I'm the lead audio engineer at BBC. Don't be afraid to stop using recreational drugs.

I (31m) am the lead audio engineer at BBC in the UK. It's a great job. I love my work, and I get to experience things that many people can kill for at the same time. I worked as a 2nd editor on the recent Lord of the Rings series, we want to get a season 2 out as quickly as possible because we can already see how many people are going to be dropping off from the show. I have also been a producer for a few television episodes here in the UK. It's a really cool job, you get to see a lot of things that, well, most people don't. But I've recently been having a crisis over the recreational drug usage in the industry.<br><br>I used to be a recreational user. I would smoke weed with my friends and we would get in on the party, with all the rest of the drugs that come with that. But I've recently started using less and less. It's a constant theme for me, people turn up late to work and they're high, people turn up late to shoots because they want to get high, and they ask to stop filming because they want to get high. It's a real pain in the ass. Now, I don't mind people getting high, I think it's a bit annoying to have to come in and clean up for someone's bad trip, or a drug induced freak out, but you can't help anyone who is high and isn't where they need to be in the headspace.<br><br>I recently got a call from an actress who couldn't show up to the shoot because she had taken too much LSD. She was in a panic, and she needed someone to come and calm her down, because she was so anxious and short of breath that she thought she was going to pass out. When you're on a set, you don't get to take time off to go and clean up after your co-workers because they think they've taken too much and are going to die. You are there to do your job, or not. And if you can't do your job, you don't get hired.<br><br>I think that there's a lot of pressure on people in all sorts of careers to be up for a good time, and be willing to take drugs. It's a real problem. Please don't feel like you have to do drugs because it's the "done thing". If you don't want to, you don't have to. Take care of your mental health, take care of your physical health. If you feel like you have to turn up to work high, please just get some help and get in touch with your HR department.