Benzodiazepines

As I mentioned in my last post, Benzodiazepines are another type of medication used to treat anxiety. They are a fast acting, taken as needed type of medication, that affects the neurotransmitter chemical, gamma-aminobutyric acid, to lower nerve activity in the brain.

 Some examples of Benzodiazepines include:

• alprazolam (Xanax)

• chlordiazepoxide (Librium)

• clonazepam (Klonopin)

• lorazapam (Ativan) 

• diazepam (Valium)

From personal experience I have learned that if a person is not taking the right dose or not taking them correctly, they can turn a person into a zombie. When my sister was taking them, she would become very lethargic, couldn't keep her eyes open for more than a few seconds, and couldn't complete a sentence without slurring her words and trailing off or passing out. This is one of the reasons Benzos are not prescribed as often as SSRIs are. It can be difficult for doctors to figure out the right dose on the first try and in addition users build up a tolerance so over time higher doses need to be taken to be effective. They have a high potential for addiction because the results are almost immediate and they can produce a euphoric high if too much is taken. Users can also experience severe withdrawals which is why it's recommended that users are weaned off the medication over time.

Benzodiazepines can be very effective at quickly stopping an anxiety or panic attack and can be used to treat other mental illnesses as well. The problem is though that they are often mis-used and have a high potential for addiction. They can be very dangerous if a user is not careful, but if they are used correctly and for a short amount of time they can be very helpful to people experiencing anxiety or panic attacks.

I have never personally taken Benzos, although I have spoken to my doctor about trying them for my panic attacks. But, after seeing the way my sister reacted to them, I am definitely weary about their potential for addiction and their harmful effects. It is nice to know though that there is another option other than taking an SSRI and for some people Benzodiazepines are definitely helpful. I do urge anyone who takes them or wants to take them, to just be careful and aware of the side affects and addiction potential and to use them with caution!!

DAE hate when people say alcohol isn't a drug?

"Oh I don't do drugs, I just drink"

What I can't stand is how someone can use caffeine to wake up every morning, aspirin and Ibuprofen for headaches, Zoloft for depression, Adderall for ADD, can have a drink to relax after work, and take sleeping pills at night but still be a "Drug-Free" American.Yet, on the other hand, someone who doesn't use any of those drugs that are socially accepted and has a problem because they smoke pot in moderation.

I've seen alcohol screw people up more than any other drug...and is probably the most dangerous drug to be on It’s also the most dangerous drugs to stop once you are addicted. It's one of the very few drugs that can kill you by trying to quit. Even heroin is safe to stop taking.

Alcohol abuse kills around 75,000 Americans each year and shortens the lives of these people by an average of 30 years. Extreme alcohol consumption is the third leading cause of avoidable death in the United States after tobacco use and poor eating and exercise habits.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which published the study, estimated that 34,833 people in 2001 died from cirrhosis of the liver, cancer and other diseases linked to drinking too much. Another 40,933 died from other mishaps caused by excessive alcohol use.

Alcohol has caused many to do more of any other drug than any other ever drug has, it's the worst gateway drug. You don't smoke a bunch of weed and suddenly think inhaling a copious amount of coke in a short space of time might be a fantastic idea, but if you’re drunk off your ass it seems like a truly brilliant plan.

I think the best way to deal with a problem is to educate yourself and others. The worst thing you can do with any problem is to turn refuse to hear the facts and just have faith that what you grew up hearing is right because that’s the way things always have been. 

Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness.

"Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person’s thoughts. Every waking moment—and even in our dreams—we struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value." 
I took this from Sam Harris' blog titled Drugs and the Meaning of Life. 

Have you ever had that feeling like mind = blown and everything in life just seems to make complete and total sense to you now? Me neither, but reading this brought me pretty close, at least for understanding why people do drugs. I didn't read through the entire blog, (TLDR) so maybe his points differ from mine, but that doesn't matter, I just wanted to give him the credit he so rightfully deserves. 

"Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness." Some people smoke weed because they want to feel relaxed. Some like to trip on acid because this. (It's a BuzzFeed post with pictures showing what LSD feels like.) It's weird and bright and made me dizzy. It recommends you watch Alice in Wonderland instead because apparently it's the same. I never thought of drugs this way before. Humans have a constant desire to alter their consciousness. Some people like to read while others like to take acid. Everyone's different. 

