By John's own admission his acid intake was destroying him. And that was all his own doing. When I did my trawl through the Times archives, John was very noticeable by his absence from 66 to 68. Almost every interview or insight is from or about McCartney. All the ideas are McCartney. It's as if John wasn't there.
Yes, but the difference is that John was very open about his acid taking and its negative affects on him in interviews whereas he hardly ever talked about taking heroin. According to John (and Yoko) they stopped taking heroin in the early 70s, but there is evidence that suggest they were both still (or again) addicts in the late 70s. Therefore in public it looks like John was (according to what he said himself) unhappy, depressed and constantly on drugs in the 60s compared to blissful domestic happiness with Sean and Yoko from 75 to 80. Personally I could never quite believe that version of events.
Maybe he wasn't as active as Paul from 66 to 68 (But then again, who was? IMO the mid to late 60s were the most creative period in Pauls life and he also had an extremely active social life during that time).
But at least John was able to create and put out some great music and to have more or less normal interactions with his friends and family (compared to being in a creative funk and living isolated from the rest of the world in the late 70s). I also think that during this self-described 'Fat-Elvis-period' he was a lot healthier than in the last years of his life when he looked so incredibly thin.
I think John saw and defined himself first and foremost as an artist, therefore he was happiest when he could be creative and get resonance about his work from other people. So I think his last years when he wasn't able to create something were the real low point in his life. No matter how often he talks about the joys of bread baking or his love for Sean, I always imagine him spending huge amounts of time lying in bed, in front of the TV or strung out on heroin.
Several people (most of them employees who sold their story to the papers after his death, but then again, they were the only people who really saw him at that time) have commented how John seemed to become an almost entirely different person when he decided to make music again in 79/80 compared to the years before when he was just hanging around at home.
To make a long story short: I think John was definitely more happy and healthy during his acid years than during his heroin years. Maybe he felt more threatened during his acid years by the idea of Paul 'taking over' or he felt that he was not able to compete anymore which might have added some psychological pressure, but at least this idea of competition led to him being creative. Between 75 and 79 he seemed to have just given up on life and making music!
And of course both times it was John's own decision to take the drugs. But in Cyn's defence, I have to say, even if she had tried to persuade him to stop (and I don't know if she ever really tried) she wouldn't have achieved anything. Yoko OTOH, as I think we all agree on, had much more influence over John!
