Addictions - Habits - Obsessions

Addictions are more than just nasty habits and uncontrollable behaviors, an addiction can be a response to emotional pain that is caused by trauma or abuse. This is usually when a person tries to escape the suffering using what ever they have available. So you have to treat the person and not just treat the addictive behavior. Addiction is more than a choice, and addiction should not be seen as a moral failure or as an ethical lapse or as a weakness in character, or as a failure of will, or as a brain disease. Addiction is mostly a symptom of a much bigger issue. Treating the person and focusing on the person is more important than just treating the addiction. You need a good plan, you need good guidance, and you need to be prepared for the changes and the choices that you will need to make. Anticipate obstacles and understand your vulnerabilities. And always look for better rewards and reinforcement. Recovery and rehab is difficult, but not impossible. more...>

Substance Abuse Mental Health Services - SAMHSA’s National Helpline – 1-800-662-HELP (4357) - Treatment Referral Routing Service. SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders. Flexible individualized care.






Cigarette companies make cigarettes more addictive. Pain medication manufacturers make certain pain medicines more addictive. Food manufactures make some foods more addictive. So there are a lot of scumbag criminals in the world who will exploit human addiction vulnerabilities just for money. So be very careful and be aware.

Causes, Treatment & Prevention Of Drug Abuse Training Video (youtube, 26:37).

Naltrexone is a medication that stops the activity of opioids. It is primarily used in the management of alcohol dependence and opioid dependence.

NSS-2 Bridge worn behind the ear delivers electrical pulses to four cranial nerves to relieve symptoms of opioid withdrawal.

Drug shown to Reverse Brain Deficits caused by Alcohol could potentially help our brains reboot and reverse the damaging impacts of heavy alcohol consumption on regeneration of brain cells. Their studies in adult mice show that two weeks of daily treatment with the drug tandospirone reversed the effects of 15 weeks of binge-like alcohol consumption on neurogenesis - the ability of the brain to grow and replace neurons (brain cells).

Bupropion and Naltrexone in Methamphetamine Use Disorder.

Bupropion is a medication primarily used to treat major depressive disorder and to support smoking cessation
Serious side effects include an increased risk for epileptic seizures and suicide. In comparison to some other antidepressants, bupropion may have a lower rate of sexual dysfunction or sleepiness and may result in weight loss. It is unclear if its use during pregnancy or breastfeeding is safe. Common side effects of bupropion include a dry mouth, difficulty sleeping, agitation, and headaches.

Naltrexone is a medication primarily used to manage alcohol or opioid dependence. An opioid-dependent person should not receive naltrexone before detoxification. It is taken by mouth or by injection into a muscle. Effects begin within 30 minutes. A decreased desire for opioids, though, may take a few weeks. Side effects may include trouble sleeping, anxiety, nausea, and headaches.Use is not recommended in people with liver failure. It is unclear if use is safe during pregnancy.

Blocking a specific part of the brain's immune system did in fact substantially decrease the motivation of mice to drink alcohol in the evening. TLR4 (wiki)

Researchers Identify Protein Involved in Cocaine Addiction. protein produced by the immune system—granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF).

Inadequate Medical School Training is one of the main factors that fuel patients addictions to opioids (pdf).

How Serious of a Problem is Staff Turnover in Substance Abuse Treatment?? A Longitudinal Study of Actual Turnover.

Counseling for Alcohol Problems (CAP), a lay counsellor-delivered brief psychological treatment for harmful drinking in men, in primary care in India: a randomized controlled trial.

20 Parenting Techniques that Can Help Discourage Addiction

Drugs don't make life more amazing, drugs only make you believe that life is more amazing. Which is worse then living in a fantasy world, because with drugs you have the physical and mental damage that you have to wait for your body to repair. Fantasying is better because there is very little effects on your physical and mental health, so you can be day dreaming in moment and then in the next moment return to Reality very quickly. But less dangerous is still dangerous. Living in a fantasy world, or living in a cloud of illusions created by drug use, is dangerous and not productive. You will not progress or gain potential, you will slowly decay from a life that was never fully awake, almost like never existing. Please wake up! You have a life to live. So don't let your life slip away. Your life is extremely valuable. You true potential is waiting for you.