I like how Sam Harris simplifies the idea of why people take drugs. "We struggle to direct the flow of sensation, emotion, and cognition toward states of consciousness that we value." People do drugs to reach that euphoric feeling or the specific high that they enjoy. Some do drugs to feel nothing at all, and by nothing I mean no pain, physical or emotional. While I don't condemn altering your consciousness with drug use, I thank Sam Harris for helping me to understand why people do. 

Adderall will make me pass my classes, right?

I recently re-downloaded the app Yik-Yak back on my phone. Poor decision to do so, but it gave me inspiration for this blog post. I was on the app just scrolling through the posts, and I saw a good number of posts about how people were trying to buy Adderall, about people who were selling Adderall, and about people who were currently on Adderall. Why are there all these people “yaking” about Adderall? Well—its finals week. Finals week is one of the most stressful times for a college student. I’m in college too so I completely understand the complaints of cramming all night and day for final exams, but I don’t really understand needing a drug to be able to do it. 

An average college student is around the ages of 18-22 years old. And in a short amount of time they are going to be graduating and getting real jobs and living on their own. I procrastinate often, but I always get my stuff together and done before the due date. And that is usually only when I don’t have that many things due at once. If I know that I have a lot of assignments that are going to be due around the same time, get this, I manage my time wisely to make sure that I can get everything done. There are people who have work 30-40 hours a week on top of class, so I can understand literally not having the time to do work. But I still think that if you are going to do that you need to figure out a way to manage your time. And if you can’t, change what you’re doing. The students who use Adderall to stay up for a few days straight to get all of their stuff done are doing everything wrong. It is so unhealthy to take drugs, such as Adderall, when you do not need to take them. It can cause harm to your brain and the rest of your body if you take them when it is not needed. Not only is it unhealthy, but you’re almost out on your own. If you can’t even manage your time enough to be able to study without needing a drug to then how do you expect to get a real career and manage your time when you have that career? By using drugs the whole time? That will certainly go over well…

SSRIs to Treat Anxiety and Depression

            When I told my doctor I felt depressed and was having constant anxiety, she asked me a few questions. “How often do you feel anxious? How often do you feel depressed? Have you thought about committing suicide? Do you get panic attacks? How often? What happens to you when you think you’re having a panic attack?” After giving her some brief answers to these heavy questions, she prescribed me a low dose of Citalopram and sent me on my way. My mother and I have the same doctor, so she suggested Citalopram because it had worked to help my mom’s depression.

However she did not explain to me how this medication was meant to work or what it was. After doing my own research I learned that Citalopram is an SSRI, a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. They primarily affect the neurotransmitter serotonin to boost mood. It is an antidepressant that is taken daily, but some SSRIs can be taken weekly. While they do still have side effects, SSRI’s have shown to have less side effects than other medications that are used to treat depression and anxiety. In addition to this they are not an addictive medication because their intended results do not occur immediately after taking the drug, but work over time. Because they have less side effects SSRIs are very popular and often the first antidepressant doctors prescribe. 

Citalopram didn’t work for me, as each type of medication affects people differently, but I am on a different SSRI now that has lowered my anxiety and improved my mood in general. In addition to therapy this medication has helped me and I am thankful that I found a treatment that works for me. There are many other types of medication used to treat anxiety and depression, like Benzodiazepines, which I will talk about in my next post.

Mainstream Support

America has been close to legalizing marijuana many times during the last few decades, but never as close to mass acceptance of the drug as the nation is today. Since the mid 1900s, the United States has seen over the top funding of the war on drugs to a conclusion that the war had little effect on marijuana use.

Now, for the first time, marijuana legalization is winning mainstream support in public opinion surveys and a drug used by about 6 percent of Americans and one-third of the nation’s high school seniors is starting to shake its counterculture reputation. It is winning acceptance even from some police, prosecutors, and politicians.

But is this time really different? Why is the current campaign for legalization resonating when previous ones did not?

The leap toward legality is caused by the  financial worry of income low states, the Internet-driven uprising in how citizens learn about marijuana and its medicinal uses, and a rising libertarian feeling in which many liberals and conservatives alike have grown skeptical of government’s role in telling citizens how to medicate themselves. Americans have grown more libertarian in their views on their personal freedoms, the most anti marijuana generation has passed on, and people across the ideological spectrum have grown frustrated with the cost, both financial and social, of decades of arrests and imprisonments.The legalization drive is underway mainly in states facing tough budget problems.

