Romancing The Brain With Drugs

Have you ever wondered why so many kids and adults take drugs for fun then stay on them? Particularly heartbreaking when knowing that our brains are capable of producing the chemicals for natural highs. We may experience these natural highs through gateways produced by feelings of intense love, sex, laughter and music, art, to name but a few.

Romancing The Brain With Love (1)early stage, intense romantic love is associated with subcortical reward regions rich with dopamine; and (2) romantic love engages brain systems associated with motivation to acquire a reward") Thats what all of us are after the, "Reward"!! Click on link below for more in depth information on love and brain effects.

Unfortunately there are too many of us who do not get to experience(and or lose the ability to experience) these natural highs for various reasons. Namely, for adults, it is through a lack of activity, boredom, extreme stress at work or in the home, unrequited love and depression both chemical and situational. Some youngsters are prevented from knowing or experiencing natural highs at an early age, due to easy availability of drugs, boredom, gang culture, being bullied, curiosity about drugs, parents using drugs, and sometimes mental pain and suffering are precursors to trying out drugs. To top it off there are more types of street drugs that are readily available and cheap enough to choose from now than at any other time in history. Drugs can mask all sorts of symptoms by numbing pain, stress and boredom. Different drugs are used to tweak the pleasure centres of the brain, (Romancing The Brain), that nature has not been able to do, or in a lot of cases, been allowed to do. From this stand point it is not so hard to understand why children who are bored, curious or have been badly let down, abused by family, school mates and teachers, seek pleasure and comfort of a sorts, from other sources. It is also not so difficult to understand why young university students up to the gills with work and play, or businessmen and women in the cut throat world of getting and then keeping good jobs, alleviate the stress with man made Chemicals and alcohol. There are other aspects of life and life scenarios that drugs can address for a short while. (Note that it is only ever for a “Short While”) These aspects and scenarios are multiple and may involve lifestyle, our perceptions, orientations and feelings about work/no work/overworked, lovers, sexual bias, friends/lack of friends and wellness/unwell, being down, lacking energy, confidence and focus. The problem is that all of these drugs require payback from the users pocket, mind and body in some form or another.

Romancing The Brain with Cocaine

Many unwanted feelings can be made to disappear by snorting a line of cocaine. In effect we are Romancing The Brain by man made or 'organic' chemical seduction, inducing/seducing it to release a rush of Dopamine. The flood of dopamine immediately rewards the user with feelings of being back in the game, wide eyed (got that one right!) alert and with energy to spare. Unfortunately as most cocaine users will tell you, the rush is short lived, typically lasting for twenty to thirty minutes before it wears off. Effects and longevity are also highly dependent on the grade or purity of the cocaine, and is one of the reasons why many cocaine users are in constant flux, willing to take risks by snorting it in strange bathrooms, off of desk tops and any available corner that promises to give some sort of covertness. Users feel more alive, confident and focused, both important aspects for wannabe executives fighting for a rung on the top ladder, or for the fallen or rising rock stars and even the clerk who wants the girl in a million. They all may feel that they have found the missing ingredient for success even if it is for 30mins or until they snort the next line. All of this is very seductive and expensive! Unfortunately users who used to have natural joie de vivre, confidence, energy and focus before turning to coke, forget that they ever carried within themselves these now sought after attributes. The false enhanced levels of confidence, energy and focus, become the hunted pleasure of the cocaine addict Romancing The Brain, who has to take more, and more frequntly to attain & maintain the same levels of pleasure that one line used to give them, it’s captivated lovers. Cocaine is a very high-maintenance lover, she comes and goes like a will O' the wisp, maddeningly enticing. This Diva of love has put many successful people back onto their backsides without so much as a glimmer of an apology. Cocaine has the power to eat away at the nasal septum, thereby separating the two nostrils. Very attractive!

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I have inserted a link, "Time to Act" here that is particularly useful to parents looking for and recognisng the signs of drug abuse.

