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So which of you are straight edge here, then?

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18:11 / 07.06.03

I've been on a diet for the past two weeks which doesn't allow me any alcohol, caffeine, or refined sugar, and in the process my straight edge persona - last seen circa 2001 - has resurfaced with a vengeance. Not only am I becoming obsessed with staying off the coffee, booze, and sugary crap, but I'm seriously starting to consider becoming celibate and possibly even vegan (although I'd prefer to just not have to put up with the annoying business of eating, really).

All of which means that, in my mental conception of the 'Lith, I currently stick out like a nun at a frat party, really.

So I was kind of hoping a few of you could stick your heads out of the woodwork and reassure me that we're not all drug-swilling, booze-guzzling sex fiends on this site. Or are we? I don't know. Tell me.

Oh, and if you are a drugswillingboozeguzzlingsexfiend type, don't worry - this doesn't mean I'm going to start telling you your lifestyle is absolutely wrong and you should adopt my way, which is much better. I haven't turned into that much of a puritan. I hope.

18:40 / 07.06.03

My only vice is cigarettes. And I am trying to cut down.

Alcohol and drugs are expensive, and they have an added tendency to make me feel boring and silly.

And i find sex for the most part utterly tedious. Unless it's with someone i care about, in which case it is more of a job. Like data management.

18:45 / 07.06.03

Don't smoke, don't drink (can't drink, makes me instantly sick), don't do drugs. Don't even take prescription meds anymore. I don't exactly eat properly though. Maybe one day. And sex is good, but right now I don't leave the house. The people in my head are very active though.

19:06 / 07.06.03

sorry, i lost the edge long long ago.

never really knew i had it, to be honest.

most fourteen year olds just dont know what they've got till its gone...

Matthew Fluxington

20:04 / 07.06.03

I don't smoke, and I don't take any drugs besides medicine for headaches and stomach illness. I do drink, but not too often.

I do eat meat, and I'll eat/drink things with caffeine in it - but that mostly means I'll have caffeinated soda, since I don't drink coffee because I don't like the stuff. I'm not much of a tea drinker either.

Ellis sounds like a sexy guy, eh?

20:08 / 07.06.03

Barbe-crush! Barbe-crush!

20:21 / 07.06.03

Hmm...cigs, coffee, and pot play a large part of my daily vices (although pot isn't a daily affair and need not be in order to maintain an "normality" in my little world). It is interesting to note that, earlier this year when I was feeling pretty low, my consumption of cigs was down to three or four a day, and I entirely stopped the caffeine and pot intake.

Sex is also something I indulge in on a frequent basis--but I don't consider it a vice! So I guess I about as straight edge as Klein bottle is a "normal" 3D object!

20:48 / 07.06.03

I think drinking is my only vice..but its not "My names Kegboy and I'm and Alchoholic" levels..just a drink every other day or so...
I eat meat.I don't do drugs (currently cant afford them). I don't smoke...actually Im almost smoke-nazzie against it. I enjoy/relish a good cup of coffee every few hours but tend to stay away from the pepsi as the sugar keeps me up all bloody night...but what a night it is!

22:16 / 07.06.03

My friend J is a gluten-free vegan who can't eat soy.

My other friend J is a teetotal, drink/drug/gluten-free vegan t'ai chi instructor.

Compared to them I am like Spider Jerusalem. Compared to Spider Jerusalem I am like them. But I quit smoking nearly 18 months ago, hee hee.

Tryphena Absent

22:34 / 07.06.03

Oh dear. If you asked me this two months ago I could have been terribly positive- no sex, no drugs, very little drink (about once every two weeks I'd get tipsy). Still I was and am smoking, eating ridiculous amounts of chocolate and consuming caffeine. So yeah, sorry, I've come off my very teensy wagon and stepped back in to the hot red land of vice. I like it better here.

01:39 / 08.06.03

OMG... coming off my very teensy wagon and stepping back into the hot red land of vice...

*whirr, click*

01:47 / 08.06.03

Oh sorry, yes, straight edge. Me. No controlled substances, no cigarettes, almost no drinking (very low tolerance). Gave up Red Bull and regular Coke. Virtually no junk food. Don't like chocolate. Don't like candy. Can't eat dairy anymore, so ice cream is out. Very moderate intake of coffee and tea.

