"The Existential Pain of Being Young, White, and Affluent"
An article from the Atlantic that can be read here.
Abuse of prescription drugs is most common among those who enjoyed the most advantages in adolescence, causing some to rethink the consequences of privilege.
The article sparked a flurry of conversation here on BL. It was suggested that my comment be made a blog post. Here is the initial comment and replies that eventually led to mine....
Originally Posted by Laika:
"Lol, I don't know if it's been mentioned, I only read the first two pages of comments. But lol @ people who have internet capabilities at all, in a privileged manner- arguing and defending their social statuses."
Originally Posted by 3,4-dihydroxyphen:
"lol this.
Particularly those on the "I'm poor so I've struggled more than you, and your suffering doesn't matter as much as mine because your mommy and daddy have money and my mommy and daddy don't" end. Fucking ridiculous statements, and one's I have never in my life heard uttered by somebody who is truly poor, even by American standards (by American standards I mean either living in the inner-city or a project, as opposed to world standards, which means living in a makeshift hut of scrap metal and inhaling kerosene 24/7).
I'm going to venture that a lot of those claiming to have grown up poor come from lower-middle/higher end of upper-lower class blue collar communities, rather than inner cities."
Originally Posted by RobotRipping:
"i'd say i grew up low-middle class (while being surrounded by filthy rich kids) then my family made more money later on in my life but really i was on my own for those times and didn't have parents pay for my education unlike my friends, had to work hard, unlike my friends and in the real world, have difficulty finding decent work because i don't have their connections or rich daddies to hand me jobs. So in that sense i am bitter and have always had bitterness towards the people who had everything given to them. If i grew up like them i'd probably hate poor people, we are pitted against each other, you can see that in people who are from 'old money' do not accept people from 'new money' into their social circles. I could make billions but i'm not going to be one of them, ever.
i'm not really filled with hate for those capitalist offspring pieces of shit; i just find it funny that they have succumbed to the very problems their capitalist forefathers created ie. alienation. Now that their lives are complete (financially), they find they are not whole and turn to opiates to fill that void. Well good for them, i did the same, but i still have to laugh at their existential pain and how it's so fucking bad for them, we all feel that pain and a great deal of it was caused by the 'owners of the means of production', capitalism and the society their rich ancestors created. Things that the ruling class believe are virtues of their lives and now that they feel the pain that the less fortunate have, they end up the same way, but the poor have an advantage because we've been there already and know this shit inside and out.
if you came from 'new money' created by innovation and intelligence then fine but if you're one of those old money bitches, i have no sympathy for you when it comes to your existential pain, hope it hurts."
Originally Posted by 3,4-dihydroxyphen:
"Well, a lot of those kids are in the same boat as you. I grew up, at different times, both inner-city poor and what some people (not myself) would deem rich. A lot of the pain in the age group is due to the changing economic times, where kids who grew up in upper middle class homes look around them and do not see the same opportunities their parents had. If you aren't super rich in this world (like top 1% rich), then you are, at this point, getting poorer. This is tough on upper middle class kids with high expectations placed on them, particularly those within the 1984-1990 range, who grew up at a time when opportunity was available to them, only to have it snatched away basically as soon as they reached adulthood."
Originally Posted by greywoodfoxhall:
As part of this demographic, I know exactly what you speak of. People say we're 'Generation Y', as 'Y' comes after 'X' and our generation is often left asking "Why?" But, I find 'Generation Rx' is much more fitting. I was supposed to be a legacy at the Air Force Academy, but I tried pot, and realized I'd been lied to about drugs. But, before pot, I got promethazine after shattering my maxillary ridge (bone in between your nose and teeth that holds your teeth in place) and snorting it in the bathroom at the private christian "WASP-nest" private school i was forced to go to made me feel cool like the rappers I listened to at the time. The song "Oxycotton" came out, and my friend got a bunch after burning his legs severely. We ate what in retrospect where Percocets and an OC or two and went downtown. I turned to him and said, "You could walk into traffic right now, and get hit, and I'd run out saying, 'Don't worry, he'll be okay, everything is cool.' I don't want you to get hit by a car, and logically I know it would not be okay, but I FEEL like anything/everything is cool right now." He understood what I meant and concurred. We decided we'd take more of the small pills next time and two of the big ones (luckily, we never did, we didn't understand the big ones were weaker, not stronger than the small ones).
