heh. There was a study that followed 200 kids from age three to 18. They looked at their drug use: abstainers, experimenters, heavy users. I can't remember the exact details but, basically, the point was that the study traced their problems to childhood issues and relationship with parents, as to whether they turned out to have problems with drug use. One frequently cited study of pot users attributes their slacking to the fact that they were inclined to be like that anyway.
>There are hundreds of thousand of addicts like Rush Limbaugh who go to work
>everyday and no one knows they are addicts.
A friend of mine, who I haven't talked to in ages, was addicted to crank--he and his wife. Both held down good jobs--he a sys admin which is a p retty stressful job, especially at one of the world's most prestigious universities. They didn't abuse their kids or even ignore them, loved them dearly.
I also worked with a woman for a year and my sister worked with her for two. You might have heard of Ronnie James Dio (Padavano) and Elf? She was the wife of, uh, I think it was the drummer. 15 years later she was still addicted to heroin. Managed the food service facilities at a ski resort. She did just fine my sister reports. As far as I could see, she was just fine where I worked (my boss was Ramona, married to the keyboardist, David), too. She was later busted and put on methadone.
Also reminded me of Gladys, she was a secretary when I worked for Ramona. She started having all these weird attacks. She'd just have them all of a sudden, phone her mother for a ride home, and split for the day. She made an appt at Sayre Medical center, a couple hundred miles away. In preparation, she detailed everything she felt, ate, did in a journal for the two weeks it took to get an appointment in our fantabulous medical system -- and this was before the HMO onslaught! (This woman was the pinnacle of organization, typing out addresses on labels so she could mail 100 postcards to friends and family when she went on vacation!)
Well, all that journal writing was for naught. The doc at the medical center noted that her medical records indicated that she'd been on valium for nearly 20 years, having been prescribed it years ago when her kids were little (and she was trying to make ends meet with at-home secretarial work). She took it for years and years 'til the new rural family doc decided that she shouldn't take it anymore. Gladys did as she was told and, since no one told her she might experience withdrawal, and she assumed new family doc knew what she was doing, she had no clue.
For 20 years, Gladys did her thing and extraordinarily well, I might add. As I learned, investigating the issue a little more for her, untold numbers of women were prescribed valium and took it for years -- often to ease the symptoms of overwork, the time bind, frazzled lives, mind-numbing work, etc.
Has anyone ever taken valium? I don't know what happens to you when you become inured to it, but I took it once as a kid. Man! I was in a total daze and could barely remember what I did for the few hours I was 'high' on it. How Gladys made it through the day in that haze, I have no clue. Presumably you become tolerant of the dosage?
I had to have some Nitrous a couple of months ago, btw. An outpatient procedure. Can't say that I'd recommend it to anyone! The nurse was rilly rilly glad I had a ride home, lemme tell ya. That stuff was not at all enjoyable.