02:06 / 08.06.03

I gave up alcohol, mind-altering drugs a little over three years ago. While my abstinence is rooted in twelve-step recovery (now who's the nun at Lith's frat party?), which allows caffeine and has no dietary strictures, I've increasingly tended towards something like a straight-edge philosophy. This tendency has seemed totally natural. I've given up a couple of prescribed medications and am surely no worse for it. I recognize the hypocrisy in my daily coffee consumption, and have vague plans of purifying my diet.
Anyway, my point is that when you eschew one category of toxins, some greater form of asceticism become gradually more attractive. Which is my understanding of the whole straight-edge thing.

06:58 / 08.06.03

Cigarettes, alcohol, red bull, sodas, asthma pills (mini thins) mostly. Tryin to cut back on smoking. Not big on pot, I've always associated it with the hippy movement and am probably biased against it. Vikadin's cool, but I don't go hunting for it. I took a break from sex for awhile because i thought it was getting too sleazy and meaningless, but I now think I was an idiot and am diving back in.

Which is weird because my new crew consists almost entirely of straight edge kids. Really weird. I think they find it a lot easier to do because they're almost like a gang. Strength in numbers and all that. But they still have sex. I mean we're young, sexy men.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

07:43 / 08.06.03

Not exactly a clean-liver over here, more like a collosal lightweight. Never had a very high tolerance for chemicals, and since my Reiki and Sekhim attunements my metabolism has been getting steadily wonkier. I'm having to cut down on everything, up to and including white bread.

Recreationals-wise, I was never too keen on pot. It just makes me paranoid and sleepy. Prefer stimulants.

12:38 / 08.06.03

most unhealthy myself, almost Constantinesquely so. however, i hope to change this sometime when work's less busy and bothersome, assuming there is such a time.

12:55 / 08.06.03

Raw Norton:my point is that when you eschew one category of toxins, some greater form of asceticism become gradually more attractive

Which seems to be a neat summation of my thought processes vis a vis this straight edge business at the moment. I mean I'm not vegan, and I quite like meat, but this being a kind of high-protein diet I'm on @ the mo I've been eating so much bloody meat I've actually managed to put myself off it, which is quite amazing (for me). So by some definitions of 'str8 edge' (as I believe some of its younger adherents humourously call it) I'm a total flesh-eating pussy hypocrite who claims to be nice but doesn't care about all the widdle animals. Then again, there are vegans who eat refined sugar, so in my scheme of things...

The point, I think, is that there is - especially for a guy such as myself, who tends toward extremes - a kind of attraction in being self-denying to the most extreme point possible. It's kind of like Ignatius Loyola, the guy who founded the Jesuits, who used to be a kind of brawling cavalier, then found God after being injured by a cannonball, and set about devising his own mystical system - in exactly the way a brawling cavalier would. So it had to be a really intense, OTT kind of mysticism, or he wasn't interested. Calm non-attachment to reality a la Buddha wasn't his thing.

Having said that, this is just one aspect of my memeplex, of course, and I'm sure that in a year's time I'll be on here complaining about having a dreadful hangover. Again.

12:56 / 08.06.03

But it's nice to see so many other people on here who eschew the drugs of The Man.

15:26 / 08.06.03

I've been seriously considering going straight edge. My body can't metabolise alcohol very well at all, smoking makes me feel a bit sick these days, and I can live without caffiene (the only other drug I take). We'll see...

15:51 / 08.06.03

Like Raw Norton, I'm a repentant drug-addled wastoid. Fourteen months and counting.

But cigarettes and coffee are practically food groups for me, so I can't really get into those Minor Threat songs.

18:46 / 08.06.03

While there isn't exactly a large representative sample of the membership of Barbelith here, I find it somewhat odd that there doesn't seem to be other people who list pot amongst their habits. Is this more a matter of availability in certain parts of the world or is it simply that not so many people as I would of thought are interested or enjoy smoking this wonderful plant?

"We're just
a Minor Threat!
We're just
a Minor Threat!"