Addiction Medicine is a medical specialty that deals with the treatment of addiction. The specialty often crosses over into other areas, since various aspects of addiction fall within the fields of public health, psychology, social work, mental health counseling, psychiatry, and internal medicine, among others. Incorporated within the specialty are the processes of detoxification, rehabilitation, harm reduction, abstinence-based treatment, individual and group therapies, oversight of halfway houses, treatment of withdrawal-related symptoms, acute intervention, and long term therapies designed to reduce likelihood of relapse. Some specialists, primarily those who also have expertise in family medicine or internal medicine, also provide treatment for disease states commonly associated with substance use, such as hepatitis and HIV infection. Physicians specializing in the field are in general agreement concerning applicability of treatment to those with addiction to drugs, such as alcohol and heroin, and often also to gambling, which has similar characteristics and has been well-described in the scientific literature. There is less agreement concerning definition or treatment of other so-called addictive behavior such as sexual addiction and internet addiction, such behaviors not being marked generally by physiologic tolerance or withdrawal. Doctors focusing on addiction medicine are medical specialists who focus on addictive disease and have had special study and training focusing on the prevention and treatment of such diseases. There are two routes to specialization in the addiction field: one via a psychiatric pathway and one via other fields of medicine. The American Society of Addiction Medicine notes that approximately 40% of its members are psychiatrists (MD/DO) while the remainder have received primary medical training in other fields.

Rehab: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) (youtube)

Drug Rehabilitation is the processes of medical or psychotherapeutic treatment for dependency on psychoactive substances such as alcohol, prescription drugs, and street drugs such as cocaine, heroin or amphetamines. The general intent is to enable the patient to confront substance dependence, if present, and cease substance abuse to avoid the psychological, legal, financial, social, and physical consequences that can be caused, especially by extreme abuse. Treatment includes medication for depression or other disorders, counseling by experts and sharing of experience with other addicts.

Many rural communities lack basic resources for substance abuse. There are fewer services available than in urban areas—as many as 82 percent of rural Americans may live in counties that lack detoxification services, for example. NorthLakes Community Clinic.

Habits - Habituation - Addictions

Habit is a routine of behavior that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. Programming.

A Habit has 3 Main Components: Cue - Routine - Reward

Habituation is a form of learning in which an organism decreases or ceases to respond to a stimulus after repeated presentations. Essentially, the organism learns to stop responding to a stimulus, which is no longer biologically relevant.

Involuntary is a behavior that is not subject to the control of the will and is controlled by the autonomic nervous system without conscious control. Reflex - Innate - Pleasure - Change - Adaptation.

Addiction is a medical condition characterized by compulsive engagement in what is believed to be rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.

Addict a person who is addicted to a particular substance, action or drug. Someone who is dependent on something or physiologically dependent on a substance or activity, and when they have an abrupt deprivation of the substance or activity, it produces withdrawal symptoms or anxiety. An addict is also someone who is ardently devoted to something that it resembles an addiction.

Habituation studies show that when people focus on changing a single behavior at a time, the likelihood that they'll retain their new habit for a year or more is around 80 percent. And those who try to change two or more behaviors at once? Success rates drop as low as 20 percent. This data only shows how difficult changing your habits are, but it also shows that it's not impossible. Another reason why it's a good idea to make one change at a time, is that it will allow you to understand the changes and the research more accurately. Success rates will drastically improve because we now have a lot more knowledge and experience then we had just 10 years ago in 2018. And as mental health practitioners gain more experience, training and knowledge, success rates will be closer to 100%. The people who failed to succeed in making better choices, did not fail, the system failed. Don't just treat the symptoms, find a cure. And stop enabling people. Addiction can easily override your ability to make good decisions and make it difficult to mitigate risk. Your choices should be based on facts and reality instead of just wanting something that you really don't need to live. You have to be mindful and you have to keep learning. You were born altricial, but it doesn't mean that you have to stay dependent, you can be independent.

Intervene - Over Eating Food Binge - How the Brain creates Habits

Recidivate is to go back to a bad behavior that deteriorates a persons health. Relapsing or the failure to maintain a balanced state. Regressing or getting worse and falling back to a previous negative condition. Someone who lapses into previous undesirable patterns of behavior. Readmission - Relapse.

