GENIUS FORUMS

Okay, this is the most pressing issue at the moment.

Does my province-appointed psychiatrist have enough of a bias toward the use of marijuana that his opinion on the matter -- which he would not clarify with specific documentation explaining the real risks of MJ use -- should be completely disregarded? Can his predictions be counted as accurate, or should I ignore them, perform no independent research, and count these as "idle threats from a mediocre individual"?

psychiatry is power-mongering pseudoscience, "mental illness" is a myth, chemical imbalances are bullshit, and "schizophrenia" has no agreeable definition.

http://www.antipsychiatry.org/

why do you want to use MJ? There's no philosophical benefits, and it's most surely used to bring finite happiness.

psychiatry is power-mongering pseudoscience, "mental illness" is a myth, chemical imbalances are bullshit, and "schizophrenia" has no agreeable definition.

I'm actually leaning toward this interpretation. I can understand that when a person is having difficulty making connections, they will be forced to make some weird connections in their brain to get from point A to point B, and some of these connections can be fucked up. But I can't understand why psychiatrists use "this guy's connections don't make sense to me" as an excuse to lock people away. It's anti-thought. I simplify my thoughts to make it easier to get from point A to point B: does that automatically mean that my brain NEEDS to do this due to some imbalance?

Total bullshit.

why do you want to use MJ? There's no philosophical benefits, and it's most surely used to bring finite happiness.

It's an existential band-aid: if you are having trouble with anguish, cover it up with MJ for a while. I would compare it to aspirin, except it deals with spiritual headaches, not physical ones.

Otherwise, unlike all other drugs, I can still think relatively clearly on it: other than the damper it puts on my memory, I'd sooner smoke half of a joint than drink a cup of tea.

If I want truth or happiness, I don't look to pot, though. My complaint is I do not think it is harmful enough that my doctor should so vehemently forbid my occasional toking.

Yikes. That anti-psychiatry stuff is a thinker... :|

Trevor,

On the MJ question, don't you think your own experience is going to be the truest answer you'll find? Especially over time?

Just keep in mind: moderation in all things is usually the best route.

Here's the latest on the subject from The Lancet:

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/G ... is_new.pdf

Dave Toast: I think I've heard of this study. The language is so fucking careful that it can only be political.

The risk of late-onset psychosis is 40% higher in lifetime cannabis users -- higher in people who use it more frequently. My interpretation: people who have existential problems are more likely to find that cannabis helps them. When the problem gets too big for band-aids, it blows up in their face.

The cannabis is not the cause; rather, poor handling of philosophic problems caused psychosis.

Trevor, was it a MRI, PET, or SPECT scan you had in the past?

And didn't it reveal some useful information?

Also, didn't you say medication had helped you?

And finally, does it seem as if you have become immune to the medications effect? Or did you choose to come off them?

Maybe you could give us a update on the reasons why you have dropped your past conclusions and adopted new ones which are pretty much in opposition to your old ones.

(For instance, in the past you seemed to think that bi-polar was a useful label and that medication was helpful, etc.)

I had two different types of MRI; neither revealed much.

I am maintaining my dosage at what it was; right now, I'm contemplating my psychiatrist's motivation for telling me to increase my seroquel and stop smoking pot. The first seems motivated by his hatred of my freshly-grown beard (which he commented reminded him of Taliban); the latter by legal and professional obligations toward the drug.

My changing outlook on the psychiatric profession seems to correspond to other beliefs I'm developing. I'm working with psychology & ethics more than anything right now. My psychological views go against most contemporary scientific theories that a psychiatrist might be exposed to, and are very phenomenological. Ethics has pushed me into capitalism from a normative view (the goal of life ought to be the pursuit of capital), and may be starting to make me a little paranoid.

With my new psychological theories, psychiatry is irrelevant. It can only be explained as a carefully measured type of thought police. If my psychological views are wrong, and the cause of a false belief is a chemical imbalance, as psychiatry claims (and not just as often the other way around, as I'm starting to suspect), then changing my medication without exceedingly careful consideration would be idiotic.

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Instead of spinning up a doob, or packing a bowl... consider heating a pint of reverse-osmosis water to about 190 degrees Farenheit. Get a tea bag and empty the pekoe tea whatever and fill with a joints worth of some good cannabis - let it brew for about five minutes - then sip, guzzle depending upon ones' temperment.

If you are more heavy duty smoker, then get an empty gallon glass jug and do the same with the reverse-osmosis water obviously an eighth-ounce or thereabouts of some good weed. Set it out in the early morning sun and let it absorb the speed of light-rays of the warming sun till evening arrives. Bring inside and place in the refrigerator and chill or keep at room temperature, if you prefer. Be sure to remove the weed from jug and let it naturally dry out. Otherwise the mold etc. will rapidly multiply. For longer term storage, i'd employ a non-bleached brown coffee filter and strain the contents, then place in cooler for the long haul. ;-)

It should creep upon you (your being) quite immeasurably slow, and in a while, well, you know... and "the buzz"... is simply fantastic. Not as immediate as a couple tokes or so, but the gallon of "liquid sunshine" should last some time.