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Time To Act Signs of Drug Taking

For those Romancing The Brain with amphetamines, it's usually all about getting pleasure for longer, which means experimenting with other more refined & manufactured drugs such as Methamphetamine, Crank or ‘Crystal Meth as It is more widely known. Meth causes a considerably higher release of Dopamine than Cocaine and the effects last for a much longer period of time. It also has a higher body debt on the user. The brain is the hub for the body, it specialises in maintaining equilibrium by messaging & actioning the release of all sorts of necessary chemicals and hormones, or prompting/inhibiting actions we take.(That is aside from all the other millions of things it takes care of). Meth “Cranks” up the production of Dopamine for periods of up to 8-20 hours, an unnatural and damaging situation for the brain, which cannot cope with such extended periods and high levels of dopamine. (observe people who suffer from Parkinsons and you will get the drift of what happens when dopamine levels are interfered with). The excess causes the brain to release enzymes that destroy the excessive dopamine levels which in time alters the structure of brain cells in certain areas of the brain. This is horribly over-simplified but the general idea is that if you mess with the brain, you mess with everything including some of the brain structure when the abuse is long term. So apart from the usual suspects like anxiety, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, weight loss, and risk of strokes as an aside to drugs that interfere with the normal production of chemicals such as dopamine and adrenaline, chronic users also suffer mental illness, psychotic breaks, violent behaviour, depression and suicidal feelings. Damage to the brain can be permanent for long time users. The effects of Meth on babies inside the womb can cause premature birth, paranoia in newborns and even death. Crystal Meth sounds very romantic doesn’t it?? Looking at how it damages the brain and ages users, this romance is a killer. My thoughts on this lover are, kick it into touch and aim for the diamonds, not the crystal. Back to Top

Children Romancing The Brain with drugs usually start off with Marijuana as it Is possibly the easiest drug to get hold of alongside ecstasy or MDMA. For kids it is more of a case of romancing the gang and friends than it is of Romancing The Brain. It is often used as an 'in' for someone outside the group. For people in general, smoking weed is a bit of a laugh and a one off. And certainly for most people, ‘Marijuana’ has that side effect. In most cases Marijuana is used as a recreational drug and therefore it is mostly used in an inconsistent manner. It is often discarded as a pass time when young adults reach a time of stability or a time that requires stability in their lives. Those who continue to use it frequently, may find themselves going through periods of paranoia and depression as this drug is a depressive. Long-term use affects general mental well being in a negative way. There are a few people who do get hooked on it and find it difficult to cope without it in times of stress. Ironically though, it may also, like alcohol, feed stress through feelings of paranoia. Many feel that this drug is a precursor to other harder drugs. For some that maybe true but this is not a hard and fast rule, just as it is not a hard and fast rule that people do not seek harder drugs after its use. It is an unfortunate fact that some of us are more prone to addiction or have addictive personalities and are therefore more vulnerable to the pleasure factor, whilst others of us can take it or leave it. I do believe that the younger the person is when experimenting with Marijuana the more likely it is that they will in fact, try harder drugs. We should not expect kids to make informed/mature judgements about using Marijuana as this is clearly counter-intuitive. Moms and Dads who feel that they ought to come clean and admit to young teens that they have experimented with Marijuana in the past, are making the mistake of thinking that this information will in some perverted way dissuade their kids from doing the same! In fact all they achieve by sharing their memoires is in kitting their kids up with tools for blackmailing them at any opportunity that presents itself. It can also be taken as an unspoken agreement that it is ok for them to do the same. The fact is that not even Marijuana is free from additives these days and may in fact have some herbicide and hallucinogenic content. Parents who feel the need to confess to their kids should wait until their children are old enough to make good descisons. In the meantime kids need parents who have good common sense and who provide good role models. Teens around the ages of 13 and 15 are especially at risk of trying anything new and "cool". Mom and Dad keep an eye on your gang! Typical signs are blood red eyes, ravenous appetite, giggling at inappropriate moments or situations. As far as a lover goes, Romancing The Brain with ‘weed’ is a bit of a flop. Who wants a giggling, ravenous pig that falls asleep at the good part! Back to Top

