• Welcome Guest

    Forum Guidelines Bluelight Rules
    Fun 💃 Threads Overdosed? Click
    D R U G   C U L T U R E

Gross misperceptions about individuals and stimulant use

G

Ghostlyimages

Greenlighter
Joined
Feb 17, 2020
Messages
4
I hate how every article posted about individuals who have stimulant use disorders DONT SHOWER! We have POOR HYGIENE AND NO TEETH!. OUR SKIN IS GREY AND COVERED WITH LESIONS AND ACNE. THAT'S NOT TRUE. WE ARE NOT MONSTERS.
Yes I've been really underweight homeless crazy all of the above. But my state of mental health when I first started using was not good. There are so many factors. I have struggled for years and yes I picked up again but by the good grace of someone I maintain my job and house. Pay my Bill's. I eat and bath and pay taxes. I function. I struggle I wish I could stop and someday I will but right now when I try I get way to sick. And I cant function without it. With that said. I act normal accept when I run out. Noone thinks I look my age. I have no acne. My skin is not gray and I eat like a horse.
 
These stories are based mainly on stereotypes of poor mid-western American methheads. Taxpayer funded Australian methheads frolic daily in the sun and surf which keeps them smelling naturally like summer and sunshine and gives them unblemished skin and a friendly disposition except when they are robbing you to pay 5X what meth costs Americans.
 
even when I was homeless years ago I still bathed and made sure my I provided my family with what they needed to care for my kid. I never used when I was pregnant
never beat my kids. Never trafficked them. I just wish the stigma would go away. Faces if meth make us look really bad and ya when I was younger I did dtupidnstuff. But my fiancee just commitednsuicide I was so messed up that's when I started using. I got alot of treatment. But still cant time the dragon. I'm better mentally now. I went thru hell when my daughter died 5years ago. Went thru more treatment. Picked up again. However like I said I pay my taxes I dont look like death warmed over becouse even though I am using at the same time I am mentally dealing with the stuff that made me stop eating and functioning. I dont k ow if that makes sense. But I look decent for my age and I work my but off.
 
Atelier3 said:
These stories are based mainly on stereotypes of poor mid-western American methheads. Taxpayer funded Australian methheads frolic daily in the sun and surf which keeps them smelling naturally like summer and sunshine and gives them unblemished skin and a friendly disposition except when they are robbing you to pay 5X what meth costs Americans.
Click to expand...

Also culture with in the US, I have not seen homeless people or junkies shooting up in Los Angeles, Portland or Seattle or any where in Seattle suburbs wearing house slippers and pajama pants in public.

This is probably a Midwest culture thing and lot of the non homeless people and non junkies are wearing house slippers and pajama pants in public. And having nothing do with homeless or junkies but city culture thing among people .

People in Jacksonville Florida dress way more casual than people in Tampa.

The US has lot of cities and the Americans the way they dress or look has lot to do with the city culture and nothing to do with homeless or junkies.
 
FTR, never really did Meth but am relatively knowledgeable on problems the drug can cause. One of them is the same as with chronic pain use of opiates/opioids. And that would be "dry mouth" due to the fact that opioids dehydrate the entire body from head to toe. I'm not too sure if that's the same cause of "meth mouth". My guess is that it's more a function of poor hygiene.

However, I did not appreciate a dentist reaming me out for what she thought was illegal drug use. I was pissed! I freaking take medication prescribed to me for a fucked up body! Where the hell did that dentist come off with that shit? Needless to say I never returned and actually walked out on her!
 
I grew up, and still live in, the rural American west. So needless to say, I know about meth and "meth culture" (at least in the American context), as far as that term can be defined, and unfortunately the negative stereotypes about hard stimulant users are very much based in fact lol. You can literally pick these people out on the street as you drive by: white, bad skin, sports jersey or ratty hooded sweatshirt, ball cap, backpack, just tweakin' for the weekend etc. ;)

It goes without saying that I don't agree with people being dehumanized/persecuted, and hell I don't even think it's "wrong" to be a methamp user, I argue for the legalization of all drugs and an end to prohibition, but...the stereotype of the stim-addled degenerate who's constantly running his game, constantly trying to get one over on someone else, that's quite real I'm afraid.

On the positive side, one thing I will say for stim abusers is that, IME, they're often quite entertaining storytellers, their sense of humor is often hilarious and they generally seem to spend less time crying about the poor choices they made in the past compared to other drug addicts, like opiate abusers
 
camaroBDJ said:
Also culture with in the US, I have not seen homeless people or junkies shooting up in Los Angeles, Portland or Seattle or any where in Seattle suburbs wearing house slippers and pajama pants in public.

This is probably a Midwest culture thing and lot of the non homeless people and non junkies are wearing house slippers and pajama pants in public. And having nothing do with homeless or junkies but city culture thing among people .

People in Jacksonville Florida dress way more casual than people in Tampa.

The US has lot of cities and the Americans the way they dress or look has lot to do with the city culture and nothing to do with homeless or junkies.
Click to expand...

Having lived in both areas, junkies look better in the Midwest from what I’ve seen because overall being a delinquent is less acceptable. In Portland, Seattle, and LA it’s much more acceptable to be a street bum and it’s actually something some kids think is “cool.”

And contrary to popular belief some places in the Midwest have zero meth problem. Opiates are much more of an issue.

Where I grew up in rural Midwest I only saw meth once and it was some dude from Nebraska had brought it from home. I never saw meth til moving out west.

In fact my first time trying very pure meth, found it in a Jack in the Box bathroom in Idaho lol.

