• Welcome to Phoenix Rising!

    Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of and finding treatments for complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia (FM), long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.

    To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.

Have you significantly used or abused any drugs in the past before the onset of symptoms?

Have you significantly used or abused any drugs in the past before the onset of symptoms?

  • Marijuana

    Votes: 22 24.7%
  • MDMA (Ecstasy)

    Votes: 8 9.0%
  • Methamphetamines

    Votes: 6 6.7%
  • Cocaine

    Votes: 9 10.1%
  • Opiates

    Votes: 4 4.5%
  • Other Substances

    Votes: 24 27.0%
  • None of the above

    Votes: 50 56.2%

  • Total voters
    89
Messages
4
I sometimes wonder if some of my lifestyle choices when I was a young teenager contributed to my current symptoms. I'm curious if others may have had similar lifestyle choices.
 

Martial

Senior Member
Messages
1,409
Location
Ventura, CA
Beyond liver or kidney damage, I don't know what pre dispositions drugs would do.. Though it is not healthy in anway regardless and poor health choices will always effect people adversely, I would think it would cause more brain issues and personality changes then anything else mostly though, also neurological damage for some over time.
 

Min

Guest
Messages
1,387
Location
UK
No, never, but my mother chain smoked through pregnancy and my childhood.
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
Hmm, yes I often wondered in the past if lifestyle choices as a teenager had somehow damaged my system.

Could widen the drug choice on here perhaps...
 
Messages
4
Hmm, yes I often wondered in the past if lifestyle choices as a teenager had somehow damaged my system.

Could widen the drug choice on here perhaps...

Yeah I thought I should have at least added "Other substances". But can't seem to edit the choices.
 

justy

Donate Advocate Demonstrate
Messages
5,524
Location
U.K
LSD...Magic mushrooms...amphetamines (not methamphetamine)

(Apologies to anyone who thought I was a nice girl...)


I think a moderator could show you how to edit a poll - I have no idea. If you want to do that report your own post and it will alert a mod that you need help.
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
Alcohol?
Yes
(I've been a non-practising alcoholic for 23 years now)

Tobacco?
Yes.
(40 years of it but converted to vaping, so now coming up to 2 years off the ciggies)

Alcohol and tobacco are the major drugs of abuse. And two of the very worst ones.

I still think you're a lovely girl, Justy.:D
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
Alcohol and tobacco ARE drugs.
Just because they're legal doesn't make a blind bit of difference; they are drugs, really, really bad ones.

Sorry, but the phrase "no drugs, no alcohol no tobacco" simply does not make sense and it really, really bugs me that these truly dangerous drugs do not get included in the moralist downer society puts on folk that choose other safer drugs for recreational purposes.

Folk have used substances to alter their state of consciousness for millenia, several species of animals enjoy a bit of natural escapism too.

Drug taking is a normal part of human/animal behaviour.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
Looking at it from the standpoint of methylation, drugs are toxins, and toxins get metabolized via glutathione - the body's major antioxidant. Glutathione depletion causes the symptoms of ME/CFS.

Various drugs also deplete various vitamins. Alcohol depletes B vitamins (methylation vitamins), and cigarettes deplete all vitamins. That's why those two are particularly bad.

So yes, it's possible that drugs, cigs, and alcohol could have contributed to a toxic load. Genetics always play a role too.

See the Methylation Made Easy video #1 linked in my signature, which explains how all these things combine to create disease.
 

SOC

Senior Member
Messages
7,849
Sorry, but the phrase "no drugs, no alcohol no tobacco" simply does not make sense and it really, really bugs me that these truly dangerous drugs do not get included in the moralist downer society puts on folk that choose other safer drugs for recreational purposes.
I agree that alcohol and tobacco are drugs. However, I was not speaking directly to you, but to the population in general for whom "no drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco" has a meaning beyond just "no drugs", so I stand by my choice of words. If you're offended, that's your problem.
Drug taking is a normal part of human/animal behaviour.
According to whom?

Quite frankly, I'm tired of being snarked at by drug users simply because my family and I have chosen to abstain from drugs, including alcohol and tobacco. You make your choices, I make mine. Live and let live. Why do you find it necessary to imply we're not "normal" and call us "moralist downers" because we don't partake? Do you hear me calling you names? If you want to play that game, I'm sure I could think of a few if I try.

