Psychoactive tolerance doesn't exist.

[Enlight Spurrett]

So I've been thinking about this for a long, long time. I've been a cannabis smoker since I was 14, a tobacco smoker since I was 12 and an alcohol drinker since I was 12. I have used other things but most of my experience is to do with these particular substances. I have been using 3-FPM for a month now too.

People always have said that people build a tolerance to a drug and that we need more of it to get the same effects. I disagree. I'd say nothing happens or even perhaps the opposite. After years of smoking cannabis, I have smoked the same amount all my life. Occasionally upping the dose but I'd say I smoke maybe a little less that a few years ago. I smoke less tobacco than I did when I first started. I drink ale and spirits and have always had the same effects no matter how much I drink over a period of time. Some drugs, 3-FPM, have a strong effect on dopamine transport which would make you think that you would need more to get the same effect due to depletion. I'd say that it makes you see and find all of those little idiosyncratic behaviours and effects that a drug has. That we find a dose that works for us and works exactly the same every time, only our brains interpret it differently. No trip is ever the same even when we get back down to baseline.

So what are your thoughts on this? Do you believe in tolerance or is it just something people made up to try and explain how our complex brains interpret psychoactive effects?

 

[Nixiam]

It does exist. Though everybody's different. However, the idea that you're tolerance (with perpetual use) has regressed makes me question the validity of your report, not in any sense calling you liar, but maybe mistaken. Are you sure?

Now that I think of it, I haven't really built a tolerance to alcohol over 10%.

I had a tolerance Hydrocodone, I know because I had to take more to recieve the same effect that I had six months ago. I just dropped off of the opiate train for a bit though. Going to let my tolerance build back up.

Maybe you are predisposed to having a low tolerance? Are you small and how often do you drink? Low carb diet?

Odd, but intriguing at the same time. Actually, I wish I could never build a tolerance.

 

[Enlight Spurrett]

Oh I am definitely sure. When I started smoking, I'd smoke lots and lots in a day and a few years later, I smoked about 1/4 a week. I stopped shortly after for 2 months which made sure that all of the THC had left my body for a month and then when going back, I started smoking less and finally found my way to smoking a 16th a week and this was 3 years ago. Now, a 16th will last me 8-9 days.

Is it possibly that it works for some drugs but not others? Like heroin and other opiates for example?

Maybe I do? I drank a lot more a while back but haven't for a while. I can drink a 70CL bottle of clear spirit in a night and not have any issues whereas I can only drink 3 pints of beer before I'm drunk and 5 pints before I'm throwing up. But I did drink every day for a good while and the same happened so no tolerance build up there. I also like my carbs but I don't over eat.

 

[Nixiam]

Hmm. May just be how your body reacts.

 

[swilow]

So what are your thoughts on this? Do you believe in tolerance or is it just something people made up to try and explain how our complex brains interpret psychoactive effects?

Tolerance is not really something that one believes in. Or, more to the point, whether you believe in it or not makes no difference to its reality as a fact. There is much too much evidence to call tolerance a question of interpretation. If you take an SSRI for a meaningful period of time, you will have lower density of serotonin receptors. This is due to the body literally allowing serotonin receptors to die as a way of coping with the increased amounts of serotonin. It is called 'downregulation' and occurs with many chemicals. Anecdotally, a lot of opiate users have experienced this to their downfall. A specific amount of a specific drug will have specific effects which one gets tolerant to over time. Withdraw the drug and evventually the brain will (painfully) regain homeostasis- input the same quantity of the drug and it could then kill you. Tolerance in this sense is a fact.

I think is possible to use certain drugs regularly without gaining much of a tolerance. Cannabis is a good example. In my youth, I would smoke several grams a day and it did basically nothing. I still smoke everyday, but I only consume a small amount and this amount rarely needs to be increased. I think each person probably has a certain point where tolerance will become an issue; for some, it may take a long time to manifest, for others it may happen rapidly. Some people get increasingly sensitive to the effects of drugs but this is uncommon.

So, no, I don't think your idea is reflective of reality. Drug tolerance does exist and it has a physiological basis. If I could modify one parameter in our matrix, that would be one of them.

 

[Cosmic Trigger]

So I've been thinking about this for a long, long time. I've been a cannabis smoker since I was 14, a tobacco smoker since I was 12 and an alcohol drinker since I was 12. I have used other things but most of my experience is to do with these particular substances. I have been using 3-FPM for a month now too.

People always have said that people build a tolerance to a drug and that we need more of it to get the same effects. I disagree. I'd say nothing happens or even perhaps the opposite. After years of smoking cannabis, I have smoked the same amount all my life. Occasionally upping the dose but I'd say I smoke maybe a little less that a few years ago. I smoke less tobacco than I did when I first started. I drink ale and spirits and have always had the same effects no matter how much I drink over a period of time. Some drugs, 3-FPM, have a strong effect on dopamine transport which would make you think that you would need more to get the same effect due to depletion. I'd say that it makes you see and find all of those little idiosyncratic behaviours and effects that a drug has. That we find a dose that works for us and works exactly the same every time, only our brains interpret it differently. No trip is ever the same even when we get back down to baseline.

So what are your thoughts on this? Do you believe in tolerance or is it just something people made up to try and explain how our complex brains interpret psychoactive effects?

Try opiates for a few years and then revisit the question.

 

[belligerent drunk]

Tolerance is a fact, so like willow said, it's not really up for debate. Tolerance to cannabis also does occur, should you smoke enough. It is entirely possible that you're an occasional enough user that your tolerance isn't large enough so it can be compensated by psychological factors. Psychosomatic phenomena are real as well.

I've definitely gained tolerance to practically any drug I used, including caffeine and cannabis, even though I don't use those often. Try taking psychedelics for days in a row and then say how tolerance isn't a thing!

 

[MrRoot]

When I started taking oxycodone I used to take 5mg oxycontin twice a day for a debilitating back pain. 15mg at once made me feel high.

When I started tapering down after a succesfull surgery, which was after four years of the initial oxycodone start, I had to use 140mg per day to be able function with the pain and I would have to take 250mg to feel high.

There definately is a tolerance build up with opiates atleast and I have some experience in abusing benzos, sleep aids and ritalin and those also had some tolerance build up as suddenly I had to take 8mg of alprazolam to feel same as I felt when taking 1mg.

Now that I have stopped using other CNS affecting drugs and I am in the middle of tapering oxycodone I wonder how bad it will get if I start again sometime and use same kind of amounts as I used before...

 

[Ninae]

Real homeostasis is one of the best feelings in the world and many have never even experienced it because of bad nutrition, etc. Everything helps. Sunshine and exercise also important.