Top 10 Most Common Symptoms and Side Effects that Come with a Lack of Sobriety or Sound Mind

A lack of sobriety or sound mind here means any state of mind which hinders what would otherwise be considered the sharpest your mind could possibly be. This could mean getting drunk, being high, being sleep-deprived, having your mental faculties hindered by a lack of nutrition, experiencing the symptoms of epilepsy, and so on.

An altered state of mind which constitutes a lack of sobriety can be chronic, addictive, dangerous or impactful (to yourself and others), and medically concerning (especially as it can indicate depression or be confusing as to what the cause is). It can also be disparaging to the meme pool and to the mental parts of what arguably makes us human. The spectrum between all of these is so gradient that it's difficult to tolerate innocent examples of people in altered states of consciousness with certainty that it wouldn't lead to anything detrimental. Note that this list is supposed to be worked on by others based on their own experiences, not necessarily what they think are statistics.

These are worth bringing up because people who seek altered states of mind have become so creative in how they achieve those states, as well as what constitutes a drug or makeshift drug. Someone who wants to proscribe it would find it easier to proscribe the states of mind themselves rather than the methodologies or resources used to achieve those states of mind.

For example, there was once a trend where people would lick cane toads in order to get high, as well as one where people would get high by smoking alcohol, which would have been much more innocuous to drink. It's a can of worms if the drug is what's being enforced against.

At the same time, it's difficult to define a lack of sobriety except for the different ways in which it manifests itself, and there are many of these. For example, the only typical side effect of marijuana might be how relaxed you are, while the reaction to something like PCP might be part and parcel with fits of rage. Or you might think of how the normal high of meth is inseparable from paranoia, and so on.

For the well-being of the public, the easiest way to enforce against altered states of mind is to have a list of symptoms and side effects. This list can be modified by anyone (such as here) but is designed so that the top few are faced with some form of punishing action. The punishing action would have to be excommunication, since anything else (such as exile, imprisonment, the death penalty, etc.) would pose problems that arise from both the fact people can lie about each other's symptoms and side effects and the fact you can be accidentally thrust into an altered state of mind.

My friend who goes by the name Valens on Bluesky goes by this approach. She has her followers or those who take her advice (as a rule) relegate, disregard, or abstain from anyone whom they notice exhibiting any of the top six symptoms and side effects associated with altered states of mind on this list until there is no reason to think it may continue to be an issue. No difference is made as to whether the person exhibiting them is being interacted with online or offline.

Intoxicating substances are often compared to spirits because they can seem to possess a person. It is argued that it's these "spirits," and not the human they're possessing, that's being "ghosted," to use a pun. Keep in mind, though, you need a certain amount of them in a person simultaneously before it can be considered something that calls for relegation, disregard, or abstinence.

The Top Ten

  1. An inability to understand many grammatically correct sentences

  2. An inability to appeal to logic that isn't based in passion

  3. Overly simplified vocabulary

  4. An inability to curb symptoms associated with an altered state of mind by alternating between languages known by the person exhibiting the symptoms

  5. The habit of mistaking everyone associated with someone as that person

  6. An inability to discern between what is absolutely proven true, what might be true, and what isn't true

  7. Relatively unprovoked fears of people you know conspiring against you

  8. An unrealistically short temper

  9. Relatively random mood swings

  10. Hallucinations

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