• 🇳🇿 🇲🇲 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇦🇺 🇦🇶 🇮🇳
    Australian & Asian
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • AADD Moderators: andyturbo

Am I causing brain damage?

G

Godwintwo2

Greenlighter
Joined
Mar 8, 2017
Messages
47
Hey guys,i am a young teenager and have been using cannabis about twice a week. Last night I decided to take a hit of nitrous with some mates and then got drunk. Then we smoked bud again today and I was wondering if that could've caused any long term damage and if continuing to use bud could cause major damage later on in life

any answers much appreciated
cheers!
 
I think you need to educate yourself about how your brain works. Have a watch of this; https://www.ted.com/talks/sandrine_thuret_you_can_grow_new_brain_cells_here_s_how

A few things though;

1. Take your drugs in moderation especially alcohol. Really you've got a long time ahead of you get to hammered. Drinking 5 or less units in a single night is a good thing and ignore your mates who think you should scull a bottle of jim or whatever kids drink these days.
2. do good things that aid neurogenesis (video will tell you what they are)
3. exercise regularly, eat healthy. Learn stuff, learn a language.
4. And when you get into MDMA and those sorts of drugs learn about pre and post loading (google those words and MDMA)

And you'll be fine
 
Technically: yes of course it is possible. Any drug can cause long term damage.

But overall it's very unlikely that smoking bud a few times and having some 'nitrious' could cause long term damage. By nitrous, do you mean 'nangs'? Those soda charger things you stick into the big bottle and then inhale (a rough description I know).

You should really stay away from those things. I used to use them a fair bit on benders etc and started to feel really weird the next day after. The high you get from them is basically your brain having no oxygen for a few seconds. Really bad stuff.

Anyway man: you're still a young kid. You should be eating right, going to school, playing sport and staying the hell away from drugs.

I know this is a harm reduction forum, so we are supposed to tell u the safest ways to do drugs, but truth be told, there is no completely safe ways to use drugs. You won't hear this much on here, but drugs are totally destructive and very little good ever comes of them.

Honestly: I'm 24 now, and literally no one I know who started using drugs in their early teens has done anything with their lives. The majority are jobless, selling drugs and just generally stains on society.

There is such a thing as responsible drug use, but it is never truly safe, and it comes LATER in life, once your brain is more fully developed and you have a job and stuff to keep you in line. And it's moderation (a few times a year or something )

What I've learned is that drug use coupled with a lot of free time, like most young teens have, is always a recipe for disaster.
 
chugs said:
1. Take your drugs in moderation especially alcohol. Really you've got a long time ahead of you get to hammered. Drinking 5 or less units in a single night is a good thing and ignore your mates who think you should scull a bottle of jim or whatever kids drink these days.
Click to expand...

this is good advice.
"brain damage" is a term that carries a lot of baggage.
while you may certainy feel a sense cognitive impairment in the days following a bit of drug use, it's not strictly "brain damage".
when used colloquially, "brain damage" tends to refer to ABIs (acquired brain injuries) - and i know a couple of people who live with conditions caused by ABIs, but these were caused by cardiac arrest (cutting off blood flow, oxygen to the brain) in one case, and trauma (a bad blow the the head) in the other case i know personally.
it's not typically something that happens with typical "recreational drugs" (alcohol, mdma, cannabis etc) though overdose, or prolonged, excessive consumption of drugs that have neurotoxic properties.
unless you take something seriouslty damaging to get high (such as sniffing volatile chemicals like glue/petrol/paint), occasional, careful use of drugs with a reasonable safety profile, "brain damage" shouldn't be too much of a concern.

the exceptions to this are drug expreiences that cause you to stop breathing, as prolonged periods without respiration can very easily cause neurological damage - but any drug that stops you breathing like that is in life or death territory anyway.

nitrous is a bit of a funny one, because it is fairly benign as far as toxicity goes, but it's when people overdo it and pass out (and stop breathing) that it becomes dangerous.
there is heaps of info about nitours oxide/nangs/n20 on bluelight and elsewhere online - but briefly, just make sure you have someone there to assist you when you do nitrous, and never do anything that can obstruct your airways if you do happen to black out (never use any kind of 'gas mask' apparatus or do anything silly lijke open up a tank of nitrous in a confined space - humans cannot survive on n2o alone! we need air/oxygen - but perhaps more importantly, we need to expel carbon dioxide when we exhale.