Ecstasy is another drug that is easily accessible to both adults and kids. The street name for this drug varies from country to country but common names are X or E. They come in tablet form with various logos on them, e.g the VW logo, smiley face, yin yang etc. This drug can subject the user to hallucinations, feelings of acute awareness or dreaminess, empathy and for some a feeling of loss of control. The differing effects are possibly caused by dealers cutting ecstasy with other additives such as unrefined pseudoephadrine a stimulant, and or Ketamine, a drug that can produce contemplative effects as well as hallucinogenic effects in high doses. Benadryl as an additive to ecstasy can cause serious loss of inhibitions which may lead to unplanned sex and other nefarious acts that the user would not normally contemplate. Each of these drugs has its own side effects such as elevated blood pressure, diuretic effects, stimulant and depressive effects. When taken in combination with each other the risks of serious harm to the user are considerably raised. In particular ecstasy can be harmful when the users are spending hours dancing without taking in water, "ecstasy" being the clubbers drug of choice. All of these drugs are dangerous, not because each one is particularly harmful on its own but because they are usually mixed together and are often taken with alcohol and Cocaine. This can lead to accelerated heart beat, high blood pressure, dehydration and even death due to cardiovascular failure. The biggest cause & effect of these drugs in my mind is the loss of belief in the ability to have fun without drugs. Worst of all is the fact that some children will never know the meaning of getting high on life, as they will not have given themselves the chance to experience it, sans drugs. Mom and Dad, kids who come back from parties shaking and have verbal diarrhea as well as enlarged pupils have been testing/taking drugs! Back to Top

For me there can be no drug worse than heroin for Romancing The Brain. This is one Drug that has terrified me for as long as I have been aware that people take drugs for purposes other than those deemed purely medicinal. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a country where heroin was almost unheard of as a street drug. I also had the good fortune to read a book that described the utter decimation of one of the characters a heroin user, so well, that it put the fear of God into me about taking any drug that was not prescribed. Since living in the UK for almost ten years now I have been able to see for my own eyes what this drug can do to people almost on a daily basis. I have seen people who have lost limbs, not through war or accidents but because their veins collapsed under the constant barrage of the drug & needles being stuck into them for the sake of heroin. I see haunted eyes in skeletal bodies wrapped in blankets to keep out the cold, lying or slouching under city bridges and in dirty foul smelling door ways, and that fear comes back even stronger. So why do people want to do this drug, what is the feeling they need and crave for, that only this drug can give. How is this Drug Romancing The Brain? I must admit I can understand why people seek potions that enhance energy levels and focus. Life is that fast and that demanding we could all do with a boost of energy and super focus ability. Just walking through the city requires the focus of superman if we want to emerge unscathed from bolshy shoulders and pointy umbrellas. Driving here in the UK requires the focus of a hawk in order to avoid a population that seems hell bent on testing my car’s brakes and everybody else’s who dares drive. (The sense of being able to focus better when driving with drugs, is a total illusion so don’t try it.) So why pick a drug that is a depressive? Yes it blots out mental anguish and is a very powerful painkiller, more powerful in fact than morphine. It is also highly addictive even with limited use. The payoff doesn't seem reasonable to me at all. (if there is such a thing as payoff & drugs) Even if this drug dulls pain and memory, the hell that it replaces these feelings with when it leaves the system, has got to be ten times worse. The fact remains that the end result of Romancing The Brain with Heroin is one of sleepiness and a brain that declares no one at home here! The body debt is huge, collpased veins, infection of the heart lining and liver disease are just a few presents this lover leaves behind. And once it has begun to leave the system the mind is filled only with the need and desire to get more, no matter what no matter how! This drug not only has mind-altering effects but permanent brain altering affects as well. It also depresses breathing, which is why many heroin addicts die from overdose. This is one drug that would make me drag my gang through every hostel, underpass and hospital to show them the very devastating effects that heroin has on people’s lives. I would, as I think I have mentioned before, ‘scare the bejeesus out of them’!!! This is one romance that has little hope for a happy ending. The relationship is truly abusive. Back to Top

