Stimulants High Functioning v. Low Functioning Addicts.

[prettyliljunkie]

I'm curious as what you guys think. What are the main difference between the two? IS there a difference? Just want to hear thoughts and opinions.

 

[Wilson Wilson]

A high functioning addict would be someone who keeps a good job, pays their bills, and has a decent private life (relationship, on good terms with family, etc) while a low functioning addict at the extreme would be someone who becomes homeless due to their habit, or at least in debt and with a damaged private life.

There's certainly a difference between the two. And I think it depends a lot more on the individual than their drug of choice personally. To contrast two stereotypes: you get daily weed smokers whose laziness means they are underachievers, and you also get successful executives who do cocaine.

 

[G_Chem]

Well high functioning are my parents... They’ve been in AA for 20ish years as highly regarded members of the community, held down six figure jobs, all while snorting anything they can get their hands on. If that’s not high functioning, idk what is..

I’d say high functioning addicts are people that can hide the lie perfectly (for now) whereas low functioning have given up hiding the truth and let it all hang out. Typically high functioning addicts have a lot to lose if they show their true colors whereas low functioning more often come from lower socioeconomic status.

-GC

 

[Swim15]

^Good summary.

Think a large factor, at its root, is also intelligence. I was in an honors program in college and no one partied harder than those kids because they didn’t need to study, they could go to tests fucked up and still make 102’s while other people studied their asses off and are walking away with C’s.

Having high intelligence makes life easier and significantly reduces the time and effort required to maintain a certain level of performance.

Ultimately a lot of other factors like how much there is to lose, what the addiction is, and how strong of an addiction play into things as well.

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

Does this question specifically pertain to stimulants like the thread is listed about?

It depends on the drug of choice imo. Ironically stimulants make me dysfunctional.. the high and the low are really quite strong beyond 10 mgs of amphetamine. I'm much more functional on opiates but I think that's backwards. Obviously addicts are addicted to the drugs they like the most. If the drug happens to be xanax and they make you black out I can't see how one could be functional under benzo addiction lol. At the end of the day it seems like most people who use the BL forums are just that--functional addicts. I've made it through almost 3 degrees so far while using virtually the entire time. Not something I'm proud of, but I focused on my life goals over letting the drugs consume me. The route I'm going down, I don't know what will happen but I can't live this way my entire life.

I don't see how any opiate addict would be functional without their substances at a certain point because the withdrawals most of the time make you dysfunctional.

 

[Jabberwocky]

I’ve oscillated between the two states of functional and non-functional. Each time I’ve become non-functional I’ve been lucky to have professional help to clean myself up. Ironically, those programs then seem to teach me more about myself that enables me to function a lot longer while using the next time. That said, while I am functioning I am definitely not achieving my full potential either in my career or as a human being.

Given my drug of choice is amps (mainly meth) I remain fairly functional if I sedate myself after 36 hours awake and get some sleep and some food. Working from home makes this possible. I’d be fucked working in an office...

 

[Meth novice 79]

Most of us dance on the line of the two pretty much permanently in my experience.
Swinging from keeping it together to losing our shit intermittently.

Of course there are those who have lost it entirely and are a slave to their drug but there’s just as many of us hanging on to ‘normalcy’ for dear life.

The biggest difference to me between the two is, do you spend MOST of your day trying to figure out where to get your next high or are you in a position that means you can still live the rest of life along with the square bears?

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

The other day I stupidly took too much of my cup of tea and was nodding out on the verge of not being able to keep my eyes open at an event I had a major role in. It was pretty much a wake-up call. I'm pretty sure all "functional" addicts have been in that position numerous times. The problem is greed.. it's so easy to just say "screw it" and go past your tolerance right before a major event in your life.

I sincerely hope I'm not the only one who's been way too messed up at a funeral. Incredibly shameless lol. Lying is NOT good for your mental health. You have to constantly be on the alert and it distances you from the people closest to you. With stimulants you'd just be tweaked out of your mind and wide-eyed with dark circles on your face consumed by paranoia. Not a good time. It's better to just wait until you can get fucked up in isolation. IME when you look really fucked up most people are concerned but don't assume it's drugs.

 

[LucidSDreamr]

the problem with being a high functioning addict is that there is nothing to stop you or make you want to end your addiction because your life isn't fucked up and you have money to use a lot. So you keep using until your organs are whats fucked or you overdose and die.

the people that get arrested, lose jobs etc, they usually can use those reasons to get over their addiction rather than bodily damage that hasn't come yet for them.

