Do you think that drugs bring out the worst in people, or their true character?

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

Having seen people struggling with addiction, my opinion is that it's a bit of both - drugs and addiction take the wost side of a person, a side that usually is a minority and kept in check by a solid morality and education; and make it grow like a tumor until it devours everything else about them.

I've seen a person who always had trust issues and second-guessing himself become a paranoid wreck due to drugs; I've seen a woman who could be mildly whiny and unpleasant at her worst turn into a ruthless and scheming monster. I think it's telling that now that both these people have stopped using, while they have their bad moments they aren't the monsters I had come to see them as.

[AmandaYVR]

Not all drugs are the same. Most people who have never used any, know very little about them. They simply say that if the government has deemed them illegal, they're "bad." So to answer the question I think it needs a more specific breakdown of which drug (s) we're talking about, and whether it's single time use or repeatedly. But that would be tedious.

Drug addiction is clearly no good. It's a whole other animal. I don't think it's fair to say it brings out a person's true character, because drugs aren't really truth serums. They can unearth certain traits, and memories, traumas, etc., but the repetition of use throws the brain off balance, and just like a rat in a cage, can become hyperfocused on that reward mechanism, where all else falls away. There's that famous experiment where animals where low-voltage shocks themselves repeatedly, rather than just sit with no stimulation, no enrichment whatsoever. That's how much living creatures need these things. But if the brain comes to expect this large dump of pleasure to be released, how can it be expected then to be satisfied with simple pleasure?

So, certain drugs, done in controlled, limited quantity, with careful conscientiousness, have been successful at treating some peoples' inner demons, issues, etc. And some have avoided suicide, having been reminded of life's beauty, fragility, and sense of meaning. It can be a re-set.

But any living creature, when exposed to such trying, repeated conditions, will be reduced to a lesser, or worse, version of themselves. At that point I'd just omit the word "character" and say it's no longer right to even try to apply it. They are chemically altered, chemically dependent, and no longer functioning as the body was designed to. "I buried my soul in [Iraq, The Gulf, Vietnam... etc.] I won't ever be that man again." The PTSD, the shellshock, is too great. His character may be the same, but his soul is damaged, broken. 90 medications, and years of talk therapy later, it's as if he did do drugs. The effects on the brain are similar, but it was reality that did it. Our minds can be irreversibly altered by what we experience. Sometimes drugs can do this (cause psychosis, for example - if also a certain gene exists in the person); sometimes drugs can open the mind, open the doors that the person has kept locked for sanity and protection, and make a person face what they thought was unfaceable. And that tames the fear, or moves them past it, so it is behind them. (MDMA, ayahuasca, psilocybin, and the like.) Again, I don't think that's about "their worst" or "their character", but more bringing to light that which exists, and has been too painful to deal with. Certain drugs can magnify, and amplify this; those same drugs can also curtail, prune the intensity of these, or re-associate them with something more positive.

Alcohol seems to be a bit more of a straightforward 'truth serum.' 'In vino, veritas' - as they say. I think that's more often the person's character, which comes out when the filter comes down. But drugs are much more mind-altering. There is less rhyme and reason to how they affect the mind. Though certainly some consistencies exist.

[exitseven]

I grew up in the 80s and i never saw drugs help anyone. i knew a psychiatrist who told me that he had patients who used LSD and could not live with what they saw. He also said sometimes people felt like they lost the capacity to be happy.
These substances pretty much disappeared for many years , I assumed it was because so many people got messed up on them. It is a little startling to se them making a comeback.

[sage2021]

I've seen what I thought was a nice guy until he smoked a lot of meth. He became sexually aggressive and rough. He was angry the whole time and yelled at me over nothing.

Meth brings the worst out in a human being.
Anyone else had the same experience?

[JustiReno]

I think drugs can bring out the absolute worst in people for sure, alcohol included.

but everyone an individual and can only bring out what’s already there, just choosing to do it, even if you are influenced by peers, is an individual’s choice

i like weed because in my job I have to think, weed doesn’t affect my critical thinking or speed of thought, while alcohol most certainly does, even tho a fat cannabis cigar goes really well with a cold brew 😊

I have experience with hard drugs and I don’t have a solution for that, I’ve seen it destroy productive peoples lives. Think a business owner picking at the carpet for hours for shards after his friend got him hooked on meth. I read something about Hells Angels bringing $300m of meth into Thailand and I’d support those guys getting the death penalty

[DryGermanGuy]

I don't know anybody on hard drugs and only very few people using soft drugs. But I can attest to the fact that alcohol brings out a person's true character. It's no wonder Russians traditionally want to drink vodka with potential business partners.

[OlderAndWiser]

My experience is the same as yours. An addiction feeds the monster and magnifies it.

[Jamie05rhs]

I don't know; that's a really good question. I have seen weak people become even weaker because of drugs. For example, if they're spoiled and have always gotten everything handed to them, their begging behaviors intensify. And they take even less responsibility for their own actions and their own welfare.

[Agape93]

Depends. I believe it removed inhibitions to show what that aspect of you is like.

[YollyM]

I know that a lot of people may disagree but I believe that drugs bring out a person's true character because they give them courage to do the things that they think of doing when they're sober but never have the guts to say or do.

[MCheetah]

The worst in people. They say alcohol brings one one "true character," but I wouldn't know; I physically can't get drunk and have never been intoxicated by anything before.

[Samhit]

The worst in people. Why? Because when a person is heavily intoxicated they wouldn't do the shit that they do while not intoxicated because they've lost all their senses when the high kicks in. May it be drugs or alcohol, the time you've lost your senses is when the worst comes out.

[dustybiker]

Not always. If I drink much over ‘half a glass’ of wine I fall asleep. One of my parents was the same.

[monorprise]

By definition there is nothing natural and therefore true about drugs which is the artificial altering of a person.

[Vendela]

I think they bring out a little bit of both. Well, a lot of their worst.

[Anonymous]

They bring out the worst in people, as drugs are toxic chemicals that mess up your brain.

Stay away from drugs, otherwise you'll face the consequences that it will leave on you.

[DizzyDesii]

If they even want to try drugs, i already consider them a fcked up person so yea

[Light909090]

Drugs can Warp the mind the personality into something Sinister.

[cloud9vortex1234]

I think they bring out the worst in good people. They also make a Bad Person even worse.

[OddBeMe]

In vino veritas

From wine comes truth. Same for drugs. Theyre disinhibitors, meaning they open your true self up.

[lightbulb27]

I think it exposes their deeper inner emotions

[Googlemyahoo]

Fuck drugs you don’t need them.

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

I agree but that's not the question.

[boobliker]

no, But you don't see the real person

[rossbutler]

Wow i miss Jesse and Jane!