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How easy is it to get brain damage?

shpongle1987

shpongle1987

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Feb 22, 2011
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I was just having a discussion with my father about why my cousin is so fucking weird and he threw out there that he thinks he has brain damage from years of using drugs. So I got to thinking....is it really that easy to get brain damage from using drugs for a long period of time? I mean obviously theres alot of factors like what kind of drug your using and how often your using it, but thinking back to my younger days about how much dxm I used to take it got me worried. Is the only way to tell if you have brain damage is to go get a cat/pet scan? Also what drugs are more prone to causing brain damage...I was thinking pcp, meth ect. I know my cousin was really big into meth for a couple of years but has since stopped and now the only thing he takes is methadone to curb opiate cravings. Hes a really smart dude, got really good grades in school but since he has been doing drugs he has EXTREMELY weird theories and ideas about shit that no one in my family can hold a conversation with him. I used to love tripping and talking to him about weird shit but it seems like he just lost it....any one else know people like this? And could their actions be attributed to brain damage? I was under the impression the brain damage would make people slow and stupid, but of course theres probably many different kinds. Hopefully this post makes sense haah....thanks for any feedback.
 
You can see brain damage from a few drugs, but usually nothing to the extent of what you're talking about. Surely you've seen people on television, supposed "meth heads". That's about the extent of the brain damage you'll see. Your cousin just sounds crazy, or like he has some condition that drugs brought out. But I wouldn't assume "he has brain damage" because he has weird/delusional ideas.

Does he still use drugs?
 
He currently uses 80mg methadone daily and 2 30mg adderall ir daily. And yeah he was always kinda a weird dude im thinking the drugs mite have intensified what ever his condition mite be.
 
^ Yes, I have heard that alcohol causes brain atrophy over a long period of time. Although, wouldn't you say that a drug that directly causes atrophy is neurotoxic?

I'm also curious. Does this brain atrophy occur simply because brain activity is diminished or dampened by GABA-ergics -- so that the brain atrophy could be comparable to skeletal muscle atrophy due to lack of adequate physical exercise?


Also, shouldn't the term "brain damage" refer to more than just physical decay of the brain tissue itself? Since personality, beliefs, memories, and the rest of one's psychological profile are ultimately a result of the physical configuration of the brain, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychoses would have to be the result of a "mis-configuration" or "mis-wiring" of the brain: i.e., brain damage! People always tout psychedelics as totally free of neurotoxicity, but if they can lead to psychosis of any sort, shouldn't we therefore swallow our pride and accept the fact that psychedelics can and do cause brain damage?
 
What kind of "damage" are you talking about? Gross structural abnormalities will be apparent on CT/MRI, but if your cousin is aware and awake enough to respond to questions like a normal human being (as well as move around etc) it's doubtful there is brain damage. Most likely there is concordant drug abuse/stress/mental disorder that should be controlled.
 
All of our body undergoes cellular destruction and formation daily. Neuro-networks are adjusted over ti me based on exps as well as other factors. Habits and thought tendencies are neuro-patters which are pruned over time with or w/o psychedelics, with new patterns forming in the neural-web regularly as well...the death and rebirth of cellular mitosis as well as neural evolution.

Traditional psychedelics from what I understand do not cause physical brain damage. Now re-wiring is another story, as you brought up applecore, there is possibility of impairing neuropatterns forming after a psychedelic exp, but the actual observable lobes aren't damaged. Whereas alcohol is noticably damaging to the hippocampus, the dendrites and something else I don't remember. The area between physical deterioration of the brain as seen in alcohol and psychedelics neural rewiring, would be like mdma. I'm nit sure if the brain is noticably (like through brain scans) flawed from the effects of it, but the capacity of one's neuotransmitters to fire at their full potential has been shown to diminish permanently I believe. I consider both mdma and alcohol brain damaging, whereas I would consider psychedelics "potentially damaging to neural-pattern coherency" at most.

