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

Yes absolutely, when I was 13 I smoked weed non stop everyday right through till the age I am(18), and only quit a few months ago. I am the slowest motherfucker you'll ever meet, not dumb, I am pretty smart I think ;) But I'm slow to catch on and slow to understand people and to understand instructions. It is quite shit tbh :/
 
I really don't know how stupid I am now, but I swear to shit I took the WISC IQ test a few months before I started drugs, and a few months more before I used them every day. I scored in the top 2% for perceptual reasoning and top 0.5% for working memory, for my age.

Now I am 17 years old, coming up on three years later, and drugs have without a doubt made me way dumber. Alcohol made me dumb. Pot made me really dumb. Benzos made me pretty dumb, as did speed. Benadryl and even cigarettes made me dumber. Some of the drugs did it pretty obviously while others took a long time to really cause much damage. It gives me anxiety every day, but now I'm just thinking 'eh, life' I may have been born a bright guy, but I could end up as a retard. At least I've had the priviledge of living.

Also my interests switched from how the universe worked to how it looked, and mathematics to things like videogames and porn. As time goes on, more and more of my favourites are related to porn or useless shit as opposed to intellectual stuff I used to enjoy.
 
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Hell No!

I think I live harder than I did before, meaning I work a lot I don't sleep enough or always eat right and I do more drugs than I should. However I'm still nowhere near as bad off as I used to be, seeing a psychiatrist has done a lot to help me understand my own behavior patterns and it's easier to moderate my drug use now as a result of being on the right doses of the right meds.

But the main thing is I continue to challenge myself, learn new things and seek out new experiences. I feel as though my intelligence has blossomed in a sense, I'm much more aware of just how intelligent I am and how much power I have. Of course then it's a question of how are you going to use your awareness of your own intelligence.

I view my experiences with drugs as Experiences, I've always had an insatiable appetite for learning new things and it's actually hard for me to just sit and do nothing most of the time. Even as a teenager growing up smoking weed hourly for years, I always had a guitar in my hand and I was always learning a new song or scale or chord progression or style of music.

I think the mind is a muscle and it has to be exercised if you want it to work well, my work requires me to use my mind in new ways everyday so I don't feel dumber. I feel smarter, but if all someone does is get high and do nothing then yeah I could see how that would make them think they were getting dumber, but in reality they're just not pushing themselves. You have to challenge yourself regularly to grow.

Anyway, my two cents on the subject.
 
i am SO much dumber then i was and its all because of FUCKING ecstasy and amphetamines. Seriously they are the worst by farrrr.
 
I have chugged hundreds of bottles of robitussin, popped boytaur handfuls of rogogels, drank countless gallons of wine and spirits, eaten enough benzos to take down a Persian war elephant battalion, smoked weed until my lungs bled and still kept smoking, inhaled volatile chemicals in depths of depression to self-mutilate, and encountered two concussions. I am far more focused now than I ever was. Do not mistake age, and the ego-fuck that comes with realizing that your mom is wrong--you are not the smartest person in the world--for permanent loss of some frontal brain function. In fact, sometimes you will be proven wrong by people that you would laugh at.

Your brain is resilient. Read this article, and learn patience. You will recover from your HPPD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity
 
Apostacious said:
I have chugged hundreds of bottles of robitussin, popped boytaur handfuls of rogogels, drank countless gallons of wine and spirits, eaten enough benzos to take down a Persian war elephant battalion, smoked weed until my lungs bled and still kept smoking, inhaled volatile chemicals in depths of depression to self-mutilate, and encountered two concussions. I am far more focused now than I ever was. Do not mistake age, and the ego-fuck that comes with realizing that your mom is wrong--you are not the smartest person in the world--for permanent loss of some frontal brain function. In fact, sometimes you will be proven wrong by people that you would laugh at.

Your brain is resilient. Read this article, and learn patience. You will recover from your HPPD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroplasticity
Click to expand...

i'm familiar with neuroplasticity but that doesn't change a noticable decline in intellect that is seen in many long term users including myself
 
Cannabis and ecstacy definitly dumbed me down towards the end of my school years, ever that or took away the will to concentrate and do anything productive!
 
villian-

Keep in mind, age plays a factor in liquid intelligence, or the ability to mechanically process many small bits of information quickly. I used to think that I was damaged goods. However, after two years of zero consumption of inebriates, I forced myself to read faster, absorb more information by trying to make connections between the information and what I already know, and kept trying to challenge myself to the point of complete frustration. Then, I gathered all of my current writings with what I wrote before I touched any drugs, and I found out that I markedly improved.

In short, what I am saying is that you try to not attach too much significance to a perceived decline in brain function. I know that you are still a very smart person, and have been through what you are going through (used drugs heavily from 1999-2007). Just try to ignore this temporary cognitive fog.
 
