when did you start drinking and using drugs?

[vixnix]

So this came up at a writers group I went to recently, where I put a screenplay on the table. It's written for my son and I wrote in a 14 year old drinking beer without thinking twice about it, because for me that was when I started drinking beer with my friends.

They all admonished me for writing it into the script and asked if I would want my son watching a movie where 14 year olds were drinking.

I hadn't really thought about it, one way or another. The character who drinks is like I was, like my friends were. Unresolved childhood trauma, terrible relationship with their parents, bored and looking for an escape. That was supposed to come out during the course of the story - they were only reading the beginning.

But it got me thinking...I figured that was pretty average.

But is it? What's the netphorian average?

[vixnix]

I was 14 when I started binge drinking, smoking cigarettes and smoking weed. And when I touched an erect penis and took my bra off for the first time. So groce Men are so groce

Ugh I'm not getting started with that though. Just the drinking.

[ilikeplanets]

14 for benzo and opiate pills
15 for cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, meth, and speed pills
16 for ecstasy and mushrooms
17 for lsd
21 for dmt, ketamine, and a whole assortment of research chemicals (2Cs)
22 for heroin and other research chemicals (nbomes, lsd analogs) also the age when i started using needles

I'll be 28 in March. So drugs have been half my life so far. Damn.

[ilikeplanets]

15 first time I fooled around and 16 when I fully lost my virginity, since you mentioned that as well.

[redbreegull]

first time I got drunk I was 15, but I seldomly drank until I turned 21

first time I smoked weed I was 16 but I was 19 when I started smoking regularly

[redbreegull]

I would guess 14 is pretty average for when kids start drinking

[teh b0lly!!1]

Originally Posted by vixnix

So this came up at a writers group I went to recently, where I put a screenplay on the table. It's written for my son and I wrote in a 14 year old drinking beer without thinking twice about it, because for me that was when I started drinking beer with my friends.

They all admonished me for writing it into the script and asked if I would want my son watching a movie where 14 year olds were drinking.

I hadn't really thought about it, one way or another. The character who drinks is like I was, like my friends were. Unresolved childhood trauma, terrible relationship with their parents, bored and looking for an escape. That was supposed to come out during the course of the story - they were only reading the beginning.

But it got me thinking...I figured that was pretty average.

But is it? What's the netphorian average?

don't listen to them.
i had recently read a fascinating article about David Chase, creator of the Sopranos, and he told this story about how during the making of the first season, he wrote this arc where Tony follows and murders a former snitch during a trip to a far away college with his daughter Meadow.

people told him he couldn't do it, that he'd be wrecking the character for the audience by turning Tony into someone you can't (nor want) to empathize with, etc.

but he responded to them by saying it NEEDS to happen, simply because that is what those people do. the audience would hate Tony Soprano if he didn't do it, because it would be untrue to his characters and the universe it lives in and the codes it is judged by through other characters. he said it much better than i can, that's why he's David Fucken Chase and i'm tehbolly, i just can't find the quote.

point being - it just sounds like those people don't "get it", or are too conservative to fathom your train of thought. fuck accessibility, fuck the audience. don't be swayed. tell the story you want to tell.

[buzzard]

I disagree.

I think that you should keep it PG in order that the largest possible audience can pay to see it, punctuating the relentless sequences of bright lights and loud noises with amusing reaction shots or quips.

[vixnix]

Thanks for the solidarity tb. I've just started watching the Sopranos again, from the beginning, so that story arc is a recent memory. I had no idea people tried to talk him out of that, it is totally essential narrative for Tony Soprano.

I told my husband that our kids are probably old enough now to be exposed to the grittier aspects of our taste in music and films, and for Christmas he bought me this, for the coffee table.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....4,203,200_.jpg

My kids know that people are fucked up and hurt a lot, they're raised by me, after all. So I don't think my kid would be too affected by a 14 year old drinking beer. I was really surprised by the reaction at the writers group.

[buzzard]

I take it that none of them have seen Kids, then?

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by buzzard

I disagree.

