<story><title>A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health</title><url>https://www.thecompanion.app/philip-k-dick-psychosis/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blippage</author><text>I was talking to a guy who was into drug counselling. He laid out some pretty shocking facts, like children as young as 12 take drugs. This made me absolutely convinced that we should not legalise drugs, except in the case where there &lt;i&gt;legitimate&lt;/i&gt; medical uses.&lt;p&gt;He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. His reasoning is that it only encourages drug users.&lt;p&gt;Also, experience of using drugs is no guarantee of safe drugs practise. If anything, it&amp;#x27;s the contrary. People become complacent in what they think they can handle, which spells trouble.&lt;p&gt;Also, drug purity can vary by region. You won&amp;#x27;t know about it in advance, but if 
you take drugs from a less tainted batch then you usually do, then you could well be taking a much higher dosage of the drug than your body is used to. Not good.&lt;p&gt;And finally, the most chilling part of all. He said that if you were to put some heroin on a table and say that this is the purest heroin on the market. You can take it, but knowing you will die. Many would still take it.</text></item><item><author>TeaBrain</author><text>Philip K Dick&amp;#x27;s A Scanner Darkly contains an Author&amp;#x27;s Note at the end of the book on this topic. This is the note from the copy I have:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;AUTHOR&amp;#x27;S NOTE:&lt;p&gt;This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it. For example, while I was writing this I learned that the person on whom the character Jerry Fabin is based killed himself. My friend on whom I based the character Ernie Luckman died before I began the novel. For a while I myself was one of these children playing in the street; I was, like the rest of them, trying to play instead of being grown up, and I was punished. I am on the list below, which is a list of those to whom this novel is dedicated, and what became of each.&lt;p&gt;Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgment. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error, a life-style. In this particular life-style the motto is &amp;quot;Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying,&amp;quot; but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory. It is, then, only a speeding up, an intensifying, of the ordinary human existence. It is not different from your life-style, it is only faster. It all takes place in days or weeks or months instead of years. &amp;quot;Take the cash and let the credit go,&amp;quot; as Villon said in 1460. But that is a mistake if the cash is a penny and the credit a whole lifetime.&lt;p&gt;There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled; it just tells what the consequences were. In Greek drama they were beginning, as a society, to discover science, which means causal law. Here in this novel there is Nemesis: not fate, because any one of us could have chosen to stop playing in the street, but, as I narrate from the deepest part of my life and heart, a dreadful Nemesis for those who kept on playing. I myself, I am not a character in this novel; I am the novel. So, though, was our entire nation at this time. This novel is about more people than I knew personally. Some we all read about in the newspapers. It was, this sitting around with our buddies and bullshitting while making tape recordings, the bad decision of the decade, the sixties, both in and out of the establishment. And nature cracked down on us. We were forced to stop by things dreadful.&lt;p&gt;If there was any &amp;quot;sin,&amp;quot; it was that these people wanted to keep on having a good time forever, and were punished for that, but, as I say, I feel that, if so, the punishment was far too great, and I prefer to think of it only in a Greek or morally neutral way, as mere science, as deterministic impartial cause-and-effect. I loved them all. Here is the list, to whom I dedicate my love:&lt;p&gt;To Gaylene   deceased&lt;p&gt;To Ray       deceased&lt;p&gt;To Francy    permanent psychosis&lt;p&gt;To Kathy     permanent brain damage&lt;p&gt;To Jim       deceased&lt;p&gt;To Val       massive permanent brain damage&lt;p&gt;To Nancy     permanent psychosis&lt;p&gt;To Joanne    permanent brain damage&lt;p&gt;To Maren     deceased&lt;p&gt;To Nick      deceased&lt;p&gt;To Terry     deceased&lt;p&gt;To Dennis    deceased&lt;p&gt;To Phil      permanent pancreatic damage&lt;p&gt;To Sue       permanent vascular damage&lt;p&gt;To Jerri     permanent psychosis and vascular damage&lt;p&gt;. . . and so forth.
