The Blog Version of 'This Is Your Brain on Drugs, The Real Story'

Is this your brain on drugs?  Err...not exactly.

                               ( I'll be making a painting of this fried egg on the sidewalk...haha.)

 

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                                             ( Image of Mother Nature nurturing the world )

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"Mother Nature has equipped us with a system in our brains that helps us decide how to behave."

     "This part of the brain is called the Nucleus Accumbens, or 'NA' for short."

                                            ( Battery Regulator, as an example )

     We can think of the NA as the happiness regulator of the brain.  It's the part that makes you happy or sad."

     "How does the NA know whether to make you happy or sad?"

    

                 

                                                                                                                                                           "The rest of the brain, the thinking part, sends messages to the NA in the form of little packages of dopamine."

                 ( Dopamine, examples 1 and 2 )

    

( 'Packages of Beer being sent through the factory )

( Christmas Packages )

                                                  

                                                                                                                                                                                                              "The more dopamine, the happier"
                                          ( In other words, the more packages you receive, the happier you will be. )

( Sean Connery, the funniest example I could think of. )

                                               

         

     Normally, we stay in the middle range of mood, neither happy or sad.

  
                                           "Happy Experiences increase the dopamine flow."

    

                                              "Sad Experiences decrease the dopamine flow."

    

     "When something good happens to us, like getting an "A" on your report card, the brain sends a message to make us feel happy so we'll want to do it again, or repeat the behavior.

            

     "We remember the good or bad feelings and try to repeat the good, and stay away from the bad."

HAPPY EXPERIENCES                      Student Getting an "A"

                               
                                         Olympic Medal Winners

                                         Lover's Kiss

                                         Two People in Love

                                         Mother and Baby

                                        Father giving son a pat on the back.

SAD EXPERIENCES       Student getting an 'F'

                              

                                                Being rejected

                                                         Losing something

                                                     Someone close to you dies.

                                                     Injury

                                             Getting Fired

                                                Not enough money.

                                                    Rejection from friends, parents, or peers.

     "What happens when we consume a 'recreational substance' such as alcohol, coke, meth, heroin, oxycodone, etc."

    

     All the recreational substances, as far as we can determine, work by forcing the brain to feed more dopamine to the NA, thereby making us happy without doing much to earn it.

                                                            

                                                                    

                                                                                                                                                                            ( animation of  'One Ton of Dopamine' hitting the NA )

                                        This pushes the 'Pleasure Meter' to the top.  ( bell rings )

     Neuroscientists refer to drugs as "Hijacking The NA", that is to say, a drug takes over control of our happiness from the rest of the brain.

                 

   ( Animation of The Cowboy Hi-jackers representing Heroin, Alcohol, Coke, and Meth, circling the stage coach....with guns blazing. )

     ( So, when the brain is hijacked....)
     Drugs hit the pedal like a 10 Ton Weight, or maybe even 16 Tons.

               ( Animation of a Big Batch of Dopamine, released by meth....)

     ( animation of happy/sad meter....like a carnival hammer game )

     "So, what's the problem?  The body knows this isn't normal, and thinks the spring has gotten "too weak".

     So, it beefs up the spring, so that it takes more drugs to get the same effect.

                             

                                                                                                                                                                 ( Animation showing transition from normal spring to strengthened. )

     "Another way of looking at it is Mother Nature doesn't like to be fooled.  She made our brains a certain way, and she gets upset when we tinker with that."

     "Hmmm....It is not natural to be so happy.  He is screwing up my system that I've developed for over two million years.  He won't want to do anything useful if it is that easy to get happy.  I can fix that, or at least compensate for it.

     ( Animation showing spring getting stronger and stronger and stronger, pushing back against the flow of dopamine. )

     So, as a result, it takes more and more for the drug to get the same effect.

     ( Animation showing person using more and more drugs, thus chasing the high. )

     There are two ways to go from here:  Door 1 and Door 2, if you will.

     Door 1...Many people realize that they are going down a bad road, and pull back on their drug use, limiting the amount they use or stopping entirely.

     Some people push on and continue chasing the high.

     So, what's wrong with Door 2?  Well, it gets expensive, it gets dangerous, it puts you at risk of arrest, robbery, etc., and most people won't want to be with you if you become a hard core dope fiend, or drunk.

     Does Door Number 2 make you happy?  Only in brief bursts, the rest of the time you're scrambling like crazy to fight off dope-sickness, or the shakes.

                                                                          THE END


                                           

                                         QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION

                                              

                                          1.  Why do some people take Door 1, and others take Door 2?
                                          

                                          2.  What can I do if I took Door 2, and it is making me, and those
                                                I love, miserable?

                                          

                                        

                                          NEW VIDEOS ANSWERING THESE QUESTIONS ARE COMING.
                                          KEEP WATCHING!