Recidivist is someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior, sometimes for the same criminal behavior.

Repeat Offenders or Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they have either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or have been trained to extinguish that behavior. It is also used to refer to the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested for a similar offense. According to the National Institute of Justice, about 68 percent of 405,000 prisoners released in 30 states in 2005 were arrested for a new crime within three years of their release from prison, and 77 percent were arrested within five years. Life After Prison.

You just don't stop an addiction, you have to stop and control everything that is related or influenced by your addiction. You have to adapt and make system wide adjustments. The transition from unstable to stable is not an easy road to travel, and this journey will test you in many ways. But these struggles are only temporary. You have the potential and the ability to be productive and free. Your time has come. Your goal is in sight.

It's normal to say "I want to feel good, I want to feel better". But you have to ask, why am I not feeling good? And what is being better? When we allow our actions to be automatic and subconscious without any oversight or awareness, we are never going to understand why we do things. If you're feeling bad, you have to make sure if its just a feeling or is it a result of a previous action. What did you eat or not eat? What did you drink? Did you sleep enough? Are you worried about something? Sometimes when we try to solve a problem we end up making the problem worse, and we also allow the problem to continue. Don't be the source of your own stress. You have to be the ruler of your castle or the ruler of yourself. You have to defend yourself from your perceived self. You have to define yourself and then understand that you are only defining your present self and not defining your future self. You have to keep educating yourself if you want your future self to be smarter and more intelligent than your present self. If you want to be more aware and more understanding of yourself and more understanding of the world around you, you need to keep learning and you need to always seek knowledge that you personally need that would help you to father yourself and improve yourself. This is a big responsibility, but there is big return on your investment. The more you invest in yourself the more valuable you become, and the more control you will have over how your value is spent. Don't waste your value. Become more valuable. Coping.

I just want to feel good, so what are my options? Am I using other options that can also make myself feel better? Am I always trying to learn about new options? How can I modify my options? How do I change my routine? How can I force my self to stop and think and to be aware just before the choice is made. How do you really feel? Can you explain it? What other options do you have that would help improve your well being? When you cross the street you look both ways. When you come to a four way intersection on the road, you have 4 choices, left, right, straight or go back. Drugs is one of those choices, and that road you have been down before. You should know the other roads too and know your other choices. Everyone comes to that same intersection several times a day. And hardly anyone truly understands the choices they have. You can change the road you're on, but you need to know where the other roads will lead you. You don't want to waste time and increase your risk by going down the wrong roads. Everyone needs to learn their way around. You need to Know where certain roads will lead you. Right=Learn Something New. Straight=Stay on tract with current Goals. Left=Need a Change. Go Back=Start over, how did you get here? You have to practice being aware of these intersections because we face them every single day. Visualize. There's no fork in the road, only options. Don't get Stuck in a Rut. "You wanna fly, you got to give up the shit that weighs you down." - Toni Morrison (wiki)

Brain Hacking - Hormones - Over Confidence - Power - Pain Managing (opioid receptors) - Bad Memories.

If the drug reduces your awareness and interferes with executive functions and decision making, then how will know when you're doing more harm than good. It's just not about feeling good, it's why you feel good and fully understanding the cost of feeling good. What are the trade offs and the sacrifices that you're making? Are there other ways to receive the type of benefits that you are receiving? The evolutionary trap of having an award system has its vulnerabilities. Is your brain being hijacked or is it just that you are not fully understanding what's happening to you? What knowledge and information do you need that would help you to analyze yourself accurately enough in order to make positive behavior adjustments and to make better decisions? Why do we need drugs to shut off parts of the brain in order to feel good? Can't we just learn how to do this ourselves? We should learn how to feel high whenever we feel the need to feel high. Side Effects.

Ignoring Cues for Alcohol and Fast Food is hard. If you're stressed, tired or otherwise straining your brain power, you may find it harder to ignore cues in the environment that signal something rewarding. Executive Control is a term for all cognitive processes that allow us to pay attention, organize our life, focus, and regulate our emotions. Triggers.

