Destigmatization is part of it, as well as the "come talk about whatever's bothering you!" approach of college counseling services.
I'd also put a lot of it on the high-pressure upbringing a lot of these kids endured. Combine paranoid, overprotective parenting with an overemphasis on achievement and the constant drilling/special classes/application padding some parents put their kids through from birth, and you're going to get people who implode once they get to college. #college
Kids, be careful. My roommate in college went to the mental health services for depression and anxiety. The psychiatrist put him on an experimental drug that set off loud spring noises in his head and made him punch the wall in his sleep. #college
It's because they want to score Adderall. I've thought about posting a definitive guide on how to do this. The only thing holding me back is the fact that my doctor might see it. #college
This is because mental distress has become completely de-stigmatized. In addition, traditional methods of dealing with stress - internalizing it, hoping it goes away, drinking heavily - are forgotten in favor of heading to the shrink every time there's some sort of existential dread. Plus every school is so afraid of suicides that I'm surprised they don't just pump a cocktail of SSRI's into the water supply. #sarcasm
Maybe, just maybe, the kids care more about mental health and understand it more than older generations. Maybe they think "crazy" and "nuts" are pejoratives used by unhealthy, machine-hearted people. #college
LeeroySpitzer promoted this comment
Edited by zombies.like.lattés.too at 09/10/09 3:56 PM
zombies.like.lattés.too was starred
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Better Know a District is always the best part of this show. I loved the Eleanor Holmes Norton ones, when he asked her why she was undressing him with her eyes.
I watched the Freshman Year series on CNN.com with Congressmen Polis and Chaffetz and they were both pretty funny guys, though I agree with few of Chaffetz's political opinions.
Addictive, schmaddictive! All I need to stop smoking weed is to move to another totalitarian country where my dealer could get hung for hooking me up and I could fuck up my wife's career, but there's unlimited booze.
I guess I'd be considered a "high-functioning stoner," since I have written a novella and a screenplay while high. If I am addicted to weed, I am equally addicted to candy, The Hills, Lost, ordering cashmere sweaters from J.Crew, and commenting on Gawker when I should be doing work.
@metoometoo: Did you get paid to write your novella or screenplay or have they entered the public realm?
Not to knock creativity for the sake of creativity, but I'm met too many "writers" in this city who don't understand the difference between writing for themselves and writing professionally. Hint: If you don't get paid to do the thing you say you did that's not a fair comparison.
@SpyMagician: I have not been paid - yet - for either one, but the novella was my senior thesis, and it received high honors, appropriately enough. And I'm still working on selling the screenplay. In fairness, I only just turned 24, so give me a few years to get published!
Anyway, I wasn't trying to boast about my writing abilities, just my functioning-while-stoned abilities. And I do have plenty of concrete evidence that I'm a better writer stoned than sober. I made this discovery sophomore year, when I wrote one set of poems for a creative writing class and received mediocre feedback, then got stoned to write the second batch of poems, which received rave reviews.
@metoometoo: Fair enough. In my case, avoiding alcohol when being creative improved things. Pot hasn't helped me do anything but be high. And I'm tired of that kind of high. So hey. All fair and all good.
As someone who grew up in a house with "high functioning" pot smoker parents, let me tell you the addiction does exist, and it is horrible. Maybe people aren't out on the streets looking for a bong hit at 3 am in the sketchy part of town, but bad things are still happening. I have seen so many things fall by the wayside with people waiting for their hookup to call or the omnipresent "lets just smoke one more bowl before we leave". Whether people know it or not they are throwing their lives away for a high just like anything else. And before everyone jumps up my ass, yes I have and will occasionally smoke pot, but if you smoke it everyday or have excuses like "I can't relax/ socialize / enjoy ____ without smoking" your a addict.
@PageCalypso: My parents are stoners as well, and I am a stoner now. I don't blame them, I love it, but we are all addicted. As this article says, a lot of potheads used to do other things, and have settled down to just nugs. I used to do H and OCs myself, and the weed keeps me clean as a (smoking) whistle.
@clipper: I've always been a very casual smoker, but my ex used to get really cranky if he ran out of weed and missed his daily 'bake'.
FWIW, he needed no motivation to suck dick.
@clipper: When you find yourself awake at 3 a.m. scraping out a bowl for some resin for the second time in a week, because you already smoked the bud you stole from your friend's stash, even though you promised yourself you'd make it last till the end of the week, and you have to get up and work the next day, and you know how sad it is but you still can't stop, I have to say, it sure feels like addiction.
10/19/09
I'd also put a lot of it on the high-pressure upbringing a lot of these kids endured. Combine paranoid, overprotective parenting with an overemphasis on achievement and the constant drilling/special classes/application padding some parents put their kids through from birth, and you're going to get people who implode once they get to college. #college
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Have you considered the "coddled pussies" angle? #college
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Also, how do you sign up to be a test subject in these hugely fun sounding Studies on Alcohol and Drugs? I believe I am an excellent candidate.
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Funny segment. Teabag jokes never shrivel up.
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Not to knock creativity for the sake of creativity, but I'm met too many "writers" in this city who don't understand the difference between writing for themselves and writing professionally. Hint: If you don't get paid to do the thing you say you did that's not a fair comparison.
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Anyway, I wasn't trying to boast about my writing abilities, just my functioning-while-stoned abilities. And I do have plenty of concrete evidence that I'm a better writer stoned than sober. I made this discovery sophomore year, when I wrote one set of poems for a creative writing class and received mediocre feedback, then got stoned to write the second batch of poems, which received rave reviews.
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"Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?"
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FWIW, he needed no motivation to suck dick.
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