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  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

Do you consider drugs a form of self mutilation?

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Bluelighter
Joined
Dec 9, 2010
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166
That goes from pot to oyx to alcohol to nutmeg.

Everyone comes here to ask questions concerning this-and-that type of drug, but is it really good for you? Do you believe you're really harming yourself in the end? I'm not looking for a "why" -I don't know that myself- I just want to know what you think at the end of the day when you use.
 
Yes I think drugs are a form of self mutilation, as is over exercising and over eating, imo. Like 30 minutes ago I was gonna cut but instead I did 105 mg of dexedrine which isn't good for my heart. I already get palpitations on a regular basis.

Speaking of self-mutilation I found the Karl Marx quote "the only antidote for mental suffering is physical pain" interesting.
 
I agree, it is a form of self mutilation. It may not harm us every time or at all, but we take the chance that it might when we do the drug.
 
Excessive and/or chronic drug use can be considered a form of self-mutilation, particularly if there are abnormal or problematic emotions involved (which there usually are).

Sometimes my drinking is a self-destructive behaviour. Sometimes it's merely feeding the addiction, i.e. keeping withdrawals at bay. But if I'm upset or depressed or angry, I'll binge drink with the purpose of getting very drunk. THAT is a form of self-mutilation.
 
I think its a great question! I don't think anything in excess is good for us. That includes work food drinking drugs exercising etc. I'm in a bit of a quandry over the word mutilation.........I tend to associate that word with cutting destroying etc. But then again I suppose the word harm is linked to the word mutilate. Everytime I smoke a cigarette I am harming my lungs therfore everytime I smoke a cigarette I am destroying my lungs............so I guess that the answer is yes I consider drug use no matter what your drug is ......used in excess is indeed a form of mutilation..
Again, great question and food for thought.
Everything in moderation including moderation....
 
I do not consider the majority of drug use to be self-mutilation, self-medication is probably a more accurate term. Maybe some drug users are self destructive and use with the intent of hurting themselves, but I would guess that this is a very small minority.

Negative emotions can be physically harmful, anxiety and anger seem to be particularly destructive. If somebody is using drugs to cope with intense emotions then I don't see why it should be considered self-mutilation.

Then there are those who are more interested in psychedelics/shamanism, who can use altered states for their own growth and to benefit others too, not to destroy themselves.

So yeah...my answer is no ;)
 
i definitely see my personal drug abuse as a form of self harm. its also why i used to smoke - kicking that habit now, along with the benzo abuse hopefully - 3 weeks and counting ..
 
Legerity said:
I do not consider the majority of drug use to be self-mutilation, self-medication is probably a more accurate term.
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It may not be intentional self-mutilation, but indirect certainly. Just because of the physical damage most drugs cause. Even pysch meds. Your poor liver has to process all that shit. Maybe if you use drugs very in small quantities and only rarely you won't get any physical damage/mutilation.

Also some people "self-medicate" their intense negative feelings by cutting, burning, excessive exercise, ect. It is just a matter of perspective. Just my opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours :)
 
Depends on the drug, the reason for taking, etc. I've definitely used for that purpose, but I've definitely used for entirely other reasons.
 
Yes, well to point

Hey peeps,
My ex-fiancee thought I did drugs to punish myself. So in her eyes she's right. I'm not good on coke, speed and benzos so she had a point. But opiates I'm fine with. We're be married now if it wasn''t for my experiment in the past
 
Tina Dopemau5 said:
It may not be intentional self-mutilation, but indirect certainly. Just because of the physical damage most drugs cause. Even pysch meds. Your poor liver has to process all that shit. Maybe if you use drugs very in small quantities and only rarely you won't get any physical damage/mutilation.

Also some people "self-medicate" their intense negative feelings by cutting, burning, excessive exercise, ect. It is just a matter of perspective. Just my opinion and you are certainly entitled to yours :)
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This is a good point, the drug use can cause physical damage whether it is intentional or not. The difference to me is that when you cut or burn yourself, the pain and physical harm are specifically what are being used as a method of coping. With drug use it is the high that is being sought, with physical side effects being an undesirable byproduct of that.
 
A bit odd to see this question, I was actually intensely pondering the same exact thought last night prior to seeing this on here today.

I believe drugs are a form of self-mutilation if they are intended to be by the user. In other words, if the user is in a state of mind in which they honestly do not care if they end up physically/mentally damaged via poor or excessive administration, then it is self-mutilation. On the contrary, I believe that a person may, in fact, get loaded with the state of mind that they absolutely just want to feel momentarily lovely. In that case, I believe drug use would not be self-mutilation.

Although 'indirect' mutilation to ones body will occur in either situation, self-mutilation is technically inflicting intentional pain on oneself without the intent of suicide. If it is indirect mutilation to the body, it isn't intentional. It just came with the territory.
 
Well, when it comes to my personal drug use, i know it is damaging me to some degree. I dont exactly know how much, i dont think it is particularly serious.. I'm also certain a million other unavoidable things also damage me lol. So its no big deal. Although all i do is smoke weed, coffee and methadone daily.

But obviously some forms of drug use are definitely self mutilation. Extremely fail injecting techniques and what not. John Frusciante(former red hot chili peppers guitarest) had to have skin graphed onto his arm to fix all the fucking absesses and whatever the fuck else he got by using dirty needles and shit injecting technique. He didn't give a fuck. Some people are just determined to die, some people dont even realise the damage they're doing.
 
8L4YN3 said:
John Frusciante(former red hot chili peppers guitarest) had to have skin graphed onto his arm to fix all the fucking absesses and whatever the fuck else he got by using dirty needles and shit injecting technique. He didn't give a fuck. Some people are just determined to die, some people dont even realise the damage they're doing.
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^This. Love the Frusciante example! Without getting too off-topic about how much I dig that man, the skin graft statement was a prime example of drug use being self-mutilation. Personally, I've been in both places with my drug use. Opiates for me were unintentional self-mutilation, meth was completely intentional—I hated it the majority of the time, unless I was on Heroin/Opiates.
 
Self-mutilation is to hurt ourself for the pain or reasons like that.
Even masochism, is not considered as self-mutilation comportment according to what is written on wikipedia. So, knowing that, we can say that a large majority of drug users are not self-mutilating. Even if they know that they are damaging their health.
I think those who will be self-mutilating are those that will take drug Because they want to have pain/bad feeling.
 
Yes certainly it can be, Ive noticed it especially with cigarettes and speed... and salvia ;) Aren't they all masochists, those salvia addicts... haha no... but yes... actually no...
 
I think about this alot... I think some are and some aren't but by the same token people can mutilate themselves with things like food so it's really all about personal responsibility with whatever it is in life... drug x, food, love, everything.
 
cthulslep said:
Self-mutilation is to hurt ourself for the pain or reasons like that.
Even masochism, is not considered as self-mutilation comportment according to what is written on wikipedia. So, knowing that, we can say that a large majority of drug users are not self-mutilating. Even if they know that they are damaging their health.
I think those who will be self-mutilating are those that will take drug Because they want to have pain/bad feeling.
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So in essence if one causes pain to oneself for pleasure or a euphoric state (not to hurt oneself), it technically is not defined as self-mutilation? Because I sometimes cut on myself just for the euphoric rush of creating the wound and seeing the blood, not to cause pain. So would this fall under the category of self-medication then? Administration of a treatment that temporarily relieves an ailment (whether that "ailment" be depression, boredom, anger, etc)?
 
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