Why Do We Fear Stimulants?

[LeeAnn]

I take stimulants every day, a lot of them and I have for many many years although I've never taken meth or cocaine. Are they bad for me, perhaps, but probably not as bad as tobacco is. But many years ago, in college, before the CSA I took my share of black beauties, and preludin, Benzedrine etc. etc. And I ended up with 2 degrees and a profession. I always liked the energy and mood elevation from speed but functioned adequately without it. Many years passed while I was drug free,but then I fell prey to the torture that big Pharma calls antidepressants, drugs which totally Fukked up my brain.

I sometimes wonder if the government had just stayed out of my medicine cabinet, what my life would be like today. There was a time in the 60s, the late 60s I think, when Dexedrine was considered the appropriate treatment for depression. Then, when the soldiers started coming home from Vietnam, people became concerned because the white middle-class boys who had survived the Vietnam draft were addicted to drugs, so "the people got really upset and in order to pacify the public, Richard Nixon created the controlled substances act and began the war on drugs.

George Carlin used to have a joke on one of his albums about speed-- "you can always tell that a housewife was taking diet pills because she was vacuuming the sidewalk. Of course that was before the word housewife was derogatory.

The Use and abuse of any drug should be a personal choice but keep in mind that stimulants do not pacify the masses. George Orwell called his drug Soma for a reason. and the fact that today there is a drug called soma that many people crave amuses me to no end.

[LeeAnn]

Oh...and to anwser to question that this thread asked...Why do we fear Stimulants?....because when people who don't need them...take them, not realizing how dangerous it is, the same people who do not need them, as a rule take too much...the consequences can be dire....so why do we fear them? when misused... they can kill you.

Many things fit that category, misuse of many things will kill you...alcohol, tobacco even twinkies kill when misused. I am an adult, so trust me to not misuse

[tonybrazer]

Hey regulate someone else. Dictate your views and reasoning to someone in a communist country. We are already close to having no freedoms no rights. Everything from seat belts to medicating my own body is dictated to me. SHAME on you you you giver away of freedoms. You you you giver away of rights

[Don_kali]

I don’t think we all fear it. But when I hear the word METH it scares me and kinda don’t have a answer why. But stimulants must be used as according to your doc. Nowadays you have people who spazz out on pills. Which I don’t understand why.

[randalg]

I know I'm necroing an 11+ yo thread but I don't remember seeing soma in Orwell but I have only read 1984 and Animal Farm. But it was definitely in Huxley's Brave New World.

[LeeAnn]

Well aren't you clever!!! Welcome to OP

[Selfhelp]

The only stimulants that I use are caffeine and nicotine.

When I was young I was once prescribed Ritalin, It made me so hyper that my mom flushed them after about my third dose.

As I get older, I'm kind of Leary about stimulants due to potential heart problems. I much prefer stuff that calms me down now.

[LeeAnn]

Well to each his own, everyone should have a choice. For me choosing to use nicotine for many years resulted in a diagnosis of lung cancer 2 years ago. So far it has responded to treatment and is in remission. There is a risk in everything. Do I wish I had not chosen to use nicotine, For sure, but despite the outcome having the choice was more important.