Brother, if I were addicted, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t feel so fantastic. Things are going to be okay! I’ve got plans, inventions, we’re gonna make so much money, you’ll see.
Polysubstance use disorder yay! It’s legitimately harder to break free than a single substance addiction IME
And for added difficulty add some mental health issues.
Addiction, aside from physical addiction and withdrawal, isnt dependant on continued use of the same substance. If you feel the need (even if you dont give in every time) to alter your state of being everyday, then you are likely an addict. Its an obsession with finding and getting a means to escape reality.
Usually people will settle on one or two things that are easy to get or provide the desired effect, even when effort is made. Its not something you can control, definitionally. If you can just put it down for a year and dont miss it, then ill concede you are maybe not yet an addict, but daily use of anything points to a reluctance to stop.
How do you separate that definition of addiction from psycological medication usage. Like someone with depression could feel the need to alter there state of being everyday with SSRIs, are they an addict? Same with someone with an anxiety disorder who takes Xanax, or someone with chronic pain taking oxycontin.
Addiction, in my view, requires continued use despite negative consequences, otherwise it’s just dependence. If you’re dependent on something that is neutral to or helping you live a good life, however you want to define that, then that dependence isn’t a bad thing. This applies to people’s relationships to both substances and other people.
Coffee is another good example, many people who drink coffee regularly will crave that first cup of the day, but it tends to help them work and accomplish tasks that they wouldn’t otherwise do so it can be a good sort of dependence.
I think a distinction between dependence and addiction makes sense. Im not sure how people find this confusing, personally. People dont compulsively take ssris. Like, you dont run out early. If you run out of Xanax or oxy early, you are abusing it, and showing signs of addictive behavior. If you have extra at the end of the month, you probably have a somewhat healthy relationship to your medication.
The coffee thing shows either a contrarian attitude or a naive one. Im tempted to say, go do a bump of coke and tell me thats a similar animal. Its not.
There isnt really a fuzzy line here, its pretty clear to all involved that someone is an addict. When you cross the line from just a bad choice or two, to a consistent clear problem affecting your daily life isnt always clear.
Its the way if affects your life that matters imo. If you find yourself benefiting and not harmed, im not here to say you should change something. I’ve heard a lot of people say they needed the liquid courage of a drink to work, or speak in public though, so it’s common to kid yourself about the negatives while focusing on the perceived benefits. Usually its, just letting loose at night or on the weekend, and the usage, or its consequences, leak into daily life. At the end of the road, there is no normal daily life, but at the start and for a time it can be hangovers or withdrawal due to limited access. When you decide its something worth addressing is up to the individual.
The coffee thing shows either a contrarian attitude or a naive one. Im tempted to say, go do a bump of coke and tell me thats a similar animal. Its not.
I have done coke a couple times, and idk if it was just bad coke or didn’t take enough but I felt it was overrated. Didn’t mix it with alcohol though which apparently enhances the effects but would say it’s on a similar level to a high dose of caffeine. Like a bump of coke I would put on the same level as an energy drink. Maybe a line would make me think differently but I’ve only ever done bumps/keys.
This isn’t to say I think all drugs are the same, I wouldn’t put coffee on the same level as molly or alcohol for the high.
Sounds like not enough, or bad coke to me. There are a lot of people that are getting lidocaine with a bit of coke i think. It gets cut to stretch it but still makes your nose numb. I was getting 1g stones for a bit. That would make something like 10 100mg shots. IV. Enough to make you puke when it hits. And I would push it up to 200mg and have seizures. This isnt something people do with caffeine. There isnt a euphoria with caffeine just the speedy feeling. Id want another after a seizure. That much coffee makes me wish I had a cup less, not more.
i have had this same damn talk with so many MDs (I’m on some controlled but non-euphorogenic (no fun highs, sorry everyone) medication that I rely on to live) Explaining why I need the medications I need and why I’m dependent and not addicted and here’s the clinical definitions of each and if they’d like to do blood or urine or whatever tests please ask for them this week because i have some weekend plans:
Psychological addiction (what you talked about) vs physical addiction (what OP meant)
I guess it depends on what OP means, though. Different substances can still yield identical or comparable physiological outcomes to cause physical/chemical addiction (as in, you experience withdrawal when not using).
Sometimes reality is shit and it helps to make it cooler.
Hey, if you can just hang on a Friday night and it doesnt affect your daily life, Im the last person to say you shouldn’t do you.
I cant just do a Friday. It leads to Saturday, then next week, and month later I cant get anything else done but get high. Im at the end of the progression. There is no just enjoying an evening for me anymore. Next time I pick up, l die. Last time I almost did.
Sometimes?
I haven’t figured it all out, obviously, and don’t know exactly the right way to talk about this stuff, but I know this framing is wrong, because when viewed from a certain angle, one could look at any medication for chronic illness this way. I think addiction is a symptom of broader systemic illness, in the same way as body weight correlates inversely to elevation (and hence positively with both toxin accumulation and poverty), or how other diseases corelate with the stress we’re put through.
Im not aware of anyone that obsesses about their blood pressure medication, to the point the will leave work in the middle of the day to take it early. Thats aside from the fact Im talking about altering your mental state significantly, which most medications won’t do (and the ones that do can be abused).
The obsession to change your mental state often stems from those factors you mentioned, so im not sure why you say you disagree.
i know it’s a joke but also:
multiple drugs can have similar effects, so you get an addiction to those effects
or they have bad collisions and that’s even more deadly