Some people i know prefer the "BC BUD" variety but for me (the people i commingle with)... it's the Humboldt County stuff. That being said, the weed is never brought to my property, when imbibing it's always on someone elses' land (house, garage, car) never on anything of my titled whatever. The DEA is verboten around here. Gettin' paranoid, better stop here, man.

It's a considerably more spiritual experience than the immediate rush of smoking the stuff. The Good Stuff!

The bonus of sunshine herb via water buzz, is you can remove the eighth ounce (whatever the amount) and dry it out and get loaded (smoke it!) for the second go-round.

The ashes can be sent to Cubbie (ExpectantlyIronic) and he can give it the proper burial.


ps- lay that idea on the psychiatrist. I've never had filled a prescription of any sort other than the morphine drip those medics laid on me in VietNam, that was a long, strange trip i'd not offer to anyone.

Those poor saps getting blasted (wounded) in Iraq, Afghanistan. Fawk. Drugs are a non-starter for me.



Tomas (the tank)
VietNam veteran - 1971


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Trevor Salyzyn wrote:It's an existential band-aid: if you are having trouble with anguish, cover it up with MJ for a while. I would compare it to aspirin, except it deals with spiritual headaches, not physical ones.

Sure, but the band-aid can easily function as cover-up too: the unwillingness to deal with what the trouble is the indicator of. This is why MJ is accused of being an escapist drug: you have an itch, you light another one. Its lightness is also its darkness.

By this standard anti-depressives fall in the same category, just different side-effects.

If I want truth or happiness, I don't look to pot, though. My complaint is I do not think it is harmful enough that my doctor should so vehemently forbid my occasional toking.

It's not harmful, apart from the stigma it has. But like all things 'spirit' it can have adverse effects when deeper mental problems are already in place at the start: it worsens or masquerades that which should be addressed for health reasons, or even truth reasons.

Tomas: You have a remarkable way of making things that bother me to no end seem easy. :)

Diebert: perhaps you have a point. In retrospect, the only way I can imagine MJ having any effect on anguish is if it removes my freedom somewhere. And that doesn't seem to be something a drug can do, so I must be doing my share of roleplaying when I smoke it. In that case, maybe I should pick up some Dungeons and Dragons if I absolutely must find a way to escape my freedom.

I have zero doubt that long term dope usage fucks up your ability to be satisfied.

Me too, I'm quickly understanding, if only from an annoying contradiction:

If I value truth, I need as many faculties as possible. Damaging even one, even temporarily, goes against this project. I know for a fact that marijuana harms my memory, which is essential to truth-gathering, therefore marijuana use goes against my project.

Simply believing a contradiction, that marijuana is ethical for lovers of truth, was leading into territory that was fast becoming unworkable. I'm jumping this boat before it sinks.

My doctor's motivations are certainly wrong, and I'm not going to stop considering my doctor to be thought police: however, his conclusion is correct. It's hard to agree with someone's conclusion when his method is all wrong.

Jamesh, to continue that thought:

However, I am presently on quite a large cocktail of drugs that I am also certain are going to cause more harm than good in the long run. I need to be able to live without the band-aid solution of these medications. These drugs are largely experimental, and the longest-term studies span maybe a decade. These are likely no safer than the drugs I was abusing on the streets, as far as long-term effects are concerned.

But, I cannot rightly pull myself off these meds. One drug, for instance, almost entirely regulates my mood (or at least, how I present myself to others in facial expressions and gestures). I do not think that I would be capable of removing this medication from my system and then figuring out how to present myself "sanely" over the course of two months (my next doctor's visit). He would lock me away for sure, and pump me full of more poison.

Self-poisoning myself with marijuana -- which I consider to be the safest of the psychoactive drugs -- may work as good practise for when I eventually decide to experiment with removing my medications (which I will hopefully be able to do under the guidance of a different psychiatrist). Being able to tolerate heavy intoxication without visibly changing one's behaviour is a very difficult skill to master. Already, I have developed a Socratic tolerance for alcohol: I will be knocked out or killed before I behave in any thoroughly inappropriate way. Since it is nothing but poison, I avoid drinking it.

But marijuana still affects me. I simply can't escape its intoxication. It numbs my brain and makes me behave slowly and think carelessly. I often have to wait out its effects before I can be assured that I will speak wisely. I will catch myself muttering to myself and behaving in "psychotic" ways. I know for a fact that when I remove my medication, I will have to be dealing with a similar situation (psychosis), and I will need to learn how to adapt quickly. I will need to find ways to make myself speak and behave appropriately and coherently until my neural connections adapt and harden in non-psychotic ways. Dealing with this process on marijuana is, thus, practise for something I will be needing to do in the near future.

Long-term, I do not intend to use it.

Trevor, you are justifying the use of marijuana as practice for removing yourself from the medication that keeps your brain from self destructing due to lack of sleep. Where is the logic in that?

I have already explained the logic, Elizabeth. I would rather find a way to sleep without medication than with it.

The second fact is I can no longer trust the motivations of psychiatrists, after my sleeping pills were increased because -- and I verified this with my mom, who was there -- he didn't like my hair cut. I can no longer trust the judgement of psychiatrists. Mine behaves like good old fashioned thought police.