I think that you should keep it PG in order that the largest possible audience can pay to see it, punctuating the relentless sequences of bright lights and loud noises with amusing reaction shots or quips.

ha. you know the sad thing is that I'm writing this screenplay to a formula lol

With the aim of pitching it to some producer/investor who is looking for a good ROI

eeerrrgh fuck this shit tbh

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by buzzard

I take it that none of them have seen Kids, then?

Not yet. I'm trying to think how old I was when I saw it...maybe 18 or 19.

God that film was grim

[teh b0lly!!1]

i mean reading that article alone made me wanna rewatch the whole thing again. David Chase is such a rare type of genius. the whole article was saying how he worked many many years just writing shitty shows for other people, completely hating it - and even when Sopranos was finally greenlit, it was still very difficult to make because so many people tried to tell him what to do or not do, didn't get where he was going, etc.

just think about how strange that first season is - one of the main plot arcs being a mobster being sad because a few ducks have left his swimming pool. god! the amount of vision you need to have to get an idea like that off the ground, and make it so effective and compelling. sheer genius.

i think i'm gonna start watching all over again soon.

[vixnix]

Oh you mean the writers group

yeah I dunno. I'm guessing not...but I could be wrong.

[vixnix]

Originally Posted by teh b0lly!!1

i mean reading that article alone made me wanna rewatch the whole thing again. David Chase is such a rare type of genius. the whole article was saying how he worked many many years just writing shitty shows for other people, completely hating it - and even when Sopranos was finally greenlit, it was still very difficult to make because so many people tried to tell him what to do or not do, didn't get where he was going, etc.

just think about how strange that first season is - one of the main plot arcs being a mobster being sad because a few ducks have left his swimming pool. god! the amount of vision you need to have to get an idea like that off the ground, and make it so effective and compelling. sheer genius.

i think i'm gonna start watching all over again soon.

Yeah. It's gotta mean something to you personally, to fight for something like that. Working in TV would have given him the understanding of how what you write for screen is part symbolic because you can't fit everything into the time frame you're given. So you gotta find something like the ducks to bring that emotional tension that a guy like Tony Soprano obviously feels, to the surface. It's bold storytelling and it could have so easily been hamfisted and gimmicky. Such a fine line between that and heartfelt vulnerable storytelling. So fine that the same story appears as a different side of the coin, to different audiences I guess. That's the risk you take. A large proportion of your audience will feel the same way you do, and another significant group will laugh at it and think it's too contrived, too engineered, farcical, etc. You gotta be so attached to scenes like that, that you're like fuck you, this is how I'm gonna do it, people don't have to like it, but it's my story and this is how it goes, so fuck you.

Inspirational auteurism right there

And yet has he abused women? Probably. Let's just work with the assumption that he has, it makes it easier for everyone

[teh b0lly!!1]

another great quote by Chase in that article, was how every time it's time to start auditioning actors and take care of the casting, there comes a point where internally he starts hating it and questioning himself: "what am i doing here? this is terribly fucking written, this is shit" UNTIL the right actor comes along, and then it just clicks.

i mean lol, even David Chase questions himself like that. that's so encouraging to me

[vixnix]

I think never feeling that way about your work indicates that you lack the attributes of a writer and should never write

which is not to say that feeling that way about your work indicates that you are a writer and that your writing is any good

my many writings, of which I am on most days totally ashamed, testify to these truths

on a few days a year I read my work and think, eh, that's not bad actually

the day after that I read it and think why does a vulgarity, an abomination like me even exist, if I'd never existed then this dog faeces would never have been written

[vixnix]

now there's a good name for a band

[FoolofaTook]

12 first drunk, 19 first high.

But didn't start drinking regularly until 21 and getting high 20.

[FoolofaTook]

Originally Posted by vixnix

now there's a good name for a band

Not as good as Jacking Off Horses.

Tbh imho.

[FoolofaTook]

Most of my druggie friends started around adolescence. So you're fellow moms are whack vixnix. Fuck them.

[Disco King]

Originally Posted by vixnix

They all admonished me for writing it into the script and asked if I would want my son watching a movie where 14 year olds were drinking.

