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robmac9090
typical tadpole
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Can a drug "take control of your life"?
#5300680 - 02/14/06 08:31 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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I'm sitting here watching a PBS documentary on meth right now and one of the people interviewed said that meth "takes control of peoples lives."
My question to everyone is: Can a drug like meth really "take control" over a person? Please define your own meaning of "taking control."
I'm just curious, because I do not have any experience with the so-called hard drugs and would like to hear peoples opinions.
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trendal
J♠
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Loc: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5300705 - 02/14/06 08:35 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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In my opinion and experience the answer is no, a drug can not "take control" over your life.
Some drugs can be VERY addicting, like meth and heroin, but in the end it is still the person who has control over their own actions and life. If they truly wish to quit, they will do so. Anything else is simply a lack of determination.
Personally, I think people just like to blame drugs for the life situations that they got themselves into. It's not the drug's fault - it isn't living, and doesn't have a will.
--------------------
Once, men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
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Catalysis
EtherealEngineer
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5300720 - 02/14/06 08:38 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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It really depends on where you draw the line of "taking control".
If you ditch class to go smoke weed, one might say that the weed is controlling your life but you would probably say you are just having fun and you would probably be right, in my opinion.
I had a friend in highschool who smashed the front window of his work and broke the cash register open to get money for cocaine. At that point, you could probably get away with saying that the drug is metaphorically controlling his actions. There is no way his life would have taken that direction had it not been for the drug.
It can come down to your interpretation and opinion but many would say that a drug can, in fact, "control your life". Of course many others may say that, philosophically, nothing can control you but yourself. I would disagree since scientific evidence shows that drugs can actually effect the neurological balance in the brain.
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leery11
I Tell You What!
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: Catalysis]
#5300725 - 02/14/06 08:40 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Yes. Haven't you ever had a trip where one thought takes control of you and constantly manipulates every other thought that you have the entire night?
I reckon its the same principle.
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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PDU
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: trendal]
#5300736 - 02/14/06 08:42 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Im opposite, i know a drug can take control of your life. the subject ALLOWS it to happen, but its like getting onto a rollercoaster sometimes - you gotta hangon for the ride because willpower and rational thinking goes out the door.
-------------------- GO OUTSIDE.
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: leery11]
#5300778 - 02/14/06 08:49 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
leery11 said: Yes. Haven't you ever had a trip where one thought takes control of you and constantly manipulates every other thought that you have the entire night?
I reckon its the same principle.
exactly, i recently had a hellish trip where i was completely insane and did some very irrational things (luckily stayed outta trouble)..
if i smoke a hit of crack, and there's more crack. I cant sit and wait to smoke more crack.. i just smoke it all, and its horrible - and i could not, but nothing in the world would make me want to unless someone was going to give me more crack the longer i waited....
ya know?
-------------------- GO OUTSIDE.
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WeAreAllOne
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5300859 - 02/14/06 09:07 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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if you let it.
i once told myself i'd never get addicted or let a drug change my daily life.
after i was clean and looked back, it was amazing how much i went out of my way and lied, cheated, and stole to get what i "needed."
it's ridiculous.
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Gliders
Oh, hello!
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5300864 - 02/14/06 09:09 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Hmm.. well, my only experience with meth is 2nd hand through my mother's side of the family. My aunt and uncle went from having a nice home/ life to getting divorced with her saying he was "the magic man who writes invisible messages on the ceiling." A cousin of mine is now in jail for murdering his dealer. More stories abound, but these are the ones that stand out. So, did meth take their lives over? It makes kind of a good case for it.
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leery11
I Tell You What!
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: Gliders]
#5303388 - 02/15/06 02:35 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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also keep in mind we don't really have control over our lives in the first place as our personality is shaped by forces beyond our control and we are very passive robots.
genes make you one way, your parents and peers and society make you the other.
the notion of a human having control is rather far-fetched to begin with. when you trip you can sometimes see just how your thoughts take control of you.
Hell I think just simple old weed has me a slave and I don't smoke it a lot by any means [ i decided not to smoke at all until my lungs clear of mucus completely, but i may eat this friday ].... if I'm not high I'm thinking about drugs..... drugs are on my mind constantly. I don't need to do them. The desire to do them isn't super strong. But they are an obsession and I will walk around all day imagining that I'm convincing a friend why he should trip or telling people why drugs should be legal or envisioning ways to talk to people about getting hooked up.