I suffer from horrible depression, and have since middle-school with a brief break in 8th grade and then my senior year... I broke my arm horribly at the skate park and got put on 3 Percocet 5s a day. I felt incredible. Allergic to SSRIs (deathly allergic), my meds had been constantly changed since I was 15 till just recently actually (I take Remeron and surprise, thanks to back pain and RLS, get oxymorphone IR)... but I had a respite on those Percocets that led me down a path of self-medicating for a long time, seeking that relief. I would just sit, talking to my mom, and enjoying it (I was a horribly moody teenager). I got a girlfriend, a really hot one too... head freshman cheerleader. Those Percocets and then the Loratabs I got all through the fall of my senior year in high-school gave me a will to live. I ended up attempting suicide the next fall though, 3 days before I was off to college on an academic scholarship with the goal of becoming a research pharmacist (so I had access to narcotics). I went to rehab at my ex-girlfriend and parents' urging where I learned I could do drugs every day and not just on the weekends without being injured and so I left thinking more like an addict than when I arrived. My parents admitted that it was the worst mistake they ever made a year or two back. So, I came home and went to self-medicating hard. Now, I'm done, thankful almost for the ailments that qualify me for my oxymorphone as it gives me a reason to want to live.
Yeah, I still dabble, but I'm on probation, and the pain clinic drug tests... so it's not worth it. I wish I had gone to school like I was supposed to, but then I realize... there are a lot of people my age who did the "right thing" and are living in their parents' basements, hoping for a shitty minimum wage job just like me. I grew up when the big tobacco lawsuits were occurring and lawyers fresh out of school made $100,000 a year without having to look for a job, they were just handed out almost (why I wanted to go to the AFA... get paid to go to school and become a JAG (military lawyer), do my 5 years in the Air Force behind a desk as a JAG, get out, get an awesome job, get a trophy-wife, trade her in for a new 20 year-old one after 15 years, and just be a f'ing WASP... I literally wrote all that in an English paper about my life goals as a sophomore; right before I smoked weed the first time). There are no big lawsuits anymore. Jobs aren't handed out. Only thing handed out are food-stamps. I'm lucky in that due to my experiences, I don't want money... I want to be able to afford my pills, feed myself, and have a place to stay; but I don't look at people and covet what they have. I imagine how horrific it must be if you do though. It must be so depressing... and so we all do drugs. Generation Rx...
Are we, high or low class, Generation Rx? What do y'all consider yourselves?
An article from the Atlantic that can be read here.
Abuse of prescription drugs is most common among those who enjoyed the most advantages in adolescence, causing some to rethink the consequences of privilege.
The article sparked a flurry of conversation here on BL. It was suggested that my comment be made a blog post. Here is the initial comment and replies that eventually led to mine....
Originally Posted by Laika:
"Lol, I don't know if it's been mentioned, I only read the first two pages of comments. But lol @ people who have internet capabilities at all, in a privileged manner- arguing and defending their social statuses."
Originally Posted by 3,4-dihydroxyphen:
"lol this.
Particularly those on the "I'm poor so I've struggled more than you, and your suffering doesn't matter as much as mine because your mommy and daddy have money and my mommy and daddy don't" end. Fucking ridiculous statements, and one's I have never in my life heard uttered by somebody who is truly poor, even by American standards (by American standards I mean either living in the inner-city or a project, as opposed to world standards, which means living in a makeshift hut of scrap metal and inhaling kerosene 24/7).
I'm going to venture that a lot of those claiming to have grown up poor come from lower-middle/higher end of upper-lower class blue collar communities, rather than inner cities."
Originally Posted by RobotRipping:
"i'd say i grew up low-middle class (while being surrounded by filthy rich kids) then my family made more money later on in my life but really i was on my own for those times and didn't have parents pay for my education unlike my friends, had to work hard, unlike my friends and in the real world, have difficulty finding decent work because i don't have their connections or rich daddies to hand me jobs. So in that sense i am bitter and have always had bitterness towards the people who had everything given to them. If i grew up like them i'd probably hate poor people, we are pitted against each other, you can see that in people who are from 'old money' do not accept people from 'new money' into their social circles. I could make billions but i'm not going to be one of them, ever.
i'm not really filled with hate for those capitalist offspring pieces of shit; i just find it funny that they have succumbed to the very problems their capitalist forefathers created ie. alienation. Now that their lives are complete (financially), they find they are not whole and turn to opiates to fill that void. Well good for them, i did the same, but i still have to laugh at their existential pain and how it's so fucking bad for them, we all feel that pain and a great deal of it was caused by the 'owners of the means of production', capitalism and the society their rich ancestors created. Things that the ruling class believe are virtues of their lives and now that they feel the pain that the less fortunate have, they end up the same way, but the poor have an advantage because we've been there already and know this shit inside and out.
if you came from 'new money' created by innovation and intelligence then fine but if you're one of those old money bitches, i have no sympathy for you when it comes to your existential pain, hope it hurts."
