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Asked by anon-188831 to Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 14 Nov 2018.
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Alex Reid answered on 14 Nov 2018:
Hi big L, great question. Drugs will have lots of different properties and do a vast range of different things depending on the type and dose, so it is hard to summerise the multitude of ways when answering your (great) question. As such I will just give you a small range of examples I know about. Generally speaking drugs usually either interfere with, or ‘enhance’, our brains natural chemistry. Opoids for example act on our natural brain receptors which can numb pain and create euphoria far more than our brain can naturally do to by itself itself. There are also stimulants and depressants. Stimulants (such as caffine) stimulate the central nervous system (of which your brain is a part of) and depressants (such as alcohol) do the opposite, slowing down all the parts of the body controlled by the central nervous system. Some antidepressants will stop the brain metabolizing certain neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, to artificiality lift your mood and relieve anxiety. These are just a few small examples, and I am sure a pharmacologist could give you a much larger picture of how drugs can effect us!
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Nadine Mirza answered on 16 Nov 2018:
Hi big L! Thanks so much for your question! I answered a similiar question so I hope you’ll forgive my copy pasting some of it here and I do apologise for the length!!! It’s just the topic of drugs is so vast!
So drugs basically affect the brain because that’s exactly what they’re designed to do- to alter our brain chemistry. Drugs will interfere with how our brain cells, send, receive and process signals from each other and can force brain cells to produce more or less of certain chemicals.
Now sometimes this can be a good thing, especially when prescribed by a doctor to treat something. But drug misuse can lead to severe effects depending on the type of drug:
1) Stimulants make the body feel like it’s speeding up by forcing your brain to produce more serotonin or dopamine. Caffeine is an example of one that’s safe to take when not overused. More dangerous ones are ecstasy and cocaine.
2) Depressants slow the body down and a part of this is reducing the amount of serotonin and dopamine.
3) Hallucinogens, like LSD or Peyote, make it difficult for brain cells to communicate with one another.
4) Dissociatives like Ketamine or PCP, distort perception of reality or cause people to feel as if they are outside their bodies.
5) Opioids are painkillers, suppressing the pain signals in the brain and the most well known one, which is used in hospitals, is morphine. However, heroin is also one,
6) Inhalents are drugs that-surprise-we can inhale as fumes or gas that are used to make one feel happy.
7) And finally, cannabis or marijuana has the effects of both a hallucinogen and a depressant. Sometimes it can be prescribed and many cancer patients take it to help cope with chemotherapy for example. But when abused it lowers immunity to illness, can lead to depression and anxiety, slows down your reactions and impairs you sense of time.
So you have all these different types of drugs that are taken to experience different sensations, and each does a lot of damage to your body and your brain in some ways. But drugs also do something along with all this stuff, which is make you experience withdrawal.
Basically, for whatever reason you’re taking the drug eg. taking a stimulant to make you more alert or active, eventually your brain chemistry becomes altered by the drug and your brain becomes reliant on that drug to achieve that result eg. without stimulants you can now never be alert. You then need to take more and more of the stimulant to try and achieve the same result. Eventually, an overdose of the drug in trying to achieve this would probably irreversibly damage your brain or kill you.
I really hope this has explains why and how drugs can affect your brain!
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