Unfortunately this is my addiction. I too was young and dumb! I found myself having to move to yet another school at the age of 15. This school really put the frighteners on me. It was an all girls school. Up until then a totally foreign concept for me to get my head around. Not having all the trust in the world for females in general, I sought out the strongest and the toughest girls to be my friends. They smoked and then so did I!! I had started what was to become my affair with nicotine. Not the most cruel of masters but not the most unforgiving either. It has certainly cost me a lot of money over the years and it has enveloped me in a cloud of smoky clothes and hair for most of my life. Other side effects for me were, breathlessness and irritability when unable to get my nicotene fix. For others who smoke the side effects maybe more serious as this lover can leave it's partners with emphysema for which there is no cure, as well as other lung problems, e.g. asthma, chronic chest infections etc. It is only now that I have found a way around this predicament that I know now exactly how breathless & smelly I really was. That quick ciggie around the corner that I thought no one could smell was a real give away to all the non-smokers in my office!!. But I lived under the illusion that I had been really stealthy and had fooled them all!! Never-the-less I do not have a problem with other smokers and I will never put my nose in the air as I know how it is to have nicotine as a lover. Which brings me to the best part and that is how, I now have my cake and eat it too! Desperate for a solution as I knew that there was no possible way for me to give up smoking and allow others to live, I was willing to try anything. Lucky for me my husband found the answer. The electronic cigarette! It delivers the nicotine in a way that is as fast as smoking a cigarette but without the added extras like bleached paper and other carcinogens, as well as no smoke or ash, so no smell, no carbon monoxide, (checked at local clinic). I slipped seamlessly from cigarettes to my electronic cigarette and experienced not one day of wanting my pack of ciggies back even after 35years of Romancing The Brain with nicotine! It has been almost a year now and I have not smoked or even wanted to smoke a real cigarette in 11 months. I am so happy about this that I want to share it with all those real ciggie addicts out there. And of course don't begin Romancing The Brain with cigarettes in the first place!!!! This mi amante is an expensive, smelly and messy lover! You can't miss what you have never had!

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Romancing The Brain With Alcohol

Alcohol can be a tonic, fun and relaxing, or it can turn out to be at the very least, one very messy lover. At worst it can be a savage, angry, violent, less than Romeo affair of the heart. It has the potential to be very dangerous for those who do no respect it's effects on the brain and body when taken in excess. The reasons for this are well documented and there is therefore no reason to turn this into a biology lesson other than for the benefit of children who should not be imbibing alcohol at all. So for them alone, alcohol can damage the liver, affect judgement of distance, ability to walk or talk, or in making good or bad decisions, such as having sex with random partners all without protection, or going home with some person that is not well known and or getting into arguments that become violent. These effects are just a few of the problems that are alcohol related and may seem in the grand scheme of things to be overstated, or simply 'sour grape' meanderings of old people and politicians out to spoil the fun of the masses. Unfortunately some of us are genetically predisposed to becoming alcoholics and ugly drunks who end up beating the life and soul out of people, including loved ones, who in the drunks' inebriated state appear to be "asking for it". This aggression may only manifest itself when the person is drunk, in much the same way as some people have a penchant to removing all their clothes or indulge in random sex when drunk. This side affect is the brains' loss of inhibitory function caused directly by alcohol. That which seems funny at the time can have serious consequences for the people involved. Babies conceived in this manner are often rejected by the fathers and some begrudged by the mothers, (although this is less common than fathers denying culpability). Careers are often blown out of the water by the stupid thoughtless actions of a drunk employee at office parties and functions. When these sorts of problems arise from one night of drunken foolishness, Romancing The Brain in this way cannot justify the long-term consequences for not only the drunk, but their victims as well.

The next and most obvious question is why do we Romance The Brain with alcohol so often. The answer is that there is no one particular reason as to why we drink, but the fact that it is legal and available in most societies makes it our NO.1 choice for Romancing The Brain. We do Romance The Brain with alcohol for a variety of reasons and in varying quantities at different times or phases in our lives. For some it is simply a cultural thing. Most people however will say that they drink for the fun of it and in order to relax.

Many men in the UK used to and still do stop off on the way home and have a quick one Pint of beer before going home. There is hardly reason to complain about this when it is just one or two Pints but the culture of early closing times set in the early 1900's, ("Defence of The Realm Act 1914 restricted the opening hours to 12noon-2.30pm and 6.30 - 9.30pm". Nigel Morris.) has affected the way in which people drink even though these laws have changed. Certain licensed pubs and clubs close much later now. However the early closing times had a psychological effect on the pubbers, they felt then, and still do now, that they had/have to get as many drinks down their necks as possible before closing time. This means that drinks are knocked back very quickly resulting in people getting drunk in a very short period of time. This fast drinking culture remains today.

