Here's how different drugs change your brain-with images.

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

We know different drugs make us experience the world around us in very different ways.

But what exactly are these drugs doing to the brain to prompt these feelings?

Here's a look into four types of drugs and their effect on the brain as shown in snapshots of fMRI scans or infographics.

It's important to keep in mind that some of the images look at the brains of chronic users, while others look at the brains of people who have used only a few times or at the brains of lab animals. Brain scans are also captured in the laboratory, which can't exactly mirror real life scenarios. The snapshots below are only a clue into how these substances affect our brains as a whole.

Full article with images at link:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-drugs-change-brain-182200871.html

 

[slimvictor]

Very interesting.
Makes me want to take some more mushrooms!
(I haven't in about a decade, don't know where to get any, but seeing those connections....)

 

[ro4eva]

Interesting article.

For me, there is no doubt in my mind that the consumption of mind altering substances - whether they typically induce feelings of euphoria (e.g. Cocaine, Alcohol) or not (SSRIs, Neuroleptics) - can also physically alter the human brain in the long term.

Obviously that's probably not a good thing, yet, what if it is in certain cases? More specifically, what if these alterations may be beneficial to someone who - as an example - is suffering from PTSD due to a traumatic childhood in which he was physically and sexually abused?

The aforementioned possibility of long term benefits from the consumption of certain psychotropic substances should warrant further studies and research of certain 'street drugs' such as MDMA, Ketamine, Psilocybin, THC, and so forth, because I strongly believe that the brain of an adult who grew up experiencing physical and/or emotional trauma (including - again - physical and sexual abuse) has most likely developed abnormally when compared to a child who was never the victim of such inexcusably disgusting treatment.

Although I have no objective evidence to support my suspicions, I believe in the possibility that, an adult's brain which has experienced severe physical and emotion trauma as a child ends up continuously releasing abnormally high amounts of stress hormones such as Cortisol and Epinephrine - as if his brain considers it normal - compared to a 'normal' adult brain which would not react in such a manner given similar circumstances. And as a result, such an individual is probably far more prone to experiencing long term or chronic symptoms of anxiety and/or depression (and possibly a lot worse), and may end up desperately trying to self-medicate in order to be free - even if it's only temporary - from his own sober, lucid state of mind which has been conditioned with a persistent over-the-top flight-or-fight response, but I digress.

 

[belfort]

i doubt any drug that induces powerful euphoria is going to have good long term effects on the brain...

 

[slimvictor]

Exercise induces powerful euphoria, and no doubt has major effects on brain processing, probably including long term effects.
But I suspect that many of the long term changes resulting from recreational drug use may be negative ones.
(Also, what Ro said above is very relevant here)