-GC
 
Burnt Offerings said:
On the positive side, one thing I will say for stim abusers is that, IME, they're often quite entertaining storytellers, their sense of humor is often hilarious and they generally seem to spend less time crying about the poor choices they made in the past compared to other drug addicts, like opiate abusers
Click to expand...

That is a really interesting insight that I'd never really considered (apart from my general prejudice that people who do downers as their DOC are pretty mopey). I wonder whether it's particular types of people swinging towards particular classes of drugs or whether certain drugs change people in certain ways. That said, I've met (and seen in the mirror) some very sorry-for-themselves stim users at comedown time.
 
Burnt Offerings said:
I grew up, and still live in, the rural American west. So needless to say, I know about meth and "meth culture" (at least in the American context), as far as that term can be defined, and unfortunately the negative stereotypes about hard stimulant users are very much based in fact lol. You can literally pick these people out on the street as you drive by: white, bad skin, sports jersey or ratty hooded sweatshirt, ball cap, backpack, just tweakin' for the weekend etc. ;)

It goes without saying that I don't agree with people being dehumanized/persecuted, and hell I don't even think it's "wrong" to be a methamp user, I argue for the legalization of all drugs and an end to prohibition, but...the stereotype of the stim-addled degenerate who's constantly running his game, constantly trying to get one over on someone else, that's quite real I'm afraid.

On the positive side, one thing I will say for stim abusers is that, IME, they're often quite entertaining storytellers, their sense of humor is often hilarious and they generally seem to spend less time crying about the poor choices they made in the past compared to other drug addicts, like opiate abusers
Click to expand...

Not gonna lie hanging out with stim addicts/ methheads is usually pretty fun. I'd take that over any other drug addict. Those folks know how to entertain.

Stigma is stigma, some people will think a certain way and there's little or nothing you can do about it. Do what you want and stop caring what others think. If you are indisputably doing well for yourself and your family nobody's opinion should matter.

The only times I've ever really let those kinds of stereotypical perceptions get to me are when I'm not doing well outside of drug use. Which I think is fair.
 
I think I do more meth than anyone I know, in fact, maybe more than everyone I know combined! It works for me, doesn't interfere with the rest of my life. I guess it's all a matter of how you want to live your life, what brings you happiness, what gives you joy.
 
It's probably a tale of two stims.

In Toronto, tweakers are generally clean, functional addicts with good jobs and nice flats and good enough teeth.

Crackheads on the other hand...........those you can spot.
 
Really its probably just old-fashioned class prejudice with assumptions about drugs thrown in. The people perpetuating these stereotypes have always found something about lower socio-economic status people to denigrate them with. Used to be moonshine and having a dozen barefoot kids not going to school. Or trailer parks.
 
To be fair, the only crackhead I know is doing very well for herself nowadays (she used to be a homeless hooker, smoking crack by the handful) so, yeah, I guess even here it's all a bit bogus....but really.....nah.....the tweakers just have their lives together more in general as far as I know and can tell. As someone who used to do meth whilst keeping a very nice flat and job, I can see why.

Which forces me to ask: in those places where the tweakers do exhibit the characteristics of a stereotype, is there no crack around?
 
SunriseChampion said:
To be fair, the only crackhead I know is doing very well for herself nowadays (she used to be a homeless hooker, smoking crack by the handful) so, yeah, I guess even here it's all a bit bogus....but really.....nah.....the tweakers just have their lives together more in general as far as I know and can tell. As someone who used to do meth whilst keeping a very nice flat and job, I can see why.

Which forces me to ask: in those places where the tweakers do exhibit the characteristics of a stereotype, is there no crack around?
Click to expand...

I think most big cities in the Western US have crack available as well as having tweakers who live up to the sterotype. I think Vancouver BC is pretty much like this as well, or at least it used to be. In the Pacific Northwest at least, crack (and cocaine in general) have been on a strong downswing over the last 5-10 years in favor of methamphetamine. While in the Northeast, cocaine consumption has been rising over the same period (with crack use at least holding stable), while methamphetamine has remained something of a niche drug.

It seems likely that the dominant stimulant of a city will also be the one to be stereotyped most negatively, since it's the one responsible for the most bad behavior that gets witnessed. In the US, there are also racial factors that come into play when discussing the stereotypes around either drug, since they were strongly identified with being black ("crackhead") or white ("tweaker") when they first came into play in the late 80s/early 90s, and have remained so to an extent.
 
There have been many times when I've been really glad people have these kinds of stereotypes. It helped a lot when I used to beg for money that I didn't look sufficiently like a stereotypical junkie. :p

devilsgospel said:
Not gonna lie hanging out with stim addicts/ methheads is usually pretty fun. I'd take that over any other drug addict. Those folks know how to entertain.
Click to expand...

I'd much rather hang out with my fellow heroin addicts. Tweakers never shut the fuck up.
 
I hate that meth has such a fucked name and a gross stereotype that people think when they find out who’s using. The people that I have told about use are always surprised and wouldn’t think that I tweak it. But for some that’s still a reason to judge even though im not crazy and don’t look like the guy on the street corner every Thursday dancing his ass off. But just the fact I hit the pipe to get my started is “bad”? I’m glad I’ve learned to not to give a fuck and the end of the day the only person that got my back is me.
 
JessFR said:
There have been many times when I've been really glad people have these kinds of stereotypes. It helped a lot when I used to beg for money that I didn't look sufficiently like a stereotypical junkie. :p



I'd much rather hang out with my fellow heroin addicts. Tweakers never shut the fuck up.
Click to expand...
Hung out with both and they both have similarities. you never know if it’s gonna be a good time or a bad time
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top