addiction

[the guy]

do addictive drugs such as heroine and cocaine etc make you addicted after the first use? or does it take more than once?

 

by the way this is purely out of interest, i plan on steering well clear of such things

[insane_alien]

Depends.

 

Depends on the dose, depends on the person.

 

A higher dose makes addiction more likely. For instance, if you behaved like tony montana in scarface and snorted a literla heap of cocaine (assuming you survived) then it is likely you would develop an addiction) if it was a trace amount (such as the traces often found on paper money) then chances could be zero.

 

Also, some people get addicted to things easier than others. This can be for a variety of reasons such as a genetic susceptibilty, perhaps leading to more receptors for a particular drug or something. Or even just personality, soem people can get addicted to things even if there isn't an actual chemical reason for it.

 

Which brings up another complicating factor, what type of addiction?

 

Addiction can be because of a physical dependancy(whether inherent or developed later). this is the kind of addiction that crops up with drugs, they cause physiological and neurological changes that make the user feel terrible if they don't get the drug into their system.

 

Addiction can also manifest through behaviours. Nothing is actually making them want to do it other than habit. This is more associated with things like sucking your thumb into adult hood, picking your nose and biting nails. There is no addictive substance, there is nothing but habitual behaviour. But you can still experience withdrawal when forced to stop for whatever reason.

[the guy]

oh ok thankyou, i was referring to the physical dependance

[StringJunky]

The simple answer is no. Not sure about cocaine but heroin users I've known reckon about 2 weeks of sustained use will bring about physical dependence. The thing about drug addiction is it's mainly psychological and is brought about sustained regular usage and gradually falling into a mindset and social culture (which reinforces it) that is very difficult to get out of once in.

 

It takes your body two weeks to renormalise it's natural painkillers after cessation of use, that heroin replaces, but it takes months if not years to overcome the psychological dependency (for those few that succeed)...these psychologically induced problems can manifest themselves as physical symptoms and the line between physical and mental dependency can be very blurred but the medical arm of the UK's Social Services Substance Misuse team have told me the physical side is dealt with by the body in about a fortnight for heroin. This is just to give you an idea as to the severity and strength of the psychological part of the addiction equation.

 

It's a hole that's nearly impossible to climb out of so I hope scotched any inkling of practical curiosity you may have.

[Alun]

It really depends on both the drug and the person. But on the basis of physical addiction, it is possible after the first try. The only drug that comes to mind for this is methamphetamine which is arguably the worst drug to be addicted to due to its long lasting effects (Up to 3 days). Heroin (diamorphine) on the other hand rarely does result in instant addiction, this is shown in normal community pharmacy with such medicines as co-codamol being sold all the time (Codine is essentially converted to morphine by the cytochrome p450s within the liver, al be it at a 1:12 potency).

 

Physical addiction is a result of dopamine within the shell of the nucleus accumbens (Pleasure centre). By using addictive drugs your providing an external source of dopamine release (for heroin, this is via opiate receptors), your body will then get used to external release and deactivate its natural methods. By stopping you will then have decreased dopamine levels resulting withdrawal symptoms. This works in a similar way to how prednisolone works and how stopping it will result in withdrawal side effects. This is a slow process that needs to be reinforced to happen.

[ewmon]

Addiction occurs from the imbalance of short-term and long-term effects. People take drugs for the short-term effects, but the brain compensates long-term. When the short-term effects of the drugs wear off, the long-term compensation remains, which, giving the opposite feeling as the drug, encourages people to take the drug again (at least in order to feel normal).

 

Heroin, for example. Day 1, the user snorts one bag, gets high, but the brain realizes that its sensitivity to pain is diminished, so it increases its sensitivity. Day 2, the user wakes up and doesn't feel so good due to the increased sensitivity to pain (the brain is always receiving pain signals), so the user snorts one bag to feel normal and a second one to get high. Day 3, the user wakes up feeling lousy, and snorts two bags to feel normal and a third to get high. Day 4, three bags to feel normal, a fourth to get high. Etc, etc.

 

When it comes to actual physical addiction, there's only a few drugs that matter.

