Everyone Self Medicates

[Taverner]

Whether its the hard core junkie, the Savant Pot Smoker, the pill popper or get this the Aspirin taker.

Yep, Aspirin is a drug. Sudafed is too. And don't even get me started on Caffeine and Nicotine.

Hell, your own BODY makes drugs.

Want proof? Go to the gym and work out. Make sure to do lots of slow and low weight lifts. Then you'll feel it.

Endorphins. Your own body's Heroin.

Then add in there some Adrenaline if you like to do extreme sports.

Point is, we all self medicate.

[proteus_lives]

1. This sounds like a justification for something.

[RandomThoughts]

2. Sounds like Physician heal thy self comment.

[Inchworm]

3. Not me!

What are you.. a communist?!?!


:yoiks:

[CreekDog]

4. are you medicating or are you getting high?

treating a condition with a drug is a heck of a lot different, not to mention safer, than taking a drug to get high.

people rarely die taking a pain medication because they have pain.

people die all the time taking a pain medication for some other reason.

people almost never die popping a sudafed for congestion or an aspirin for a headache.

[Taverner]

5. Sometimes it does Both

Let me put it this way. I have a Medical Marijuana Card for medical reasons. I smoke pot often. It gets me high.

It also stops a lot of the pain. Granted, I am using a cocktail of meds right now including Morphine. This too gets me high.

But it also stops the pain. I can go down a notch, but it fails to stop the pain.

I am getting surgery to end this pain in Dec.

2011 I start off with a fused back.

Let's hope I don't need the meds because I don't want to use them as much as I have to.

Does this make sense?

[CreekDog]

6. I'm not a drug expert

and i'm not going to lecture someone who is using medication as prescribed for pain.

if they get clever and decide to improvise, that's where i get scared.

:hi:

[Taverner]

11. Hmmmm ........... explain

I don't get it

[quakerboy]

7. I think you are too free with mixing words and definitions

Medicate: to treat with medicine or medicaments.
Medicine: any substance or substances used in treating disease or illness; medicament; remedy.

The way you are interpreting this leaves no differentiation between "medication" and basic biological life processes. Taken to its logical extension, eating is medication. I will grant you that biology does not easily lend itself to drawing lines, as it tends to operate on a spectrum, with examples scattered all around the possibilities. However, I think that this is a solipsistic way to define reality.

Anyhow, what would your point be, with your contention?

[Lindsey]

8. I completely agree with the OP. I have Fibromyalga and

a bulging disk. I also have an incredibly low pain tolerance. Both of my conditions can cause me to be in excruciating pain. I refuse to feel guilty or less than because I take medication to prevent me from being in misery. I can understand that people who haven't experienced these levels of pain don't understand what it's like. I just wish they would be less judgmental. I've taken some meds tonight because my disk is starting to act up again (about a year ago, the doctor gave me steroid shots and it worked miracles). Right now I have a cold ice pack on the area. I can't deal with the kind of pain this back issue has caused me so I'll do whatever I have to do. If it means I die sooner because of meds, so be it.

[quakerboy]

10. I have no problem with that

my gma had Fibromyalgia, and i know what that did to her. I managed to throw my back out badly a few weeks back, and that was no fun. It still isnt quite right now, so I can only grasp at what having a similar spinal issue on a perminant basis would be like.

I have no problem with medication. To be honest, I dont even have a problem with recreational use of drugs, as long in such a way as to NOT bring harm to others. But the assertion that everyone self medicates, on the reasoning given, is, I think, not an accurate or realistic way to approach the situation. And without staying with reality in assessing situations, I see people taking good things to bad ends all too often.

[TZ]

9. Uh no. Most of us on powerful meds are watched closely by docs

I could have had a severe health crises and bleed out till I died due to an intense interaction of my interferon with a common antibiotic if my doc hadn't kept me coming in on a regular basis. And I felt fine.
You know most drunk drivers don't think they are drunk either until they kill someone.
Fortunately your lack of understanding of the dangers of pharmacologicals both script and illegal is likely to kill only you, and not hurt anyone else....
Once again, you prove to this biologist that you have absolutely no scientific knowledge. Comparing endorphins to heroin is one of the STUPIDEST things I have ever seen posted here. Second maybe only to "candida causes cancer". Good going!

[Kali]

12. ...uh

The chemical structure of opiates is very similar to that of naturally produced compounds called endorphins and enkephalins. These compounds are derived from an amino acid pituitary hormone called beta-lipotropin which when released is cleaved to form met-enkephalin, gamma-endorphin, and beta-endorphin. Opiate molecules, due to their similar structure, engage many of the endorphins' nerve-receptor sites in the brain's pleasure centers and bring about similar analgesic effects. In the human body, a pain stimulus usually exites an immediate protective reaction followed by the release of endorphins to relieve discomfort and reward the mental learning process. Opiates mimic high levels of endorphins to produce intense euphoria and a heightened state of well-being. Regular use results in increased tolerance and the need for greater quantities of the drug. Profound physical and psychological dependence results from regular use and rapid cessation brings about withdrawal sickness.

http://www.opioids.com/jh/

Alcohol’s range of action is diffuse, while opium’s effects are concentrated at specific receptor sites. Nonetheless, the two drugs have similar effects along the limbic reward pathway. Morphine comes right from the source, isolated from the crude opium resin found on Papaver somniferum—the opium poppy. Morphine is known as a “pure mu agonist,” meaning it locks securely into the “mu” subset of endorphin receptors, and activates them. This alters the transmission of pain messages, and induces a contented, euphoric state of relaxation. Codeine, another natural painkiller, is found in opium in very small concentrations. Most medical codeine is synthesized from morphine.

The body’s own opiates are referred to as endogenous opioids. Endorphins and enkephalins are interchangeable terms for these chains of amino acids. An important mechanism of action in this process is morphine’s inhibitive effect on GABA. By inhibiting the inhibitor, so to speak, neurotransmitter levels increase down the line, particularly in the nucleus accumbens. Hence, feelings of pleasure.

Alcohol stimulates the mu receptor as well, so we are back to the same basic chain of limbic activation triggered by drinking. GABA is the bridge that connects the alcohol high and the heroin high.

http://www.dirkhanson.org/neuroaddiction.html

[begin_within]

16. Also a sexual orgasm triggers the release of the endorphins

That's partly why you feel drowsy after having sex. I noticed the pain-killing effects when I had a severe fracture in my arm that required surgery and temporary pins. I noticed at that time that after having an orgasm the pain was dramatically reduced for a few minutes. It came back just as strong a few minutes later, but for a magic few minutes it was gone - and not due to taking any medication. Also laughter helps trigger the release of endorphins, when you get into one of those major laughing fits, not just a quick chuckle.

[LeftyFingerPop]

18. Perfect, Kali. Almost exactly how it was explained to me in Universirty courses. n/t

[Ptah]

17. Once again, you prove that you have absolutely no scientific knowledge.

[flvegan]

13. Reading that OP is 30 seconds of my life I'm never going to get back.

[LeftyFingerPop]

19. 30 seconds? I read it in about 10 seconds.

It was worth the 10 seconds.

[LeftyFingerPop]

14. I understand the intent of your OP, and I agree with your premise. n/t

[begin_within]

15. And for some people, that self-medication is religion and prayer...