I find it pretty odd that self-described writers would be so put off by anything just slightly transgressive in a written work. I mean, your average middle-school English class gives students books to read that ******* characters doing things that fly against accepted norms. It just seems to be a staple of modern literature.

What the fuck have these wieners been reading, Thomas the Tank Engine?

[vixnix]

I think they're quite widely read but it is a sci-fi/ fantasy writers group, so I could be generalising, but the gulf between what they've read in books and what they've experienced in real life might be quite wide, I dunno.

Having said that there seems to be a pervasive appreciation for Dan Harmon so I dunno. Maybe they were just looking for things to pick holes at without going for the elephant in the room, my dog faeces writing. They do strike me as being very kind that way

[Disco King]

Anyway:

Asparin/ibuprofen/paracetamol (medicinal)- I dunno, when I was a kid. I don't actually take this stuff very often any more because I usually can't be bothered to reach for an over-the-counter medication. Unless I'm in debilitating pain, I don't really get the point of taking things to alleviate pain, because pain is a signal that something is wrong. Why wouldn't I want to know if something is wrong with me?

Alcohol (recreational)- I dunno, my parents kinda just let me try alcohol whenever they were drinking it. I could have some beer or some wine or whatever, it wasn't a big deal. It's not like I was drinking every day, or was having several beers or anything. I didn't do a lot of underage drinking, because I didn't have a lot of friends or get invited to parties or anything as a teen, so my options were to drink alone or to just not drink. And drinking alone would be weird. It's hard to say when I "started" drinking, because even today, I don't drink very much.

Cannabis (recreational)- Hmm, maybe 19?

LSD/psychedelics (recreational)- I think I actually did LSD before I ever tried weed, so that might have been at 18.

Caffeine (performance)- Probably started drinking coffee at age 12 or 13. Energy drinks in my senior year of high school (so I guess 17?).

SRIs (medicinal)- Didn't get diagnosed with any mood disorder until last year, I think. So, 22.

Adderall (performance)- I think that was last year when I started taking some now and then? So, 22?

Other than that, can't think of drugs I've done regularly. Just things I've been prescribed for short terms (antibiotics or whatever). I don't know if herbal supplements and shit count. I took shit like primrose oil, echinacea, fish oil, and whatever as a teenager, but then I stopped because I figured a good deal of those things probably don't have a lot of evidence supporting their effectiveness, and I'm too lazy to go out and search for which herbal supplements are actually useful, and which are just marketing hype.

I guess sugar doesn't count as a drug, but I do that shit every day. My parents didn't buy a lot of treats when I was younger, so it wasn't until I got a job (age 14) that I started going crazy with the candy. Probably wasn't even at 14, because I was really stingy with money for my first few years of working, and didn't really buy much of anything but some books and guitar strings here and there. So, maybe it was at 17 or something when I really got hooked on sugar.

[LaBelle]

Started drinking at 14.
Started drinking coffee a few months ago.

That is all

[Elphenor]

Drinking + weed at 18 tbh

mushrooms one time at 19

Xanax, shoplifted OTC stuff, MDMA, 20-21

3 cups to a jar of coffee errday, present

[Elphenor]

finish the coffee and it's like ALRIGHT LET'S DO SOME SHIT

alcohol and weed just become a depressed veggie

[redbreegull]

oh we doin full lists mmmmkay

otc painkillers, prescription antibiotics, other normal childhood things, etc – early childhood

caffeine – was allowed to drink soda pretty early. my mom is an avid coffee drinker so I has tasted that many times, but started drinking a cup every morning around age 11 or 12

alcohol – 15 first time, at 21 became a regular drinker

ssris – 15

thc – 16 first time, at 19 became a regular smoker

thorazine – lol once when I was 17

mushrooms – 20

study drugs like adderall – 20/21

recreational use of opioids – 20/21

recreational use of benzos – 20/21

tobacco – 21

synthetic marijuana – 21

dmt – 21

salvia – 22/23

ecstasy/mdma – 25

lsd – 25

who knows what's next. last year I licked a bag I found on the ground and it was definitely cocaine residue inside but I don't count that

[redbreegull]

we should have a whole thread like this but for sex

[redbreegull]

I feel like I'm unlocking achievements on xbox