The way some people might fantasize about art or cars or women... I fantasize about drugs. I don't do a lot of them at all, in fact as far as drug users go I think I'm largely in the shallow end of the pool, but damned if psychedelic mindstates aren't constantly on the brain.
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo! ....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human...... Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
Edited by leery11 (02/15/06 02:37 PM)
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Spenny
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: leery11]
#5304560 - 02/15/06 08:22 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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If "taking control of your life" means depleting the importance of your main priorities for survival for a drug, then I guess. I wouldn't know about anything like meth, heroin, or even coke though. It's all up to the individual to decide if it's an obstacle in the way of bigger things or a lifestyle you're okay with.
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Deviate
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: Spenny]
#5304595 - 02/15/06 08:31 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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yes it can but you have to make certain decisions in order for it to happen.
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robmac9090
typical tadpole
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: Deviate]
#5304870 - 02/15/06 09:54 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Great responses everybody. For myself, I can't really imagine something ever having control of my thoughts or actions. I think that the only way I could ever become a junky/etc. is if I consciencously said to myself, "I really don't care if I OD, because there really is nothing else going for me." I wouldn't consider this a drug "taking control", but rather me giving up and preparing to move on to whatever is to come next (afterlife/newlife/whatver you believe).
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CUBErt
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5305180 - 02/15/06 11:56 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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A drug will never "take control," but rather a person will lose control (self-control). All through high school I have been invited countless times to ditch class and go smoke. However, I have (usually) chosen to attend class because I would rather get into a good college (and I figure once I am there I can smoke all I want ;P). There are other kids around me who have lost self control and can't bring themselves to attend class enough to pass with halfway decent grades. The way I see it though, they are missing something in their lives that would drive them to succeed and this problem has simply manifested itself in a particular drug. If all drugs suddenly ceased to exist, I would bet you'd still have the same kids ditching school for a different reason.
-------------------- -CUBErt
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PDU
travel kid vs.amerika
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5305332 - 02/16/06 01:18 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
robmac9090 said: the only way I could ever become a junky/etc. is if I consciencously said to myself, "I really don't care if I OD, because there really is nothing else going for me." I wouldn't consider this a drug "taking control", but rather me giving up and preparing to move on to whatever is to come next (afterlife/newlife/whatver you believe).
But you see it that way because you have an emotional IQ, your aware of your feelings and how they manifest. I know lots of people who are complete nuts, right out of touch with the idea that "action = reaction in my body" and that they have responsibility. They act without thinking, and dont relate their problems to their lifestyle, or at least within their grasp of responsibility. You see, people like that are easily caught within the cycle.
-------------------- GO OUTSIDE.
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DirtMcgirt
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Re: Can a drug "take control of your life"? [Re: robmac9090]
#5305484 - 02/16/06 03:51 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Can money take control of your life? Can (a) women take control of your life? Can any external actor take control of your life?
Not really, I think. Unless your locked up, or for some other reason you can't prctice your free will.
You always have control over your life. Its your conscienceness, your life, you give as much value and leverage to external actors on you as you allow. This isn't to say there are things you can't help, like I can't fly, I can't buy a mansion, I can't move to Bangladesh, my mom was a bitch, etc....
When somebody, for some reason, gives some external actor more value onto their life than it has, like meth, it isn't the object doing so, it is the subject, the druggie.
I used to be very heavy into tweak, and I believe that if meth didn't exist my mindstate at the time would have used something else to satisfy myself.
This is why I believe a drug can't take control of your life because at the point of it doing so one has already lost control before the drug came into the mix.
drugs can exemplify and speed up lost control, but so can so many other things: Depression, money, consumerism, sex, eating, anger, whatever. These are all healthy things that come with life, but control is yours to give and take.
Fucknuckle had a really good post about addiction a few weeks ago saying much of the same thing....
-------------------- "And we, inhabitants of the great coral of the Cosmos, believe the atom (which still we cannot see) to be full matter, whereas, it too, like everything else, is but an embroidery of voids in the Void, and we give the name of being, dense and even eternal, to that dance of inconsistencies, that infinite extension that is identified with absolute Nothingness and that spins from its own non-being the illusion of everything."
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