personality determined by drugs

i have recently been thinking about the long term effects that drug taking has been having on both my physcial and mental wellbeing and development. here are some thoughts on what i have noticed about myself through various drug taking stages of my life.
when i was young i smoked a fair bit of hash and i found that i gradually became more and more lethargic and disinterested in my school and work. basically i couldn't be bothered to do anything. that is why is stopped.
then i moved on to drinking rather large quantities of alcohol and at the same time found i was becoming a somewhat aggressive, short tempered biggot. i was not such a nice person to be around. i am talking in general, not just when under the influence of alcohol.
then i discovered ecstacy and i feel that my personality became a lot less aggressive and more understanding and empathetic in my views of the world and of other indivduals. i learnt to love and understand not only myself, but others as well.
G was next on the list. all i can say is that i felt i became a little bit silly when i was in my G stage.
now i am finding my main drug of use is probably K. i am starting to notice that i have become a bit withdrawn from society and indifferent to the plight of others. the ups and downs of life just seem matter of fact. i feel like an observer of life, not like a participant.
in summary, i think that my general personality is mirroring the short term mood altering effects of the drugs i am consuming.
i think it is stating the obvious to say that drugs have a mood altering ability on us whilst they are actually running around our systems, but what are others opinions on drugs altering your general personality, long after the drugs have been flushed from our systems when we believe our minds and bodies to be 'clean'.
my initial thoughts are that whilst under the influence of drugs or other mood altering means like meditation or tutoring, that our minds are being 'trained' to act in this new way, and that with enough training it slowly becomes habit to act in the way that we have been 'training' our minds.
have others found that there drug usage not only determines their personality whilst under the direct influence of that drug BUT that their general personality tends to shift towards the mood altering effects that these drugs?

Your right Pink. It changed me, but I think in a very good way. I use to be pretty shy, but now it has given me the confidence to do what ever I want (I talking about when I am off the drug aswell). I am saying that I think the drugs have kidna damaged me in some way, but becuase I didn't like being like that, this has kinda been like a medication for me. I would say xtc could be used as a medication for insecure people, if used in the right way. I personally prefer to stay away from other drugs other than xtc (maybe a bit of G every now and then), so I couldn't tell you how other drugs change my moods.
[This message has been edited by MOTOMAN (edited 08 November 2001).]

The thing is that while you're on a substance it connects your thoughts in different ways. Certain psychedelics connect via neural pathways which are more latterally connected. And therefore your mind is used to connecting ideas and concepts and reactions via one kind of way, then it is being taught by the chemical you are ingesting to make connections another way.
I guess the way your mind is taught reflects those chemicals.
However I ain't no psychologist so. . . .
I think perhaps in each of the cases it sounds as if you've overdone it. I've found with lsd and mdma I've become alot more open to knew ideas and more empathetic. This begins to wear off after time without use. However I've found its not just a case of retraining the mind, it also opens the mind up, which means even after extended periods of time without drug use, your mind is still open. And so you should try to maintain the good aspects of any drug you've taken. After all the drugs do not posses the good qualities, they bring them out in you. Just like the bad ones.
good luck

I owe my motivation and life direction to LSD. It was on acid that I discovered who I am and where I want to go.
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Everyone knows cool hit it's peak in 1974.

I believe the opposite. MDMA breeds anxiety, depression and panic dissorders, with many of them coming to light only after you've stopped popping pills for a long break - say 4-6mths. This has definetely been the case with me, and after reading a lot of the threads in Medical Q&A, I'm not alone. I'm currently taking an SSRI to help deal with it, like many others. MDMA will make you unhappier and less empathetic overall over the long term, simple. When you apply stress to any system over a period of time what happens? it deteriorates in quality of function, OR some of the proverbial cogs start falling off rendering the system less efficient.
I'm of the opinion most recreational drugs have 0 overall longterm effects which aren't useless or detrimental.
NiQueLorD

NiQueLorD, have you ever had lsd?

it deteriorates in quality of function, OR some of the proverbial cogs start falling off rendering the system less efficient.

Click to expand...