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

the problem with being a high functioning addict is that there is nothing to stop you or make you want to end your addiction because your life isn't fucked up and you have money to use a lot. So you keep using until your organs are whats fucked or you overdose and die.

the people that get arrested, lose jobs etc, they usually can use those reasons to get over their addiction rather than bodily damage that hasn't come yet for them.

Yes exactly. Many alcoholics are professionals at hiding the addiction until one day it explodes in their face. You do a poor job at containing the smell or just dose incorrectly because it's hard to moderate the exact use of a liquid.

If you're an addict dependent on substances for beneficial purposes and not purely recreational the amount of stress even that causes is quite unbearable. You're always on alert paranoid wondering if someone sensed something or knows you're on something and that just can't be good for your mental health long term. I suppose if you're a legal addict with prescriptions and don't have to worry about legal repercussions it mitigates the stress factor, but even then I'm sure people have been fired or just not hired in general for something their legally obligated to list/take on a regular basis. I know that suboxone requires you to list it on your job application (I think?), and that can be a red flag for corporations looking to fill positions who know what that is.

I could be wrong, but in the US I think that rehabilitation centers stay on your record? Correct me if I'm wrong. But that just seems counterproductive because then people who actually want to obtain their lives back through legitimate professional help avoid doing so to avoid judgement or make them less marketable. I really hate how my country treats/views addicts, when acknowledging that there is an opiate epedemic and only hurting the issue more and more.

I think all functional addicts have lived most of their lives drop dead sober and probably are well-educated. You have to know what a normal functional human being is before mimmicking one. Even then it seems like most functional addicts are an anomoly and lose control at one point or another--or exposed. One time I had to take a randomized blood test (wasn't even for a job) and they found something supicious in my system lol. Luckily they just let me redo it later but it scared the hell out of me. I'm lucky my doctor is an addict himself or else that could've gone very badly for me.

The substance of choice matters. There is no better liar and manipulator than a junkie. Avoiding withdrawals is literally life and death for anyone on high dose opiates, and most of them would do anything to avoid others "helping" them or promoting them to stop their habits. Even the harmless ones who do not steal from their friends and loved ones and the ones best at hiding their usage inevitably have to lie at one point or another. I'm an awful liar and I absolutely hate doing it, but I will if I have to. Sadly, the only fuctional addicts are the ones that cannot quit and had to rearrange their lives around their use to actually have a viable future. It doesn't have to be that way, but it is

 

[Coffeeshroom]

Yes exactly. Many alcoholics are professionals at hiding the addiction until one day it explodes in their face. You do a poor job at containing the smell or just dose incorrectly because it's hard to moderate the exact use of a liquid.

If you're an addict dependent on substances for beneficial purposes and not purely recreational the amount of stress even that causes is quite unbearable. You're always on alert paranoid wondering if someone sensed something or knows you're on something and that just can't be good for your mental health long term. I suppose if you're a legal addict with prescriptions and don't have to worry about legal repercussions it mitigates the stress factor, but even then I'm sure people have been fired or just not hired in general for something their legally obligated to list/take on a regular basis. I know that suboxone requires you to list it on your job application (I think?), and that can be a red flag for corporations looking to fill positions who know what that is.

I could be wrong, but in the US I think that rehabilitation centers stay on your record? Correct me if I'm wrong. But that just seems counterproductive because then people who actually want to obtain their lives back through legitimate professional help avoid doing so to avoid judgement or make them less marketable. I really hate how my country treats/views addicts, when acknowledging that there is an opiate epedemic and only hurting the issue more and more.

I think all functional addicts have lived most of their lives drop dead sober and probably are well-educated. You have to know what a normal functional human being is before mimmicking one. Even then it seems like most functional addicts are an anomoly and lose control at one point or another, or exposed. One time I had to take a randomized blood test (wasn't even for a job) and they found something supicious in my system lol. Luckily they just let me redo it later but it scared the hell out of me. I'm lucky my doctor is an addict himself or else that could've gone very badly for me.

The substance of choice matters. There is no better liar and manipulator than a junkie. Avoiding withdrawals is literally life and death for anyone on high dose opiates, and most of them would do anything to avoid others "helping" them or promoting them to stop their habits. Even the harmless ones who do not steal from their friends and loved ones and the ones best at hiding their usage inevitably have to lie at one point or another.

I have to agree to a point here. If you are educated and hold a good paying job and are able to hold the job while using uppers/downers and still reach ends meet and still have some form of control i see you as a functional addict but believe me when i say it wont be like that forever. Eventionally your habit/addiction will take over and you will stand a chance to lose everything whether you were a highly functionally addict or not. It will catch up to you..