I don't do things which hurt my brain that I am aware of, I'm pretty selective ob what I allow intomy body.lol, I'm vegan and a raw-foodist, lol, so of course I'm not gonna be doing heavy drugs. Anything I mis-spoke with, apologies, its been a bit since I've read up on the topic of damage from drugs. But from what I remember there's a line of distinction observable byanlysis of long-term regular users.so depending on what specific standards the drug consumer has regarding what goes in him, the long-term effects of damage will vary greatly. Many drug users don't care about the damage from their drug use they shake hands with entropy and watch the shit house go up in flames.but from my exp I get the highest by not treating my body shitty, so I limit my intake to thosesubstances which I've appraised to be non toxic. To each there own, but stay safe friends... !! :-)

**you need that brain for trippin, lol a healthy brain can produce more elaborate perceptual displays ;) remember kids don't spend all your sparkles right away, you'll want to have fun in a few years too :-)
 
I think people confuse "brain damage" and a drug being theoretically "toxic" to the brain. If you inject enormous quantities of MDMA into a rats brain every 3 hours for 4 days in a row, then cut it's brain open you may see some damage to certain nerve endings. Now, my guess is if you'd released that rat into the wild (instead of cutting it's brain open) it would live a perfectly happy, long-lived life exhibiting absolutely no evidence of "brain damage" whatsoever. So is the rat "brain-damaged" in any meaningful sense?

As far as I'm aware the hospitals of the world arn't filled with people walking round like Muhammad Ali suffering from "brain damage" from MDMA. So something isn't adding up about the claim that it causes "brain damage".

You can find plenty of people in hospitals around the world with brain damage from alcohol tho so I'd definately say that causes brain damage in sufficient doses.
 
I always assume if something does damage long-term than it has to do it in small amounts along the way....right? Damage doesn't just appear in large quantities does it?? Incrimental chops at the tree of mind by the lumberjack intoxication. =D
 
TheAppleCore said:
Also, shouldn't the term "brain damage" refer to more than just physical decay of the brain tissue itself? Since personality, beliefs, memories, and the rest of one's psychological profile are ultimately a result of the physical configuration of the brain, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychoses would have to be the result of a "mis-configuration" or "mis-wiring" of the brain: i.e., brain damage! People always tout psychedelics as totally free of neurotoxicity, but if they can lead to psychosis of any sort, shouldn't we therefore swallow our pride and accept the fact that psychedelics can and do cause brain damage?
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Not at all. A lot of what you mentioned could be called adaptation (or maladatpation). You could say that the physical changes that accompany learning are a form of 'positive damage'. Its not true though. Damage implies negative change which is permanent. Drug induced psychosis is more a short term chemical (and biochemical) change in the brain environment. It strikes me as odd to suggest that PTSD is a form of brain damage. Its a negative adaptation which can be managed, if not overcome...
 
Yeah after reading some of the responses im leaning more towards the "re-wiring" idea. He is a remarkably smart guy its just that he thinks way off the beaten path, which can indeed be a good thing but when it comes to him its just too much. Also I just thought of something else....the dxm "50 trip" limit. I myself have done dxm way more then 50 times but i have to admit that after you do it alot the magic defiantly goes away....could this have something to do with damage or re-wireing? Or is it just classic tolerance?
 
if a house fell on you you'd probably get severe brain damage, so that's an easy way

speaking from personal observation, excessive alcohol consumption can definitely make people 'slower'

but as for drugs i think it depends on the quality of the drugs, the frequency of their use, which drugs are clearly more damaging to the body and the brain - e.g. LSD compared to methamphetamine, and lastly the general health of the person in the first place (a healthy person using MDMA a few times can 'get away with it' better then someone who is clearly making unhealthy choices)

i think if you are a self-destructive person you are more inclined towards brain damaging activities
 
Seems impossible to answer, where do you draw the line exactly? Cognitive or memory impairment, irreversible or reversible?
 
the brain is still a mystery in its healthy state... so is what people refer to as being/behaving like a normal person...
 
I think the whole politically motivated "E causes brain damage" scare stories polluted the science to such an extent that most of it is worthless. Certainly all the Ricuarte (or whatever his name was) - the guy who claimed holes in the brain and "E causes brain damage" when he wasn't even using E in the experiment was producing bullshine on an epic scale.
 
shpongle1987 said:
He currently uses 80mg methadone daily and 2 30mg adderall ir daily. And yeah he was always kinda a weird dude im thinking the drugs mite have intensified what ever his condition mite be.
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not the best mix. its really a sad story.. I wish him the best.. he needs to get off both the drugs and maybe he will change.. but i really dont know.
 
Some drugs we know cause damage others it's minimal. I think the physical change in behavior is related to a predisposition though.
 
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