Most people don't base their decisions on facts and research. Most people base their decisions on emotions, behaviors, beliefs, past experiences and also their current level of knowledge or education. Most decisions that people make are not well thought out plans. People most of the time just do what their heart tells them to do. People are never fully aware of other choices and other options that they have. People spend too much time just treating diseases and masking their problems instead of spending the time needed in finding a cure or finding the root cause of a problem. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, which means that people never fully understand everything about their actions or what the real price to pay will be. High-Functioning?

Nip it in the Bud is a phrase that means to stop something before it gets worse or gets out of hand or gets out of control, and then becomes very difficult to control, like when you see a bad habit begin to develop. To stop a problem from happening or to stop something at an early stage makes a problem easier to solve. Don't let negative things get deeply rooted or firmly fixed. It's easier to address things early. Nip in the Bud also means to remove a bud from a plant to prevent flower and fruit from forming. Coping - Gross Yourself Out.

Taking a drug can be an experience, but like all experiences, if you're not learning anything valuable from your experiences, then you're just valuable wasting time. Involuntary Manslaughter.

"One tool that is guaranteed to work for everyone is knowledge. But it must be high quality knowledge, not that cheap sh*t you get from other schools, colleges or TV. Over Eating - Technology Addiction (TV).

There are People who want to Feel Good, there are People who want to Feel Good about Themselves, and there are People who are just trying to stay alive and survive long enough in hopes that someday they will feel good or have a chance to feel good about themselves. But no one is fully aware of the effects that their actions have on themselves and the world around them. Replace Bad Habits with Good Habits.

All bad habits lead to death and destruction, that's why we call them Bad habits, because they're Bad. Bad for you, bad for others and Bad for the planet. Meaningful and Intelligent Interventions.

You can't run away from everything. And there are something's that you just can 't escape from or hide from, like negative thoughts or irrelevant signals. So no matter where you run to or where ever you go, or what ever drug you do, you will never solve the problem with your thoughts. The only way to have better thoughts and too accurately comprehend signals, you need to educate yourself and become more knowledgeable of yourself and the world around you. Learning is the only sure way to solve problems, but learning is not going to be easy for a person who gave up learning years ago, or never understood how important learning is. Stigmas.

Is there a Safe Word for stopping Addiction? You should have clear reasons and many words that accurately describes your reality and makes sense of your reality. These words should stand on their own, just like you

Safeword is a word serving as a signal to end an activity, like the word stop or the word no. A safeword can be a code word, or a series of code words or other signals that are used by a person to communicate their physical or emotional state, typically when approaching, or crossing, a physical, emotional, or moral boundary.

Addiction to Money is the worst and most damaging addiction in the world. People Addicted to money mass murder people every single day and poison the environment every single day. If we don't end this addiction to money, we will never be able to end all the other addictions that are killing people everyday. The crimes being committed in the name of money needs to stop. Greed is a Disease, whether you believe that you need more money or need more drugs, it is a disease.

Some bad habits can go on for a long time and are not even noticed and are not even thought of as a problem until that habit becomes a huge problem. Now that habit becomes harder to break, especially when the body goes through withdrawals, the body can influence the mind to do things that it does not need to do, so the information you are receiving is false. And trying to figure out how you got here and how that habit started becomes a blur. You literally have to start over and reboot your entire system, and you hope that the knowledge and information that you gained over the years is not lost or deleted. Now your new habit is learning how to break that old habit. And if learning isn't your new habit, then you will most likely fail in breaking that bad habit, or even worse, you will have the illusion that you were successful in breaking that bad habit, only to find yourself back again, struggling with an addiction that is ruining your life, a life you never knew you had. Live, Learn, Love and Progress.

When you reach the peak of your high or the top of a mountain, open your eyes, look around, enjoy the view and enjoy the experience. You know how you got here and you know that you have to climb down. This is only one mountain, so why do you keep climbing this same mountain it if you don't have a purpose or a goal? I don't want to discourage you from climbing, I just don't see any benefit in wasting time and potential. We have many mountains to climb in our lives, we should never limit our abilities. We have more than just time.