Tryphena Absent

19:15 / 08.06.03

Well pot tends to limit conversation and quite a lot of the Barbelith people that I've met like to talk so that could be a reason. I don't think many of us are opposed to it and personally I went through a period where I was smoking it everyday as a cure for insomnia but I think too many people are in favour of it. It's a dangerous drug because an awful lot of humans are effected badly by it. (Actually am in agreement with a friend that it should be legalised in Britain only when there's a roadside doped-driver test. Too many stupid teenage boys driving round and smoking the stuff but that's off topic so...) I don't think it's that surprising, it simply means that people don't tend to have a habit here and either smoke occasionally or don't touch the stuff.

19:35 / 08.06.03

Yeah, I kinda think we're looking at a sampling issue. This being a thread that assumes that most Lith-ers consume their fair share of chemicals, I don't think people felt compelled to mention their own pot-smoking habits. I'm sure that if the thread were more like "List your personal vices here," a lot--if not most--of the respondents would list pot.

20:12 / 08.06.03

Straight edge, with bumps here and there.
Drink- vaguely frequent binge drinking- perhaps a vice
Smoking- hate it- not a vice
Drugs- occasional p0t- not really a vice
Food- dont eat meat, but waaayy too much cheese -neither here nor there
Sex- whatever
Caffeine- BRING ME TEA!

I think im pretty mediochre in the str8-edge or off-the-rails stakes.

unheimlich manoeuvre

23:02 / 08.06.03

my edge is sharp but not straight.
i'm a regular marijuana consumer with a penchant for skunk. i never have problems communicating while stoned. i suppose i sometimes laugh so hard i can't speak but that's about it.
roll my own fags, smoke about 15 to 20 a day.
i drink less regularly, mainly at parties and when i drink i like to get drunk.
if i go back a couple of years ago, i used to do drugs, go to squat parties and stuff. some pills, ket, acid and coke. don't do those so much these days, only at special occasions. i may endulge at the solstice festival if i've got the funds.

00:11 / 09.06.03

I drink too much booze, smoke fags and have as much caffeine as anxiety allows. I am having a Kirin right now, more of an "evening after" thing.

I am not big on spliff. I just don't particularly enjoy it. All I do is get sleepy and sit around doing even less than usual; I don't really need that. I used to quite like a dab of whizz every now and then, but never on a serious basis, only when clubbing. I don't think I've had any for four years or so, and no dope for a couple.

I also take a variety of prescription and non-prescription drugs on a regular basis; at the moment mostly Gaviscon, Pepto-Bismol, Prevacid and St John's Wort.

Basically, the edge is not straight, though it could definitely do with being a little straighter. But I've got no long-term plans to become completely abstemious. I'd like to drink more coffee and less booze, and give up the fags, but only because it would make me feel better overall; I just want to change my drugs round.

09:05 / 09.06.03

Asceticism is a vice, which I endeavour to avoid. I am the bastard offspring of William Blake and Bob Marley...
Seriously, I know people who are v. straight edge, and it makes them high. Like becoming extremely fit, it puts you in a state of mind as different to 'normal' as taking drugs does. (well, dependant on the drugs). The craziest people I know are straightedge in fact.
I can see the attraction of total abstinence, but it ain't for me. As Blake said 'You never know how much is enough until you know how much is too much'

10:11 / 09.06.03

Quantum said: Seriously, I know people who are v. straight edge, and it makes them high. Like becoming extremely fit, it puts you in a state of mind as different to 'normal' as taking drugs does.

I would have described myself as a moderate user of most substances. Alcohol, tobacco, dope, etc. However, in the last 18 months I've got extremely fit. I just started running and entering races etc.
Now my body seems to reject all toxic substances. I cannot stand to smoke more than a couple of puffs of a ciggy, and I used to enjoy the odd roll up. Similarly with booze, I have to stop after a few drinks. My tolerance has become extremely low, and if I do drink more than a couple of pints I will develop a hangover immediately. On the plus side, running did become a sort of natural antidepressant for me for a few months last year.
However, this weekend was unusually excessive for me. Drank loads of cava, had a couple of doped up hot chocolates, and tons of crisps. Pinnacle was bacon and advocado sarnie - 2 rounds. Today to my horror have discovered I have grown a second head. Yes, it looks like I've had a wisdom tooth pulled out, but its really a gigantic spot.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

10:12 / 09.06.03

I think Quantum's got it in a nutshell. I see people who are totally straight-edge, and it gives them the same buzz I have to ingest shitloads of drugs to get, and it's good. Again, it's not me.
At some point I'm gonna have to get off the counselling/cutting down/counselling/failing once more to cut down/counselling rollercoaster and admit that alcohol has no part in my life. But I find that too scary a prospect to deal with.

