What do addictive drugs *do* for you that makes them so addictive?

[Arwin]

@Planet of the Shapes

Its not the pleasurable aspects of the drug experience that are the most important factor in making some of them addictive. Its the physical aspects. .

I forgot to add - addiction isn’t always physical. It very often isn’t only physical. Even with cigarettes, the memory of feeling good, the automated routine of when you light one up, they all add tp the addiction, and that’s why after years and years after all the physical effects of cigarette smoking have gone, if someone is going through a rough time he or she may pick up smoking again.

Another thing that is so dangerous about nicotine, by the way, is that the pysical dependency, as you describe it with the signals, comes so quickly. Something that is also not as well known, is that alcohol increases the efficiency of nicotine uptake in the body by as much as 7 times.

[neutron_star]

@VarlosZ

I don’t think there’s any argument that particular drugs affect different people in different ways, making them either more or less addictive. When it comes to alcohol, for example, I’ve always been able to take it or leave it, but if they started selling Vicodin over the counter, I might have a bit of an issue.

I think this is a point that deserves repeating. There are people who can take cocaine (or almost any other drug) for years on an infrequent basis, yet never become addicted.

I’m guessing that the more pleasurable the effect a drug has on a particular person, the greater the chances of it becoming their drug of choice, thus the greater the chances they become addicted to it.

For example, I knew a woman who claimed that coke made her “feel like God.” Within a year of her first line, she was little more than a slave to the powder, stealing from friends and family to support her habit.

Compare that to someone like me. I found that coke made me feel slightly euphoric and talkative for about 45 minutes. This was accompanied by a disgusting chemical taste in the back of my throat, a nasty pain in said throat, and an annoying thirst that simply could not be quenched. For the next 48 hours, my jaw ached from all the grinding caused by the coke. So, basically, for me, cocaine is about as addictive as snorting shards of broken glass. Oh, and speaking of glass, methamphetamine was pretty much the same experience, only it lasted longer, my jaw hurt more, and there was no euphoria to speak of.

Reactions to any given drug seem to run the gammut from “I’M KING OF THE UNIVERSE!” to “Wait, people actually pay money for this shit?”

So I’ve come to think that ranking drugs in order from most addictive to least addictive is just a step above meaningless. If stimulants are what floats your boat, you’ll probably find that cocaine is far more addictive to you than heroin. If you like to feel warm and fuzzy (I do!), marijuana may be more addictive to you than meth.

Then again, you’ll also run across people who like any drug they can get their hands on. Perhaps the rankings may be more accurate for these types of users.

[HMS_Irruncible]

I have had single experiences with several of the drugs you have imagined, so I’ll share -

Cocaine - when I had my first line of coke, I thought “I am the biggest genius in the whole entire world. I know everything and I can do anything.” I found it hard to speak to mere mortals because my brilliantt thoughts couldn’t be expressed in mere words, try as I might. It was a great 10 minutes, from just one thin line of coke. I thought I’d taken way too much. But after it started peaking, I got a little jittery and paranoid. I started realizing that I wasn’t so brilliant and that I had in fact probably made myself look like an asshole. I started chasing the initial high and before I knew it I’d done 6 more lines and then was licking the inside of the bag. I thought “OK, there’s the abyss, I can see how a house and 401k account could fit in there.”

Meth - Meth was like coke… the peak wasn’t quite so high, the valley never appeared, and I was a lot more social. I’d try it again if it were available. The tooth-grinding was bad and losing the entire next day to sleep and fatigue were bad.

Opiates (Percocet) - This is the really dangerous one, I think. I’ve never been a particularly “happy” person. My best mood is contentment and apathy is second best. It just goes downhill from there. But whenever I take about 4 percocets with a glass of wine, it is the only time that I feel like I understand what basic happiness feels like. Not joy or rapture, just basic happy. Strangely, though the effect of this drug is not as strong as anything else I’ve had, it’s the one I’d be most likely to make a habit of. Happy is good. I can get used to happy. I miss happy. But I take everyone’s word for it that it gets all sad and constipated if you keep doing it.

[HMS_Irruncible]

Oh, and mushrooms. See opiates above, but substitute “happy” with “friendly” and subtract anything negative at all. I like me some shrooms but they’re too hard to find. If I ever meet the shroom selling man, I’m buying his entire stock.

[Typo_Negative]

@astro

In all these cases the high is pleasurable (in very different ways) on the front end but, before too long as the drug works itself through your system, it’s just “meh” or even “bleh” (in the case of alcohol).

And that’s why we increase the dosage…to keep getting, or chasing, that “like the first time” high. If one is good, two are better.

And it’s not just the high. It’s the life. It’s very attractive at first. Hell, it’s a fucking blast at first.