Coerced Abstinence is a drug rehabilitation strategy which uses frequent monitoring and immediate punishment to reduce drug use among participants. Sober Companion.

When it comes to harmful addictions, everyone needs to be a First Responder.

Having an addiction is not productive, it wastes time and energy at the expense of yourself and other people. You don't need an addiction to enjoy yourself and to experience pleasure. Living a balanced life is the most effective and efficient way to enjoy life. But you have to learn how. You didn't learn how to be an addict, but you have to learn how not to be an addict. You need to learn deliberately and practice being aware. You can't have control unless you practice control. You can't have everything you need unless you learn exactly what things you actually need. And you can't look at learning as being a chore. You have to see learning is being an incredible gift. Learning is the only way to have the power of knowledge. The only true wealth there is in the world is the wealth of knowledge. There is nothing more valuable than knowledge. Imagine having no words in your mind and having no language and no way of communicating. That emptiness is where addiction lives. It can't live anywhere else. It lives in a void where knowledge should be. Fill the void with knowledge and understanding, this way nothing bad or wrong could ever live inside you, physically or mentally. Get High on Nutrition, it's definitely more beneficial. But even eating right needs good directions and guidance. So knowledge and information becomes the most important factors in anything that you do in life.

Substance Abuse is a patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others, and is a form of substance-related disorder.

Chronic is something that is habitual and long-lasting or of long duration and recurrent, and characterized as being very bad or serious with suffering being over a long period of time. Disease.

Ego - Defense Mechanism - Willpower (discipline)

Psychophysics investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they produce.

Addictive Personality refers to a particular set of personality traits that make an individual predisposed to developing addictions. This hypothesis states that there are common elements among people with varying addictions that relates to personality traits. People who are substance dependent are characterized by: a physical or psychological dependency that negatively affects their quality of life. They are frequently connected with substance abuse; however, people with addictive personalities are also highly at risk of becoming addicted to gambling, food, pornography, exercise, work, and codependency. Scientists have been better able to understand addictive personalities as researchers delve further into understanding the chemistry of addiction.

Obsessive - Compulsive

Obsession is an irrational motive for performing trivial unimportant repetitive actions, sometimes against your will. An unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or with someone. Obsessive is a person who is affected by an obsession.

Compulsive is a feeling that compels a person to do certain things. these feelings are usually caused by suggestive psychological urges or irrational motives.

Compulsion is an irresistible urge to behave in a certain way, especially against one's conscious wishes. Compulsion is a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. Compulsion is an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid. An irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will. Using force to cause something to occur. Plasticity.

Compulsive Behavior is defined as performing an act persistently and repetitively without it necessarily leading to an actual reward or pleasure. Self Harm.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a memory disorder where people feel the need to check things repeatedly, perform certain routines or rituals repeatedly, or have certain thoughts repeatedly. People are unable to control either the thoughts or the activities for more than a short period of time. Common activities include hand washing, counting of things, and checking to see if a door is locked. Some may have difficulty throwing things out. These activities occur to such a degree that the person's daily life is negatively affected. Often they take up more than an hour a day. Most adults realize that the behaviors do not make sense. The condition is associated with tics and anxiety.

Repetition Compulsion is a psychological phenomenon in which a person repeats a traumatic event or its circumstances over and over again. This includes reenacting the event or putting oneself in situations where the event is likely to happen again. This "re-living" can also take the form of dreams in which memories and feelings of what happened are repeated, and even hallucination.

Impulsivity is a multifactorial construct that involves a tendency to act on a whim, displaying behavior characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences. Impulsive actions are typically "poorly conceived, prematurely expressed, unduly risky, or inappropriate to the situation that often result in undesirable consequences," which imperil long-term goals and strategies for success. Unconscious lack of awareness.

Impulse Purchase is an unplanned decision to buy a product or service, made just before a purchase. Research findings suggest that emotions and feelings play a decisive role in purchasing, triggered by seeing the product or upon exposure to a well crafted promotional message. Marketers and retailers tend to exploit these impulses which are tied to the basic want for instant gratification. Large Corporations want people to be mindless consumers and as a result are the biggest influences of addictions.

