What is abuse ?

[GOD]

What is drug abuse ? How can we recognise it ? Do you do it ?

 

[Arcticpheonix]

In my opinion drug abuse/addiction (and this includes alcohol) is when the use of a substance interferes with your day to day life.

IE: I'm too stoned to make it to work on time, My kid missed dinner because I was too drunk to make it, etc.

As for whether I do it, I make it a point to measure my use against this rule.

 

[BrainEater]

i think abuse is when you use a substance more than you should...
i abused weed in the last half year or so ... been playing online poker and smokign weed together... the idiots own me so hard sometimes and play so bad and then to chill down i smoked a lot of weed, but yeah i think it's abuse and i wanna stop it ...
so i'll stop smoking next month and also its bad for the lungs so maybe some regeneration time should be good...


peace :weedman:

 

[viljo]

to young people who are lucky enough to hang out here.

just be carefull of abuse especially with a rise in mental health issues such as psychossis, depression

with the new ads coming out in my country (australia) towards driving while on drugs its just easy to get someone else to drive who hasn't taken anything.

knowing the difference between the strength of drugs is very important.

have fun stay safe.

 

[Bastiaan]

Great one GOD

when the use of a substance interferes with your day to day life

I agree.

I think abuse is when a substance is used too much, for having fun (non addictive), to escape reality (addictive), to feel more confident (addictive) or for any matter.
A grey area is psychonautic use, but too much.
I think teachings and insight from an experience need time to crystallize.
I think for having fun is an acceptable form of use, if done responsibly and/or with measure.
I think even escaping reality can be an acceptable form of use if done with measure, but addiction may be closeby making this a grey area as well.

But when is too much? This is subjective of course.
I can only determine this for myself.
Arcticpheonix' statement makes most sense to me for that matter.

I've abused cannabis heavily for years for all the bad reasons and I've had to 'catch up' for quite some time after I quit smoking it.
I've also had a small period of stimulant abuse.
I had some issues, some of wich I still haven't been able to solve comlpetely, but I'm facing and fighting now instead of running, and my life is a lot better now.

 

[figment]

I think it is very easy for a substance to interfere with your daily life in a negative way. Some people consider drugs an interest like any other, but I tend to disagree. It impacts everything. There's also so much afterglow effects, either in hangovers (ie, alcohol and stimulants), or in psychedelic 'afterglows' that require integration. One generally needs a lot of time for a substance to have negligible negative impact I think, even for occasional use.

 

[Forkbender]

Drug abuse is when you use it to feed your ego, or when you use it to pretend to overcome it.

I had my share of the latter.

 

[st.bot.32]

I don't believe that use=abuse. Abuse is damaging yourself and/or endangering others. It doesn't matter whether the substance is legal or not or what your intent is, recreational or psychonauting. And damaging yourself isn't necessarily physical, it can be more subtle, like Fork's example above, or it can be abuse that holds you back from succeeding in life, getting things done. Or abuse that causes you to alienate yourself or be unable to overcome social inhibitions.

Also there is no one size fits all rule. We are all different people, different bodies and psychological makeups. Some people can smoke a j everyday and get energized and ace life, and take a break whenever they feel like it. Some people probably shouldn't touch weed at all.

 

[IJesusChrist]

Abuse =/= addiction,

so abuse, to me is when someone does a drug because they are sick of being sober.

I really don't have a good answer for abuse. I think most "abuse" is actually just addiction...

 

[BrainEater]

yeah good points everybody, i think....

also jesus what you say makes sense.

i mean you could say i enjoy the stoned mindstate and i want to be stoned all the time out of choice, but have to smoke more because of tolerance or so...

but then still maybe it would be abuse, because it is like not supposed to be used in quantities one might be smoking :weedman:

who knows really, maybe it's relative to subjective perception and circumstances or so. what for one person is abuse, for the other might be normal.

but what i think i can say for sure is that when you abuse something like a substance you'd probably notice, when you have done it. or well maybe you wouldn't who knows anyways.

well whats for certain, abuse is bad so don't do it :weedman:

 

[tryptonaut]

In my opinion drug abuse/addiction (and this includes alcohol) is when the use of a substance interferes with your day to day life.

IE: I'm too stoned to make it to work on time, My kid missed dinner because I was too drunk to make it, etc.

As for whether I do it, I make it a point to measure my use against this rule.

I think abuse can start before it interferes with your day to day life.
I can drink 3-4 large beer every night and it doesn't interfere with my life too much. Actually I'm having a lot of fun at night, and I'm still fit enough to work the next morning.
However if you do that for a longer period of time you won't be able to quit the alcohol anymore, then you need your 3 beers every night or you won't be able to sleep. But still, if you drink them, you're all right the next morning.

There's many many people in Europe and I guess also in the States who abuse alcohol like that. They don't look like alcoholics, they mostly don't even know they are alcoholics - but they are...

 

[Psychoid]

too much of/or too many, too often, irresponsibly, for wrong reasons

but that doesn't help at all, as you could then ask:

What it too much? What is too many? What is too often? What are good reasons? What are bad ones?

You may come up with answers, but then if you discuss with someone else, he will say you are wrong and will give different answers.

So now the question is: Who is right?
And the next one: Who may judge who is right?
And the following one: Who may decide who may judge who is right?

Well in fact the answer is quite simple, you just ask a few millions people, and the majority wins.

But then a third guy comes up with different answers...

 

[BrainEater]

abuse is so bad you got to condemn everybody and nobody learns from it