 In Memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The &amp;quot;enemy&amp;quot; was their mistake in playing. Let them all play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>roody15</author><text>Interesting read.  Have always enjoyed Philip K Dicks novels… sadly not surprised he struggled with mental and substance abuse. His books read in a way that often feature a character somewhat removed from reality or in some form of psychosis.  The idea of what is real or not real is explored over and over again.  I cannot help but think he was writing from his own soul or at least his own experience.  He was always the looker peering into the another world that he just didn’t quite fit into.  It makes me feel sad like he was often likely very lonely despite his genius and fame :&amp;#x2F;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>adrianmsmith</author><text>&amp;gt; He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. ... Also, drug purity can vary by region. You won&amp;#x27;t know about it in advance, but if you take drugs from a less tainted batch then you usually do, then you could well be taking a much higher dosage of the drug than your body is used to. Not good.&lt;p&gt;This would all be improved by legalization and regulation. Nobody dies because a Bud Light is suddenly a lot stronger in one region than another.</text></comment>
<story><title>A psychiatrist reflects on Philip K. Dick’s substance abuse and mental health</title><url>https://www.thecompanion.app/philip-k-dick-psychosis/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>blippage</author><text>I was talking to a guy who was into drug counselling. He laid out some pretty shocking facts, like children as young as 12 take drugs. This made me absolutely convinced that we should not legalise drugs, except in the case where there &lt;i&gt;legitimate&lt;/i&gt; medical uses.&lt;p&gt;He also said that he got annoyed when the police announced that there was a particularly potent batch of drugs on the streets at the time. His reasoning is that it only encourages drug users.&lt;p&gt;Also, experience of using drugs is no guarantee of safe drugs practise. If anything, it&amp;#x27;s the contrary. People become complacent in what they think they can handle, which spells trouble.&lt;p&gt;Also, drug purity can vary by region. You won&amp;#x27;t know about it in advance, but if 
you take drugs from a less tainted batch then you usually do, then you could well be taking a much higher dosage of the drug than your body is used to. Not good.&lt;p&gt;And finally, the most chilling part of all. He said that if you were to put some heroin on a table and say that this is the purest heroin on the market. You can take it, but knowing you will die. Many would still take it.</text></item><item><author>TeaBrain</author><text>Philip K Dick&amp;#x27;s A Scanner Darkly contains an Author&amp;#x27;s Note at the end of the book on this topic. This is the note from the copy I have:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;AUTHOR&amp;#x27;S NOTE:&lt;p&gt;This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it. For example, while I was writing this I learned that the person on whom the character Jerry Fabin is based killed himself. My friend on whom I based the character Ernie Luckman died before I began the novel. For a while I myself was one of these children playing in the street; I was, like the rest of them, trying to play instead of being grown up, and I was punished. I am on the list below, which is a list of those to whom this novel is dedicated, and what became of each.&lt;p&gt;Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgment. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error, a life-style. In this particular life-style the motto is &amp;quot;Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying,&amp;quot; but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory. It is, then, only a speeding up, an intensifying, of the ordinary human existence. It is not different from your life-style, it is only faster. It all takes place in days or weeks or months instead of years. &amp;quot;Take the cash and let the credit go,&amp;quot; as Villon said in 1460. But that is a mistake if the cash is a penny and the credit a whole lifetime.&lt;p&gt;There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled; it just tells what the consequences were. In Greek drama they were beginning, as a society, to discover science, which means causal law. Here in this novel there is Nemesis: not fate, because any one of us could have chosen to stop playing in the street, but, as I narrate from the deepest part of my life and heart, a dreadful Nemesis for those who kept on playing. I myself, I am not a character in this novel; I am the novel. So, though, was our entire nation at this time. This novel is about more people than I knew personally. Some we all read about in the newspapers. It was, this sitting around with our buddies and bullshitting while making tape recordings, the bad decision of the decade, the sixties, both in and out of the establishment. And nature cracked down on us. We were forced to stop by things dreadful.&lt;p&gt;If there was any &amp;quot;sin,&amp;quot; it was that these people wanted to keep on having a good time forever, and were punished for that, but, as I say, I feel that, if so, the punishment was far too great, and I prefer to think of it only in a Greek or morally neutral way, as mere science, as deterministic impartial cause-and-effect. I loved them all. Here is the list, to whom I dedicate my love:&lt;p&gt;To Gaylene   deceased&lt;p&gt;To Ray       deceased&lt;p&gt;To Francy    permanent psychosis&lt;p&gt;To Kathy     permanent brain damage&lt;p&gt;To Jim       deceased&lt;p&gt;To Val       massive permanent brain damage&lt;p&gt;To Nancy     permanent psychosis&lt;p&gt;To Joanne    permanent brain damage&lt;p&gt;To Maren     deceased&lt;p&gt;To Nick      deceased&lt;p&gt;To Terry     deceased&lt;p&gt;To Dennis    deceased&lt;p&gt;To Phil      permanent pancreatic damage&lt;p&gt;To Sue       permanent vascular damage&lt;p&gt;To Jerri     permanent psychosis and vascular damage&lt;p&gt;. . . and so forth.
 In Memoriam. These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The &amp;quot;enemy&amp;quot; was their mistake in playing. Let them all play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.&amp;quot;</text></item><item><author>roody15</author><text>Interesting read.  Have always enjoyed Philip K Dicks novels… sadly not surprised he struggled with mental and substance abuse. His books read in a way that often feature a character somewhat removed from reality or in some form of psychosis.  The idea of what is real or not real is explored over and over again.  I cannot help but think he was writing from his own soul or at least his own experience.  He was always the looker peering into the another world that he just didn’t quite fit into.  It makes me feel sad like he was often likely very lonely despite his genius and fame :&amp;#x2F;.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ajuc</author><text>Legalizing drugs can actually reduce number of kids taking drugs. Because you can require shops to ask for ID. Back street dealers won&amp;#x27;t.&lt;p&gt;I think people often imagine legalizing drugs means there will be heroin ads in TV. But you can legalize them and still regulate them heavily (no ads, only sell to adults, require warnings on the packaging, finance anti-drug campaigns from the sales taxes, etc.).&lt;p&gt;Portugal legalized drugs long ago and their drug problems seemed to get a lot better since.</text></comment>