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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | Eligiu | deficiT | paranoid android

Do you actually feel that you've got dumber because of drug abuse?

Use it or lose it.
It's not the drugs that ruins your mind it's the lack of stimulation of certain areas of your brain.

Of course there's always going to be exception in circumstances of super high abuse, but even then, the effects can be limited by maintaining your mental exercise so to speak.

This theory is proved by the many people we have all seen who read/learn regularly, or exercise their brain in other ways, yet abuse drugs and are drug addicts of many years.

But of course it's not as simple as maintaining your mental exercise through periods of druguse to prevent decrease in intelligence, but it certainly plays a huge role.

I think alot of people should really have a think about how much they actually use and challenge their minds, before just assuming the weed or whatever has rotted their brains.

And nah i dont think my drug use has decreased my intelligence level, i have been getting consistantly smarter as i've grown older, and i feel that infact my use of certain compounds has increased my overall intelligence.
 
Weed gets a bad rap for this but that's not true.
I do think benzos and alcohol can make you dumber or less mentally coordinated over time though.
 
unsettled said:
I think school is a poor way of measuring an individual's intelligence, and besides who really cares how smart you are if you're just miserable?

I think it's not very intelligent to spend too much time worrying about the past, but it's definitely a human thing to do. I spend too much time looking backwards at times but I'm trying not to do that anymore.

I say fuck intelligence.

Figure out what you want to do, what you want out of life. Go out and do it! If you're excited and passionate about what you do everyday you are going to break boundaries in your life and hit a new level of living that will make you feel like a fucking genius regardless of whether or not you're actually a genius.

If drugs are getting in the way, STOP DOING THEM! I know it's not easy, but if you want something bad enough you'll do it. Intelligence is just persistence and curiosity coupled with an addict's obsessive insatiability. I see alot of intelligence on this site, just not enough direction or drive. That's why I think finding what you really love is so important, because intelligence is useless without some kind of passion and direction.

Anyway, I'm rambling, I should be sleeping.
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Well said.

I'm only 18 and have a lot to learn still, but it seems the more i learn, the more i analyze my life and everyone elses, leading to me feeling depressed and anxious. I just can't see the point in going to uni, getting a job, if i don't enjoy any of it. This often leads to an "ignorance is bliss" state of mind, which is good for a time, often helps me socially too. But this attitude doesn't help when i get so many expectations, from myself and others. I know i can do very well and it seems a waste not to live to my full potential, leaving me confused and anxious about what to do most of the time.

However at the same time i do enjoy the power and confidence of mental acuity, being able to quickly grasp concepts, and in a way feeling better than others. I just have no drive, or passion for anything at the moment.

To the op, i don't think drug use (mainly opiates / benzo's) has made me dumber, but it has definitely made it harder to study or socialize.
 
The one thing I've noticed for sure since my drug abuse began is that I have a MUCH harder time explaining things properly. I often stumble my words and fuck up stories. That's about it though, I don't feel any less smart.
 
It may have been mentioned already, but the only, 100% solidly proven neurological side effect of MDMA abuse (i.e. taking it more than once per month, over a period of at least a year), known even back when I was using it regularly - the early 'oughties - is reduced word recall. It comes from damage to a specific area of the hippocampus, which as a whole is responsible for encoding and retrieving memories.

While I've always been a bit scatterbrained, I have certainly noticed that my word recall is significantly worse than my peers. It's a bit embarrassing when I'll completely space out on the name of an ordinary object ("you know, that metal dealie that you use to... dig... food..."), names of people that I've known for ages, and the like. A fellow I know, though, is far far worse off. Every other word out of his mouth is fuck/fucking, because he can't think of what he's trying to say fast enough. His vocabulary was never great, but he's rarely above disyllables these days. Now, there may be something else going on, but I have personally seen this guy snort plain stupid amounts of MDMA, redose hourly for nearly a day on end, and other stupid stuff. I feel bad for him, but at the same time he just shrugs it off whenever I mention it, so I guess that it doesn't bother him that much.
 
psychedelics made me smarter , and motivated me ... for all you guys thinking about getting dumber from drugs study some neurology there you will find that only the neurotoxic sustances are brain damaging to some extent most substances like benzos have a slowdown efect which persist for time which makes you think you got slower thuss stupid ,, mixing psychedelics with alcohool weed and other stuff is is also bad but not perament ,try some pure stuff and only and you shall see , listening to strong sounds for many hours also induces brain microinjuries, breathing air also kills you slowly
 
I think that the question is: define "dumber". I chose to consider it as 'negative cognitive effect', a category into which reduced word recall would certainly fit well. Do I actually feel 'dumb'? No, not at all.
 
I wonder this sometimes, but I feel like it's not the cause, more a symptom. Where I used to fill my free time doing activities that would be a good, normal bit of stimulation for my brain, now I might decide actually I'll just smoke some dope and browse the internet.

Having noticed this, I make a conscious decision to even the balance out: to ensure I'm evening out the drug experiments with reading and following creative pursuits.
 
