Drugs Abuse and ADHD

[wanderquest]

Something else to consider. I understand your thesis is about dopaminergic drugs as they relate to a dompamine deficiency. Dopamine is only a component of ADHD, it also involves issues with norepinephrine  and choline. The brain is a stew of hard to spell chemicals.

Which would possibly explain why some people get “lit up” by some drugs but not others. Most drugs work on more than one receptor as well. Depending on what your brain is deficient in, could affect your drug of choice.

And out of curiosity I looked into the nicotine addiction. Smoking does release dopamine but the main thing it does in creating addiction is actually increasing the number of nicotinic receptors. Your brain gets to where it’s more interested in the nicotine than the dopamine. So if a neruotypical starts smoking occasionally because it feels good (dopamine) they may continue to smoke infrequently but eventually become addicted solely for the nicotine.

I imagine that could be the case in several other drugs as well, even if their primary effect is dopaminergic. Dopamine deficiency would certainly be the place to start looking, and it could lead to other research about the other transmitters.

Are you involved in some type of university community? I definitely think your idea is worth pursuing. As you stated, not only for what it could mean from a prevention standpoint, but for treatment as well.

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[sdwa]

I always thought that there was less alcoholism in European countries than in the U.S. because people there are not as uptight about alcohol consumption. When a society tells people not to do something, and has an oppressive, controlling, guilt-tripping attitude about it – that almost guarantees that people will do it more, in my opinion. Or at least that they will not do it any less. Resentment, guilt, and fear probably encourage addictions.

In my family, both parents smoked cigarettes, but that was in the 1950s and 1960s when everyone was smoking. My father was an alcoholic but also schizophrenic. His drinking could have been a way to self-medicate.

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[blackdog]

That is certainly true. It’s the reason the “War On Drugs” has been such a huge disaster.

I was listening to a report on the news today about young people abusing prescription drugs like Adderal  and Ritalin. And it was all the typical doom and gloom if you do it once you will die stuff. The one doctor said “cemeteries are full of people who thought they would just try it once”. Which is an extreme exaggeration. That kind of stuff is what pushes kids to experiment more with drugs. Because instead of being realistic and saying that it’s not good for you and it might kill you they blow it out of proportion make it sound ridiculous. Then no one believes it.

My parents had a very relaxed attitude towards alcohol. Though they didn’t drink a lot when they did  I was always allowed to have a bit. Even when I drank a whole beer once when they weren’t looking they didn’t really say much. They probably thought the headache was punishment enough. And they were right. I still don’t like beer to this day.

The only thing I did overindulge in was the Cherry Brandy. They never should have let me taste that one.

But it worked. By the time I was old enough to drink the experimentation phase was already over. I knew what I liked and didn’t like and I rarely drank too much. When I was 16 I went to a friend’s work party. There was a bar because most of the people were adults. I could easily pass for 19 and no one knew the difference because they didn’t know me. The next day when I was talking about the dinner and the door prize I won my mother nonchalantly said “so what did you have to drink?’ I immediately confessed that I had rum and coke. And all she said was “I’m glad you were honest about it.”

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[miguelangel]

A striking fact of drugs, is the incongruence in behavior that have on people who use them, it is a culture-dependent behavior . If we think about the consumer  behavior of a drug such alcohol,  we will think that a person who drinks will have a tendency to a violent and unpleasant behavior, also under the influence of alcohol he will be prone to an irresponsible sexual promiscuity. However, this behavior is not universally true, the British among others, when they drink they will behave like that. Anthropologists refer to these societies as “dissociated cultures versus alcohol.” A Spanish like myself or my friends we never behave like, my generation did not know that alcohol has those effects, I would say that even we are less violent and less promiscuous under the influence of alcohol. We belong to a “culture associated to alcohol”.

