Looking for a book, help please.

Hi all,

I am trying to find a book I read when I was young...younger... problem is, I don’t remember the title and very little else; all I have, is some mind-pictures of the story.

This is a futurist society, highly capitalistic. People are giving drugs (unaware) that alter their perception of reality: they see the world beautiful, nice buildings, nice parks, nice cars, etc, however they seem to always being tired and out of breath.
At some time, the main char is taken out of the drugs and sees the reality as it is (almost): broken buildings, everything is rotten.
Then, he is given another anti-drug, and finally sees the full reality: everything is a wasteland, there are no cars, they are riding other people, everyone is on top of someone else. When they thought they took an elevator they were actually running up the stairs, etc (the reason for always being out of breath).

Hope this rings a bell in someone’s memories. Can anyone remember the title of this story? Author? Anything?

Thank you all,
Peter of Aragon
 
Yes, it was a very strange story. I know it's not Philip K. Dick, but the author is probably contemporary to him, there are similarities in the style – if my memory is correct, that is, and there is no guarantee of that, not since I found 3 stories I thought were PKD actually belonged to other writers.

The first time I saw Matrix, when the main char was given the red/blue pills, the image of the story jumped into mind. But didn’t search for it then, but now, I am rereading my old stories and can’t find that one. :(

Peter of Aragon
 
There is a movie or an episode somewhere that explores this. Can't remember the name of it tho.
Confine your search to dystopian fiction.
The movie I think was made in the late 90s or very early 2000's.
I remember it was a futuristic war/resistance type movie.
If you can find the movie that fits your mental-images you might find the author that inspired it and then the book itself.
 
No luck, searched multiple movies trying to find anything that resembled my mental image, but nothing. (I did find THX 1138, which I didn’t knew was a movie first, and only after a book, need to see the movie one day, lol)
 
There is a movie or an episode somewhere that explores this. Can't remember the name of it tho.
Confine your search to dystopian fiction.
The movie I think was made in the late 90s or very early 2000's.
I remember it was a futuristic war/resistance type movie.
If you can find the movie that fits your mental-images you might find the author that inspired it and then the book itself.
Virtual nightmare?
 
hope the OP is still around
thankx Ensign McG for the info

there was an early Doctor Who ep with similar theme, they got doped and imagined the world as wonderful.
also part of 'Blake's 7' as the food altered people's perceptions
 
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