Despite occasionally taking really long breaks, I have been a frequent user of cocaine and stimulant meds. I usually do 12 hour binges once or twice a week now where I take hundreds of mg's of adderall or crushed concerta. I've been a stimulant user for about 4 or 5 years now and no longer use insanely huge doses daily. But am I doing damage that can effect my cognition? Am I getting stupid? Im well aware it's no doubt the direct cause of my depression but aside from emotional damage, am I becoming stupid?
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Can stimulant drugs cause brain damage?
- Thread starter PeedOff
- Start date
benzoheadplus44
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2008
- Messages
- 316
i dont think you're becoming stupid, emotionally different yes.... who knows u could end up having a stroke and bam ur stupid in all due respect... thats stupid, you're just modified chemistry in the brain.... ie. depression ahedonia is very real with drug craving And withdrawal psychologically.....
opium
Bluelighter
my main concern with using any drugs;
the rule of thumb is for every day you use drugs, is a day lost of emotional and social growth.
so say your addicted to drugs for 2 years, you will be 2 years behind your age group in social and emotional interaction.
That is because you lose your normal thought process and interaction skills while on drugs, so when you stop, you basically play catch up.
thats why (At least for me) after a long while on drugs, i have to re-adapt to socializing with my friends, and re-adapt to the way i approach girls. Seems like everything has changed while i was using. Kind of like when you go to prison, and come back to the outside world and you have to re-adapt into your surroundings because youve missed so much of whats going on. Your a fish out of water for every day you use.
the rule of thumb is for every day you use drugs, is a day lost of emotional and social growth.
so say your addicted to drugs for 2 years, you will be 2 years behind your age group in social and emotional interaction.
That is because you lose your normal thought process and interaction skills while on drugs, so when you stop, you basically play catch up.
thats why (At least for me) after a long while on drugs, i have to re-adapt to socializing with my friends, and re-adapt to the way i approach girls. Seems like everything has changed while i was using. Kind of like when you go to prison, and come back to the outside world and you have to re-adapt into your surroundings because youve missed so much of whats going on. Your a fish out of water for every day you use.
Are you me? I'm convinced that you're me. That sounds just like me.
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casualuser
Bluelighter
I don't think it can cause any brain damage apart from the risk of a stroke in the short term, but I did read an article once about burning out your neurons from extended use of drugs. Can't find the article right now but in short it was mainly about the long term effects (ten plus years of use) of ADHD meds and/or antidepressants. The article speculated that these drugs cause an increase firing rate/over activity of your neurons which over a long period of time will cause them to "burn out" and could lead to some brain damage. Nothing like turning you into a vegetable but still a noticeable decrease in cognitive functioning. Made me think of cars lol, i.e. you buy a car and drive it for 200 miles a day the engine, brakes, tires ect will wear out and break down at a faster rate than if you only drove it 25 miles a day. I don't think you be at risk at this point, I'd be more concerned about long term damage to your heart(the car analogy could apply there as well in my opinion though it wasn't discussed in the article).
In the name of harm reduction I would say no drug is worth making a life long habit out of. Regardless of the possibility of brain damage, moderation is the key with everything in life imo. My advice would be try to make you your breaks more often and longer in duration whether or not you'd want to give it up for good.
In the name of harm reduction I would say no drug is worth making a life long habit out of. Regardless of the possibility of brain damage, moderation is the key with everything in life imo. My advice would be try to make you your breaks more often and longer in duration whether or not you'd want to give it up for good.
i against i
Bluelighter
this is a really good post, really well expressed, thankyou.
to the OP. there are some good threads on here if you do a search, such as this one about cocaine or this one about adderall.
if you've suffered some kind of brain damage, i don't know. if you're really concerned, see a doctor if you can. 5 years is pretty long term use, so a break of a few months would be good whether you have brain damage or not.
all the best.