Do you use drugs when you write?

Maze Runner said:

That oughta clear the room.

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I am glad I live in a state where pot is legal.

So I had the opposite experience to a lot of people when I finally caved and went on SSRIs. I'd spent a decade in miserable, crushing depression, convinced that if I let the drugs help, I'd be completely unable to create.

Funny thing, when the choice came down to suicide or drugs, and I decided to take the drugs because I have little kids and didn't want that for them--it turned out that I was a lot more creative when half my brain wasn't thinking up ways to accidentally off myself.

I wish to hell I had that decade back.

Other than the coffee and prescription SSRIs, no drugs. Booze hits me way too hard now, and I've never been a smoker.

If I have a drink or two before I'm supposed to write, it kills my motivation and I end up waffling around on Twitter or something equally dumb instead. If I have a glass of wine/beer/scotch just as I'm about to start writing, or shortly after, I find it can be really helpful in the drafting stages when I'm feeling stuck or intimidated by the scale of what's ahead of me.

ETA: Oh, and I really like critting queries when I'm a little bit buzzed. I have no idea why.

I quit smoking ages ago, but I bet if I still did it'd make me more productive. I used to love staying up late in college, cranking out papers, listening to music, and chainsmoking. Gross, I know, but sometimes I miss it.

dondomat said:

In a sense, the Beats and the hippies helped, intentionally or not, to loosen this system of control and punishment, and the generations of young women who gave themselves up to a manic lifestyle of promiscuity, creativity, and being stoned, no less than the second wave feminists, and maybe more, helped convince the patriarchy on a primal level, that they too really are human, just like the womanizing drunks they screw. IMO.

So have a drink or light a joint in honor of those whose fast burning out and public bad taste helped shock the system into minimizing institutional fascism.

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I should probably clarify. While admit that I've read the Beats stuff and found it not to be my cup of tea, I do believe their movement was important and that they should be taught.

Like I said, it's the preening romanticism people have for them that bugs me. Yeah, they wrote some cool stuff, but like I said, there's a reason that lifestyle doesn't come with a long lifespan and while you may think it sounds cool to live fast, die young, and leave a good-looking corpse, it's not so cool to the family and friends who have to deal with what's leftover afterwards. Besides, while On the Road is considered the Bible for many self-proclaimed Beats and misfits, you have to remember that ultimately the characters in the book didn't have a rollicking good time; in fact, they never find what they were looking for in their long road trip across America.

But speaking as someone who has struggled with mental illness, I've always felt the Tormented Artist Whose Creative Demons Fuel His/Her Work trope needs to DIAF. Whenever I'm in the throes of Depression, I have a hard time getting out of bed and pretty much all my creativity goes out the window, given that I'm crushed under the weight of my own emotions. But ever so often, there's some idiot who goes on TV and criticizes anti-depressants, saying something along the lines of "Where are all the artists and writers going to come from?" My response is: maybe the tortured artist whose torment you romanticize, would have produced more if they had something to keep their demons under control. Because seriously however romantic the trappings my look on the outside, it's not romantic to those actually suffer from mental illness, not to mention those who love someone afflicted with mental illness.

Okay rant over. I do admit I get some amusement by thinking, given that the Beat movement was in reaction to the conservatism of the Eisenhower administration, the conservatism of the Bush II administration would have made their heads explode. Because Eisenhower comes across as pretty damn liberal compared with modern Republicans.

I read a Stephen King interview a while back, where he finally throws up his hands and says something along the lines of: "A good writer? What it takes to a good writer? I'll tell you what it takes to be a good writer! A good wife and good health! That's what it takes! Now go away!"

jjdebenedictis said:

I remember hearing about a study that found people who eat a lot of carbs and sugars tend to need a hit of sugar to (mentally) function at peak performance. People who don't eat a lot of carbs and sugars were okay without, i.e. their system hadn't come to rely on ready access to quick calories.
.