As regards other drugs- I used to cane it all the time... now I just can't be arsed... no longer do speed (for many years my drug of choice) because I just couldn't handle the attendant comedowns/incipient psychosis... no longer do acid cos I can't find anyone who's got any anymore... still smoke pot, but largely because it makes me drink less. (Although I'll indulge in anything on occasion. Except possibly speed. Not going back there.)

And anyone who wants to try to make me give up smoking is gonna have one ferocious stoat to deal with. RARRR!

10:13 / 09.06.03

We had some Mormons staying with us recently. They seemed to be wired on something, but didn't do anything. They were so unbelievably straight. No drugs, no booze, no smoking, no caffeine.... One of the girls actually wouldn't drink lemonade because she didn't `do' carbonated drinks.

They didn't seem to mind everyone else doing their thing around them though - which I thought was cool. That holier than thou attitude fucks me riiiight off.

Personally, I've developed a nasty little valium habit, and the usual drink, smoke, caffeine trinity. When I gave up booze recently for a few weeks I felt incredibly good (well after the withdrawal symptoms had subsided).

If it makes you happy being straight edged as you call it then what's the problem? Are you a bit worried you're going to become so fastidious about what you ingest that it'll hamper you socially?

10:23 / 09.06.03

[rot] being really fit also means if you get sick you get reaallly sick, instead of making you tougher it makes you more delicate, like a thoroughbred or a racing car [endrot]

I consider abstention a drug, and like all of them I think 'Do it, enjoy it, when it stops being fun stop doing it.' But then I am a heavy caning incipient alchoholic smoker so I may be deluding myself. I'm off for an espresso and cake.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:48 / 09.06.03

I'm fairly clean, though mostly by accident. I don't do drugs, wouldn't even know where to go round here to get them. I don't smoke, mainly because my Mum did her lungs in at an early age (not smoking related but I got to see the fun and games that ensues if you have fucked lungs) and I'm currently several years celibate, though that's a Stephen Fry kind of celibate.

However, I do like meat, though I don't eat a huge amount, and I am partial to the odd glass of wine in the evenings now and then, and drinking socially when out with friends. However, I've cut sweets out of my diet and cut way down on soft-drinks in favour of water and feel somewhat healthier for it.

Whilst I could see myself defaulting into a straight-edge lifestyle in the future (it's laziness in learning to cook as much as anything that stops me from becomming at least a vegetarian, I'm sure I could give up the tastes of meat if I wanted to) I can't conceive of ever wanting to define myself as straight-edge. The scene looks far too joyless and dull to me and the music (last I heard) was terrible!

Matthew Fluxington

13:03 / 09.06.03

Yesterday, when I was in the Lower East Side of Manhattan around Thompson Square Park, some middle aged guy in a Porsche with his top down was blasting "Straight Edge" by Minor Threat.

I just thought it was too amusing of an image to not share. Carry on.

15:50 / 09.06.03

Don’t know if I qualify as straight edge or not…
No drugs, no booze, no fags, and vegetarian, but my bloodline means I am on a sacred quest to rid the world of chocolate. It is a plague upon this land, and I shall do all I can to rid the shops of it. What can I say ? It’s a hereditary thing.
Not celibate, I shag like a panther*, though you could call it tantric if you wanted. If ‘tantric’ means premature ejaculation and hogging the duvet, that is.

* No, I don’t know what this means either.

lord nuneaton savage

16:19 / 09.06.03

Drink every day, smoke roll ups so I've no idea of my consumption,I can smoke at my desk at work so I'll hazard that it's quite a lot. Smoke pot fairly constantly until I run out. Pills and nasty speed at the weekends, and do lots of fucking (it burns of the munchie calories). Wow I AM fucking Keith Richards. hehehe

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