• N&PD Moderators: Skorpio | someguyontheinternet

Pupils cease to dilate with extended/heavy drug use

Okay, now on the other hand: why is there no tolerance to miosis with opioid use?

Actually I believe there is in many individuals. Jasoncrest said he does not get constricted pupils. I rarely do anymore even on doses strong enough to nod, and I am not even a dependent user. Maybe some slight constriction but rarely the 'hey this guy is junked out of his mind' look.
 
Actually I believe there is in many individuals. Jasoncrest said he does not get constricted pupils. I rarely do anymore even on doses strong enough to nod, and I am not even a dependent user. Maybe some slight constriction but rarely the 'hey this guy is junked out of his mind' look.

Yeah thats true, when ive been clean from opiates for some time (months) and then start using again i get these pin eyes but after just
a couple of days of using they never get that small again.

Another thing, i use amphetamine, not every day but sometimes and times when i haven't had a rig on me and snorted or eaten it i
get dilated pupils but when i inject it i get almost no dilated pupils at all.
Maybe this is a known fact, i don't know.
 
Personally, in my hay-day, never noticed the "downregulation" (could also be upregulation of an inhibitory pathway too, don't forget how complex those simple circuits really are). Pupil dialation/contrisction is one of the few ways my girlfriends can figure that I'm not sober. [I wonder if my professors notice...eek!]
Its odd, usually (I hate to generalize with these topics), but I've noticed more physiological effects are not prone to tolerance the way euphoria (and other desired cognitive/behavioral effects) are.
BTW- What source do you have for this being an issue of downreg, or is it just a hunch?
 
Im sorry if im stretching away from the topic a tad now, but does drugs that affect GABA (Bensodiazepines, alcohol) dilate pupils?
I always notice when i have been clean from bensos for some time and take my clonazepam that my pupils get a bit dilated,
not much but since i notice it there got to be some dilation.. or im just imagining.
 
i have taken a very large variety of stimulants and the only one which caused noticeable mydriasis (in full daylight) was atomoxetine. the dilation was so pronounced i had trouble reading, and when i would wake up in the morning it looked like i was underwater. AMP, MPH etc do not produce any effect whatsoever.
i have a normal pupillary response to serotonergic psychs.
 
There are SO many variables for this question, that i'm gonna go the more philosophical route here.

I think pupil dilation is directly related to the amount and speed of brain activity. More dilation = more information coming in, more being processed.

When mydriasis isn't present , you aren't experiencing full effects! Mydriasis is mainly tied to PEAK effects IMO.

The only time i've had mydriasis recently was when I was dopesick. It was to the point where it made me laugh at myself when I looked in the mirror, I looked like an anime character. :P

I would expect right now for my eyes to be a good 80% at least, as I dosed 60mg adderall about +1:00 and I haven't in a few weeks. But it usually doesn't happen anymore because i'm so used to amphetamines effects.

The most interesting pupil dilation I think is when you're sober ! Me and friends have been almost 95% dilated piss sober , but were just so in touch with "the source" at the time and so happy that our eyes got like that.

The event that sticks out in my mind is sitting with my best mate outside 7/11 after he had been doing a decent amount of quality acid in the last week. There was no drugs in his system, but he was still so in touch with the force.

"Hahah dude what's up with you? You look like a little kid! Are you on anything?"

"No man... i don't know what to say... it's just... today.... something is just ... doing it... the siddhis are coming back *pokes air* *big grin*"

God I need to start doing more psychedelics. I forgot about how happy the good drugs remind me I can be.
 
I've realized this as of late too with any stimulant, my pupils don't start to dilate until I am severely fucked up....Like almost to the point of running up and down the street for something to do and even then its only if my use exceeds around 4 hours or so. But, I still have proper dilation when sober, and it has not appeared to effect me otherwise, So maybe its some sign of tolerance or something? Like the first times you use, your pupils dilate and show it, but after awhile of using stimulants, your pupils don't dilate instantaneously like before, almost like you've burnt out that response(or symptom) that comes from use, like with prolonged use you can lose some other positive effects and sometimes some negative ones too(Such as jitteriness,anxiety,etc)

However the part that intrigues me, is I usually only use stimulants once or twice per month, rarily more, and my pupils still don't dilate like they used to. I feel the effects but don't look like I'm high.I also have an abnormality, in which my pupils don't retract to light properly, so they're usually pretty large anyway. Like large enough I got blamed for using drugs before I ever even contemplated using anything.
Does anyone think that maybe my eye condition may have something to do with it taking more for them to react?
Sorry, I'm high as hell right now and this is a question I've been wondering for the last week or so.

Edit:I thought I should add a couple things, one although I don't use often,when I do use I binge for approximately,12-24 hours and use larger doses. I wonder if that might effect how I look when I do lower doses, since my brains been overloaded with the chemical, when lower doses of similar chemicals enter my body and are processed, maybe, my pupils dilate only slightly?I feel like I'm going around in circles with my information, but hopefully it helps.

i have taken a very large variety of stimulants and the only one which caused noticeable mydriasis (in full daylight) was atomoxetine. the dilation was so pronounced i had trouble reading, and when i would wake up in the morning it looked like i was underwater. AMP, MPH etc do not produce any effect whatsoever.
i have a normal pupillary response to serotonergic psychs.