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Mm. My (basic) understanding of the biology is that muscles and brain burn glucose. The body provides that either from recently eaten sugars, slower digested more complex carbohydrates or from glycogen stored in the liver. If you don't have any glucose sources, then the body starts breaking down protein - as in muscle. The documentary was particularly making that point as they had one of the test subjects cycling while on a sugar free diet, he was struggling and the voice over was talking about losing muscle on that limited a diet.
I'm not talking about eating lots of cake, just having the correctly balanced diet with the proportions of carbohydrate, fat and protein as recommended. Part of the documentary was about how sugar has been demonised.
Its really back to the old thing of "everything in moderation".

Regarding the swimmers - I used to slightly know a group of athletes (Olympic team contenders) and by heck they could eat. Putting away at least 3000 calories a day and they were all muscle from the training.

Roxxsmom said:

Hahaha! Having had a few incidents with that sneaky (and unwanted) Yahoo toolbar that didn't even involve alcohol, this is all too true.

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My dad always seems to manage to install it when he gets a new PC or laptop. But he's one of those people who will click OK on anything that pops up, no matter how many times he's told not to.

Bolero said:

Regarding the swimmers - I used to slightly know a group of athletes (Olympic team contenders) and by heck they could eat. Putting away at least 3000 calories a day and they were all muscle from the training.

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Sumo wrestlers actually have to gorge themselves and then nap afterward to keep their weight up while still being athletic. They exercise enough that it's difficult to maintain the fat-mass they need to excel at their sport.

Mostly theine, in particular when I'm writing in the evening. At a cafe I'll write with caffeine.

Pot brownies for the raw creative process, but not for the actual act of writing. I get headaches looking at screens when I'm baked. Every other drug I've tried has been completely pointless, but thc is amazing for just churning out ideas for you to make sense out of when you're sober.

Interesting - sugar, chocolate and pot - wonder which is doing it for you?

My scientist hat popping up - wondering about the one variable to isolate.... (No reason it can't be the combo)

Nope, I am crazy enough by myself.

Tobacco.

I know it's literally killing me but it's how I beat writers block.

Trip F. said:

Tobacco.

I know it's literally killing me but it's how I beat writers block.

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Take a drag for me—just one—and inhale that dried tobacco scent before you light. I can almost smell it from memory...


Okay, I'm good. I vaped. Now, if you wouldn't mind, please take that second-hand smoke somewhere else!

Bolero said:

Interesting - sugar, chocolate and pot - wonder which is doing it for you?

My scientist hat popping up - wondering about the one variable to isolate.... (No reason it can't be the combo)

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Well, everyone's brain is different, so I doubt there's only one variable. Different people would find different effects helpful.

Some people want to rev up so they can get stuff on the page. Some people need to relax so they can get stuff on the page. It depends on whether it's inertia or anxiety that's holding them back. And there's certainly more impeding factors than just inertia or anxiety.

Part of why I went into physics rather than biology or chemistry is because organic stuff is messy. To me, it seems like a hellish business to have to tease cause and effect out of vast, wildly complex, inter-related phenomena -- you just can't de-couple everything, y'know?

Seven-Deuce said:

Pot brownies for the raw creative process, but not for the actual act of writing. I get headaches looking at screens when I'm baked. Every other drug I've tried has been completely pointless, but thc is amazing for just churning out ideas for you to make sense out of when you're sober.

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Man... I don't know if I can do the pot-filled foods anymore, especially for the writing process. Smoking it gives me some control over how much I consume so I'm not completely stoned, whereas eating it I can never be sure of when I'm high. And when I am it's usually very, very high. Although...

...a couple of years back my boyfriend and I decided to experiment. We made a bhang using carrot juice and milk. We boiled the marijuana into the milk and blended it with the carrot juice and drank it. At first we didn't really feel anything. But, by the time we traveled from Long Island to South Street Seaport in Manhattan, it came on full force. Great high too, it just comes up gradually.

dondomat said:

I read a Stephen King interview a while back, where he finally throws up his hands and says something along the lines of: "A good writer? What it takes to a good writer? I'll tell you what it takes to be a good writer! A good wife and good health! That's what it takes! Now go away!"

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Of course, Mr. King had his dalliance with alcoholism and cocaine. I believe it's in On Writing where he talks about not actually remembered having written Cujo, which he regrets, because it seems like he probably enjoyed it (paraphrased).