Sheesh! :rolleyes:
 

peggy-sue

Senior Member
Messages
2,623
Location
Scotland
I didn't mean to offend, honest. It was the use of "squeaky clean" that got my goat a bit.

Nothing wrong with choosing to abstain if you're somebody that finds life better that way:thumbsup:
It would be wonderful if everybody could find life better with total abstention!

But it should be all about how each individual chooses to live, nobody criticising others unless it is impinging on them. Illegal drugs do, because of the illegality. I'm not saying addicts don't cause problems either, but that could be drastically reduced if the policies were changed.

I get fed up of being criticised (and I was, I can assure you) for finding life easier with a little escapism.
Reality stinks. I don't much like it, but I'm pretty much stuck with it.
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
I selected none. However I did spend about a year where I was drinking two liters of Coca Cola a day, a caffeine and sugar blend. That's not healthy. A bottle of coke, a garlic bread, was often dinner - we had a fantastic restaurant with garlic bread to die for. Most places have garlic bread that is not worth eating, and that includes most restaurants. That garlic bread was better with Coca Cola, and the garlic bread was good enough for be a meal in itself. It was a house recipe garlic calzone made with at least three different cheeses, but made in a stick.

Oh, and for a short while when I was about ten or eleven I smoked the occasional cigarette. It didn't last.
 

Ambrosia_angel

Senior Member
Messages
544
Location
England
It would be good if we could understand how many people took part alcohol and smoking abuse. They are the worst offenders when it comes to creating ill health.

I think we all have taken part in bad lifestyle practices whether that's illegal drugs or eating too much oily takeaways. They all contribute to illness one way or another.
 

Iquitos

Senior Member
Messages
513
Location
Colorado
I'm no puritan and I do not judge others for their choices. But I did nothing whatsoever to bring this illness on. I was as fit as possible, had not eaten white flour and sugar for years, never smoked (anything, except to try smokables and then not choose to continue), had a glass or two of wine with meals a couple of times a week, never even tried things like LSD, meth, etc. Never was into junk food, either.

Now I'm using medical marijuana and I just wish I'd opened my mind to it sooner! It helps so much with sleep and pain and might be helping with other things like muscle spasms and cognitive problems. I make my own tincture, just as with any medicinal herb, so I'm still not smoking anything. Never liked that.
 

minkeygirl

But I Look So Good.
Messages
4,678
Location
Left Coast
I went to college in Ohio in 74, right after the Kent State Murders and during the Viet Nam War (yes I'm that old) so I smoked, ingested and snorted pretty much anything I could get my hands on. I got sick 20 yrs later.

I'll never know if my escapades compromised me neurologically but I do know that even on a bad day I'm smarter than some healthy people. And boy did I have a good time!

Someone recently suggested that I may have had ME as kid. I remember having a rash when I was really young and they never figured out what it was, so who knows?
 

manna

Senior Member
Messages
392
i was 2 years of total abstinence prior to getting ill. i was a recreational drug user before that. mainly daily marijuana use and use to go "raving", where ecstacy was used weekly/fortnightly with month or 2 breaks here and there. my first choice was always magic mushrooms as i felt these did no harm and would even heal problems--not recommended though as you need the mind for it and most are illegal.

i think the main drug that may have contributed was alcohol...but indirectly. i wasn't a big drinker really but at age 18 i did hit it for a few years...not to get drunk really but to put on weight. im naturally a very slender man and had been made to feel like it was ugly or bad to be slim...or skinny as its derogatorily called. it did work and i did gain weight but also an unsightly beer belly...so i quit of course. although mystomach pretty much returned to normal i think it kind of messed up my digestion.

i always noted how friends could take more drugs than me and pay much less. i would still say that mercury was a big player for me though. i believe im particularly sensitive to it. it was a filling that broke the camels back, so to speak. one plus i take from this past is that ive been open to try anything to recover and have gained some very beneficial health insights from entheogen therapy. it can show me exactly whether or not something is actually benficial to me. it also can erase the affects that longterm illness has on the psyche.

oh yeah, it was good fun. golden rule was never take chemical drugs daily. though of course no drugs is best.
 

SDSue

Southeast
Messages
1,066
@Kina,

First let me say I appreciate everything you do to support this forum. Then let me add my 2 cents lol.

It's early in this poll's life and "other substances" is already taking the lead. Because it is the number one abused drug in much of the world, I think perhaps it would be appropriate to include a separate category for alcohol?