Althouse: "I feel as though I’ve never been so happy, so lucky, so brilliant. I am the very best version of myself."

May 14, 2016

"I feel as though I’ve never been so happy, so lucky, so brilliant. I am the very best version of myself."

"I have a deep sense of compassion for every person in the room. I can reveal any part of myself, say anything, no matter how personal or banal."

From "My secret life as a high-functioning drug user" (in The Guardian). The drugs used to reach that state of consciousness were: "a gram of cocaine and another of MDMA... some weed and... three to four glasses of good red wine."

45 comments:

tim maguire said...: "No matter how personal or banal."

Especially banal.; 5/14/16, 11:02 AM
MisterBuddwing said...: I have a co-worker whom I've suspected of being a high-functioning alcoholic. No, I've never smelled liquor on him. And my suspicion isn't based simply on the fact that he likes to talk a lot. A lot of my fellow staffers do. The thing is, he keeps repeating himself - he seems to feel if a thing is worth mentioning, it's worth mentioning four or five times over.

Is it really any of my business if he's an alcoholic as long as he gets the job done? (Let's just say that a, we're not that close, and b, the subject has never come up.); 5/14/16, 11:05 AM
Tari said...: What pathetic people, with such meaningless lives. They seem to produce nothing good in life except a fleeting sense of self-satisfaction. What a waste.; 5/14/16, 11:06 AM
pm317 said...: How can an alcoholic not smell?; 5/14/16, 11:07 AM
pm317 said...: Liberals! some need more, much more than simple colloquial delusion to feel good about themselves.; 5/14/16, 11:08 AM
Sebastian said...: Goes to show that Progressive victories in the culture wars have added a lot of meaning and value to people's lives.; 5/14/16, 11:10 AM
jr565 said...: Considering drugs act on your pleasure centers in your brain I'm sure people on drugs will have euphoric highs while on them.; 5/14/16, 11:10 AM
tim maguire said...: Pm317--vodka. The functional alcoholic's best friend.; 5/14/16, 11:20 AM
Humperdink said...: While visiting family in Oregon, a news report on the radio stated: "Two young people (ages 21) escaped serious injury when their car was impaled by a tree. Police report alcohol, marijuana and meth were involved".

Why the mind-altering hat trick! A bright future awaits them. Hoping they read this article.; 5/14/16, 11:20 AM
traditionalguy said...: This explains Trump's personality. He gets high on simple reality and fellowship. Therefore no drug pushers are necessary to function.

Mind altering Drugs are only for the beaten down losers to self medicate out of their pain and suffering.; 5/14/16, 11:36 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: "I feel as though I’ve never been so happy, so lucky, so brilliant. I am the very best version of myself."

Bartolo Colon could have said that, today, instead he said... 'At my age, I even surprise myself'

Back in 2012, Bartolo was suspended for using PED's.; 5/14/16, 11:37 AM
Hagar said...: Drunks are not as funny as they think they are.; 5/14/16, 11:43 AM
madAsHell said...: A bag of cocaine?

That's expensive, and soooo 1980.
I would require "a willing suspension of disbelief" to finish reading the article.; 5/14/16, 11:59 AM
mockturtle said...: Self-delusion is so widespread in our culture that it has become our cutlure.; 5/14/16, 12:01 PM
Real American said...: druggies are often oblivious to how they appear to others. they think they're hiding it and they're not.; 5/14/16, 12:04 PM
Michael K said...: I think morphine or heroin addicts can function quite while on the drugs and most of the pathology involves drug seeking behavior, like robbery, etc.

I could see legalizing those drugs. Constipation is the worst biological consequence.

Cocaine is different and it causes paranoia and hyperactivity, a bad combination. It also causes cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.

All narcotics produce tachyphylaxis, which is the constantly increasing dose to get the same effect. With cocaine, it is usually fatal.

I don't believe him.; 5/14/16, 12:11 PM
William said...: This is a humble brag. Look at me on the high wire and yet still grounded. Interesting job, supportive friends. Perhaps a tad hubristic, but withal still capable of providing mature insights about the pros and cons of my extraordinary life. How did it happen that the Obama administration didn't recruit this man for a senior policy position?; 5/14/16, 12:25 PM
Howard said...: Doc Mike: Can you confirm the rumors about LA County and doing surgery on wounded gang-bangers without anesthetic because you had no idea what street drug they were on? I heard they would scream and cry like babies much to the enjoyment of staff.; 5/14/16, 12:26 PM
Howard said...: Lem: The A's could use Bartolo this season. I sure miss the inscrutable old slinger.; 5/14/16, 12:28 PM
Wince said...: Make my make-believe believe in me

I've Been High

What I want
What I really want is
Just to live my life on high

And I know
I know you want the same
I can see it in your eyes

I've been high
I've climbed so high
But life sometimes
It washes over me, washes over me

I close my eyes so I can see
Make my make-believe believe in me; 5/14/16, 12:38 PM
Rae said...: Anybody who is high thinks they're Jesus, Einstein and Buudha rolled into one. That's kind of why they call it that.; 5/14/16, 12:46 PM
Achilles said...: It always amazes me every time someone says they need to be drunk to be social. That they are more likable or funnier when they are drunk. I had to videotape one friend to demonstrate how wrong he was. Kinda ended the friendship. Had another stoner who got really angry after we had to fire him and kick him out because he was worthless.