Originally Posted by 3,4-dihydroxyphen:
"Well, a lot of those kids are in the same boat as you. I grew up, at different times, both inner-city poor and what some people (not myself) would deem rich. A lot of the pain in the age group is due to the changing economic times, where kids who grew up in upper middle class homes look around them and do not see the same opportunities their parents had. If you aren't super rich in this world (like top 1% rich), then you are, at this point, getting poorer. This is tough on upper middle class kids with high expectations placed on them, particularly those within the 1984-1990 range, who grew up at a time when opportunity was available to them, only to have it snatched away basically as soon as they reached adulthood."
Originally Posted by greywoodfoxhall:
As part of this demographic, I know exactly what you speak of. People say we're 'Generation Y', as 'Y' comes after 'X' and our generation is often left asking "Why?" But, I find 'Generation Rx' is much more fitting. I was supposed to be a legacy at the Air Force Academy, but I tried pot, and realized I'd been lied to about drugs. But, before pot, I got promethazine after shattering my maxillary ridge (bone in between your nose and teeth that holds your teeth in place) and snorting it in the bathroom at the private christian "WASP-nest" private school i was forced to go to made me feel cool like the rappers I listened to at the time. The song "Oxycotton" came out, and my friend got a bunch after burning his legs severely. We ate what in retrospect where Percocets and an OC or two and went downtown. I turned to him and said, "You could walk into traffic right now, and get hit, and I'd run out saying, 'Don't worry, he'll be okay, everything is cool.' I don't want you to get hit by a car, and logically I know it would not be okay, but I FEEL like anything/everything is cool right now." He understood what I meant and concurred. We decided we'd take more of the small pills next time and two of the big ones (luckily, we never did, we didn't understand the big ones were weaker, not stronger than the small ones).
I suffer from horrible depression, and have since middle-school with a brief break in 8th grade and then my senior year... I broke my arm horribly at the skate park and got put on 3 Percocet 5s a day. I felt incredible. Allergic to SSRIs (deathly allergic), my meds had been constantly changed since I was 15 till just recently actually (I take Remeron and surprise, thanks to back pain and RLS, get oxymorphone IR)... but I had a respite on those Percocets that led me down a path of self-medicating for a long time, seeking that relief. I would just sit, talking to my mom, and enjoying it (I was a horribly moody teenager). I got a girlfriend, a really hot one too... head freshman cheerleader. Those Percocets and then the Loratabs I got all through the fall of my senior year in high-school gave me a will to live. I ended up attempting suicide the next fall though, 3 days before I was off to college on an academic scholarship with the goal of becoming a research pharmacist (so I had access to narcotics). I went to rehab at my ex-girlfriend and parents' urging where I learned I could do drugs every day and not just on the weekends without being injured and so I left thinking more like an addict than when I arrived. My parents admitted that it was the worst mistake they ever made a year or two back. So, I came home and went to self-medicating hard. Now, I'm done, thankful almost for the ailments that qualify me for my oxymorphone as it gives me a reason to want to live.
Yeah, I still dabble, but I'm on probation, and the pain clinic drug tests... so it's not worth it. I wish I had gone to school like I was supposed to, but then I realize... there are a lot of people my age who did the "right thing" and are living in their parents' basements, hoping for a shitty minimum wage job just like me. I grew up when the big tobacco lawsuits were occurring and lawyers fresh out of school made $100,000 a year without having to look for a job, they were just handed out almost (why I wanted to go to the AFA... get paid to go to school and become a JAG (military lawyer), do my 5 years in the Air Force behind a desk as a JAG, get out, get an awesome job, get a trophy-wife, trade her in for a new 20 year-old one after 15 years, and just be a f'ing WASP... I literally wrote all that in an English paper about my life goals as a sophomore; right before I smoked weed the first time). There are no big lawsuits anymore. Jobs aren't handed out. Only thing handed out are food-stamps. I'm lucky in that due to my experiences, I don't want money... I want to be able to afford my pills, feed myself, and have a place to stay; but I don't look at people and covet what they have. I imagine how horrific it must be if you do though. It must be so depressing... and so we all do drugs. Generation Rx...
Are we, high or low class, Generation Rx? What do y'all consider yourselves?