It is funny spanish  advertising on sherries wines from 60’s in which recommend comsumption to children. (See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJIxo9q2hMY)

On certain situations our behavior is conditioned by instincts. Our community  can predetermine  and define behaviors based on the agreement and the belief of the community. This is the mechanism that explains that the same drug has different behaviors in different societies. This is the fundamental reason for conductual changes associated with addictions. The consequence over behaviour have little or nothing to do with biochemistry of the drug. Usually and wrongly we blame the drug chemistry and its impact on our brains of changes in the behavior that have addicts.

This process has been studied by the SIRC (Social Issues Research Centre), in its study of the behavior consequences of alcohol in British society. The studies make a comparative analysis of the effects of alcohol in different societies and blame  the damage caused by alcohol in British society to the existence of an unjustified belief about its effects, a belief that has no scientific basis. Its demonstrations of the falsity of the legend associated with alcohol consumption, it is based both on experiments designed to that purpose, and also with behavioral differences that have alcohol in British society compared to those observed in Mediterranean societies as Spanish society.

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[miguelangel]

The increment of nicotinic receptors of acetylcholine is a good example of homeostasis and physiological changes that can hook anybody, this process can work in the brain of any person, however also people addicted to nicotine had a brain similar to ADHD brain

I do not belong to any college community, my interest is because drugs have done much damage to my family and friends. Seeking the cause, searching how drugs work I found a fact that is hide and disguise on purpose: Drugs affect and cause serious damage just to people who have a dopamine deficit.

It is hide and disguise (which is a crime) because this fact is difficult to reconcile with the position that criminalize addicts.

It is enough to think and talk about Junkies, people who did not want to hear a message repeated a thousand times about the risk of drugs and addictions so irresponsibily they cause themselves the adiction searching the pleasures that bring drugs. It is fake, it is not true, that  young  did anything different than  did other young people who afterwards became presidents of the US (Clinton, Bush, Obama) the only difference was that they had a dopamine deficit, that was the real cause that makes them get hooked.

My children like me have ADHD and for them is very important to know that  they cannot play with drugs, drugs are extremely dangerous to them and they cannot get confident because other friends can play, to them will be different, to them will be true the absurd and exaggerated advertising on drugs

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[miguelangel]

The increment of nicotinic receptors of acetylcholine is a good example of homeostasis and physiological changes that can hook anybody, this process can work in the brain of any person, however also people addicted to nicotine had a brain similar to ADHD brain

I do not belong to any college community, my interest is because drugs have done much damage to my family and friends. Seeking the cause, searching how drugs work I found a fact that is hide and disguise on purpose: Drugs affect and cause serious damage just to people who have a dopamine deficit.

It is hide and disguise (which is a crime) because this fact is difficult to reconcile with the position that criminalize addicts.

It is enough to think and talk about Junkies, people who did not want to hear a message repeated a thousand times about the risk of drugs and addictions so irresponsibily they cause themselves the adiction searching the pleasures that bring drugs. It is fake, it is not true, that  young  did anything different than  did other young people who afterwards became presidents of the US (Clinton, Bush, Obama) the only difference was that they had a dopamine deficit, that was the real cause that makes them get hooked.

My children, like me, have ADHD and for them is very important to know that  they cannot play with drugs, drugs are extremely dangerous to them and they cannot get confident because other friends can play, to them will be different, to them will be true the absurd and exaggerated advertising on drugs

REPORT ABUSE

[sdwa]

I tell my son, who has ADHD, that drugs and alcohol are more dangerous for us than for other people. I really believe that, because I saw myself fall into habits that I didn’t like (even at the time) –  it was almost automatic. If low dopamine is the problem, that makes sense to me. As an experience, it was just being caught in the moment, because there is only now.

Too many things people do are made into a moral issue. Who does that serve? In my opinion there is no area of human concern that cannot be corrupted by the profit motive. It’s useful to ask who is asking and who has a problem with what people are doing, and why they have a problem with it, and what they have to gain if the problem continues.

ADHD is a “disorder” because we don’t fit into the education or employment systems. If the world were run by musicians, being tone deaf would be a disorder. Context is everything.

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