Lean with it...

When it comes to “Drugs” and altering the state of a person’s mind, people are coming up with some ridiculous ways to do so.  One of the newest trends is called Lean.  Lean was created and first done in Houston, Texas and is a mixture of things that a person drinks in order to alter their state of mind.  The way people make it is by mixing Promethazine with Codeine cough syrup and adding Sprite soda and Jolly Rancher candies to it for flavor.  The mixture is then usually poured into a Styrofoam cup and drank.  “Lean” is often referred to as Purple Drank or Sizzurp.

The drink is referred to as Lean because of the effects the Codeine cough syrup causes when people drink it and make themselves stay up.  The Codeine causes a euphoric feeling in the user and the Promethazine in the drink is responsible for lethargy, extreme drowsiness, a severe impairment of motor skills, and a dissociative feeling from all other parts of the body, mainly the stomach and digestive system.  People who drink it tend to just sit around, not move very much, and literally lean against things in order to stand up because of a loss of motor skills.  It is referred to as “Purple Drank” because of the purple or dark purple color it gets from the cough syrup and it’s referred to as Sizzurp because of the syrup in it. 

To me, the crazy thing is no matter what the government decides to ban or make illegal, people are still going to find ways to get high or to alter their consciousness.  New things are being mixed together by people who most likely have no idea what they’re doing and when they do figure something out it spreads like crazy.  This is pretty dangerous and it’s kind of insane that it’s come down to kid drinking cough syrup to get high.  What will they think of next?

This is a story about a girl named Lucky.

You never know who's going to sit next to you on a bus to New York City. Maybe someone who's smart who makes you look at life in a different way, or maybe a disheveled-looking drug addict with greasy tangled hair and rotten teeth. 

Her name was Lucky, and she was both.

She was on her way to rehab for heroin addiction. For the fourth time. She hadn't had a job in eleven years. She would sell herself to fund her addiction. 

"You could probably guess Lucky isn't my real name. It's Rebecca. I got the nickname Lucky because I've overdosed three times. Yet, somehow I'm still here."

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"I wasn't always like this," she told me.

"I used to be a pretty little thing like you. I was a cheerleader in college before I had to drop out to go to rehab. I lost everything."

She asked me how old I thought she was.

Umm.

Well you look about 65, but I'm going to assume the drugs are a factor.

"Forty-two?" I asked hesitantly. 

"I'm 33. "

She was going to school for nursing when the drugs took control of her life. She started taking Oxycontin, and before she knew it she was shooting heroin in her dorm room. She told me how her boyfriend at the time found her after her first overdose. He supported her through rehab, as did her family. He was her high school sweetheart, but he left her after she relapsed. Her family disowned her, calling her an embarrassment and a disappointment. She told me her father is a lawyer. He thinks she belongs in prison. Her mother is a nurse who says she's better off dead.

"If you told me ten years ago I would be sitting on a bus to New York to go to rehab for the fourth time for heroin addiction, I would say there's no chance in hell. I was on the right track. I had goals. I was going to make something of myself."​ 

We talked about everything just like we were old friends.

She was shrewd. She was charming.

She was a heroin addict.

As the bus came to a final stop she asked me to make her a promise.

“Promise me you’ll never end up like me. Don’t do drugs, stay in school.” We both couldn't help but laugh at how cliché that sounded. I wished her the best of luck and we went our separate ways.

Sometimes I wonder how she’s doing. Sometimes I wonder if she’s even still alive. Meeting Rebecca gave me a new perspective on the power of addiction. Even people with all the potential in the world are powerless once a drug takes control. I know a lot of people who like to experiment in college with different drugs claiming “they just want to try it once.” But don’t underestimate the power of addiction. 

Are Alcohol and Cigarettes Drugs?

            Alcohol and cigarettes are legal and very much recreationally used by millions of Americans.  People like to talk about marijuana and say it’s bad because it’s a drug, but can alcohol and cigarettes be considered drugs as well? To find out, we must first look at the definition of the word “drug” to see what a drug really is.  According to medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com, a drug is either “a chemical substance that affects the process of the mind or body” or “a substance used recreationally for its effects on the central nervous system, such as a narcotic.”  From what I’ve seen and experienced, alcohol and cigarettes certainly fit this definition.