Lhowling said:

Man... I don't know if I can do the pot-filled foods anymore, especially for the writing process. Smoking it gives me some control over how much I consume so I'm not completely stoned, whereas eating it I can never be sure of when I'm high. And when I am it's usually very, very high. Although...

...a couple of years back my boyfriend and I decided to experiment. We made a bhang using carrot juice and milk. We boiled the marijuana into the milk and blended it with the carrot juice and drank it. At first we didn't really feel anything. But, by the time we traveled from Long Island to South Street Seaport in Manhattan, it came on full force. Great high too, it just comes up gradually.

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Hmmmmm… hmmmmm...

I love that about eating the pot. Smoking it, my chest gets all shitty and I feel short of breath for a while, plus there's this hour of just heady, stupid, sleepiness before the coffee kicks in and you can do something worthwhile. Brownies, though, I know when they're working because I have ideas… good ideas… good shitty ideas. You know? Good shitty ideas, the kind that make for fun writing.

I write them down, I mess with them, I fall asleep. Then I wake up and look at it the next day and see if it has potential.

I also love eating pot brownies before playing poker. Sometimes it makes me really awesome at reading my adversaries, and sometimes I wind up leaving a hundred bucks poorer, but with a boatload of good shitty ideas in my head. Either way, the old fogies at the casino hate it

Even in glorious countryside of France I was incapable of writing without one cup of coffee. Otherwise, I've never had any trouble with a bowl or two of greenery, writing-wise. Opiates are a no go for writing, or getting anything done for me.

Diana Hignutt said:

I've never had any trouble with a bowl or two of greenery, writing-wise.

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Salad??

Layla Nahar said:

Salad??

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Of course, what else could I possibly mean? Salad's a drug, right?

No. I don't use any drugs whatsoever, except for drinking coffee or tea, and the amphetamines the doctor prescribed for ADHD.

No, nothing illegal.

I'll have a Coke Zero (Spare me the 'do you know what's in it' speech).

I tend to not write if I am having any alcohol.

I don't count Tylenol or sinus medicine as drugs in this context.


Personal opinion, if you need a drug to make you a good writer, then you're not a good writer and it's not really "you" doing the writing.


Besides, why be under the influence of something and miss the feeling you get when pure inspiration strikes? Why miss the experience of being so "in the zone" that you jam out 5-6,000 words in a single session?

I would feel cheated if I could only do any of that while drunk or high.

culmo80 said:

No, nothing illegal.

I'll have a Coke Zero (Spare me the 'do you know what's in it' speech).

I tend to not write if I am having any alcohol.

I don't count Tylenol or sinus medicine as drugs in this context.


Personal opinion, if you need a drug to make you a good writer, then you're not a good writer and it's not really "you" doing the writing.


Besides, why be under the influence of something and miss the feeling you get when pure inspiration strikes? Why miss the experience of being so "in the zone" that you jam out 5-6,000 words in a single session?

I would feel cheated if I could only do any of that while drunk or high.

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Hey, culmo80, welcome to AW, I'm glad you're here

I have to take issue with a couple of your statements, however.

In particular, this: Personal opinion, if you need a drug to make you a good writer, then you're not a good writer and it's not really "you" doing the writing.

There are a tremendous number of writers who are at least famous (I suppose we could argue "good") who regularly used various substances to prime the pump. Here's one list. If you scroll down, you can find items such as "Samuel Taylor Coleridge took two grains of opium before writing," and "Robert Louis Stevenson wrote 60,000 words in six days using cocaine."

If they were not doing that writing, under the influence, who did it?

Perhaps you can enjoy that high, that rush of being in the zone with only the influence of a legal Coke Zero (or maybe without it at times!) but perhaps your personal experience doesn't match that of others.

I happen to agree in broad general terms that living and creating without such influences is healthier, and is preferrable in all manner of ways, but I sure wouldn't assert that it is the only way good writing comes about. I mean, given the historical record and all.

Everyone has a series of choices and circumstances to deal with in order to produce creative work, and using mood-and-state altering substances as part of the process is clearly quite ordinary and common.

I'm surprised at all the No's. I don't, but in a way I wish I new what it felt like so I could write the feeling based off of experience instead of based off of assumptions. Luckily my husband dabbled in... well, everything.