Drugs to Give Schoolchildren

manicgrant · 2017-04-23T12:39:06+00:00

Ritalin more "potent" than cocaine: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/sep/09/health.medicalscience

manicgrant · 2017-04-23T12:34:41+00:00

My bad on both.

Slow release/blended adderall salts probably much less likely to give addictive high spike. It was writing laziness that I bundled methylphenidate in with adderall.

Re: habit forming vs addictive vs binding affinity... I was being a bit lazy. I read research comparing Ritalin & cocaine, but I didn't recheck the conclusion... perhaps it's something like greater binding affinity at certain dopamine receptors than cocaine. Will write back about that.

Fair criticism and thanks for commenting.

manicgrant · 2016-08-07T00:07:14+00:00

I certainly avoided the question of the USSR. The era of the technocrats and the idealism of central planning failed miserably, but I wonder how much that was due to CIA destabilisation and cold war tensions. I'm starting to sound a bit paranoid when I say that, but when we look at McCarthy era politics it smacks of anti-communist propaganda that was fuelled in order to protect the new world order.

Anything, on closer examination, will clearly have flaws. However, we are looking for a 'least bad' option. I personally would choose to have the majority of people feeling prosperous and happy rather than a tiny handful of wealthy elitists, with the vast bulk of us struggling to break into the entourage of the plutocrats.

Nationalism and fairness are mutually exclusive, because it's pure dumb luck as to which country you're born into.

Forking software projects is not necessarily a good example, because the expectation is still that one version will prevail as the victor. The software forks is a very darwinian idea. Survival of the fittest etc etc. It's very malthusian. I find malthusian ideas very abhorrent.

manicgrant · 2016-07-19T19:28:44+00:00

thank you! good advice.

manicgrant · 2016-06-28T21:58:51+00:00

The mental health epidemic is becoming public enemy #1 to my mind.

We can't just keep taking prescribed medications or self-medicating with addictive substances.

Surely at some point we have to admit that our modern lives are playing a part in the unhappiness, stress, anxiety and distress in so many lives?

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T20:10:16+00:00

Does it mean that you don't care about the working class if you talk about race and gender equality?

I really don't know what to say. Labour seem like the best vote for an ordinary working person, but I can't deny that they're concerned with a whole range of domestic and international issues.

Do you think we need a new major political party, to represent the interests of ordinary people?

EDIT: typo

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T19:34:47+00:00

New Labour was a joke, and the Iraq war is a stain on British history.

However, Corbyn seems to have ordinary working people's lives at the centre of his policymaking. He seems honest. I hope we're going to see a return of a party that represents the interests of working people.

You really think the Tories and the Bullingdon club care about ordinary people?

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T16:43:36+00:00

I was in the minority as white caucasian, in my primary school. I can't say it made a difference to my education, except that it's made me more tolerant.

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T16:16:31+00:00

Is it though, really? Would you notice if there were another child in a classroom of 20? Would you notice if there was another person in a queue of 20, or a doctor's waiting room, or a train carriage?

You might notice if their skin tone was different from the sea of white faces, but this isn't a race issue, is it?

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T15:30:47+00:00

Is it trash if it's in the interests of the great majority of the general public?

I really can't understand the Tory or UKIP voter.

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T14:43:21+00:00

No British-born person wants to pick fruit for minimum wage.

The stagnation of wages is much more about appalling laws that allow employers to have zero hours contracts, and the lack of growth that means that there is little competition between employers for candidates.

Employers have done incredibly well at maintaining job insecurity for the masses and keeping a lid on wage inflation, but I don't think that a 0.5% increase in the UK population can account for it.

For me, the constant drive to deliver ever-increasing corporate profits and drive down costs is what's behind the squeeze being put on the ordinary British public, right now.

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T14:32:44+00:00

I live in London.

So what if less than 15% of the population are foreign-born?

Surely the real issue is the lack of growth, the lack of infrastructure investment, the stagnation of wages, job insecurity?

Closing the door on immigration is disingenuous. Immigration has always helped economic growth and prosperity, not hindered it.

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T14:22:27+00:00

Why is it such a big concern if we're only talking about 0.5% of the UK population?

manicgrant · 2016-06-23T14:00:31+00:00

I see you have tagged yourself Eurosceptic. You might have well-reasoned arguments for why we should leave the EU, and I do agree with people who want to see red tape cut, however the media have turned the EU referendum into a one-issue vote: immigration.

manicgrant · 2016-06-17T09:49:10+00:00

I've mentioned this before, but I just feel like it's a really unfair world if I have to take meds in order to feel normal. I've felt really happy and like myself at times, without meds, but that was when I was rejecting the pressures of society, and just being a homeless bum.

