We can't all be Ken Kesey! Although, I have wondered if it would be worth it to try LSD just to see. But even if I was brilliant on it, would it be worth it? Better question: Is it really worth it? And perhaps, and even more interesting question: If you write better under the influence, than what influence is it? And why?
I write better after a glass of wine or two. Any more than that, though, and things kind of fall apart.
Lately, I've been writing and doing a lot of other work under the influence of Vyvanse, a prescription drug that your body converts to dextroamphetamine. I find it very helpful, partly because it clears up a bunch of mental fog that I've been carrying around for as long as I can remember (ADHD, autism-related crap, or both; they amount to the same thing), and partly because it gives me the very same burst of energy and motivation that normal people get from it. The authorities often call the effects of these medicines on ADHD "paradoxical", but increased focus is a classic stimulant effect, as are restlessness, decreased appetite, irritability, and insomnia. It's almost like it's still drug use. Legally prescribed, of course. I don't want any felony charges. And I only take it three times a week, which explains why those effects haven't gone away yet.
It causes plenty of perceptual impairment (it induces temporary psychosis, after all), but it has low direct toxicity, and it isn't exactly known for its horrible addictive potential. I wouldn't touch it, but I also wouldn't particularly look down on someone who did. Of course, I know that alcohol and tobacco are forms of drug use, and that promiscuity and firearm ownership can be just as or even more damaging, so my views on stimulants and hallucinogens are rather less judgmental than most.
I've been known to collaborate on writing projects with my two best friends Jim Beam and Jack Daniels.
For me it depends on what I'm drinking. Red wine seems to be the only thing that has a positive effect on my writing. It doesn't make my writing better. It just makes the ideas spill out. Upon reading it back while sober, the writing usually has quite a few errors, but the ideas are good. I can be into anything while tipsy. I can clean the whole house while drunk and think it's the greatest, most hilarious thing. So if I have a scene that I'm not really into, but I know it's necessary, some wine can help with my enthusiasm and bring about new ideas for the scene. But in general, I write stone cold sober. Full of tea actually. Caffeine seems to help my writing more than alcohol does.
So recently I read a report that with LSD there is a chance of permanent craziness, you know when the brain goes pop and your a vegetable, so I figured, I'd give it a miss thanks very much. It was always on my list of things to do until I heard about that. I write on caffeine, tea, and in a sterile environment. I can't operate on alcohol or with music on. I need total focus.
Replace "high" with "sober", "forget" with "remember everything at the same time forever", and you have me in my natural mental state!
All marijuana does is make you feel relaxed (at least in my experience), it neither hinders nor helps my ability to write. And further to that, I can do pretty much anything else with no hindrance while high so I never understood why people make out like it's this amazing thing. I've never once hallucinated, or had any sort of incredible epiphany while being high. On the same note, I don't think not smoking it affects you creatively in a positive or negative way either. Basically, high or not, your writing skills aren't going to improve or worsen solely because of it. Being drunk, on the other hand, completely different story. Sure, I can write when I'm drunk. I won't even make that many spelling mistakes. I just really can't be bothered to write when I'm drunk. I lose all desires to write, even if it's just a Facebook status. Any other drugs outside of that, well, I've only tried a handful, and they have similar effects to alcohol. I can't comment on any of the heavier stuff, but I've never known a crack head to be a best-selling novelist.
I've tried writing while drinking a number of times, but it always end up as one big monologue. One of these days, I'm going to grab a case of beers and a bottle of SoCo, then write the sequel to Portnoy's Complaint.
I dunno what you guys are doing out in the UK, but I clearly need to introduce you to a friend of mine ...
I have to be stark sober 'cause my ideas are even dumber when I'm drunk. I mean, if I could somehow affect the perception of the audience so that they'd see the drunken drivel in an equally brilliant light as I did while writing it, then I'd totally advocate writing when drunk, but, for now, I have to keep a clear head. I also get super bad hangovers (like projectile vomiting level of bad). Well, this one time @T.Trian and I wrote our first manuscript (a hack'n slash fantasy) while drinking monastery beers and eating sausages. I think we got somewhat drunk, and while the writing was in the end really quite dreadful, damn did we have fun!
I have major depression and do some of my best writing (in my opinion) when I'm at my lowest. The words have more meaning and feeling behind them. Sometimes it takes less work to write and the words just come pouring out and I can't contain them. I have purposely tried to bring myself down in order to become creative. Sometimes it sucks but I get pretty good stuff out of it.
Don't know if serious or joking, but for me opioids are the worst for productivity. I've been prescribed them after surgeries, but wasn't in pain so I didn't take them. Then (pathetically) I got a really bad toothache and Tylenol didn't help. So, I pulled out the good ol' Oxy Codone. I'd like to start by saying the experience is amazing, and I understand why it becomes problematic for so many people. However, my mind becomes so fogged that I can't do anything. I just sit there and bask in the euphoria. I can't think of a single thing I've accomplished while using opioids, but I've never used them for a long stretch of time. Don't intend to either, even if they are quite amazing.
