tbh though I am not even that old - was a teen in the 90s - and even then, the idea of prescription drugs having recreational was quite new amongst teens. DXM tripping was a fringe experience for desperate hick kids; Valium was an old persons drug; no one wanted Vicodin - that was too easy to get - they could smoke a joint instead. The exoticness of the drug was its main appeal, a badge of adventurousness, and taking whatever you found in the medicine chest was just a poseur thing to do. Today the emphasis is very much more on the effect: "how f*cked up did you get? Was it more than me?" Which maybe speaks to how much more depressing reality is for teens today...! Something to run from, not to explore. Sad to think about it, really...<br /><br />So the blending of prescription and illegal drugs into a single, seamless recreational continuum is a new thing in itself. <br /><br />The funny thing is that the further back in time you go the more respectable & everyday getting high seems to have been! Those Victorians were big into laudanum and snuff but they also saw it as a prestige, I think... Not unlike the teens in later generations!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post-29562133375550567222015-01-26T16:11:19.027-06:002015-01-26T16:11:19.027-06:00To a degree, we did see some amphetamine problems ...To a degree, we did see some amphetamine problems among housewives, long-distance truckers and night-shift workers from about 1945 into the 70s. There was a major speed epidemic among working class Japanese after WW II as well.Dirk Hansonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07429793255785560043noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-142743152971096915.post-77185428137655776192015-01-26T15:37:22.338-06:002015-01-26T15:37:22.338-06:00"Amphetamine was once one of the most widely ..."Amphetamine was once one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the pharmacological cornucopia"<br /><br />We see medical professionals running away from using opiates and their equivalents due to addiction. Why didn't we see this problem with stay at home moms and other normal people who were prescribe amphetamines only 2 or 3 generations ago.<br /><br />Why isn't that generation of people "hooked" and we are?Markhttp://ragingalcoholic.comnoreply@blogger.com