The increases in the taxes on liqour has only added to the UK's woes. Young clubber's buy cheap liqour from their local stores and chug down high alcohol content cider and beer hoping to get a buzz before they go out. The late opening times of most clubs means that they can drink at home until around ten at night before going out. The result is that most of them are already half cut before they even set foot in the clubs. Inhibition and sound reasoning have already fled the dance floor by this time, and money that should possibly have been kept for food, petrol or bus fare is spent on even more alcohol.

The fast drinking culture in Britain means that most people have still not learned to pace themselves for a long evening of enjoyment. The evening fun is rated by lack of memory of the night in question. The less remembered the more fun they had!This information is provided by friends who managed to stay sober enough to relate the evenings goings on. Sadly many youngsters have never had a night out without the influence of alcohol and therefore have nothing to measure their experiences against.

Alcohol dependence is often established by patterned drinking such as clubbing. People begin to fear that their personality cannot stand alone without the influence of alcohol. This is especially true for those who are shy. Shy people get ever more bold the more they are into Romancing The Brain with alcohol. This insidious lover has the ability to quash inhibitions.

Others may use alcohol to get them through certain situations that have become unbearable. Sometimes black holes in the memory maybe preferable to actual situations in sobriety. The reality is that these situations only get worse with drink and there is the real possibility that the person may find that they are not just mentally dependent but also physically dependent. Any ongoing situation that makes a person feel the need to obliterate it with alcohol, should be shot of, either by leaving it behind or by removing the catalyst. Young children drinking should be removed from the environment that supports the behaviour. This may mean changing friends and even address.

Dropping an emotional dependency is possible over a period of time along with leaving the situation that helped cause it in the first place. Alcoholics and family members have it far worse, they are like any addict, ruthless in their aquisition of their preferred substance of abuse. They too will lie, steal, hide and sneak it. This way of Romancing The Brain, can be as lethal as any drug. Alcoholics are as apt to mix drink and drugs as any other other substance abuser. The body cost is very high and often this cost is paid not only by the alcohol abuser but by their victims when the side effects are violence. It leaves its lovers with bad breath, very smelly tummys and ulcers. Headaches are par for the course due to dehydration, as are shaking hands, bad skin, anxiety and eventually cirrhosis of the liver which eventually leads to death.

If anyone thinks that drinking is just a bit of harmless fun, take a good look at any drunk man or woman. Take note of the slack white face, the drooping make-up smeared eyes that lack cognition. Ask yourself how much you enjoy being trapped by a drunk that wishes to discuss some issue they feel is very important and stress the importance by repeating the same conversation over and over again. Personal space is totally ignored by drunks who like to get in real close which means that they will keep lurching up against you and breathe 100 proof fumes into your face! Then look at the mess that these people leave in their wake. Puke fouled toilets and alley-ways, clothes, hair and faces. Now ask yourself if you really want to look like that in front of someone you fancy or co-workers and bosses. Believe me I like a drink, nothing better than a fire going with meat on it and an ice cold beer, or glass of wine in my sticky little paws! But the image at age 15, of a friend of my mothers, puking in the bathroom, her white slack face in mine, her drunken slurred speech and me trapped by her, in the corner having to breathe in her foul drunken breath, has never left me. Yech! And I thank her for the lesson!

I cannot plead total innocence I have on a few occassions got horribly, irredeemably drunk! I know that I never want a long term romance with this devil in disguise! Possibly a few one night stands in the future somewhere along the line when I drink to the setting sun under a Mopane tree in my home land with my loved ones! Back to Top