[neutron_star]

@NattoGuy

Opiates (Percocet) - This is the really dangerous one, I think. I’ve never been a particularly “happy” person. My best mood is contentment and apathy is second best. It just goes downhill from there. But whenever I take about 4 percocets with a glass of wine, it is the only time that I feel like I understand what basic happiness feels like. Not joy or rapture, just basic happy.

I hate to “me too,” but I’m exactly the same way. Luckily, the stuff makes my stomach hurt like hell, so it works as kind of a built-in anti-addiction mechanism for me.

I often wonder how many addicts start out not as regular people simply wanting to get wasted, but rather tortured souls chasing the same happiness that other people get to feel every day without even trying.

[msmith537]

@Arwin

I forgot to add - addiction isn’t always physical. It very often isn’t only physical. Even with cigarettes, the memory of feeling good…

@spooje

And it’s not just the high. It’s the life. It’s very attractive at first. Hell, it’s a fucking blast at first.

I can’t tell you about crack or heroine or anything, but I’m sure much of the addiction to alchohol or pot comes from the lifestyle. It’s fun getting drunk or baked with a bunch of your friends (or you think it is which pretty much amounts to the same thing). In my circle of friends (in their mid 20s to early 30s, it’s pretty standard to be out until 2 to 4 am drinking. I’ve been to after work happy hours that were actually LONGER than the workday. If I decided to stop drinking, all of a sudden there would be a big void in terms of time and social relationships that had previously been filled by drinking related activities. That would need to be filled by other activities and relationships who, quite frankly, don’t seem as interesting if they don’t drink. I imagine that people who do drugs feel the same way about those that don’t.

One must also question how “real” the shared connection is that social drinkers and drug users share. True a bunch of drinkers can share some laughs over a few pitchers or some beer games. Quite often though, the group soon splits up as individuals go about their various drunken errands - getting laid, getting smashed, throwing up, whatever.

[Shagnasty]

@msmith537

One must also question how “real” the shared connection is that social drinkers and drug users share. True a bunch of drinkers can share some laughs over a few pitchers or some beer games. Quite often though, the group soon splits up as individuals go about their various drunken errands - getting laid, getting smashed, throwing up, whatever.

You may or may not be right when it comes to casual use and abuse. They are both mood altering substances but alcohol is more socially acceptable and can be used openly. Drugs are illegal and that means that the procurement and use take on a more secretive and seedy nature.

However, once you get into and past the mid stages of addiction, they quickly dovetail into the same thing. The major thing that alcohol had going for it is that it is relatively inexpensive and easy to get so you don’t see alcoholics running up massive debt quickly or committing felonies to procure their substance of choice (this is a large generalization). Drug users make the news because they have to do these things to procure their drug even though the psychological and physical addiction is roughly the same between the too. As a matter of fact, chronic physical addiction to alcohol is among the most dangerous of all drugs and one of the only ones that can quickly lead to death if use is discontinued abruptly.

Many people use and abuse alcohol casually for their whole loves and never spiral down into the darker psychological and physical addictive phases. However, once that spiral begins, alcohol dependence becomes as bad or worse than addiction to other hard drugs.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

Cannot speak for heroin or crack. And I have not studied any kind of neurobiological thing under anybody.

But I did do a bit of experimenting, shall we say, all long ago.

Cocaine seemed to have no effect at all, except to make me smarter, braver, wittier, more optimistic, and much, much more productive. It did all this in a subtle enough way, because I was never rich enough to do lines and lines (although friends of mine were). Cocaine was just that perfect little pick-me-up when I wanted to go out after a 14-hour workday, for instance. Or, for instance, in hour 10 of the 14-hour workday.

Crystal meth was the same except with a rush and much bigger sense of urgency, not to mention that instead of making me just a little smarter it made me much, much smarter than everyone, even the people around me who were also snorting crystal.

I am a person who has a lot of ideas that I think are brilliant at the time, but then I never have enough follow-through to even get them started. Coke and crystal both provide the follow-through.

Now, while I didn’t do it a lot, I was addicted enough that I could get some of the effect merely by making the deal. Being not very rich I never could afford a whole eight-ball of coke, or usually even a whole ounce, but I knew plenty of people who would go in on it, if they had the money. Spend the morning on the phone, get however many people needed to go in on it lined up, savings accounts raided, CDs cashed in or whatever, the deal arranged–it was as good as taking the drug.