Impulse Control Disorder is a class of psychiatric disorders characterized by impulsivity – failure to resist a temptation, urge or impulse that may harm oneself or others. Many psychiatric disorders feature impulsivity, including substance-related disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, antisocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder, conduct disorder and mood disorders.

Impulse is an instinctive motive or a sudden desire. The electrical discharge that travels along a nerve fiber. In electronics an impulse is a sharp transient wave in the normal electrical state or a series of such transients.

Impulsive is an action without forethought undue haste and lack of thought or deliberation. Determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason.

Random - Spacing out - Nothing will ever be perfect

Arbitrary is an action based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice.

Capricious is something determined by chance or impulse or whim rather than by necessity or reason.

Inhibitory Control or impulse control, is a cognitive process that permits an individual to inhibit their impulses and natural, habitual, or dominant behavioral responses to stimuli (a.k.a. prepotent responses) in order to select a more appropriate behavior that is consistent with completing their goals. For example, successfully suppressing the natural behavioral response to eat cake when one is craving it while dieting requires the use of inhibitory control. Inhibitory control is an executive function and self-control is an important aspect of inhibitory control. The prefrontal cortex, caudate nucleus, and subthalamic nucleus are known to be involved in inhibitory control cognition. Inhibitory control is impaired in both addiction and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In healthy adults and ADHD individuals, inhibitory control improves over the short term with low (therapeutic) doses of methylphenidate or amphetamine. Inhibitory control may also be improved over the long-term via consistent aerobic exercise.

Mindfulness may help Reduce Cravings for Food and Drugs. Awareness - Mindful

Reflexive is acting without conscious choice or conscious control. Reflex

Symptoms (side effects)

How the Brain Forms Habits. Each day, humans and animals rely on habits to complete routine tasks such as eating. As new habits are formed, this enables us to do things automatically without thinking. As the brain starts to develop a new habit, in as little as a half a second, one region of the brain, the dorsolateral striatum, experiences a short burst in activity, which increases as the habit becomes stronger. A new study demonstrates how habits can be controlled depending on how active the dorsolateral striatum is.

Striatum is a nucleus or a cluster of neurons in the subcortical basal ganglia of the forebrain. The striatum is a critical component of the motor and reward systems; receives glutamatergic and dopaminergic inputs from different sources; and serves as the primary input to the rest of the basal ganglia. Functionally, the striatum coordinates multiple aspects of cognition, including both motor and action planning, decision-making, motivation, reinforcement, and reward perception. The striatum is made up of the caudate nucleus and the lentiform nucleus. The lentiform nucleus is made up of the larger putamen, and the smaller globus pallidus. Dorsal Striatum has two functionally-defined subdivisions: a dorsomedial striatum (DMS) region involved in mediating goal-directed behaviors that require conscious effort, and a dorsolateral striatum (DLS) region involved in the execution of habitual behaviors in a familiar sensory context.

Basal Ganglia is associated with a variety of functions, including control of voluntary motor movements, procedural learning, habit learning, eye movements, cognition, and emotion. Basal Nuclei are a group of subcortical nuclei, of varied origin, in the
brains of vertebrates, including humans, which are situated at the base of the forebrain and top of the midbrain. There are some differences in the basal ganglia of primates. Basal ganglia are strongly interconnected with the cerebral cortex, thalamus, and brainstem, as well as several other brain areas.

Stoicism are emotions resulted in errors of judgment which were destructive, due to the active relationship between cosmic determinism and human freedom, and the belief that it is virtuous to maintain a will that is in accord with nature. (called prohairesis, which represents the choice involved in giving or withholding assent to impressions).

Food Addiction (gateway drug) - Over Eating - Flavor

Phelps-Nourse Test 

Pleasure - Gratification - Obsessive Love

Addiction Be Battled Through The Immune System. Your body’s immune system is a complex network of different types of cells that are dedicated to protecting you from foreign invaders that cause sickness. Many of those immune cells live in the brain. These are called glial cells and they work alongside your neurons, or brain cells. The brain cells and immune cells that work together to regulate the responses of the immune system are called collectively, the neuroimmune system. This system keeps the brain healthy and mediates communication between the immune system and the central nervous system. Parts of the neuroimmune system are activated by various factors. Stress is one factor, which is why the feeling of being stressed can actually make you physically sick. Alcohol and drugs also trigger responses in the neuroimmune system. The responses can lead to disrupted decision making. This helps to explain why addicts make choices about using even when doing so is bad for them. The response of the neuroimmune system to drugs and alcohol also changes a person’s affect and causes feelings of depression. Again, these feelings are characteristic of addiction. Researchers have even found that people with certain genetic variations in their neuroimmune system are more likely than others to succumb to addiction.