I think it was a newspaper story in the Uk.. Maybe the guardian or independent, a couple of months ago maybe. Just read up on HPPD, persistent psychosis, flashbacks, paranoia, panic attacks, mental health issues, it's all quiet scary, and because lsd isn't legal, it can be made anywhere by anyone, who knows what's in it, or what quantities of what are in it. I don't think lsd would actually help a writer anyway, you'd probably climb into the computer screen and disappear into the matrix.
All those things have happened to people, but, from what I've read, the really bad and persistent reactions are fairly rare and usually appear in users who were already mentally unstable to begin with. It's like how some people with preexisting heart problems would drop dead from the running I do or the low doses of Vyvanse I take. Of course, I'm not a medical expert, and I certainly don't know everything about these substances, but both of the publications you mentioned tend to be fairly anti-drug, and I've seen LSD and psilocybin get hit with just as much overblown fear-mongering as Ritalin or weed. The first three are fairly serious drugs, and the last might be as well, but so are alcohol, tobacco, and even certain ill-advised episodes of caffeine use that lead to seizures, arrhythmia, or severe sleep deprivation. (Sorry if that came across as rude or disjointed. I tend to get a little too emotional about this subject, which can lead me to put my foot in my mouth.) EDIT: That part is spot-on, though, and I would add that LSD can be swapped for more dangerous hallucinogens without anyone knowing until it's too late. It's an unfortunate side effect of drug prohibition, regardless of your stance on it.
PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS DON'T MAKE PEOPLE CRAZY, STUDY SAYS RESEARCHERS EVEN FOUND SOME ASSOCIATIONS BETWEEN PSYCHEDELIC DRUGS AND FEWER MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-08/psychedelics-dont-give-you-mental-health-problems-study-says Sorry, the copy-paste made for all-caps. I had a psychotic break from LSD when I was 14. For my family systems class last quarter I wrote a long paper about it, and how from a family systems perspective the psychosis the acid induced was more of a way for me to "blow the cover" on the insanity of other parts of the system. Interesting ideas, at least. Or, I have crazy person genes and the drugs turned them "on." However, when I'm not on drugs, I'm fine. I'm in a master's program training to become a mental health professional. The irony, or something. My grandmother on my mom's side had schizophrenia and both my parents have some kinds of weird mood and probably personality disorders, or at least are on some significant spectrum with these issues. I tend to be more likely to get paranoid, anxious and depressed from certain substances. But if I'm on my self-care game, meaning that if I am exercising regularly, eating well, getting good sleep, getting sunlight or being in nature a couple times a week, I can put all kinds of poisons/medicines in my body and do just fine. LSD, shrooms and the rest of these drugs are a coin toss for me though. The last time I did shrooms, I entered into a dark place that my friends had to spend the rest of the night trying to pull me out. I was convinced my girlfriend was cheating on me with her professor, who she was staying with that night. Granted, she had cheated on me with our heroin dealer a couple years before. And with the other guy that other time. Okay, maybe I wasn't crazy, lol. But years before that, my friend had to talk me out of killing myself when I was on shrooms. So there's a theme there for me. But I don't regret having used these drugs. In other cultures these would be considered medicines we take to confront darker parts of ourselves, spirits and so on. There are some interesting (admittedly fringe) perspectives on how psychotropic plants, mushrooms and even frog-secretions (yeah) may have aided certain evolutionary processes. I find this stuff to be super interesting, but it's unlikely I'll drop acid or take shrooms any time soon. I think I will again someday, though. Confronting those dark places (and really, really beautiful, unfathomable places) is important to me. It's more or less why I keep going back to therapy! Many ways up the mountain, as they say...
I love this thread! I always thought it but never said it. YES! I love writing after a nice green cigarette The reason I love it is because I am no longer so reader-focused. One of my other threads is about how I'm too self-conscious when I write and so it doesn't really come out naturally. After smoking, I couldn't care less about others. I'm in the zone and the writing comes out as my thoughts do. I've done some of my best work this way. I also enjoy this experience because it allows me to understand where I need to go in order to open up enough to write freely. Smoking guides me and so I can almost recreate this feeling sober. Go green!
I don't know how pro or anti those publications are, it could have been the bbc for all I know... But I'd say it was respectable, not tabloids or itv etc. I'm fairly open minded, and I think punishment needs reviewing (unless you put someone else's life in danger) but I have to say, if I had my way I'd make alcohol and tobacco illegal, because, let's be honest the world is full of little bleeps, who can't handle it and end up addicted, criminal, wasted, dead. Whichever way, it's a strain on hospitals/legal system. EDIT: nothing you said came across as rude.
