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

[Sun_Kim-Ai]

What's your take on this?

In my experience, having seen people struggling with addiction, my opinion is that it's a bit of both - drugs and addiction take the worst 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.

Cases in point, 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.

[OlderAndWiser]

If people develop drug dependence, they tend to migrate into the drug culture and away from the people who could be a good influence in their lives. And people who are drug dependent are generally motivated mostly by maintaining their supply of drugs.

I think that all of us have a little bit of a monster inside of us, what Freud call the "id." Most of us realize that expressing those base feelings and motives is antisocial and unacceptable and so we keep those feelings in check. But alcohol and drugs tend to destroy our filters, censors, and inhibitions, and drug dependents let all of those feelings come out on display with no camouflage.

[Screenwriter]

People who have addiction problems will suffer badly when abusing drugs. Then there are those who only use alcohol or drugs occasionally, but then using them, their personality changes. This is a bad sign, and a warning that they shouldn't be using.

You might've heard the term, he's a mean drunk. That is likely what you're referring to. That his ugly side emerges because his "governor" is no longer engaged when he's under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

But ordinary people without addiction, anger or other behavioral problems don't act in this manner. And if you have a friend who blacks out, or doesn't remember how poorly they behaved under the influence of alcohol or drugs, make them aware of this issue.

[AmandaYVR]

Different drugs have different effects.

To answer your q, they can do both or either. And there's a vast difference between chronic users and a few random times. Also, it depends not just on the chemicals involved in them, and their personality, but also what's happening in their life at that specific time. Some trips can be happy and bring newfound appreciation for life. Others can turn into a nightmare trip, filled with doom, dread, and paranoia of what's to come.

[Fireguy17]

The worst.
We have one frequent flyer that we have brought back at least 20 times.
She even crashed her car in our firehouse lawn.
She almost hit our sign, which was too bad we could have gotten a new one.
Fortunately the state took her kids away.
We have had many others that were not so lucky.
Including one on mother's day morning.
Nothing says happy mother's day better that losing a child to an overdose.
That was so sad.
I had to talk to the parents.
Turns out he was going into rehab the next day.

[exitseven]

I got to watch people that were my friends change into people that I did not recognize anymore. When I was in high school drugs were everywhere. Just about everyone smoked pot but acid and mescaline was really popular. I used to watch kids tripping on acid and had to listen to them talk about how enlightened they were. It looked to me like they lost their motivation. I wondered if acid was like a chemical lobotomy. They would laugh over weird stuff or sing the same lyric from some random song over and over again. Some of these kids never made it out of the 80s. there was a kid who thought he was Moses. Years later he was still walking around the town square randomly talking to himself.

[TrueConfection]

I think drugs destroy their "true" character and leave the user an empty shell of who they once were.

[Jamie05rhs]

They bring out the worst in people.

Technically, a human being's true character is malleable. People can change, and they can become corrupted and turn to the dark side. Therefore their character is no longer what it used to be.

[Anonymous]

It damages the brain. It doesn't bring out bad things in people it actually changes them. I had to watch my beloved kind father turn into a callous indifferent man. Who doesn't care about Anyone. Or anything. But taking drugs. And persuing pleasure.

[OddBeMe]

I think the their true character. In that they’re inhibition nosedives from either alcohol, cocaine or heroin, and maybe even marijuana.

Of course the effects of those drugs affects the behavior. But the Latin says “In vino Veritas”.

[dolemite58]

i think alcohol makes people overly truthful. Hard drugs just bring out the worst in people.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the drug. But in general, yes.