Functional Addicts...Are you one? Have you met one?

This thread has been inspired by the 'Which druggie group is most hated on'

A lot of people in that thread mentioned alcoholics. I've met a lot of fuctional alcoholics. One guy in particular is a world reknowned architect who will drink a pint of Beefeaters during his dinner. This guy is a power drinker and at 86 years old, I'm pretty sure that if he quit drinking, he'd die.

The cocaine-fueled stock-broker is a good example of a functioning addict. And if you cop smack in the hood, and hang around for a bit, you'll see Lexuses drive up to spot. I'm not talking about young kids who are barrowing daddy's car. A lot of these people are in their 30's and work hard for their fix. Dealers will tell you that they sell to doctors, lawyers, etc.

Being from NJ, I don't have too much exposure to the Crystal Culture. But those of you who see it in your own backyard... well... Do you have any examples of people hooked on speed who are professionals, as well as functioning addicts... musicians/actors don't count.

Drug dealers and traffickers. Kidding.

I don't see why lawyers, doctors, or any workers of stressful, tiresome careers wouldn't do uppers to help with their work. I've heard about many housewives and soccer moms taking up crystal because they feel they have so many tasks to do with not enough time in the day to finish them.

I know that crystal, when it first came out, was very popular in the gay culture. I know a lot of college students that take it; does that snwer your question?

I think he means like addicts who you dont expect to be addicts like lawyers and such.

I dont think you would know if a professional functioning addict was one. Alot of tweakers try to be super secretive of their usage from non tweakers....i would only imagine a professional that can keep his shit together and function well on this shit, would be 10 times more secretive about it... I personally dont think you can function very long on crystal without running into some bigger problems.

Kandy K said:

Drug dealers and traffickers. Kidding.

I don't see why lawyers, doctors, or any workers of stressful, tiresome careers wouldn't do uppers to help with their work. I've heard about many housewives and soccer moms taking up crystal because they feel they have so many tasks to do with not enough time in the day to finish them.

I know that crystal, when it first came out, was very popular in the gay culture. I know a lot of college students that take it; does that snwer your question?

Click to expand...

Actually it does.. but don't close this thread just yet... Perhaps someone can give an example of a professional who's a functional tweaker. I'm sure there's some out there.

Please exclude truckdrivers and strippers.

since speed is a long acting stimulant, I don't see why a person can't function on it.

I know there are people who can't function WITHOUT it, but with it...yeah it's easy to function with.

Do you have any examples of people hooked on speed who are professionals

Click to expand...

Hitler! Jk...

i really hate to generalize and stereotype with this post, but i would be apt to believe there are not a lot of long (by long i mean years upon years upon years) term crystal users as age increases. I wouldnt be surprised if there were some programmer that dabbled with it on occasion to grind down on some huge project, some lab analyst in some field someplace that got a gram every now and then to get through some rediculously heafty data, maybe some kind of lawyer that has a mountain of work to do on a case without a mountain of time to go with it. But in general i could see how people could hide/balance the side effects of heroin or cocaine (to a degree, alcohol) a lot better than meth. Mainly because of what meth does to your body if used over time. Not only that, but think of another stereotype for tweekers (and by tweekers im talking frequent use for extended periods of time and no sign of stopping in the long term) is being totally psychotic - trust me stay up on any drug for 4-5 days and you will believe anything, even if there is no they to come after you! Yeah i know its a corny stereotype but u gotta agree that it definetly gets you spun out of mind a lot faster than coke and your mind can get pretty crazy pretty fast - even if you could function professionally, people would notice. Physical side effects could often be extremely difficult to hide as well - skin, eyes, hair, fatigue (except you wont even notice yourself cuz of the chemical enduced euphoria, positive outlook, and energy), body weight, etc. Plus it does a hell of a lot more damage to your body over time than dope (i mean provided you arent a gutter junkie, ive known pleanty of people that were heroin addicts that were in extremely good physical shape and health). Then again speed was never my scene (not that dope was) so i never knew any crank addicts personally, crankheads usually scare me.

I mean coke is a 20 minute high really, i mean yeah you could say an hour but the best part is the first 20 minutes. Meth is like a mandatory half day high, but thats assuming you dont take anymore thoughout the day/night. Its a lot easier to get burned out on coke an dnot really wanna do anymore and just wanna sleep. Its a lot easier to just take a few more bumps of meth and be set for a while longer, i mean ive never used it for real long term but i certainly have binged it and know people who have pretty frequently, so from my observation you can pretty much keep going on meth till you pass out from exhaustion or get so spun you get psychosis.