so, put very simply, partying with your friends should not ccause brain damage.

drugs can certainly alter how our brains function, how our neurological pathways and develop and how we think and perceive the world.
but this is not necessarily the same thing as "brain damage".
one popular misconception about neurological damage is that it is often not something that can be subjectively recognised by individuals. there are literally countless things that van alter the way our brains function, and the idea of "permanent brain damage" has been overplayed by the anti-drug lobby.

i think one of the most important things is to know what you are putting into your body (as best you vcan) and doing all you can to negate any harms that may arise from the substance(s) in question.
knowledge is the key here - for instance, some drugs are perfectly safe when taken on their own, but can be harmful - even fatal - in combination with other (otherwise safe) drugs.
if you're curious about a combo - just ask bluelight (before you take it!) :)

the other important thing is to practice self-care, in the sense that you should still ensure you take care of basic everyday health needs, no matter how fucked-up you're getting. bby this i mean eat (even if it's something light, or if you have no appetite) and stay hydrated.

just pace yourself - and keep researching - and you'll be in the best position to party without causing any serious damage to your physical or mental health.
 
By nitrous, do you mean 'nangs'? Those soda charger things you stick into the big bottle and then inhale (a rough description I know).

You should really stay away from those things. I used to use them a fair bit on benders etc and started to feel really weird the next day after. The high you get from them is basically your brain having no oxygen for a few seconds. Really bad stuff.
Click to expand...

That's not actually quite right. What you're describing is the case for many inhalants, but Nitrous Oxide is a genuinely psychoactive dissociative drug with NMDA antagonist effects. It's used as an anesthetic in medical settings and has a very high safety profile, although there are occasional cases of people who abuse it heavily and end up with vitamin deficiencies (gasp :O ), and even more rare cases (as in, I've only heard of one or two, ever) of people who become habitual daily users for years on end and cause damage of some kind to their nervous system.

It would be pretty hard to deprive your brain of oxygen doing nangs, since at the very worst you'd be missing a single breath's worth of oxygen intake (which is no worse than just holding your breath for 20 seconds), and even that can be avoided by simply inhaling a bit of air before you inhale the nitrous from the cannister.

Edit: Spacejunk is right about the gas mask thing though, although I don't think your average teenage experimenter is likely to come across one of those. And of course, like any drug which can cause you to lose control of your body, you don't want to take it somewhere where your breathing could be obstructed if you fall down or pass out(eg. a bath/pool/hot tub). Although even in these cases, Nitrous is relatively safer than something like ketamine or heroin (or heavy booze intake, for that matter), simply because it starts to wear off almost as soon as it kicks in.
 
Last edited:
Oh ok thanks guys - I decided to do my fair share of research have decided to just stick with weed in moderation now. Do you think twice a week is okay? If not how often would be alright?

Cheers!
 
Weed is pretty safe.
I've smoked daily (nightly) for years.

You can minimise harm by using a vaporiser and not adding to tobacco into the mix.
 
 
Yeah sorry I apologise for that, I usually don't get much time online atm but I'm getting more opportunities to reply atm so hopefully should fix that problem. In the meantime, I've been caught smoking and I'm now being drug tested every couple of weeks or so which sucks and same goes for many of my mates atm so they have started to get into alcohol and cigarettes a lot more. Now, before I had tried cigs I rlly thought there was nothing much to it but have now come to quite like the occasional social cigarette for the Nic buzz. Does anyone think this would hurt once a week?
 
Tobacco is one of the more harmful drugs you can take, frankly.
"Once a week" can easily turn into "a couple a week", then "a couple a day" - and once you get hooked, a lot of people find it very hard to stop.

If cigarettes kill a lot more people than all illegal drugs combined. They lead to increased cancer rates (not just lung cancer), heart disease, emphysema - a huge range of nasty illnesses.

If you're concerned about your health, you're best staying away from tobacco. There's really no benefit to consuming it, it's fucking expensive in australia, and the health impacts are enormous.
It's your life, but if you're still living with your parents, you might want to focus on school or whatever - without getting too caught up in drug use from an early age.