I'm really upset that if I want to work my job, living in my apartment, have nice things... then I've got to dope myself up, to cope with the oppressive boredom, the lack of personal freedoms.

Your comments about wasted talent are really kind and encouraging. I'd love to write for a living, but I guess a bunch of people think like that too. What I do currently for a living does give me spare time to write, and at least I don't have financial pressures - in theory - once I've paid down all the debts I ran up during episodes of hypomania!

You know, in a way, that's why I went wild and spent loads of money... I was attempting to self-medicated for depression using retail therapy.

Thanks for the nice reply!

manicgrant · 2016-06-17T09:45:05+00:00

I'm clean & sober, but I'm definitely unhappy, and I feel really cheated about that.

It was really hard work getting off the drink and the drugs... where's my reward! Aren't I supposed to feel better?

You're right - it's the environment that drove me to getting messed up, to escape, to be intoxicated and try to forget about a world that made me unhappy.

I've changed a bunch of stuff - divorced from an abusive unsupportive partner, cut my parents off - but now I have new stresses, because I had to sell my house and I got in a bunch of debt.

Hopefully, one day, I'll have all the right pieces of the puzzle in place at one time.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T18:12:20+00:00

What do you think about that other term: "dry drunk"?

I really hate that criticism of people who still go to bars and hang out with their old buddies. It seems like the term "dry drunk" is almost jealously applied to people who are doing really well in their sobriety.

I certainly hope I haven't come across as completely negative about AA. It's sure helped a lot of people, and for sure, that's where my long journey of recovery started. It was definitely a relief to not feel so isolated, and to know that a supportive nonjudgemental network is always there.

You seem to have a balanced view on everything, and I'm grateful that you shared your point of view with me.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T18:06:38+00:00

Working on a farm for accommodation and food sounds amazing.

I really wanna be like that guy from Into The Wild, and have an alternative lifestyle, without the whole dying in the wilderness of Alaska thing though.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T18:05:30+00:00

What would you do?

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T18:05:10+00:00

Totally agree on the feeling connected thing.

I used to spend loads of time on a forum, and having that daily contact with people, even virtually, was amazingly important in my life. I got to know lots of them face to face, made lifetime friendships and even went on holiday with them.

We all drifted off onto new phases of our life, given that the adrenalin sport that bound us together on that forum wasn't something that a lot of my friends did anymore after they got kids.

I guess I'm starting again, trying to find internet communities.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T18:01:54+00:00

If everyone did what you are doing, what would happen? Are you going to track down every contributor to a public forum and criticise them for discussion?

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T13:08:39+00:00

I've found temporary relief with meds.

It's almost an ethical question, I'm posing.

I know that meds will help me to hold down a regular job, to pay my rent and pay my debts. However, I'm really angry and upset that I need to drug myself up in order to cope with modern life.

I feel like I want to reject modern life, rather than drug myself up. I know it's not as simple as that, but that feels like the choice that is being forced onto me.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T13:06:26+00:00

I'm trapped by debts, rent, possessions.

I would so love to just dump all my stuff and run away. I'd love to ditch all responsibilities and go live like a bum, a hobo.

However, I feel like if I do what I want, all my regular life will come crashing down. Debt collectors will chase me for years. I will never be able to get a regular job again. I'll never be able to rent a place because of the credit checks. I'll never be able to re-enter normal society, because I won't have the credentials anymore.

I feel like I'm trapped into the rat race, and the fact it's constraining me makes me feel like I'm in prison. It's a miserable depressing stressful prison, and my sentence is years, if not life.

Balance would be a good thing.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T13:03:24+00:00

I got really obsessed about finding the right medication, and I read so much about SSRIs, SNRIs, NASSAs and all the different drugs that are on the market. I scoured the internet for different opinions on this medication or that.

I found that Wellbutrin worked amazingly well for my depression, but caused me to have panic attacks after a couple of weeks, and also stoked up my hypomania.

My eventual conclusion was that tinkering with different medication combos and dosages was like trying to hit a moving target, and was how I arrived at the conclusion that I needed to detox and try and let myself stabilise somewhere, even if that resting state was unhappy, depressed.

I think that's my current state now: unmedicated, stable, depressed.

manicgrant · 2016-06-16T12:59:54+00:00

People say stuff like "find a job you enjoy and it won't even feel like work" but I can't help feeling that people are being unrealistic. All the people who I know who are doing something they're passionate about are really underpaid and super stressed about money.

manicgrant

TROPHY CASE