            Alcohol is very well known to affect the process of the mind and body.  I’m sure we’ve all been drunk before at some point and felt the effects that the alcohol leaves on us.  You get a head buzz going which gets stronger and stronger the more you drink.  They say that when someone is drunk, their judgment is the first thing to be affected.  I would say that proves that the mind gets affected and this fits the first definition.  Second, motor skills are known to be affected by alcohol and the more one drinks, the more they start to lose their balance and stumble around.  This clearly affects the process of the body, also fitting the definition of what a drug is.  According to these definitions and the information provided, alcohol is in fact technically a drug.

            Now on to cigarettes.  Cigarettes contain tobacco and nicotine, among other substances, that together are highly addictive.  Drugabuse.com says that addiction is counted as a mental illness because it “changes the brain in fundamental ways, disturbing a person’s normal hierarchy of needs and desires and substituting new priorities connected with procuring and using the drug.”  It also causes a head buzz and both of these are affecting the mind and body.

            Both alcohol and cigarettes are legal and recreationally used.  They are often overlooked in what they really are, but technically, according to the definition of drug, they are both drugs.  My question is if these are both drugs, don’t help medically in any way, and are still legal, why isn’t marijuana?

24 Comics That Capture The Frustration Of Anxiety Disorders

I love Buzzfeed. For those of you readers who have never been on the site, I highly recommend you check it out. A majority of the posts are hilarious, insanely accurate and will keep you entertained for hours. In my opinion it's as addicting as any other social media but better because you don't even have to make an account if you don't want to.
Anyway, last week I came across this post called 24 Comics that Capture The Frustration of Anxiety Disorders. There was something I could relate to in every comic and they each made me smile. I wanted to share the post to share a laugh with readers who have anxiety, and to hopefully give an inside look at the disorder to those who don't.

To give you a sneak peak here's one of my favorites from the post. I hope you all take a look!

History Repeats Itself

It only took 30 years of practice to figure out that you can't win a war when the same population is funding both sides of it. You cannot make a "war" against a thing or an ideal. You only declare war against another nation. "Drugs" and "terror" and "poverty" are not nations, they are ideas, things, and concepts. And oddly enough, the "wars" declared against all 3 have basically failed. Coincidence? Somehow, I think not. Also has anyone realized how all of these "wars" have affect actual citizens rather than intended targets?

It's disgusting to think about the volume of tax money across the western world, spent on policing this insane legislation. This could then be ploughed into school education programs and helping those who actually have a drug problem as opposed to those who just want to relieve themselves of modern day slavery recreationally.

The problem is people are conditioned to believe that drugs are bad and therefore they should be illegal. Most people are coming around on marijuana, but if you mention legalizing other drugs it's like "Oh God no way those drugs are way worse".

And I totally agree. Hard drugs are not good for you that's why I and many others don't use them. But this belief that making them illegal somehow reduces drug usage is totally misinformed. If the goal is to reduce usage, we'd be much better off bringing the drugs out into the open where we can control and track sales and work on drug education and rehabilitation. Portugal decriminalized drugs and has made massive strides in drug use and rehab.

Drugs end up more dangerous when they are illegal too, and it's not just the cartel violence. In a paranoid drug-induced state what person would WANT to drive their friend to a hospital when they OD? Or admit to illegal drug use when getting treated? Of course not drugs are more dangerous when there is nowhere to go when you do end up in trouble.

It's funny how we tried prohibition once already and realized the horrible consequences that come with it when we outlawed alcohol. But then Richard Nixon’s comes along and somehow convinces the entire country into thinking it would work again. I think I understand why people use the cliché saying "History repeats itself."

It's time to speak up. It's time to adopt and experiment with new methods and approaches. It's about time to ask the government to study the evidence and look at the harm being done by outdated drug law. It's time to start thinking about and treating drug problems as a health issue, not a criminal issue.

It's Human Nature

Nearly every society has consumed substances to deal with pain, increase energy, socialize, even converse with God. Our yearning to alter the consciousness may be as essential as our desires for food, companionship and sex. There's probably never been a drug-free society.  So our true test is to learn how to live with drugs so they cause the least possible harm and in some cases the greatest possible benefit. 

Heroin addicts were asked what's the toughest drug to quit, most said cigarettes. Yet in other countries half of all the people who were ever addicted to cigarettes have quit without anyone being arrested or put in jail or sent to "treatment program" by the law. What helped do this were higher taxes and time and place restrictions on sale and use. 

