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No addiction until pueberty?

^ You can't know for sure. If you've ever read "the holotropic mind" by Stan Grof, you'd see it can possibly affect their experience in the womb.
 
^^^ I'm of the belief that the "self" hasn't come into existence yet at that point. I think it'll affect their neurons, sure, but I'm not convinced they have enough of a sense of "I" to get high. You should check out Douglas Hofstadter's book "I am a strange loop".
 
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Even if there is some nascent "I" in the womb, any explicit long-term memories will likely be wiped out around age 1.5, when there is mass neural culling (in the interest of increasing processing efficiency), which co-occurs with the emergence of the ability to form episodic long-term memories as we know them as adults (and use of the corresponding neural machinery, focused on circuits involving the hippocampus).

Then again, any commentary on the experiences of those who cannot speak will be pretty damned speculative (Hofstadter included, despite my admiration).

ebola
 
^ it's definately possible to retrieve those memories with hypnosis. Stan Grof and other famous psychologists have done it succesfully.
 
Hammilton said:
Sure they have. Pseudoscience at it's worst.
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Do I sense sarcasm? Do you have a degree in psychology to make that claim or any reliable sources that dispell it as a myth? assuming it just sounds ridiculous and thus false doesn't cut it. Don't get me wrong, I'm skeptical myself. but also wondering whether or not it's possible to really retrieve memories from past lives contained in Jungs collective unconscious, and other curious things like that. I definately accept the concept of the collective unconscious.
 
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Hi.
I have a degree in psychology and have conducted cognitive psychological research.
This also does little to affect the merit of my arguments. ;)

I'm just skeptical, as there seems to be little way to adjudicate the truth of such memories empirically.
 
Well I can tell you all for sure that a baby can be born addictied if mom drank or did drugs. I'v worked OB. And if the hospital finds out, FIA, DHS is called in and baby is taken away from mom. It messes with the baby's neruo path ways just like it does anyone. and it can lead to ADHD. It also sets them up geneticly for depentendsy, so their life could be a real struggle to keep off any drugs. If you did drink for a week at the age of 12, or even at any age without being used to it, you most likely had electrolyte embalance, and needed IV fluids, and some food. Don't drink like that at such a young age. I have realatives who have been drinking for years and can't stop. Like smoking. They can't kick it. They are one of the two hardest drugs to kick. Why do you need to be high at age 12, at your age I was all about sports, boys, school and playing outside. What kind of parents do you have. Are they addicts? Baby, be careful, your messing with real fire, and you could ruin your life. I know, I did. I didn't start at your age, way way older, but I'v lost a lot over it. I don't drink or smoke, but do oxi, and that has me hooked. I wish I could have a do over, it would cange a lot. I'm preaching to you, sorry, I'm a mom, who was stupid. Wouldn't want my children to even know what I do know, so just think about it, please.
 
The Monkey Mantra said:
If past lives really existed, how come BOTH of us were Napoleon and Joan of Arc?
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In order to answer your question, I would have to go into metaphysics. Their is an answer to it, but most people here are too closed-minded and skeptical to consider it.
 
the whole premise of no addiction til puberty (i like the mispelling) is bizarre, do people thing that the changes at puberty really make any difference?
addiction, perhaps as in physical addiction perhaps as in psychological addiction, is possible at any age, and no I don't want to get into the definition of addiction game.


what is known is that exposure to dopaminergic agents whilst the brain is developing cause increased addictive behavior in adulthood. thanks Monkey mantra for posting the abstracts,
I expect to see serious problems with former ritalinized kids in the next few decades. I am pretty certain it has already been shown that children who have been sensitised to dopaminergic agents perhaps as ADHD treatments go on to have a much higher incidence of cocaine abuse later in life.

There is also reason to believe that the use of any strong psychoactive drug at a time when the brain is still in its developmental stage has more potential for harm than when the brain is developed, say around 20-25 years of age.


and onto the off topic stuff.
As for the previous lives and collective consciousness I strongly believe that Grof is a purveyer of incoherent nonsense, if you have ever spoken with him you will realise that he just hides the inconsistency, lack of logic or evidence for his ideas behind psychobabble. he is a shining example of the failed generation of psychologists, they have done the credibilty of psychology so much damage. but hey he makes a good living off his hippy twaddle.

There simply is no solid evidence for existence of a self or a consciousness separate from the brain, many have tried, many have failed to prove it. it seems likely that you die and that is it, I don't find this a problem. consciousness is a subjective consequence of the way the brain operates, who knows it may even be an illusion.

Maybe given time we will see conscious computers, but their consciousness will not exist outside of the computer, switch the computer off and the consciousness will switch off with it, just like everyones consciousness.
 
Initiation and experimentation with illicit drugs often occurs in adolescence. Evidence suggests that adolescent rats are more sensitive to some of the effects of drugs of abuse than adult rats. The present study investigated whether adolescent and adult female Sprague Dawley rats differ in cocaine-induced locomotor activity. Animals were placed in the test environment for 30 minutes, and then administered an intraperitoneal (IP) injection of either cocaine (20 mg/kg) or saline (0.9% ). Both adult and adolescent animals showed significant increases in locomotor activity as a result of cocaine administration compared to saline controls. Interestingly, cocaine induced significantly more locomotor activity in the adolescent females compared to the adults, demonstrating that cocaine acts differently in developing animals.
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SOURCE: Heightened cocaine-induced locomotor activity in adolescent compared to adult female rats

It seems as though this study and others indicate that drugs may have MORE of an effect on the young. How this translates to addiction and/or dependence in adolescents is something to be determined hopefully in the near future. However, there is a difference between addiction and dependence; where addiction is centered more toward the psychological aspect of drug use, rather than the physical symptoms of dependence.

Nevertheless, an interesting topic.
 
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