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Why do drugs in general promote a content feeling?

Solipsis

Solipsis

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Are psychoactive drugs just as likely to make you feel happy as sad? I'm not talking about psychedelic effects that only exaggerate emotions that are already there...
There are substances that narrow the consciousness like alcohol and those that broaden it like acid and even MDMA... but both are known to produce euphoria.
Could one say feelings of happiness and contentment are generally a product of an abundance of neurotransmitters and sadness is a lack thereof? Is this the reason most drugs make one feel good, because most drugs release extra chemicals?
Or is this just a product of design and are there a lot of chemicals out there that promote sadness or pain?
 
Solipsys said:
Are psychoactive drugs just as likely to make you feel happy as sad? I'm not talking about psychedelic effects that only exaggerate emotions that are already there...
There are substances that narrow the consciousness like alcohol and those that broaden it like acid and even MDMA... but both are known to produce euphoria.
Could one say feelings of happiness and contentment are generally a product of an abundance of neurotransmitters and sadness is a lack thereof? Is this the reason most drugs make one feel good, because most drugs release extra chemicals?
Or is this just a product of design and are there a lot of chemicals out there that promote sadness or pain?
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the power behind that si what feels/experience. Honestly I think the contentment and plessure one feels is that in which they have for tehre inner self, if someone is too caught up with the outward self and never has put in any time discovering the self inside the self then tehya re liable to be very supprised/angered/scared of what they see when they see past the illussion of what they precieved the self to be.

Its complicated.
 
Yeah this sounds all too familiar, although in a psychedelic context.

What I'm curious about is the resemblance between different families of drugs - uppers downers and dissociatives all work a different angle, but my question was how come they all tend to make one feel so good? Take alcohol for example, normally it makes me feel like I experience less and feel less although it still feels pretty good. What is this common factor?
 
Solipsys said:
Yeah this sounds all too familiar, although in a psychedelic context.

What I'm curious about is the resemblance between different families of drugs - uppers downers and dissociatives all work a different angle, but my question was how come they all tend to make one feel so good? Take alcohol for example, normally it makes me feel like I experience less and feel less although it still feels pretty good. What is this common factor?
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the soul wants what it wants. Now could claim it is wordly emotions as empathy and apathy and sorrow and despare. belieev what youw nat or learn the confusing pharmacolgy and hwo it realy doesnt answer these questions, just gives a ckue to something being byond!
 
^^ Hmm, sounds like you haven't a clue.. ;)
Could it have something to do with the burden of reality and the multilateral relief drugs bring? I suspect there is some overlap, between this blissful dissociating effect and pharmacological effects that uppers may bring like dopamine or serotonin release. Also it has to be a fact there are chemicals existing that stimulate unwanted psychological mechanisms, that only bring anxiety stress and even depression - like some hormones at least.
My theory is there are more than one way to satisfy the mind (or soul if one were so inclined to call deeper identity), chemical being one and ego or reality freeing another, some could do both. It gives a better view on the finding that some drugs produce a rather prosthetic happiness and others seem to only free the way to natural and true bliss. :D
 
Solipsys said:
^^ Hmm, sounds like you haven't a clue.. ;)
Could it have something to do with the burden of reality and the multilateral relief drugs bring? I suspect there is some overlap, between this blissful dissociating effect and pharmacological effects that uppers may bring like dopamine or serotonin release. Also it has to be a fact there are chemicals existing that stimulate unwanted psychological mechanisms, that only bring anxiety stress and even depression - like some hormones at least.
My theory is there are more than one way to satisfy the mind (or soul if one were so inclined to call deeper identity), chemical being one and ego or reality freeing another, some could do both. It gives a better view on the finding that some drugs produce a rather prosthetic happiness and others seem to only free the way to natural and true bliss. :D
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I agree, 5ht is said to produce plessure (dopamine as well, but I believe if plays a larger roll in concentration at its various sites), which is why when you take mdma you have amazing rushes of empathy and love and compassion... just un worldly satisfide with your self(or soul). But if you take which binds and rather tehn realises but "change channles" like dmt then you kinda mix it up, everything is new, its a different way everything is working which teh self experiences. But IMO the self the inner self deep down is the one that is the one that feels, you can switch heads, roll over, flip around what ever. It is our outer which has been lawed, not the inner. I bleiev this inner is truer, it is god.
 
Why do drugs promote contentness? Well, if you were watching a movie, wouldn't you rather watch in widescreen if you could, so you don't miss anything? Okay, SHIT analogy, but the point is that, with psychedelic at least, the line between pleasure and pain are not clearly drawn. Yin yan. Bit of each in all.

To say that seratonin and dopamine produce pleasure is erroneuos; I would just a likely release dopamine if I was having my nuts licked by three mermaids then if one of the mermaids stabbed me with a knife.

Most people who have tripped have probably relaised that seriously just next door to the good, ecstastic feeling is the shadow of hopeless void- but luckily, next to that is the good ecstasy feeling, but next to that is the....etc. Ultimately, I just wanna float in the whiteblack darklight.
 
My own opinion is that the reason many drugs produce a feeling of contentment is because most dissolve the ego to a degree. Some MUCH MUCH more then others. The ego is what makes people feel insecure all the time. The ego wants to always know it's cared for, secure, etc. Most people rarely feel content during their everyday lives because the ego is fully functioning and insecure. When the ego is dissolved somewhat it allows them to not have to deal with he insecurities of the ego.
 