It's our fears and our lack of knowledge  that stands in the way of real reform. And ultimately, I think that boils down to the kids, and to every parent's desire to put their child in a bubble, and the fear that somehow drugs will pierce that bubble and put the young ones at risk. In fact, sometimes it seems like the entire War on Drugs gets justified as one great big child protection act, which any young person can tell you it's not.

We must turn our backs on the failed this prohibitions of the past and embrace new drug policies grounded in science, compassion, and health, where people who come from across the political spectrum and different ideals, where people who love drugs, people who hate drugs, and people who don't give a shit about drugs, but every one of us believes that this backward, heartless, disastrous War on Drugs, has got to end. 

Know Your Audience

Walking around campus every day I hear many conversations going on in passing. Along with that I am part of the Dance Team, so I hear a lot of side conversations during that time as well. I usually don’t pay much attention to anything anyone is saying; after all it is none of my business unless someone is talking to me. But there are certain phrases that I hear far too often that should not be said. Things like, “I hate my life,” and “I want to kill myself” are phrases that I hear people saying all the time. While I understand most people are just kidding around and don’t mean it, that is actually the problem with it. Feeling like you actually hate your life or that you actually are considering committing suicide are VERY serious topics. They shouldn’t be made so casual that we can joke about it. I know that sometimes I will accidentally say things along those lines, but I always catch myself and try to immediately correct myself on it. I am trying to get myself out of this habit. People need to realize that there are people who are sitting next to you in the cafeteria and walking by you on campus who are actually feeling this way. 

You might not even be able to tell that someone has depression or anxiety. Coming from personal experience I know that most people would have never known that I suffer from depression unless I told them directly. While with some people it can be very obvious that something is wrong, some people are much better at hiding it. When it comes down to it, if you’re suffering from depression or any other mental illness you tend to try to hide it from everyone you know as much as possible. And even once someone starts to get better, or at least better than they were, it is still difficult to talk about it or why they have it.

It can be very offensive to someone to hear others joking about what they’re actually through. I know that I get really offended when I hear others say things like “I want to kill myself” when they are joking around. Sometimes I get a little bit too defensive about it, but I can’t help it. Hearing someone joke about wanting to end their life when you have actually attempted to is one of the most irritating and angering things. It is completely offensive and the sad part is that the other person may not ever know that they have offended someone in such a great way.

I know that not everybody who suffers with depression may agree, but there are so many people who don’t speak up and who do find it offensive. Just remember to keep in mind who your audience is, and if you’re ever unsure – DON’T SAY IT.

The "Gateway Drug"

Opponents of marijuana policy reform have claimed for many years that marijuana is "a gateway drug" that leads users down a path toward use of "hard drugs" like cocaine or heroin. This is despite the fact that over 107 million Americans (more than 40% of the U.S. population born since 1960) have tried marijuana, yet only 37 million have ever tried cocaine, and only 4 million have ever tried heroin. Support for the Gateway Drug Theory says that marijuana users are much more likely than non-users to progress to hard drug use, and that almost all who have tried both marijuana and hard drugs, tried marijuana first. It seems more logical to assume that people try marijuana first simply because the opportunities come earlier in life. 

I'm 23 and I've seen marijuana literally millions of times. Probably not millions but you know what I mean. I've smoked a decent amount of blunts, bongs and make-shift Coca-Cola can bowls in my day. I don't smoke anymore, but it's not because I'm against it. It's more for the reason I can't function like a normal human being if I'm high. I know a lot of people who can though, and kudos to you, do your thing. But I can tell you I've never been high and said to my friends, "You know what we should do now? No. Not go to McDonalds, we should go shoot up some heroin!" 


Up until recently I didn't even know what heroin was. I had heard of it but I didn't know what it looked like or what you did with it. I've never even seen any drug but marijuana in real life. I've probably lived a bit of a sheltered life but its because those kind of hard drugs never crossed my mind as next on the "to-do list." I wouldn't even know where to find someone who sells heroine or cocaine. Craigslist? And If I did get my hands on it I wouldn't even know what to do with it. Neither would any of my somewhat sheltered friends. Do you watch YouTube videos or something?

It's a safe bet to say anyone who's done a hard drug, probably tried marijuana first. But correlation doesn't equal causation.