In terms of health effects, tobacco is far more harmful than cannabis, so it's really not a good option as an alternative, in my opinion.

You've got your whole life ahead of you to smoke weed, but if you're a teenager (still in high school?) your brain and body are still developing, so it's really advisable to go easy on the smoking and drug taking, because it can affect the way you develop.

I'm really glad i never got a taste for ciggies as a teenager, because most of my friends that did have had a bloody hard time quitting em as they've gotten older.

Also, i've lost more friends and family to tobacco-smoking related illnesses than illegal drug deaths.
They don't call em "cancer sticks" for nothin' - and they're bloody addictive too.
 
Last edited:
You could be, there's growing evidence that early-onset cannabis use can affect the brain's development negatively. You're at a critical age in your brain's development, which extends into your early 20s, so any regular substance use will absolutely have a lasting (if not permanent) effect on your brain's structure and function.

A good summary of the evidence-based knowledge by the Canadian Psychiatric Association:

• The human brain undergoes a maturational process
during adolescence that includes reorganization,
refinements and functional improvements. This is
driven by changes in brain grey matter (GM) due
to synaptic pruning (elimination of underutilized or
unnecessary neural connections), and white matter
(WM) due to myelination.

• These changes continue at least until the mid-20s and
thus brain maturation is vulnerable during this time
to stressors/insults.

• The endocannabinoid system plays a role in this
brain maturation and thus exogenous cannabinoids
from cannabis can affect this process directly in a
negative way.

• Regular cannabis use in youth and young adults
can affect aspects of cognition, including attention,
memory, processing speed, visuospatial functioning
and overall intelligence. Worse performance is
related to earlier adolescent onset of use. Abstinence
following regular use may improve some, but not all,
of these cognitive domains.

• Early and regular use increases the risk of developing
a primary psychotic illness in those individuals who
are vulnerable. Vulnerability factors are not currently
clear, but may include factors such as childhood
trauma and genetics. In those young adults who have
developed psychosis, continued cannabis use worsens
long-term symptom and functional outcomes.

• Cannabis may increase the risk of depression and
early regular use is associated with younger age
of onset of symptoms of psychosis and of bipolar
disorder.

• Cannabis with high tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)
content (high potency) can result in significantly
worse mental health and cognitive outcomes,
including worsening of panic disorder and other
anxiety disorders.

• Early age of use of cannabis increases the potential
for adult dependence to cannabis.

• Cannabis may be associated with increased
progression to other illicit drug use in the context of
particular factors (e.g., high frequency and early age
of use).
http://www.cpa-apc.org/wp-content/u...sition-Statement-ENG-FINAL-no-footers-web.pdf

Also this one's a bit dense but a good review of the literature on the topic:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3930618/

As alluring as drugs may be, you're really much better off waiting until your brain has fully developed before you start experimenting.

If you start having a weekly cigarette at your age (or any age really) you will most likely become addicted, one of the most addictive drugs there is, many people simply can't quit, and it kills them.

Look after yourself <3
 
Thanks guys - I have learned a lot from this thread and have decided to keep away from drugs for the time being now - eapeciall After hearing about the parts of development early cannabis use affects, such as processing speed, which happens to be my main weak point even before I had used cannabis. FYI I am at and age way too young as I have come to realise - almost fifteen and will hold off as much as I can. Although, I seem to have this terrible urge to experiment. Does anyone have any ideas for a safe alternative such as an ethneogenic plant like kanna but something with slightly more profound effects? I don't want to harm my brain and will certainly hold off until I find something SAFE.
Thanks for the info guys

Cheers!
 
Just to add on - I am really starting to regret my use at this age - especially since being caught and realise how bad the choices I have made are. However I am coping with a lot of stress and so, would like to find something to help take the edge off but only something safer and if I cannot find anything of the likes I'll hold off until my brain is fully developed. I am still fortunately a grade A student and I made this thread because it is important to me to keep it that way for later in life - not that studying is really my thing lol. Anyway yeah just to give everyone a better idea of the situation now.

Cheers!
 
It's not worth having regrets mate - you can only control your future decisions :)
Seems like you have the right attitude though.
 
Yeah I agree, thanks - I guess from now on I'll just have to improve my decision making skills - never been to good at that lol but I've really learned my lesson over the past week or so tbh.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top