Author: paul
Date: 1999-08-19 05:21
An opinion of prescription drugs, OTC drugs, et al. and performance.
If you need a prescription drug for an actual medical condition, like the poster above, that's one thing. Some other folks need a stronger dose of a similar drug to counteract the effects of high blood pressure, still others need to control much more severe conditions. Again, that's something that each person may actually need just to function close to normal in life. I have no quarrel with these prescribed uses of drugs, for I am in the same boat with these folks. I understand what the meds are doing for me as well as what they do to me. I live life with the tradeoffs and go on.
However, I have a personal quarrel with the folks who turn to drugs to artificially control what I personally believe is a nonmedical condition. Artists start drinking alcohol to relieve stage fright or to keep from being so bored in manotonous performances of the same music every day and night. Good and great artists have squandered their lives on drugs, with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and a whole bunch of others literally overdosing themselves to death. Ditto for lots of lesser known artists along the way.
My point is, if you don't actually need medicine to go on living or to literally keep your life, please "don't even go there". If you do take a medicine or several of them, understand with your doctor the tradeoffs you are making every day.
I have found that stage fright is usually conquered in one of two ways. Practice until you know the music as good as you possibly can and realize that most folks understand that you are just a friend who is trying to show them a good time through music for a short while. Failing those two tricks to help calm my nerves, I usually resort to "worst case" thinking. Nothing could be more stressful than making a mistake with nuclear weapons, either in the deployment or defense of them. Been there done that. If I happen to squeak or play out of queue with the band, everyone goes home. In my previous life in the military, that wasn't necessarily so. And yes, that's why I have such a conservative view on drugs, especially "recreational pharmaceuticals".
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