So yeah in theory a bump of meth or two def may help around the job but i highly doubt anyone is a full time tweeker in practice.

using once in a while? in sure a vast percentage of upper-mid to upper class job occupants use drugs, but being a functional meth addict is another thing.

and im not trying to demonize meth just saying its a bit more realistic to see people in professional positions hooked on heroin or maybe (depends on job) cocaine.

^Excellently written. And an interesting question..

I haven't seen any meth addicts who are functioning professionals. I reckon they would be easily spotted. It just wouldn't sit right - professionals have to work closely with perceptive and articulate people - they have to be natural and stable to make good decisions, remember details and get on with people.

I must admit that I attended a meeting after eating some meth once. It was fine, but I was over-hyper and a bit manic and scattered so it wasn't ideal really.

So, as The Wood said, not knocking the drug - it is awesome in its own way and for the right purposes - but I just couldn't imagine how anyone could weather the stress of a full time professional job as well as full time meth use.

I can see meth becoming a problem in jobs where performance is of prime importance. Examples are jobs that include giving speeches, communicating with a wide audience, playing an instrument, etc. But if your job is more "behind the scenes" like writing, website design, or whatever then meth can be used effectively.

I've only done meth twice, but I have to say that I felt much more impaired on it than with other amphetamines such as dextroamphetamine. It actually made me "high" in a sense, and I couldn't act normal no matter how hard I tried. Therefore I don't think it would be easy for a professional person to keep it a secret very well. Not to mention that they'd be talking at one thousand words per minute.

crack smoking fiends from never-ending bank accounts are semi functional, depends on what day it is

I know a mom of two who works as a baker/cake decorator at a grocery store. Every time I see her (and I'm talking months apart) she seems a little more robotic, a little more fucked up. I suppose she is successful but if you had ever seen one person who has regularly used speed and carries the shifty after-effects, you would know what she's up to.

Hmmm.. I was successful for about two months on meth, of course at the end there was a week where I believed my teeth were sliding around in my mouth, but I kept it to myself and got very very good at my job (cooking). I used everyday and still forced myself to sleep/eat as best I could... I don't think anyone ever had a clue except maybe my dad who once looked deep into my paranoid, sunken eyes and maybe saw something remniscent of his old "popping whites" days.

Is this real success? Or is it surviving... I'd say I felt successful at certain things, less successful at living a positive life. Too much stress after so long, I probably would have started to turn on people. Two months isn't very long anyway.

Lastly, I used to work in a kitchen full of tweakers when I was 15. They were successful as far as they were just doing good in their position, riding the highs and lows. They were more obvious (missing teeth, etc) but definately functional. I'm sure a heart attack is not too far down the line, tho. (they were all in their 40's, and 50's)

Kandy K said:

I can see meth becoming a problem in jobs where performance is of prime importance. Examples are jobs that include giving speeches, communicating with a wide audience, playing an instrument, etc. But if your job is more "behind the scenes" like writing, website design, or whatever then meth can be used effectively.

Click to expand...

yeah i agree. Sure, crystal could help someone with a professional career A LOT. But how long do you think they can keep this up without routinely running into problems? In the long run meth tends to fuck you over.

Now to self contradict myself. I'm sure there are some people that are able to keep the perfect balance of things. They are obviously really smart, and know exactly what the fuck they are doing. I dont think they would be every day users though.....although this is probably possible, but extremely hard to pull of and keep everything intact: your sanity, your social, professional, and family life, your health, i dont know what else.

One would have to be able to pull off a full nights rest just like anyone else, they would have to be eating probably a little extra and drinking extra, because of the sped up metabolism, and maybe have to take benzos to stabilize their mood and keep them calm and resolved.

The last element is that the person would have to have a body chemistry that naturally really likes meth moreso than others.

uhmmmmmmmmmm yea im really stoned. hehehehhehehehheheheh.......

So would you call yourself a functional addict Kandy K?

I've never personally met someone who did meth everyday and could be *functional*
"shrugs" not saying it could not happen though.....who knows

Twip said:

So would you call yourself a functional addict Kandy K?

Click to expand...

Yes, except those times I crash for 40+ hours and shit and end up waking up like 2 days later, missing class and what not.

hah i was just imagining, a professional corporate meeting:

"ok mr dobson, do you have your financial growth reports ready? wed liek to see the slides presented now..."

"Holy shit man there is a chicken with a tiger's head flying outside the window! I have to catch that shit for paparazzi!"

in sure a vast percentage of upper-mid to upper class job occupants use drugs, but being a functional meth addict is another thing.

Click to expand...

A vast percentage? One thing I've noticed is that drug users always think that EVERYONE else is using. I assure you that the number of people in those jobs is nowhere near a vast majority.

My friend is a IT consultant and a highly function coke head.