Wednesday, February 01, 2012
THE STIMULANT SOCIETY begins 1980-1985
As Residents in Psychiatry, we contemplated how certain personalities liked different drugs. I also had thought on why societies favor certain drugs. America does love its drugs. Caffeine, Nicotine and Alcohol from Colonial days. We also loved some other "natural" drugs such as opiates and cocaine. You could order them through the mail. From Sears. Until 1913. The illicit drugs were paused underground. The fifties brought us psychiatric drugs big-time. Then the sixties. And the seventies. These two decades brought all sorts of things into the mainstream. And then the eighties.
This society in my opinion is in the late stage of a Stimulant Era. Sure, we have a rich supply of prescription, OTC, health store and even illicit drugs selections. But the real story is stimulants. Meaning things that jack up the nervous system. I count here caffeine, illicit speed, XTC, cocaine, herbals, ADHD meds, depression meds and bipolar meds.
This Stimulant Era is thirty plus years old. It began with Reagan. For you young ones, Ronnie came into power in a very different America. The seventies saw defeat and withdrawal from Vietnam. Watergate and the Nixon tapes. The VP resigned in scandal. Nixon resigned. He would have been impeached. Stagflation. The Arab Oil Embargo. Lines for gas. Ford and Carter failed to turn things around. In the Fall of 1979 Americans began over 400 days of being held hostage in Iran. In 1980 the Soviets marched into Afghanistan. Carter retaliated by boycotting the Olympics. The Baby Boomers turned from change the world to work on myself-or at least pleasure myself.
Reagan declared a new day. During his inaugural speech the hostages were released. After a short recession, inflation was tamed and the economy grew. The Yuppie was born. And the Yuppie was all about career and money. That old bong and smelly pot would not do. Nor would the old cigars or whiskey. Imitating the rich, they turned to wines and brie. Noodles became pasta.
Enter cocaine. The forbidden. Decadent. Expensive. Now the upper middle class could indulge. At a party for a decade pot would be freely passed. Now the "in" folks would "sneak" off to the bathroom or bedroom to snort. Then rerun sorta secret sniffing to let everyone else know they were the select cool.
Coffee made a come-back. From the health food opinion unhealthy and that's my parents drug to a new indulgence. Not Folgers or instant. No way. Cappuccino, Espresso and Latte. The electric coffee maker became a regular household appliance. Some even ground their own beans or made espresso at home.
We were energized to do things. Including stay up all night and party. But we went to work. The college educated Boomers embraced careers, especially in business. The MBA was the degree. Or better yet Law. The stock market grew. Employment improved. We built up our military.
Besides the coffee machines entering our homes, our entertainment at home was changing. The sixties TV was black and white with maybe a dozen channels that stopped broadcasting in the late hours. You had to get up and turn the knob. The seventies brought color to nearly all, longer broadcast days and even game consoles. Who can forget the gripping "Pong" with its variants of tennis and hockey? But now we had cable, MTV, remote control and the VCR.
Yet the biggest technology was the computer. At home and work. They were slow, especially hooked to the phone modem. The graphics were nil. But they were invading.
Times were changing. Life was speeding up. Feedback was faster. The whole psychology of our lives was being changed for more change. The main reason was and is our technology gives us more data and faster. It is no surprise that we saw the return of coffee. Or the lure of cocaine.
But we were just starting. The data would grow exponentially and its media invade more and more of our lives. We would become more hooked in. We would seek more chemicals to live this way. We would pay a price as well.
This society in my opinion is in the late stage of a Stimulant Era. Sure, we have a rich supply of prescription, OTC, health store and even illicit drugs selections. But the real story is stimulants. Meaning things that jack up the nervous system. I count here caffeine, illicit speed, XTC, cocaine, herbals, ADHD meds, depression meds and bipolar meds.
This Stimulant Era is thirty plus years old. It began with Reagan. For you young ones, Ronnie came into power in a very different America. The seventies saw defeat and withdrawal from Vietnam. Watergate and the Nixon tapes. The VP resigned in scandal. Nixon resigned. He would have been impeached. Stagflation. The Arab Oil Embargo. Lines for gas. Ford and Carter failed to turn things around. In the Fall of 1979 Americans began over 400 days of being held hostage in Iran. In 1980 the Soviets marched into Afghanistan. Carter retaliated by boycotting the Olympics. The Baby Boomers turned from change the world to work on myself-or at least pleasure myself.
Reagan declared a new day. During his inaugural speech the hostages were released. After a short recession, inflation was tamed and the economy grew. The Yuppie was born. And the Yuppie was all about career and money. That old bong and smelly pot would not do. Nor would the old cigars or whiskey. Imitating the rich, they turned to wines and brie. Noodles became pasta.
Enter cocaine. The forbidden. Decadent. Expensive. Now the upper middle class could indulge. At a party for a decade pot would be freely passed. Now the "in" folks would "sneak" off to the bathroom or bedroom to snort. Then rerun sorta secret sniffing to let everyone else know they were the select cool.
Coffee made a come-back. From the health food opinion unhealthy and that's my parents drug to a new indulgence. Not Folgers or instant. No way. Cappuccino, Espresso and Latte. The electric coffee maker became a regular household appliance. Some even ground their own beans or made espresso at home.
We were energized to do things. Including stay up all night and party. But we went to work. The college educated Boomers embraced careers, especially in business. The MBA was the degree. Or better yet Law. The stock market grew. Employment improved. We built up our military.
Besides the coffee machines entering our homes, our entertainment at home was changing. The sixties TV was black and white with maybe a dozen channels that stopped broadcasting in the late hours. You had to get up and turn the knob. The seventies brought color to nearly all, longer broadcast days and even game consoles. Who can forget the gripping "Pong" with its variants of tennis and hockey? But now we had cable, MTV, remote control and the VCR.
Yet the biggest technology was the computer. At home and work. They were slow, especially hooked to the phone modem. The graphics were nil. But they were invading.
Times were changing. Life was speeding up. Feedback was faster. The whole psychology of our lives was being changed for more change. The main reason was and is our technology gives us more data and faster. It is no surprise that we saw the return of coffee. Or the lure of cocaine.
But we were just starting. The data would grow exponentially and its media invade more and more of our lives. We would become more hooked in. We would seek more chemicals to live this way. We would pay a price as well.
