What is addiction? You can’t get addicted to a substance your body doesn’t have receptors for. Which means the body makes an analog to fill those receptors. For opiates the analogs are called endorphins. For marijuana anandamides. If those receptors are unfilled due to some defect in body chemistry (frequently caused by PTSD but there are other causes – some unknown) you will try to fill them with substances obtained externally. What we call “addiction” is a deficiency disease. Insulin “addiction” ring a bell? Well we don’t call it addiction because we understand the deficiency.
Addiction is a deficiency “disease”. It is why only one in ten who try heroin get “addicted” to heroin.
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12 responses to “Receptive”
[…] the 50,000 dead from the Drug Wars in Mexico. There are worse things than people getting addicted (if addiction is even possible – but that is a topic for another day) to drugs. Mass random murder. Which is very bad for […]
Incomplete and dangerous misunderstanding, especially about insulin.
Yes and no (or in short, I disagree with both of you) – ever hear of the term “sugar high”? It’s pretty common among hypoglycemics – who often become ‘victims’ (self-induced) of adult-onset diabetes.
Simon is right – BUT – real addiction (not just ‘they need that’) is (or at least was before the term lost its meaning) a case of overuse of something that helps in moderation.
“If it feels good, do it” can do more damage than good.
But… I’ll note. If someone OD’s on sugar and ends up in the emergency room…they don’t get arrested. They generally (assuming they survive) get let out with a strong lecture. Maybe they should be arrested? Is that what you are saying about dangerous? They are, after all, self-medicating.
Kathy — Simon’s closer to right than you are. There’s no such thing as a “sugar high”. And hypoglycemia is treated by ingesting sugar or carbs.
“Real addiction” as you put it is more a case of substances changing the receptors and modifying the body’s production of the chemicals intended for them, not just simple overuse.
Putting an end to the drug war will not end addiction. It won’t make meth or heroin “good for you” and it’s silly and counter-productive to promote arguments even suggesting such.
Prohibition didn’t change alcoholism — it just made criminals out of ordinary people while offering those with a criminal mindset a huge opportunity (including those in law enforcement).
The drug war is even worse. But bad information about addiction and disease isn’t going to stop it.
Donna B.,
Thanks but I’m not in total agreement with you.
If you keep your endorphin receptors filled the body makes more. We are not designed to be happy all the time. OTOH being unhappy all the time is not good for us either. The middle path is the way.
Receptors changed? This is contradicted by the 5% or so who spontaneously give up heroin every year.
Big clue to all of this. About 70% of female heroin addicts were sexually abused in childhood. I had a heroin addict respond to one of my posts on that subject that in his experience the number was 100%. Of course a slightly biased sample could easily give that number if the real number is 70%.
Let me give you my general take:
People in chronic pain chronically take pain relievers.
If you can stop the pain the need for pain relievers stops. The the parallel with insulin is almost exact.
Well… Some people are addicted to telling others what to do. To make matters worse, they sometimes require increasing doses of power to satisfy their craving.
Joseph,
Too true.
Umm, sorry, Donna, my mother is hypoglycemic. So was my grandmother, before she got adult-onset diabetes. There IS such a thing as a sugar high, and hypoglycemics can be considered addicts.
My mother sneaks sweets like an alcoholic sneaks booze. She has an “addiction” to sugar. If your definition of addiction doesn’t include anything legal, maybe you should think again.
Oh… and hypoglycemia is not treated by ingesting sugar or carbs; it is, oddly enough, treated by the same exact diet that diabetics are put on.
Kathy — no, it’s a “sugar low”. The disease, hypoglycemia, can be mostly managed/controlled by diet (like type II diabetes), but hypoglycemia, an episode of low blood sugar, is treated with some kind of sugar.
If your mother never eats another sweet for the rest of her life, she will probably still have episodes of hypoglycemia.
If an alcoholic never drinks another drop, he won’t ever get drunk again.
Simon — the body making more endorphin receptors as in your example is changing the receptors, as I stated.
I would agree that both diabetes and addiction involve an out of control or malfunctioning feedback loop. It’s theorized that’s a problem with some types of chronic pain also.
BUT pain relievers don’t necessarily stabilize the feedback loop. If the pain is caused by inflammation, anti-inflammatory pain relievers do to an extent, but opiates don’t.
Donna,
The body making more receptors is not changing receptors because such “making more” happens no matter what is filling them. Sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll.
And that is critical. Heroin is not changing the body. The change is not a special effect of heroin. The receptors do not get “tuned” by heroin. i.e heroin is no more dangerous than daily or six times daily sex. Not counting STDs.