Crashing
Bluelighter
I'm posting this cause i was just curious, bored, and
The current oxford definition of (drug) tolerance is:
the capacity to endure continued subjection to something such as a drug or environmental conditions without adverse reaction.
I like to think of tolerance as the point at which the brain no longer alerts it's body at the presence of potentially harmful stimuli. So as we become tolerant to a drug, is the drug affecting the body less than before or are we just beginning to ignore it? The drug is not affecting the brain any less, but over time the brain has eventually given up on signaling the body that something is wrong.
Say an alcoholic has 5 drinks, but he does not perceive the classical perceptual changes of being drunk (vision wobbling, muscle coordination loss etc.). Is he drunk, or is he not drunk due to tolerance? Is he still just as impaired as a non-alcoholic after 5 drinks and just doesn't react to it, or is he actually psychologically sound?
So does the body become immune to the effects of a drug over time, or does the brain just lack the perceptual alerts?
Think of sun exposure. When the body is first exposed to blazing hot sun for a prolonged period, it burns. This is the brain telling us that the sun was damaging. So fast-forward a couple weeks . The body now appears no to react to the sun, as the darkened hue of the skin (tan, tolerance) is observed. But isn't the skin still taking the same damage just as it was in the first place, like we've just decided to ignore it?
The current oxford definition of (drug) tolerance is:
the capacity to endure continued subjection to something such as a drug or environmental conditions without adverse reaction.
I like to think of tolerance as the point at which the brain no longer alerts it's body at the presence of potentially harmful stimuli. So as we become tolerant to a drug, is the drug affecting the body less than before or are we just beginning to ignore it? The drug is not affecting the brain any less, but over time the brain has eventually given up on signaling the body that something is wrong.
Say an alcoholic has 5 drinks, but he does not perceive the classical perceptual changes of being drunk (vision wobbling, muscle coordination loss etc.). Is he drunk, or is he not drunk due to tolerance? Is he still just as impaired as a non-alcoholic after 5 drinks and just doesn't react to it, or is he actually psychologically sound?
So does the body become immune to the effects of a drug over time, or does the brain just lack the perceptual alerts?
Think of sun exposure. When the body is first exposed to blazing hot sun for a prolonged period, it burns. This is the brain telling us that the sun was damaging. So fast-forward a couple weeks . The body now appears no to react to the sun, as the darkened hue of the skin (tan, tolerance) is observed. But isn't the skin still taking the same damage just as it was in the first place, like we've just decided to ignore it?