Kinda like political candidates, they are the last ones to know they are losing.; 5/14/16, 12:47 PM
Phil 314 said...: Well at least it was really good red wine.; 5/14/16, 12:56 PM
Jim S. said...: At around 4am, high as kites and exhausted from dancing, we all sit down and play charades. “Film!” “Two words!” “Jumanji?”

How in the world would you pantomime "Jumanji"? "One word. First syllable. ... Oh no, no no we can't do that."; 5/14/16, 12:59 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: Quite a few of the commenters at the Guardian think he's making crap up, too.; 5/14/16, 1:14 PM
Michael K said...: "Can you confirm the rumors about LA County and doing surgery on wounded gang-bangers without anesthetic "

Have never heard about that. I would doubt it. I once did surgery on a woman in shock from dead bowel without anesthesia. The anesthetist just paralyzed her until I got the dead bowel out and her BP started to come up. Then he gave her fentanyl, which causes amnesia plus pain relief and she did not remember the surgery.

When I was a resident in surgery, the present drug epidemic had not yet begun. Especially with the weird synthetic drugs.; 5/14/16, 2:38 PM
wild chicken said...: Funny how the overall decline in social capital dovetails with the decline in social drinking.

Like people really wanted to stay home with the tv rather than go to the Elks Lodge or gathering of inlaws.; 5/14/16, 3:11 PM
Jaq said...: So where is his brilliant output? You know, the work that brilliant people do? What has he produced but an article for the Grauniad that is that makes Horatio OwnHornblower Trump look modest.; 5/14/16, 5:10 PM
Jaq said...: "I feel as though I’ve never been so happy, so lucky, so brilliant. I am the very best version of myself.

I know Obama has a lot of time on his hands since he alienated the national electorate and so can't get anything done, but I wouldn't have thought he'd stoop tor writing articles for The Guardian.; 5/14/16, 5:13 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Budding,

The mildly OCD do the same thing. Vodka or no, even a high-functioning alcoholic shows a heap of tells. Not go all partisan, but even back in the mid-90's I thought Hillary had the manner of one who is consistently medicating.; 5/14/16, 5:47 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Omitting words from sentences in blog comments speaks to a different sort of impairment.; 5/14/16, 5:49 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Vodka doesn't play well with copious anti-depressants, but it sure livens up those lil' anti-psychotics.

Don't look at me.

I am Laslo.; 5/14/16, 6:30 PM
Fernandinande said...: Michael K said...
I could see legalizing those drugs[morphine or heroin]. Constipation is the worst biological consequence.

Wrong again.
"Table 2 summarizes mortality rates among the three types of drug users. Mortality in the first 10 years of primary substance use was not significantly different between heroin and cocaine users. However, mortality among heroin users increased dramatically after 20 years of heroin use. Cocaine users had a significantly higher mortality than meth users after 20 years of primary substance use. After 30 years of substance use, the heroin users had the highest mortality (16%), which was 2.5 times higher than cocaine users (6.5%), and slightly more than 10 times higher than meth users (1.5%)."

Cocaine is different and it causes paranoia and hyperactivity, a bad combination.

That's like saying that alcohol users choke to death on their own barf - it sometimes happens, but it's very rare.

It also causes cardiac arrhythmias and sudden death.

Wrong, yet again.
"After adjusting for differences in potential confounders, persons who reported regular lifetime cocaine use had a significantly higher likelihood of all-cause mortality (relative risk [RR], 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2–3.0 for ≥100 times in lifetime) but not cardiovascular mortality (RR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.1–4.7 for ≥100 times in lifetime)."; 5/14/16, 7:36 PM
John henry said...: Blogger tim maguire said...

Pm317--vodka. The functional alcoholic's best friend.

Back in the 60s someone, perhaps Pepsi?, made a a barter deal with the Russians which resulted in large imports of vodka. Nobody in the US drank vodka at the time. A campaign was needed to sell it.

the big advantage to vodka is that you can't smell it on someone's breath but you can't really say that directly. So they came up with "Smirnoff.... It leaves you breathless"

And then there is Hennigans " It goes down smooth and afterwards you don't even smell."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgXAt_gstcs; 5/14/16, 9:14 PM
rcocean said...: Cocaine is responsible for more U.S. emergency room visits than any other illegal drug. Cocaine harms the brain, heart, blood vessels, and lungs -- and can even cause sudden death.; 5/14/16, 10:50 PM
Michael K said...: "After 30 years of substance use, the heroin users had the highest mortality (16%), which was 2.5 times higher than cocaine users (6.5%), and slightly more than 10 times higher than meth users (1.5%)."