Anyhow best of luck to OP

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

I have to agree to a point here. If you are educated and hold a good paying job and are able to hold the job while using uppers/downers and still reach ends meet and still have some form of control i see you as a functional addict but believe me when i say it wont be like that forever. Eventionally your habit/addiction will take over and you will stand a chance to lose everything whether you were a highly functionally addict or not. It will catch up to you..

Anyhow best of luck to OP

Tolerance is the enemy of addiction lol.

 

[speedballs_over]

The other day I stupidly took too much of my cup of tea and was nodding out on the verge of not being able to keep my eyes open at a... funeral. Incredibly shameless lol.

Please don't be too hard on yourself. A very, very close friend - my brother of sorts as I don't have one - died very unexpectedly of a fentanyl overdose thirteen days prior to his planned wedding.

He was extremely popular, the kid who wasn't "cool" at school or college but was very down with the jam band touring crews, always had the best L. That was his crowd. Our crowd.

There must have been about 12 - 14 of us at his funeral, all from out of state and all who knew each other from touring with bands, but we were all genuine friends drugs present or not. We love each other like family. We really do (did) - it's all fallen apart since his death.

We were fucked beyond reason at his funeral, his fiancee ensured there was more than enough coke at the wake and a few friends and I polished off a handle of Jack Daniels we started early that AM in the parking lot of the viewing home (funeral home). Nobody else was much better off.

We were shitfaced and it was a disgrace, but one thing that we all felt - our buddy would have been just as fucked up if one of us had passed and we all knew if it were any of us, he'd have been there.

Don't beat yourself up over it please, many (most) people at these things are fucked up emotionally and some are on drugs - so it really doesn't matter unless it interfered with the service or obscures your memory of it. In those case, I empathise with the pain and embarrassment you feel - I do in any regards - and all we can do is hold onto the memories, photos and such and forgve ourselves for what we cannot change - the past.

Best wishes - that sentence really stood out to me. Sorry to be off topic but I felt that this poster's statement deserved a thorough response.

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

Please don't be too hard on yourself. A very, very close friend - my brother of sorts as I don't have one - died very unexpectedly of a fentanyl overdose thirteen days prior to his planned wedding.

He was extremely popular, the kid who wasn't "cool" at school or college but was very down with the jam band touring crews, always had the best L. That was his crowd. Our crowd.

There must have been about 12 - 14 of us at his funeral, all from out of state and all who knew each other from touring with bands, but we were all genuine friends drugs present or not. We love each other like family. We really do (did) - it's all fallen apart since his death.

We were fucked beyond reason at his funeral, his fiancee ensured there was more than enough coke at the wake and a few friends and I polished off a handle of Jack Daniels we started early that AM in the parking lot of the viewing home (funeral home). Nobody else was much better off.

We were shitfaced and it was a disgrace, but one thing that we all felt - our buddy would have been just as fucked up if one of us had passed and we all knew if it were any of us, he'd have been there.

Don't beat yourself up over it please, many (most) people at these things are fucked up emotionally and some are on drugs - so it really doesn't matter unless it interfered with the service or obscures your memory of it. In those case, I empathise with the pain and embarrassment you feel - I do in any regards - and all we can do is hold onto the memories, photos and such and forgve ourselves for what we cannot change - the past.

Best wishes - that sentence really stood out to me. Sorry to be off topic but I felt that this poster's statement deserved a thorough response.

Nah I'm okay honestly--thanks though. I'm sorry to hear about your "brother" those things do happen. Sometimes I just have really poor judgement when it come to my use and the amount of times I've had to function at a place and time where I my skills were highly needed makes me realize how my lifestyle just isn't feasible. I've gotten away with it more than I'd care to state, but this is my problem with the whole idealogy of being a "functional addict." It only takes one time out of the millions to blow your entire cover and potentially ruin your future. I want to stop before that can even occur. I don't have a typical career--people talk and reputation is more vital within the industry I'm in. I recently blew something important because of excessive stim use. Luckily I get to redo it without consequences but it's just situations like that that make you realize you have to wake up and change.

It's been a hard few years because of the inability to quit thus far and having to hide my struggle from friends/family/professional contacts. The people close to me who I have opened up to for the most part just casted judgement upon me and were very unsupportive. It's taken a lot out of me as I'd imagine it would for anyone. Watched the show Nurse Jackie recently and it just hit a little too hard lol. Thank you for the kind words though. Being a functional addict just isn't worth it no matter how much pleasure or benefit the substance of choice gives you. It honestly sucks being controlled by a force much stronger than you. Even if you're a professional and don't face any external consequences the internal ones can really mess you up.

 

[emkee_reinvented]

I'm curious as what you guys think. What are the main difference between the two? IS there a difference? Just want to hear thoughts and opinions.