I suppose I can generally agree with what's being said in this thread. I don't feel DUMBER, but sometimes it takes me longer to remember things, or just to think up an answer. I don't really see it as a disadvantage though, because it kind of allows me to think deeper about what I'm going to answer, so it kind of makes me feel more careful. In the past, I had the worst habit of speaking before I thought, but that isn't so much of a problem anymore. Mind you I've only used alcohol (slightly), cannabis and psylocibin.
 
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I feel that doing any kind of drugs or alcohol makes me dumber. Even a weekend of partying makes me dumber for at least the first few days of the following week. However, taking breaks helps a ton.

IMO, everyone needs to recharge or reset their brain very regularly, if they want to be at a more optimal level of functionality. Note how I didn't say 'most optimal'. I believe people who abstain from all mind-altering substances (aside from caffeine and tobacco) are probably the best off, in terms of immediate cognitive ability. Whether they're more happy because of it, who knows.

In any case, do what you want, but be smart about it, and most of all, take responsibility for your actions.
 
Yes I believe drugs made me dumber. I forget things all the time (really frustrating) and my mind is a little slower solving math problems. But drugs also gave me experience, wisdom, and insight. I value what drugs gave me greatly. I think the pro's out-way the con's.
 
In most ways I am dumber. My memory is shot, my way of thinking is changed, my feelings are numbed, my ability to react as I should is off. I don't think sober even though I am. I am dumber in lots and lots of ways. The only good drugs did was to change my out look on life and make it more easy to see the other side of the coin. All in all drugs messed me up bad.
 
When I overdosed on mephedrone last September, after a long series of experimenting with random chemicals (primarily 2C-P), I immediately felt a decrease in cognitive ability, self-empathy, and self-awareness, which persisted for some time. I had to take nootropics (including Hydergine and Gingko), 2C-E (which I take as my saving grace) in order to recover. The thing to remember is that intelligence is a broad term (encompassing social as well as academic domains), for some people are dumb without taking a single drug, while intelligence can even be enhanced with the right psychoactive. The poison is still the dose. The brain is one of the miracles of Life, and sometimes you have to push it to the limit of no return in order to realize its full potential.
 
I am for sure a lot dumber. I have no discipline anymore. I forgot how to play the piano, guitar, write well, read difficult books, hell, even my spelling sucks now. But i do like one major change- i used to think all the time, I had racing thoughts and felt like a crazy person. I used to plan what I was gonna to do with my life on a short and long term basis. now i don't plan, and have very few conscious thoughts (like that little voice over is gone, which is nice because I like the quiet up there).

Anyway, sometimes being dumber can be a more relaxing, more present way to live. I think before drug abuse I was too much of a type A personality and now, I am way to chill. Hey, but as long as I dont starve and some shelter, I feel pretty good. Some people would say it is sad that I have no ambition, especially because I went to an ivy league college, and am finishing my 2nd masters, and score high on those meaningless standardized tests, so i could have gotten a phd or pursued a power career, but as i got older, I lost the desire to accumulate money and power, and maybe drugs has made me satisfied with so little in life, but i feel ok about it.
 
I dont like to use the term dumber. But after a decent usage amount this year I can say that I am more vague and distant. Intellectually I think I'm ok. But when it comes to the little things, like fixing something or using my hands I can just be plain slow and dopey. Its frustrating to say the least.
 
Acutely, heavy methamphetamine abuse will cause me to lose words and spelling abilities. I will have a smaller vocabulary on a very heavy dose, and for several days afterwards as well (the comedown). Once I even lost the ability to sound out words. Well, it's been a long time since I took doses of meth that heavy, and I don't ever want to again. But I reckon that drug will, eventually, for certain, make you dumber. I believe strong stimulants might share this quality.
 
I am definitely a lot slower - especially trying to think on the fly during a conversation. I don't know how much is from lifestyle and how much is just from age. The timing was pretty coincidental though.
 
Some smart people need to be made dumber I think thats why they do drugs. Just being smart can be a painful existence but I still think people need to learn better ways to cope than drugs.

And I still think you should try preserving as much intellectual capacity as possible. Different drugs make you dumber than others and different ways of doing drugs are also more prone to making you dumber than other ways of doing drugs.

Like crack and meth are very bound to make you dumb and fuck up a lot of intellectual processes. But smoking them mainly. They will make you stupid still if you just snort them but I think it takes a lot longer that way to have a toll on the brain. Still I think its funny how some people are saying the "pros outweigh the cons". I think that is definitely wishful thinking and very much untrue. Oh so what the drugs made me dumb but now I have more perspective than I did before so isn't that better? Ummm well not sure I can really answer that but you can actually gain perspective in life w/out making the sacrifice of brain cells. Like instead of getting high first and then reading a book second, try reading a book first and maybe just not getting high when you do it lol.

Can't even believe some of the conversations going back and forth in here, hilarious.
 
Bojangles69 said:
Some smart people need to be made dumber I think thats why they do drugs. Just being smart can be a painful existence but I still think people need to learn better ways to cope than drugs.
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Like that mathematical prodigy from that House episode ("Ignorance is Bliss": Season 6:19) who took DXM in large doses in order to lower his intelligence. .
 
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