I suspect that this does not limit cause of death to the drug. The big problem with heroin and morphine is the drug seeking behavior.

William Halsted was the world's greatest surgeon until his death from gall stone complications in his 70s and was a morphine addict from his early days of experimenting with cocaine as a local anesthetic. It was long thought that he was cured of his addiction by Osler who took him on a sea voyage before the opening of the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1889. However Osler's will revealed that he had gotten Halsted to switch from cocaine to Morphine, to which Halsted was addicted until his death in 1922.

These are anecdotes, of course, since the truth is clouded by politics.

When the Harrison Narcotic Act took effect about 1925, the hospitals that were using heroin for OB analgesia were allowed to use up their stocks. Johns Hopkins had a large stock of heroin which was considered the best analgesic for labor pain and they switched to use only for labor. The heroin stock was finally exhausted in the 1930s.

Cocaine causes very rapid cardiac effects and sudden death is common in users. I had a personal friend whose son was addicted to cocaine and I got him into the hospital CCU where he had crazy arrhythmias until it was out of his system. He would have died. His mother, my friend, found a baseball sized stash of coke in his room while he was in the hospital. They were very wealthy people and he could afford his habit but it was going to kill him.; 5/14/16, 11:16 PM
Michael K said...: I think I found the logical flaw in your argument. It may only be one of several.

In addition, the literature seems far from being in concrete agreement on whether mortality is associated with age, education, duration of use, or overdose (Odegard, Amundsen, & Kielland, 2007). For example, one study reported that younger age at first drug use and lower educational status are risk factors associated with overdose death (Davoli et al., 1993); however, another study reported that duration of abuse, but not aging, is found to be a risk factor of fatal overdose (Odegard et al., 2007).

A very common cause of overdose is imprisonment of addicts which causes withdrawal and which indirectly causes overdose. When an addict has been in jail, they must start their drug use at a much lower dose than before arrest. Tachyphylaxis causes rapid tolerance in a chronic user. When the addict gets out, the tolerance is gone. If they don't start at a low dose again, they OD. This is a very common scenario with addicts. The first fox after getting out of jail or prison is the most likely toime to OD.; 5/14/16, 11:22 PM
Michael K said...: The first fix, not fox.; 5/14/16, 11:22 PM
J. Farmer said...: I have had this particular cocktail before...plus a little methamphetamine. Profound interpersonal insights can be achieved when under the influence of neurochemicals. No doubt about it. But it's really about clearing the cobwebs from the preexisting machinery. Drugs will not make a stupid, unperceptive person smart and insightful. But people already predisposed to what Gardner termed "existential intelligence" can gain some insights from the ego destruction that drugs often provide.; 5/14/16, 11:24 PM
Michael K said...: The other flaw in the argument that cocaine does not cause cardiac events is that use involves a lot of money and most users do not have heavy use because of cost. It does cause sudden death among young people who are heavy users, especially those who can afford it.

One was Don Simpson, the movie producer.

An autopsy and toxicology report later determined that Simpson had died of heart failure caused by combined drug intoxication (cocaine and prescription medications). At the time of his death, there were twenty-one different drugs in his system including antidepressants, stimulants, sedatives, and tranquilizers."

Another was Len Bias a basketball player.; 5/14/16, 11:32 PM
J. Farmer said...: @MadAsHell:

"A bag of cocaine?

That's expensive, and soooo 1980."

Have there been revolutions in powder storage since 1980. I've never bought a quantity larger than an eight-ball, and every time I've bought it, was handed to me wrapped in a small plastic bag. Probably would've been more accurate to say a "baggie" of cocaine.; 5/14/16, 11:48 PM
Jaq said...: In Florida, if you want to ride your motorcycle without a helmet, you can just buy extra insurance, prove to a cop you have it if you get stopped, and you are fine. The insurance covers head injuries from not wearing a helmet.

It should be the same way with drugs including alcohol. Sure some people can use them without consequence, but so many others end up crawling to the taxpayer for help when they fuck themselves up.; 5/15/16, 4:41 AM
Jaq said...: The problem is that there is no way to write insurance to cover inability to hold a job that won't be abused by people. That's why I really don't have a problem with the hypocrisy of outlawing drugs and letting the people who can't live without them for some reason take one more chance, this time with the law, to discourage them. As the character "House" said on his show, "Rules are for stupid people to keep them from messing up."; 5/15/16, 4:44 AM
Jaq said...: On the plus side drug use is increaseing the availablilyt of donated organs/; 5/16/16, 6:24 AM
Fabi said...: Cocaine is bad, mmkay -- but when you finally get it up while on that shit you are fuck of the mountain. It's anorgasmic, so you can go for hours.; 5/16/16, 9:38 PM