I'm planning to change doctors to one who is genuinely concerned about helping me live a drug-independent life. (I have no problems with continuing to pay for medication that I don't use, because I know that the drug companies that fund the researchers that tell my doctor what to prescribe to treat various illnesses at conferences are performing a valuable service for some people. Just not me, since I believe that if I have problems with the way I'm thinking in some situations, I can simply work on that aspect of thought. If I have trouble sleeping at night because I'm thinking too much -- well, I know that that could just as easily be a philosophic problem as a psychiatric one. The only proof that I have that it is psychiatric is that the only way to convince doctors to let you out of hospitals is to firmly believe that they helped you by filling you full of drugs.)

The nail in the coffin, Elizabeth, is that less than a week before I saw my shrink, I talked to a therapist for well over an hour. He said that my psychiatrist would find me perfectly healthy. On the contrary, my psychiatrist gave me an immediate diagnosis based solely on my new haircut -- okay, I tried to cut my own hair. This is not a sign of poor hygiene. It's concern about dealing with my own hygiene. His immediate diagnosis: more sedation!

His evidence, which was added to my file by my therapist, but which my psychiatrist had not even bothered to read before the check-up, was that I had been smoking some reefer. I literally had to tell him this, since he hadn't been doing his homework. He threatened me with "the longest hospital stay so far". He would not provide me with literature on marijuana, and told me to check the Internet for this well-known information. I found only heavy politicized messages, with no clear evidence for harm. He obviously has not done any research himself, and was advising from a position of personal ignorance.

When I disagreed with the added medication, since it would put me to sleep all day and he didn't have a sound medical reason to support his decision, he said "you never normally disagree with me. This must be evidence of mania."

That is bullying. He is the only person I know who has a blank check to lock me up (no trial, no jury, arbitrary length of imprisonment... and no crime), and he is not using this power wisely. Everyone except him thinks I'm perfectly sound of mind: when the only person who thinks you are crazy is your psychiatrist, it's time to switch shrinks.

Trevor, dude, seriously. It's not time to switch shrinks, it's time to fucking SHOOT ALL OF THEM IN THE HEAD BECAUSE THEY DESERVE IT. There's no such thing as a good psychiatrist because psychiatry is horeshit in your dinner plate. I'm surprised your philosophical mind still has not dropped dead all these shrinks and let them have it in the ass. Sometimes I think of going Postal on psychiatrists, now THAT would give me eternal happiness. You've read that Anti-Psychiatry website, maybe now you should watch One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, on marijuana for that matter, then maybe you'll clear your head and destroy all contact with these vipers from the den of hell and academic (eeeek!!!!) sorcery. On that matter, just give the shrinks the attitude they want so all these DRUGS will be stopped from entering your sacred temple. NO psychiatrist drug is worth it, they aren't actually medicine, they just destroy the brain, that's how it works!! On another matter, use MJ to go to sleep. Take it a couple hours before bed, and make sure you're burnt out when trying to sleep not when still high. OR, try magic mushrooms as a philosophical experiment, take 3.5 grams of magic mushrooms. Boy that was a fun ride, if you think you'll hurt yourself which is rare, have a buddy with you.

For aphorism thread... "it is a psychiatrist's job to collect and hide the truth. Never trust a man who is not permitted to smile when he likes what a patient says."

Trevor Salyzyn wrote:he said "you never normally disagree with me. This must be evidence of mania."

WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That is incredibly unethical. "Agree with me or I'll drug you and lock you away." Damn straight that's bullying. Report him to whatever board of officials governs his license.

I'm trying to remain as canny about the situation as possible, Elizabeth. I've been commited to two hospital stays so far, and I don't think I'm willing to fight in any way that might cause me more long-term visits (which only end when I humbly agree that the medication has cured me -- which is pretty easy to do when you are on mind-altering substances which you know have changed you in some way). I will switch shrinks, and test the waters. Trying to get one fired when I'm getting information that the whole of psychiatry might be corrupt is not wise. I will fight the battles that I know I can win.

For instance, and this was perhaps the most offensive thing a psychiatrist has ever diagnosed me with, it was claimed in one report that I was rambling "pseudophilosophically". Looking back, I know that every single thought was philosophic, and double-checked them later with a professor at the U of A. The doctor should have checked with a philosophy professor before writing bullshit like that. This was a different guy, by the way, so there's two doctors I don't think I can trust. This makes me wonder: are they even doctors? Or are they priests?

As far as I can tell, if you want a nice parody of psychiatry, check out "The Church of Scientology". Just don't spend too much money, because you aren't getting it back.

why do you still want to switch psychiatrists? why don't you just agree that it fixed you and leave the damn place forever?

Because I can justify institutionalized begging as moral, so long as one is leading a philosophic or artistic life.

i wouldn't consider institutionalized begging as moral, since you're preventing someone else who really does need help. what happened to your 1000$ a month deal? I've always thought of starting a commune, which begs me to ask, who on GF lives near or in Hamilton/Toronto, Ontario, Canada?