Isn't it the same as comparing high fuctional vs low functioning individual's. And then add in a handicap, like drug addiction. Just an observation.

in the end it's all about balance between a lot of factor's.

 

[F.U.B.A.R.]

Probably not as much of a difference as you might think. High functioning addicts are basically like jugglers on a tightrope. One small mistake can have them plummeting down to earth with their balls falling down around their ears. It takes a hell of a lot of effort to keep up that momentum.

 

[speedballs_over]

"Being a functional addict just isn't worth it no matter how much pleasure or benefit the substance of choice gives you. It honestly sucks being controlled by a force much stronger than you. Even if you're a professional and don't face any external consequences the internal ones can really mess you up."

That is so true. I wish you the best in keeping your cover / breaking free of the issue so you don't have to hide anything.

I hate the judgemental nature of societies towards drugs, imo it started in the US with puritanical and prohibitionist movements 1600s - 1930s and through to today in many segments of society.

It's very hard on us. Opening up to people that are judgemental is a serious hurt. It cuts to the bone, you expose something as sensitive and personal as that with the implication that help or at least support would be appreciated only to have them miss the entire point - your well being! Meanwhile they worry about being associated with a drug addict. I'd rather associate with "drug addicts" honestly seeking help than judgemental assholes like that.

 

[Phoenix_rising]

Most of us dance on the line of the two pretty much permanently in my experience.
Swinging from keeping it together to losing our shit intermittently.

Of course there are those who have lost it entirely and are a slave to their drug but there’s just as many of us hanging on to ‘normalcy’ for dear life.

The biggest difference to me between the two is, do you spend MOST of your day trying to figure out where to get your next high or are you in a position that means you can still live the rest of life along with the square bears?

I totally agree,this description fits my experience exactly. I am a pretty high functioning addict half the time,the other half I'm pretty debilitated and struggle. When I was younger it was easier to mask the fact that I was bang into the drugs. I was always careful and nobody suspected,but as the drugs took their toll I started to not give a fuck,especially when family tragedy struck.

Now I know I cannot carry on after all of these years abusing drugs. It is a cliche but true "if you abuse drugs in the end they'll abuse you." You cannot function forever pumping your system full of drugs. It changes you physically,mentally and spiritually. Moderation and self control are essential if you wish to take drugs,some drugs are definitely easier to maintain and control.
All of this also depends on personality. As for intelligence I'm not so sure that it's beneficial in being high functioning when abusing drugs. I think you're more likely to lose your mind. This is just my opinion.

 

[GetMeOutOfThisCRAP]

Stimulant abuse definitely makes you crazy. Not to mention most people on meth stay awake for days and the depression from the crashes alone can make you paranoid. I like stims but I don't do them regularly at all and there's no real withdrawal so you don't have to perpetually redose or held hostage by them. It would be the hardest to be functional on stims in my opinion if you were a daily user. You can really go bonkers. Also the weight loss thing and lack of apetite makes people wonder if you're okay if you've lost 50 pounds in a week lol.

I can't see benzo addiction making you lose your mind--you'd just be like a sloppy drunk and probably dysfunctional and missing work, etc. They really mess with your sense of time though. It's like, "this is the first real day this week." Haha, hard to describe. Plus the withdrawals can literally be lethal and that's terrifying.

Opiates I think one can keep it pretty down low for a loooong time unless it's heroin. Out of all the addictions, I think opiates are the best case scenario for long term addiction since as long as you don't overdose your body and brain will be pretty in tact (relatively). But the urge to score more dope would just start being very time consuming and most ppl encounter legal issues somewhere along the line. People lose themselves in oxy but the withdrawal from even high dose opioids isn't as debilitating as heroin or organic opiates so it's somewhat managable. The problem is most people can't keep it at only oxy and move onto stronger opiates once their oxy use becomes unfeelable. I recommend never graduating to heroin if you're an oxy user.

I've seen someone ruin their entire life with weed so it's all based on the individual probably. They're all bad though, and once you bring daily use into your life it's too hard to go back to "moderation." I don't know anyone that's done opiates once in a blue moon after going into the regular habit. Seems too difficult. If they touch them again it's all back to square one most of the time. The cravings are a bitch. Plus out of all the substances, for most addicts it seems like opiates are impossible to quit. No one repeatedly falls on their ass over and over like they do when trying to quit opiates imo.

 

[svacheme3]

I have no idea what the dude above me is talking about.


But anyway, there's definitely a big difference, and the biggest factor in being one or the other is, with stimulants, ability to not go so crazy with them you're up for days on end when you have shit to do or need to appear straight for work/school, and with opiates... it's all about access; if you never need to worry about running out, you can stay high functioning as long as that's true.