I get the concept of using drugs for elevating low mood and lack of energy and therefore the how and why people use them for Romancing The Brain. However the cost of a short-term enhanced sense of confidence, energy, well-being and fun through drugs is too high a price to pay. All drugs, even so called, ‘Organic Drugs’ demand a price that the body has to pay. There is always a chance of becoming addicted even if the addiction is only a psychological one, it is still a ball and chain that has to be carried around. And to be clear about this I am not dismissing a psychological addiction, as this can be as destructive and as hard to break away from as any physical addiction. No person that has ever done Cocaine, Crack, Ecstasy, Acid, Dube or even smoked a cigarette can tell you that in all honesty, they feel great the next day or when they come down from whatever drug it is they have inhaled/ingested/injected. Cocaine has a nasty habit of leaving its lover with flu’ like symptoms that could challenge Swine Flu’. The whole body screams poison by sending aches and pains as the messenger. Ecstasy is another lover that hates to let go without a fight. It has a nasty habit of dropping its victims into a black hole of despair a couple of days later after ingestion. And depending on what it was cut with, it can also cause hallucinations, anxiety, shaking hands and a body that feels like it has been dragged through the underbrush. And girls if you like your nice shiny hair, a couple of rounds with Coke, Meth and Ecstasy will knock that shine Right out of your hair!! In fact all drugs tend to have detrimental side effects on hair and skin. Marijuana ages skin as fast if not faster than cigarettes and the sun does! Ditto for Meth. And if all of this is not enough to deter you or someone you know then consider the empty hole it leaves in the pocket. Anybody dating a drug addict or who is married to one will know just how much money it costs and just how little the druggie cares. The easiest way out of drug addiction, or Romancing The Brain, and all it’s delightful companions, bad hygiene, memory loss, family and friend alienation, poor health, anxiety, debt, job loss, poor judgement, amputations and death, is not to go there in the first place. Nothing is in our systems to persuade us non-drinkers or drug takers to put the first drop or line on the tongue, up the nose or in a vein. That only comes after the first poor decision to do so. There is nothing romantic about the way drugs change a person. Waking up next to a seventies reject, with body odour and a patented five day beard, is what you get for dating a ganja smoking, weed lover. Finding out that you run a poor second to a line of coke or a couple of tabs is demeaning and hurtful. Having your money stolen by family or a friend for a heroin hit is crushing. And losing someone you love to drugs, the biggest hurt of all! This awful person could be you if you decide be "Romancing The Brain with drugs and opting to take that first hit. Drugs today are cut with all sorts of things that are designed to turn a casual drug taker into an addict and these include poisons like arsenic and strychnine. Remember dealers want money. Romancing The Brain costs!

Romancing The Brain With Natural Highs

This doesn’t require taking drugs, or consuming plant food for heavens sake! It doesn't require stealing from people, snorting other peoples skin cells & pubic hair along with that line of coke on the bathroom basin or toilet seat. It certainly doesn’t require digging around with a needle in order to find a vein, or carrying little parcels up the bum in order to pay for them. Natural highs come from music, oh yeah, good old heart warming, skin tingling, adrenalin pumping music. Ever felt the drum beat through a wooden floor on the souls of your feet? Or felt goose pimples when a certain note resonates within you? Dancing and any sort of exercise is Romancing The Brain and causes a release of endorphins which create a natural high. Any activity that gives pleasure, creates the calmness inside that people are forever seeking in life. Remember sex?? that releases dopamine! Sunshine, love and good sex are also good for Romancing The Brain. .................................................................................................................................. Romancing The Brain With Laughter

Send someone you love a joke a day, laughing is another natural high! Play, play, play! Men seldom lose the child within and they are less prone to depression than women, surely that should tell us something! Sit somewhere and watch kids play, if they can’t bring a smile to your face you probably need some serious cheering up.(A special thanks to my son for first chucking my heart into my mouth and then the laughter by showing me how to ride a bike without both hands and sight! And to my daughter for sharing her favourite recipe of red ants fresh from the nest of pain, fried up with strawberrys and onions, her squeals of fright and laughter, at pincers nipping her dimpled chubby fingers, still hanging on the afternoon air, along with my nerves!) My Brave funny little thing!

Just remember your brain is doing its best to keep a balance between mind and body. If depression that raises thoughts of suicide persist, then there is a possibility that your brain could do with some help. And in today’s age of really good therapies and antidepressants that don’t have the negative effects of street drugs, there is no reason to suffer longer than is necessary to identify a small glitch in the system from a serious one. Try Romancing The Brain with genuine love for yourself and find help if you need it!

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