Not surprisingly, a lot of the people I knew who were rich enough to toot a whole ounce–or more-- in a single night got into some trouble, and without exception they signaled the onset of the trouble by complaining (or apologizing) about the quality of the product, as if they’d been ripped off (and I am talking here about people who spent $400 a week on the stuff). So, the first time I heard myself complaining that this just wasn’t very good shit I’d just bought, and apparently it had really been stepped on, I thought I might be headed for trouble, and I never bought it again.

And I spent ten years missing it. This, from a pretty casual user. Not missing a LOT but more like, “Hey, this would be a good time for some coke . . . except I don’t do that any more . . . bummer . . .”

By the way, I never got any effect whatsoever from chicken. Is one supposed to snort it, or just eat it as usual? I think this may be an urban myth.

(Disclaimer: I might have an extremely addictive personality. Must have coffee before brain works in morning, and got sicker for three days giving up Mountain Dew than a friend of mine did who spent those same three days going off Paxil.)

[Duke_of_Rat]

@Hilarity N. Suze

Being not very rich I never could afford a whole eight-ball of coke, or usually even a whole ounce <snip>

Not surprisingly, a lot of the people I knew who were rich enough to toot a whole ounce–or more-- in a single night got into some trouble, and without exception they signaled the onset of the trouble by complaining (or apologizing) about the quality of the product, as if they’d been ripped off (and I am talking here about people who spent $400 a week on the stuff).

I think you got your grams and ounces mixed up. If you couldn’t afford a whole 8-Ball, or usually a whole gram, that would make more sense since there would be (8) 8 Balls in an ounces, but only 3 1/2 grams in an 8-Ball. So while you could never afford the $150~$250 for an 8-Ball, or even the $75~$100 for a gram, this is small change compared to the $800~$1000 for an ounce.

And if you did a whole ounce in an evening, you would be spending more than $400 a week (unless you were a dealer…)

Just observations from Duke, who has snorted his way through a few racks of 8-Balls. And I have a “take it or leave it” attitude to coke. I could do an 8-Ball and then just not even think about it for weeks, usually a special occasion or something. Never finished up an 8-Ball and just had to score again. Same with meth, do a little and call it good.

One thing about meth, and coke to a certain extent. You can drink, and drink, and drink. In fact I don’t think I could stand meth without some booze, I’d go stir crazy. First meth I ever did, I was way too drunk to function. Then a shot of meth and not only was I able to function, I was ready to party on for a few more hours. Very scary when you think of the power this stuff has.

Haven’t touched any powdered drugs in years, and can only hope that anybody foolish enough to experiment with them escapes as unscathed as I did.

Like Starsky and Hutch: Been there and back with a message for kids- Don’t go!

[bump]

@msmith537

One must also question how “real” the shared connection is that social drinkers and drug users share. True a bunch of drinkers can share some laughs over a few pitchers or some beer games. Quite often though, the group soon splits up as individuals go about their various drunken errands - getting laid, getting smashed, throwing up, whatever.

I think it has to do a LOT with what the relationships between the people are outside of happy hour/drinking events.

Me and my friends casually drink on a fairly regular basis, but people rarely get really wasted, almost never throw up, and we’re all friends beyond any drinking we may do- we do things that don’t involve drinking on a fairly regular basis. To that end, I’m willing to say that my particular bunch of drinkers has about as real of a connection as can be had.

As for why some drugs are addictive, well, it’s hard to put into words. I had reconstructive knee surgery at 17, and while I was in the post-op recovery room, a nurse asked me if I was feeling any pain. My knee ached pretty good, but it wasn’t really anything I couldn’t ignore and go back to sleep over. I said yes, my knee did ache, but not too bad.

She gave me a shot of Demerol right into my IV. Demerol (meperidine) apparently has some cocaine-like effects as well as more typical opiate effects.

I’ve felt nothing like that shot of Demerol before or since. Instant powerful euphoria- like you’re as happy as you’ve ever been in your life multiplied by 3. No pain- I felt absolutely GOOD for a while, then that part of it wore off. Knee still didn’t bug me for a while. My first thought after it wore off was “Wow. That was something else! If that’s what cocaine feels like, I can see why people might get addicted.”.

[Yookeroo]

@Duke of Rat

Just observations from Duke, who has snorted his way through a few racks of 8-Balls. And I have a “take it or leave it” attitude to coke. I could do an 8-Ball and then just not even think about it for weeks, usually a special occasion or something. Never finished up an 8-Ball and just had to score again. Same with meth, do a little and call it good.

I’m kind of the same way. After I’ve done meth (which makes me incredibly horny), I don’t wanna go anywhere near that stuff for at least another month or so. Recovering from partying for a night is really hard on me nowadays (I was a little more resilient when I was younger). Coke doesn’t do a whole lot for me anymore (at least not at the doses I’m willing to do).

My sister had a big meth problem though (she’s clean now).