I should add that when I avoided all inebriates for two years, I avoided psychiatric medication as well (SSRIs, benzos, mood stabilizers). This may be bad advice for some people, because it could lead them down a self-destructive spiral. However, if someone doesn't care either way, or is absolutely ready and has a counselor to work with oneself, then stopping all non-vital psychiatric medication as well for two years should help clear up one's mind.
 
Hmmm...good question, and one I've thought about occasionally over the years.

While I'm not a hardcore addict, I've used drugs on a steady basis since age 16, which is 10 years. I definitely feel more cloudy when on drugs like opiate/pot/mephedrone, but the deficits in memory and other functions tend to return to baseline when I do. In most cases, there's no way to tell exactly what role drugs have had in a person's cognitive decline, as getting "slower" is a normal part of aging. Brain size begins to decrease in your 30s, and I'm sure other things like free radical damage from everyday exposures could contribute to cognitive problems too.

To answer your question, I don't know whether drugs have made me stupider. More stupid. Whatever :)
 
I used to think about everything so much when I was younger so I was hoping drug use would make me ignorantly bliss, and ya know what I think it actually worked.
 
Altered Perception said:
I used to think about everything so much when I was younger so I was hoping drug use would make me ignorantly bliss, and ya know what I think it actually worked.
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With a lot of suffering in between, right?
I am coming out of a months-long haze and I'm actually kind of happy about it,
even though going into a stupor is cool and all when you're stressed out.
 
Not in any shape or form have I gotten dumber!
I wish I have, because I do believe that ignorance is bliss in a sense.
I feel like everyone around me is on a lower level intellectually, and it is a pretty lonely feeling - cant relate with anyone. Sucks to always be the one going on and on without someone giving their input as "food for thought".
I have obtained my BS and will pursue my MS and then my PhD, in the mean time I'm getting my minimum 5 year (this year) work experience in my Scientist position for the gov.
Started smoking dope at age 13 havent stopped since (good thing my job doesn't test) been taking booze & psyches since then as well. Had my share of experiences with stimulants and inhalants when I was younger -all of which sucked.
I dont think it is good for anyone to know their IQ, for many reasons.
 
Yes, because they have taken away time that I would otherwise have used to educate myself.
 
I actually wrestle with this question all the time. I've been smoking pot daily for 7-8 years and have (ab)used other drugs including alcohol, but graduated with a 3.5 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) with both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts --- stoned off my ass the entire time. I often wonder what my potential would have been if I didn't smoke pot or managed to keep partying to just weekends like a lot of my friends I met during my MA program did. I wouldn't say it's made me dumber in terms of my mental capacity, but perhaps lessened my drive to absorb information.
 
I'd have to say that pot definitely makes me dopy, and not as fast at reacting to mental challenges, I don't feel that any of the tripping drugs (acid, mdma, mushrooms, dmt) have had a detrimental effect on IQ, I pretty much blame the pot.

I'm not a drinker but I also see in friends that are heavy boozers that alcohol seems to be by far the worst for making people thick.
 
purple_cloud said:
I actually wrestle with this question all the time. I've been smoking pot daily for 7-8 years and have (ab)used other drugs including alcohol, but graduated with a 3.5 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) with both a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts --- stoned off my ass the entire time. I often wonder what my potential would have been if I didn't smoke pot or managed to keep partying to just weekends like a lot of my friends I met during my MA program did. I wouldn't say it's made me dumber in terms of my mental capacity, but perhaps lessened my drive to absorb information.
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I always thought an arts degree was the university equivalent of a GED :)

They actually awarded a chimp an arts degree some years ago, cant remember the details but i'll try and hunt down a link for you.

No offence intended bro :)
 
IIRC, the formula for calculating IQ is dependent upon your age, with IQ and age intended to be inversely related. So if you notice your IQ dropping as you get older compared to what it was when you were a child or in your teens, that's actually to be expected.
 
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.

In school I was always put in the gifted classes and it really pissed me off because I had to spend even more time doing work I had no desire to do, I eventually took my GED and went to college but only took the classes I was interested in. Now that I'm not in school I do what I want and life is a thousand times more interesting.

Our brains are very flexible and I don't believe that drugs are really the culprit in most cases, I just think they're an excuse for alot of people, it's hard to change and make progress and it's easy to blame drugs for your shortcomings. I still use drugs but I don't use them as an excuse and I don't use them in the self destructive way I used to.

Anyway, I'm rambling, I should be sleeping.
 
Apostacious's posts are dead-on.

Working with information is a kind of skill. Don't use that skill much for a while, and you may feel a bit clumsy next time you sit down to work.

But with a little practice, that skill will return. Old connections are found, and refreshed, and new ones are grown.

Now, there's no question that present drug-use (not all of them, but most of the ones mentioned in this thread) can reduce cognitive skills. However there's also little question that stopping the drug-use, and working/playing again, will refresh and enhance cognitive skills.

Also, for those of you running self-diagnostics out of anxiety, keep in mind that such anxiety can be distracting, and will lower your score.
 
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