Do Drugs Inspire Creativity?

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"Amphetamines" is hardly a helpful term all, especially if it comes to amounts. "Amphetamines" describe a group of drugs with highly different properties and doses.

Well, when I say amphetamines, I mean just that: amphetamines. If I need to be more specific than that, I'm talking about generic amphetamine salts, which are generally referred to as "amphetamines."

Yes, I do realize that '"amphetamines" describes a group of drugs with highly different properties and doses.'

But, amphetamine is also the name of the drug which all of the drugs in the group "amphetamines" are either derived from or related to.

The amphetamine molecule has two different configurations, dextro-amphetamine and levo-amphetamine. Generic amphetamine salts are a combination of the two amphetamine isomers, which is why it is referred to in the plural form, "amphetamines."

Doesn't matter what you ingest, either you have creativity inside you or you don't. The drug doesn't bestow creativity upon you, otherwise we'd all be artists, wouldn't we?
The drug of choice may loosen inhibitions, or show you pretty patterns, but it's always up to you to translate that into art.

i like ecstasy, but i havent touched it in years. i just stick 2 straight up smoke now

Drugs of all kinds can be extremely helpful when being creative, but they can't turn on your creativity. In my experience, not much can.

Source: Personal experience.

Yes, they may. At first. For a while.

Over time though, I can tell you firmly, they can, and will, destroy creativity.

I am far more creative today, after quitting all drugs for many many years.

I found that what happened over time, is that the "ideas" were all there, and many very fantastic ones, but the drive and organizational ability to actually MAKE anything of them, was gone.

My absolute favorite anti marijuana commercial was the one where two kids sitting in a bedroom are discussing all the negative things said about pot.

"Nothing's gonna happen."

"Yeah..."

"Nothing!"

Exactly what happened to me after years of indulgence.

NOTHING.

I guess drugs can give creative ideas, but it must be hard to organize while stoned. Dreams can also do the same thing though, like this night with sandworms who were burning peoples and machines with their minds.

I haven't used drugs myself (booze aside, not much, and anything I create while drunk usually lacks that certain something). And I can't comment on acid or any of the harder stuff, as I haven't personally known anyone who took them.

A few words about cannabis, though: my husband used to play bass for a band in which the lead guitarist smoked a fair bit of weed, and while he thought it helped him write better songs, hubby said that when the guy was stoned he used to spend a lot of time lying on the floor giggling and not doing very much actual songwriting. So, your guess is as good as mine.

I'm tempted to believe the story about the guy, I forget who it was, who, while stoned, realized he'd found the secret of the universe and wrote it on a scrap of paper by his bed. The following morning, written on the paper, he found the words: This room smells funny. I suspect it may be an urban legend, but my husband says, from his experience of the 'insights' people get from pot, it sounds about right.

ive never really sat down and played the guitar or mixed up a beat on any drug other than weed and booze...not that i can remember anyway hahaha but i really like the riffs i come up with stoned playin guitar, and the riffs still definitely have that "special something" when i'm sober. dont smoke anymore though for other reasons

agreed. i had a dream recently that i had a kid, but there was no mother. wrote a song about it

yes. yes yes yes.

Oh how I wish I could go back to marijuana. I'm afraid if I get put on meds, it'll make me a zombie and I'll never want to pick up a pencil again. Probably what's best for me anyways, got to stifle what little creativity I have.

Psychadelic drugs such as LSD and Psilocybin have been known to inspire musicians, especially really famous ones such as the beatles

Listen to Magical Mystery Tour, 'Nuff said!

Having used a thing or two, I can definitely say that they do. I can also definitely say that there's nothing quite like being sober. I'm an aspiring writer myself, and the things I wrote while under the influence of marijuana are either bizarre or extremely original, depending on how you look at it. It resembled the work of James Joyce, in a way. Not that I'm just as good as Joyce, but you know what I mean, the whole stream of consciousness-thing.

I also agree that drugs in fact amplify creativity that's already there. This is especially true for marijuana. I like inventing new words, or rather, new phrasings or expressions when I'm sober, and this was even more true when I was being cuddled by old Mary Jane, when I was sailing the green pastures, when I was taming the clouds, to name but a few examples.

The thing is, though, don't do drugs. And if you can't help yourself, just make sure you don't do it all the time, and listen to other people when they tell you you need to stop. When you're addicted, it's very easy to think you're not. Yes, I know this is getting OT-ish, but I just want to make sure people know.

Yes I would say they do. But only if you do them in small quantity. Too much will kill your creativity.

It seems like the most prolific things are hallucinogens on one side and heroin on the other.

Hallucinogens have a particular bright side, it seems like those who have been able to garner creativity from it remember exactly how it felt, it does permanently change the way you feel and see the world (not from a brain damage perspective - more like learning multiplication or division permanently changes the way you see numbers, a learned add-on perspective). It can be very dangerous to some. My own testimony - music was already intimate with me, it became that much more intimate and I even dialed in more on what I had at the bottom of myself, what I really wished to get out. Its like taking everything from your subconscious to a very epic/religious kind of level and, so long as you aren't getting way out of hand and eating ten-strips, its a lucid enough experience not to lose the meaning or relevance of the next day or the day after - as its a very distinct sort of feeling that one can bring back to mind or ponder without needing anything.

Heroin - I have no idea, I'm already well past my try things stage, and its obviously even more something never to be recommended. Still, a lot of the deepest, most dynamic, most prolific singers or front men/organizers of bands from the late 80's through 90's were H-bombs, enough even died from it. Alice In Chains, Skinny Puppy, Pantera, Sublime, Red Hot Chili Peppers, that's only to count a small handful who've been known for it or who had band members die or nearly die. I would like to think that Mainard from Tool never dabbled in that stuff, if so he's evidence that there can be ultra-deep bands out there that don't dabble in smack. Then again I have to wonder if the reason a lot of creative types in the US go out that way is simply because, the way our culture is, its the only way that they found the ability to dive that deep into themselves (the culture obviously doesn't lend itself to nurturing emotional or psychological depth, more often punishes it).

Of course people will say that there's also something to baking and sinking in to a deep/mood-intensive tune. That effect as well as the first is just another thing where, if someone's even done it a few times, they know its there and they know what's good without the need to keep going back into that state.