 

Alcohol is physically addictive. People seriously into alcohol cannot go cold turkey, or they might die because their bodies become physically dependent on the alcohol. Heavy drinkers feel a bit of this physical dependency when they need "the hair of the dog that bit them" so they can begin to feel normal. If someone is on a serious bender, don't think you can put him/her to bed to sleep it off because they may be dead by morning. Alcohol can also cause restless, unfulfilling sleep because of the brain's natural stimulating compensation takes over in the middle of the night after the alcohol effects wear off.

 

Heroin is not physically addictive. You can die from ODing, but if you go cold turkey, you'll feel like you're dying, and you'll want to die, but you won't. Plenty of heroin addicts have told me that, if they had a gun while going cold turkey, they would have killed themselves.

 

When it comes to addictiveness in general, the addicts and the experts both agree that nicotine is the most addictive substance. As I said before, it creates a calming short-term effect, but it also causes an agitating long-term effect. Most coffee drinkers experience caffeine withdrawal in one form or another. When coffee drinkers are grumpy and/or can't get going in the morning, it's withdrawal. Caffeine stimulates, but the brain depresses to compensate.

[lemur]

Addiction may not occur after one use, but using anything gives one the experience of having done it. If that experience is pleasurable, this creates the temptation to do it again. Once reacting to that temptation becomes a regular habit, you have entered into an addictive pattern. This pattern may become reinforced by the anti-pleasure of "coming down." The classic example is a hangover that gets remedied by having a drink in the morning. Ultimately, will-power should be sufficient to break with any addiction but the more addicted you become, the more painful the process of letting go becomes. You have the will-power to say no at any point, but doing so results in increasing levels of pain/suffering. So your will tends to give in to the pain and choose for pain-avoidance and short-term comfort over the long-term investment of pain now in exchange for freedom later.

 

Alcohol is physically addictive. People seriously into alcohol cannot go cold turkey, or they might die because their bodies become physically dependent on the alcohol. Heavy drinkers feel a bit of this physical dependency when they need "the hair of the dog that bit them" so they can begin to feel normal. If someone is on a serious bender, don't think you can put him/her to bed to sleep it off because they may be dead by morning.

Interesting. Why/how is alcohol physically addictive exactly?

[ewmon]

Why/how is alcohol physically addictive exactly?

In the simple sense, alcohol is a depressant, so the central nervous system reacts by stimulating itself. When the alcohol wears off, the stimulation remains, and that's where the hallucinations (snakes, bugs, etc) come from. The over stimulation can result in convulsions, includes heart and diaphragm dysfunction, which can result in death.

 

So, in that sense, the body depends upon the alcohol because the nervous system stimulates to maintain equilibrium (as long as the alcohol remains), but when all that alcohol goes away, the equilibrium gets thrown off (again), but the body may not compensate enough and death results.

 

With alcohol poisoning, the heart and diaphragm functions are so depressed, that they grind to a halt (the body not being able to compensate fast enough), and the person dies.

 

So, basically, alcohol can kill you one way or the other — vital functions either grinding to a halt or getting overstimulated.

[Alun]

I would have to say heroin is physically addictive. It has strong withdrawal symptoms which are characteristic. Granted you cant die from the withdrawal like with alcohol but it still is physically addictive.

 

Cannabis on the other hand is only psychologically addictive and only results in a craving for it.

[lemur]

In the simple sense, alcohol is a depressant, so the central nervous system reacts by stimulating itself. When the alcohol wears off, the stimulation remains, and that's where the hallucinations (snakes, bugs, etc) come from. The over stimulation can result in convulsions, includes heart and diaphragm dysfunction, which can result in death.

 

So, in that sense, the body depends upon the alcohol because the nervous system stimulates to maintain equilibrium (as long as the alcohol remains), but when all that alcohol goes away, the equilibrium gets thrown off (again), but the body may not compensate enough and death results.

 

With alcohol poisoning, the heart and diaphragm functions are so depressed, that they grind to a halt (the body not being able to compensate fast enough), and the person dies.

 

So, basically, alcohol can kill you one way or the other — vital functions either grinding to a halt or getting overstimulated.

Why wouldn't this be true of other depressants as well then?

 

 

 

[StringJunky]

Why wouldn't this be true of other depressants as well then?

 

Barbiturates can have the same lethal withdrawal consequences as alcohol if not done carefully with a heavy user.

[ewmon]

... and benzos. When doctor's take patients off these drugs, they need to taper them off, especially when patients have been on them for years.