Anyone here did a lot of drugs during adolescence? Do you feel

>>9160415
yes, smoked everyday, done psychedelics at least 20 times, including acid 10+, done cocaine once, MDMA a bunch, amphetamines at least 15+ times. Am in a PhD program now and everyone around me drinks or does drugs as well, but pretty responsibly, except on saturdays where we all start drinking at like 2 pm
the meme about coders/mathematicians and amphetamines is 100% true, they fucking love that shit

Yeah, did a lot of drugs when i was younger. Smoked pot everyday for years, my memory is fucked.

Do constant apathy and years of depression count as a drug?

>>9160426
Can confirm, you're literally me but I'm going into 3rd year undergrad lol. Even a genius I know who's already graduated with a degree in Theoretical Physics at age of 19 loves coke and MDMA. Personally I hate weed cause I get too chill but fuck me I love amphetamines/psychedelics.

>>9160462
the main difference between *us* and those who fall into drug dependence is responsibility. Once i really got my shit together and realized what i wanted to do, i still continued to do drugs, just at completely appropriated times, compartmentalized my recreation very well. Never smoke weed if you have anything productive still to do that day, i prefer to smoke at night only.
The other thing is i do not use drugs as a primary escape tool, i use them to enhance my recreational time, but i love being in the lab/doing research, even reading papers to some extent. They help me escape/prolong burnout as well. I certainly do have an addictive personality, but I would drop drugs/drinking in a heartbeat if it meant compromising my main goal of research/studying, and I have when needed to focus more on school at times.
be very careful in grad school, drinking everyday is fairly common but it's very easy to slip into full blown alcoholism if you don't watch yourself

>>9160426
to actually answer your question OP, no, drugs have actually enhanced my critical thinking skills in a way that was probably unachievable (or would have taken much longer) without drugs. Drugs, especially weed/psychedelics, helped me think outside the box which has helped me solve a variety of research problems. Short term memory as well, no notable difference, if anything mine has gotten stronger over time but probably because of age/better study practices, not the drugs at all.

but obviously ALL people respond very differently to substances, my experience doesnt mean shit to you on an individual level

>>9160450
no but it fucks you up

>>9160493
>>9160426
are drugs really that harmless? I thought the dopamine rush followed by the low (like in coke) would impair your ability to find joy in doing regular things, like work/study

>>9160803
Yeah doing things responsibly is part of it. Most people have natural high/lows during the day just in terms of energy levels and activity from their routine. Don't be taking dangerous levels of stuff and don't do it at times when you know that it's going to interfere with things, like when you need to sleep but you decide to get high and play video games all night even though you got shit to do tomorrow.

the drugs are fine, people just don't use them responsibly

>>9160502
Well I was reading about how overloading the dopamine receptors during adolescence can slow down neurogenesis as well as development of the pre frontal cortex thus not allowing you to reach your full potential and even causing a decline in executive functioning and short term memory.

All the studies that have been done so far are been inconclusive. The most regarded one from what I've seen is a recent experiment on laboratory mice in which they were exposed to THC from birth for 6 months (about 25% of their life). Those mice then showed decline in processing speed when navigating a maze compared to the control mice. They were never able to recover from this either. However, if the mice were exposed to THC in adulthood, they also showed some cognitive decline but were able to recover.

To me this study is highly flawed. Translating this information for humans, that would be like smoking from infancy till the age of 25 (assuming we live till 100 years) which of course would cause changes in development.

>>9160803
that's a hard one. For me, they are overall harmless, relative to my professional requirements, if anything they help me since again, the avoidance of burnout is pretty huge.
but all people are not me. There are those who become addicted to the instant gratification of drugs, and while it is very good, I have experience being completely burnt out on drugs as well, with them being my only source of any dopamine spike. It's a matter of self-control, which I do have (right now id love to get stoned but i have 2 more papers to read), as well as a sense of self derived from working hard, which i also have. Getting the feeling of a dopemine dump without having done anything to warrant it gets old pretty quick. But in terms of it affecting my desire to do other things, it doesnt because ive been down that road of just drugs, and it's pretty depressing. Not to mention pretty bad for your health overall, you will start to feel pretty shitty.
Cocaine is different though, i hated cocaine (and hate snorting shit in general), it did literally nothing for me but make me feel like i was suffocating/drowning in a sea of terrible tasting (bitter) chemicals, and apparently it was good coke. i stay away from really addictive shit like heroin, opiates (though i love them), amphetamines, and cocaine just in case what you're talking about does happen.
Really i think it's just my past experiences which made me realize that drugs have little substance overall, at least for me. I just use it as a relaxation tool.

>>9160821
Also to add on to this comment, it might be a bit of a stretch but exposing the mice to marijuana for 6 months could have also impaired them in the sense that their brains didn't get enough oxygen and/or they were stressed from being put under those conditions. Just a thought.

>>9160821
yea i dunno what to say about that, i started smoking weed at around 15-16, and probably have smoked daily 90% of days since then, and im 26 now. meanwhile i have friends who dropped out of college because of weed and have no real problem working retail or food service just to sustain themselves and buy more weed. I just have too much ambition/scientific thinking for that, even the year off i took where i smoked very heavily i still was very interested in science/research and would look it up on my own, but the realization that without hard work/schooling i would never make a contribution to the scientific community was a pretty big deal.
i was fairly surprised to find how many people do drugs/drink at upper levels, but again, they are very responsible about it, im probably a little more rogue than them in that i smoke pretty much every night unless pulling an all nighter to study or read papers/develop potential protocols

>>9160836
That's great to hear. What about physiologically? Any heart murmurs, troubles breathing, ect.? How tall are you?

>>9160854
Well any health issues i would have would be from cigarettes really, i was a heavy smoker for at least 3 or 4 years, and still smoke about one or two a day. I've never had any negative health effects from drugs that i can think of, but im extremely mentally grounded so exacerbated psychosis from weed isnt a thing for me, but it can be a thing. Worst has been bad smokers cough and coughing up brown/black speckled phlegm when i was a heavy smoker, but that stopped a while ago when i significantly reduced cigs. I don't drink to the point of being blackout drunk, but obviously heavy drinking will fuck with you over time. Frankly i feel fantastic on a day to day basis, and seem to get sick less often than people around me, although i eat pretty healthy as well. I am 6'1 and fairly skinny, high metabolism, and do not work out, but walk quite a bit everyday

I've been dabbling with amphetamines lately, capped and dosed accurately.

It's just so nice for studying the more mundane things, I don't know what I'm doing to my brain so I'm a bit hesitant(I'm 20yo math student).

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>>9160450
Worst than drugs. Hope you are ok now.

>>9160415

i don't feel any different, desu being good student and having high iq is about studying ethics.

honestly if i spent more time learning mathematics and science i could probably do some awesome shit, but in the end im pretty indifferent to my own life.

don't have regrets, only regret i have is being born now and not 100 years in the future, but that's only if we really advance without the next 100 years.