Basically they hit up the reward pathways in the brain - virtually every drug of abuse involves changes in the levels of dopamine in these centres, whether it's through it's direct action or as a secondary effect of the main neurotransmitter the drug acts on.

Quite how this is interpreted by the concious mind is another matter altogether - some people get much stronger/more intense feelings of contentment etc than others taking the exact same dose (why some people repeatedly take a drug yet others try it once or twice then never bother again)
 
Thanks a lot, there seems to be some truth to all of this - I appreciate the different approaches to these complex questions! :)
But in the end it doesn't really matter why, we should just take the damn things and be content at that. ;)
 
Because otherwise they wouldn't be popular.

There are plenty of drugs that are no fun, but no-one takes them (recreationally), because... they're no fun.


Example, here is a drug you (probably) never heard of - R015-4513. It is an inverse agonise on GABA receptors which causes dysphoria and anxiety.
 
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Not sure where this should go, so I'm moving it to ADD…

As for addressing the OP, I agree with f&b that dopamine is a thread tying these different classes of drug together. Most recreational drugs will raise dopamine levels in the basal ganglia, but this relationship has not been demonstrated for all drugs of abuse (benzos, I think, as well as some more recently discovered substances).

However, I must caution against simplistic interpretations such as "5-HT=pleasure" or "dopamine=contentment." Both of these neurotransmitters clearly play important roles in brain processing of reward, and dopamine is probably necessary for many aspects of normal goal-directed behavior. However, positing a "neurotransmitter X=internal state Y" relationship implies that raising levels of the neurotransmitter in question is not only necessary, but also sufficient to induce that state of consciousness. There are many lines of strong evidence that this is not true for the relationship of monoamines to states of pleasure or satiation (contentment). Most importantly for this discussion, recent imaging work on humans has shown that dopamine levels in the striatum are correlated much more closely with reports of drug-induced craving than reports of drug-induced euphoria.
 
Fast and fabuolous and 5HT gave the same response I would have offered... though they both state more of the scientific facts rather than all this ego/id stuff.
All drugs of addiction affect the reward pathway which is run by dopamine connection starting at a region of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc). Whilst drugs such as ampehtamine/cocaine affect this directly, other drugs like opiates, tranquilisers and alcohol and nicotine all activate thru a secondary system, but the same result is achieved. Our bodies have evolved (and NOBODY even bother questioning evolution with intelligent design in my presence thank you very much :P ) to repeat pleasurable actions like eating, sex, and sleep.
Drugs of abuse shortcircuit the pleasure system of the brain since the use of drugs can be 10-50x more potent than a pleasant meal or socialising.

Of course there's more to it than that, since there is such a complicated vergence of neurons of different neurotransmitters all involved.

Read this story to clarify some points: Time Magazine's story from July 2007 "The Science of Addiction". Best read more so for a layman than those in the know.
 
you guys are grand philosophers, but lets come to reason:

you're only going to be doing a drug if someone else enjoyed it and it has been popular enough to distribute AND make money from.

Not a huge deliriant market out there is there? Or anthrax? People don't spend their saturday nights sniffing lines of powders, or dropping tabs, of chemicals that are going to make you hate yourself for taking it instantly or make you nothing but violently ill. Sure, these things happen during addiction, but you aren't going to get addicted to a drug if it doesn't make you content now are you?

Shulgin made tons of shitty drugs BASED upon good drugs, drugs that make you miserable, depressed, convulsive, etc. Acid, mushrooms, and mescaline, despite being considered above drugs of abuse, are still used because they induce feelings of ecstasy and joy most of the time, in addition to all of the other aspects that make them such complex, spiritual drugs.

In short, we're all doing the drugs that make you happy

whoops, didnt see ranucky beat me too it
 
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...and the point of dissociation from ego or alteration of the true nature of one's ego is a good point and common theme with drugs that are enjoyable
 
I think people need to accept that all humans feel pain of one kind or another, and that we use drugs to deal with that pain, one way or another.

ps. I'm glad 5-HT brought up the fact that equating certain transmitters with certain feelings is too basic.
 
I think ranunky hit the nail on the head. There are drugs that cause subjective effects across the spectrum from pain to pleasure. You've just never heard of any of the unpleasant ones because nobody outside of a lab is interested in drugs that are painful.
 
ranunky said:
Because otherwise they wouldn't be popular.

There are plenty of drugs that are no fun, but no-one takes them (recreationally), because... they're no fun.


Example, here is a drug you (probably) never heard of - R015-4513. It is an inverse agonise on GABA receptors which causes dysphoria and anxiety.
Click to expand...

Well thujone is a GABA anatagonist- yet its sused and widely known.

From TIHKAL:

"BOL-148. 2-Bromo-N,N-diethyllysergamide. This synthetic ergot derivative, along with its 1-methyl homologue MBL-61 (mentioned below) should be used as powerful tools for studying the mechanism of action of LSD in the human animal. It does not have LSD-like effects in man. At 6 to 10 milligrams orally, there are some mental changes noted. But in another study, 20 milligrams was administered a day to a subject for 7 days, and there were no reported effects. And yet it is as potent a serotonin agonist as is LSD. How can serotonin be argued as a neurotransmitter that is a major player in explaining the action of psychedelic drugs, when this compound is nearly without activity."

When I read this (I just got my copy of TIHKAL hooray) I was unaware there was even any doubt that seratonin was the major player involved in these drugs. How does one explain Shulgins above comment?
 
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