Also this caught my eye....I've also had my pupils so large they affected my vision...this has only happened on Stimulants(Cocaine,Dex,MDMA) but On acid and mushrooms I still immediately get saucer eyes. Like scary big. Maybe this has something to do with serotonin and dopamine tolerance, or something? If I remember right most stimulants tend to be primarily Dopamine based while lsd and mushrooms effect serotonin more? anyway, just a thought.I don't mean tolerance exactly, but I can't figure out how I could explain what I mean. The best way I can think of is maybe after being used to being flooded with dopamine, some of the dopamine related effects begin to diminish when you use primarily dopamine receptor effecting drugs, however since a flood of Serotonin is new, it still effects that area of the brain to the same extent? It would make sense why E still makes my pupils big.
P.L.U.R
 
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i've used many stimulants in the past, and nothing made my pupils look as big as when on BZP. couldn't see the surrounding dark part of the my eyes as the pupils had gone that big, only the white part.

and the pupil dilation used to stay like that for about a day, and then gradually over the next 1-2 days shrink completely back to normal.
 
I think pupil dilation is directly related to the amount and speed of brain activity. More dilation = more information coming in, more being processed.

When mydriasis isn't present , you aren't experiencing full effects! Mydriasis is mainly tied to PEAK effects IMO.

Please reference.

Sounds like pupil reactions, like other drugs effects, are quite variable.
 
adrenalin applied directly to the eyes causes dilation, and is now the usual chemical used by opthalmologists (solanaceous alkaloids cause this effect also but reduce the ability to focus properly) - and i believe that dilation of the pupils is a direct effect of adrenalin release caused by the drug in question. strong vasoconstriction in the peripheral blood vessels is another effect of adrenalin and also present in lsd, methamphetamine and mdma's effects. however this is not all directly correlative as dmt and psilocybin also cause pupillary dilation and neither are particularly vasoconstrictive but perhaps have a selective stimulation of adrenalin release within the eye itself.

it seems possible that with chronic high level dosing of these chemicals in general one would get a reduction of response from all of the receptor sites that are acted upon, but the various sites could have different rates of reaction to this exposure, and it's possible that in the case of the initiator of this thread's neurochemistry that adrenalin release or response within the eyes is more rapidly desensitised than other effects. it may also correlate with a reduction of thermogenic effects, it is well known that thermogenic effects of many diet drugs diminishes after about 2-3 weeks of daily dosing, and thermogenesis is in those cases mediated in a major part via adrenalin release.
 
oddly, oxycodone changes my eye color from brown to green. pupil dilation seems to reduce/extinct after about a week of solid use (after a long detox)
 
Im sorry if im stretching away from the topic a tad now, but does drugs that affect GABA (Bensodiazepines, alcohol) dilate pupils?
I always notice when i have been clean from bensos for some time and take my clonazepam that my pupils get a bit dilated,
not much but since i notice it there got to be some dilation.. or im just imagining.

it does for me (GHB and phenibut both will dilate my eyes like saucers)

but I am also prone to 'hyperdilation' (heh neat word).

my eyes are usually quite dilated during the day (I suspect it may just be naturally high levels of certain monoamines or something like that?).
 
ok just wanted to clarify as subsequent inquiry showed that adrenalin is believed to cause pupillary dilation and mydriasis in general can be seen in other animals that are cranked up (i can always tell my cat is in play/hunt mode cos her eyes dilate wide) and the pupils in humans dilate from other stimuli that relate to adrenalin release but adrenalin isn't all there is to the fight/flight response, and as far as i can tell it cannot be used to directly induce dilation.
 
oddly, oxycodone changes my eye color from brown to green. pupil dilation seems to reduce/extinct after about a week of solid use (after a long detox)

Hey i thought i was the only one who got that! except its X that changes mine from brown to green. its really wierd :D
 
i have experienced this from years of codeine abuse and trying to hide the miosis with some homemade eyedrops derived from brugmunsia leaves, that left my eyes saucered for days at a time. I never remember my eyes being dilated before i used uppers or opiates. The ONLY time i see dilated eyes, at maybe 75percent, would be when im in full opiate withdrawal. or using datura etc. (ive used datura/brugmunsia recreationally/internally about 15-20 times. ) even after a clean period of 18months, my eyes were never more than 4mm accross.
 
So I took three E pills this weekend. Eyes only got moderately big. A couple of my friends took one for their first time. Eyes huge, almost big as the color of their eyes.

I think this is some evidence that your eyes only dilate when you are newer to drugs or it is your first time with a new drug,


I was actually going to ask something about this. My boyfriend's eyes get huge everytime he rolls, and yet I will take the same dosage (and haven't taken as much as he has in the past) and mine will only get moderately big compared to his? Is there another reason why this may be?
 
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