My belief(that is MY belief) formed from my participation in said events, has been that a form of conditoning has happened. My conclusion thus far, has been that it is my Fight or Flight mechanism protecting my body.
I've had it explained numerous times from smarter/intuitive people that the fight or flight mechanism forms a lot of the difference between eastern and western habits.
I'm not going to explain in detail the theory of fight/flight here cos that is not the question (respect to Pink).
Basically just like martial arts train the body to react instinctively, the shock to your system from a drug trains your body to take control.
I'm goin to come back and explain this better..cos the cogs aren't clicking right just now

Yeah. Innexperienced with it...but I don't need to try every lollie in the shop to figure sugars shit for my teeth.
As far as acid goes, it did nothing positive for me, but maybe I can't expect that without more experience with it. Tell me about the positive effects you think it may have?
I would like to hear your experiences, if you haven't already told of them, in which case ill read it after I post (can't be bothered clicking back).
What I can gather from my experiences is that LSD effects are nothing tangeable, period.
NiQueLorD

I know some cokeheads are complete tools.

Maybe that's why people call me the hammer.
BILL
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Q: What about your nitrous stage?
A: I was the creme-de-la-creme.

Remember guys, everyone is different...

very true...
Then again...the dxm and paraxetine could be clouding my judegement, which it is. so is the weed though, and the temazies to settle petals are twirling in the spiral also.
"err?", I hear you say. "i don't know" I reply.
I disclaim any trippy events
NiQueLorD

another thought on the issue is that the drugs didn't alter my personality themselves, but rather allowed me to alter my own personality. they gave me a key to unlock thoughts, emotions, feelings and ways of thinking that were inside me, but that i had been keeping suppressed or simply didn't know i possessed.
before taking ecstacy, a part of me had always wanted to be caring, loving and empathetic, but i found this hard to externalise because i was living up to a stereotype or perceived image of myself of being a cold, hard, tough young male. whilst using ecstacy i was able to experiment using these unlocked emotions and feelings with new people and through 'practice' whilst on ecstacy i was able to slowly awaken the caring, loving and empathetic me. it is still hard to deal with people who expect me to be my 'old' hard self, but gradually the tide is turning and i feel so much happier for allowing these feeling and thoughts to grow within me.
i am altering my drug taking habits to allow me to further expand, explore and improve myself, rather than just get 'fucked up'. so a lot less K is on the cards and bit more thought will be used in the future.

I partied waaaay too hard for waaaaay too long and got really ridiculous with biccies, speed and meth *looks down and away*
Now, I am not afraid to say, it has fucked my head soooo much! I've been clean for 3 months now, and I still have massive self-esteem problems, depression, bad anxiety and not to mention recurring bouts of pretty shite-feeling paranoia. While my amongst friends I still seem very outgoing to them, I know it is a mask for the way I feel inside. I can't even look someone I don't know in the eye and have a conversation, I always look down and away, diverting my attention. . .
Yeah, so there's my story. . .It's not getting any better and I haven't been to see a psych YET because I'm scared of what I might find out I've done to myself.
I had a ball doing it though, and I wouldn't change a thing! Is that twisted?
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I munt, alot! Up The Munt! Go Fridge!

in regards to NiQu3LorD's comments i feel that the weekly escape or fornightly what ever it maybe helps the individual to cope with the plain shittyness of everyones perfetic life. When you have had a break from it for some time, you become depressed not for the reasons the doctors say your depressed, but subconciously, your feeling the depression and anxiety of everyone around you that hasnt had the benifit of this alternate culture, of people willing to smile as they walk down the street and help the person look for the key they dropped while laughing at the doves playing in the park.
Keep happy people, dont let other peoples lifes stress Ya ! ! !

Yep, keep poppin mate...head over to medical Q & A and The darkside sometime.
but the reality is that the happiness, pleasure and euphoria is replaced by aniouxness, depression and paranoia, bit by bit in everyday life - not the reverse; for everyone, just in varying degrees and in the time for it to onset.
the occasional pill isn't going to do much harm if you take half decent precautions, but weekly, fortnightly, monthly pill nights will wear you down eventually, an you may not even notice for quite a while until you finally realise your operating at a mental level which is lower than what you did before e, and you'll put two and two together..then you'lll say it can't be... but yes, yes it was the E; the "relatively harmless drug".
RaVedust, really interesting idea, the ide of conditioning, looking frward to that explanation if you get ur cogs oiled!
Don't agree with it as far as rec drugs go but it's interesting man!
NiQu3LorD