Cues - Triggers

Cue is something said or something done that serves as a signal or as a trigger to begin doing something.

Types of Cues: Verbal Cues, Visual Cues, Internal Cues and Environmental Cues. A visual cue is a signal and that be a reminder of something; aiming to be self–explanatory and preattentive, it brings to mind knowledge from previous experiences providing a framework for its own interpretation. Cues that directs someone's attention towards the effect of the movement on the environment are said to have an external focus, while instructions that direct the trainee's attention to the movement itself are said to have an internal focus. Cue can be a vocal message given by an instructor to inform participants of upcoming sequences, such as a change in stretching direction.

Sensory Cue is a statistic or signal that can be extracted from the sensory input by a perceiver, that indicates the state of some property of the world that the perceiver is interested in perceiving. A cue is some organization of the data present in the signal which allows for meaningful extrapolation. For example, sensory cues include visual cues, auditory cues, haptic cues, olfactory cues, environmental cues, and so on. Sensory cues are a fundamental part of theories of perception, especially theories of appearance (how things look).

Cue in theatrical is the trigger for an action to be carried out at a specific time. It is generally associated with theatre and the film industry. They can be necessary for a lighting change or effect, a sound effect, or some sort of stage or set movement/change.

Prompt is to cause or bring about an action or a feeling. Assist or encourage a hesitating speaker to say something.

Prompted is to serve as the inciting cause of something. Give an incentive for action. To assist somebody acting or reciting by suggesting the next words of something forgotten or imperfectly learned.

Relapse

Relapse is going back to bad behavior. A failure to maintain a higher state. Deteriorate in health. Relapse is a recurrence of a past medical condition or mental condition.

Relapse Prevention is a cognitive-behavioral approach to relapse with the goal of identifying and preventing high-risk situations such as substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive behavior, sexual offending, obesity, and depression. It is an important component in the treatment process for alcoholism, or alcohol dependence. Recidivate - Readmission.

Recidivism is the act of a person repeating an undesirable behavior after they had either experienced negative consequences of that behavior, or had been trained to extinguish that behavior. It is also used to refer to the percentage of former prisoners who are rearrested for a similar offense.

Pink Cloud Syndrome and the dangers of having to much confidence. Pink cloud syndrome refers to a type of extreme persistent happiness that does not reflect the reality of your situation. It could be described as a type of delusional happiness, and it may look to others as if you are caught up in fantasy.

And even if a person quits the drug, this does not mean that the destructive force of bad addictions will not play havoc in other areas of your life. So it's not just a drug problem. This is an education problem, which is failing to educate, which is the one thing that it's paid to do.

So don't boast about how long you have been clean, boast about all the positive impacts that you are now having on life, and that you can now accurately calculate that you are giving more to life then you are taking from life.

Adaptation is a Blessing and a Curse. If our minds and bodies could not adapt to new environments, then the human species could not survive. But if your mind and body adapts to something that is harmful, then that harmful element could eventually kill you. It's like the bodies instinct to drink water when thirsty, if you didn't drink water you would eventually die, but if you drank unsafe water, that would also kill you. The bodies instinct to eat when hungry, if you did not eat you would starve to death, but if you ate too much unhealthy food, then that too would eventually kill you.

As a person continues to abuse drugs, the brain adapts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of dopamine receptors in the reward circuit. The result is a lessening of dopamine’s impact on the reward circuit, which reduces the abuser’s ability to enjoy not only the drugs but also other events in life that previously brought pleasure. This decrease compels the addicted person to keep abusing drugs in an attempt to bring the dopamine function back to normal, but now larger amounts of the drug are required to achieve the same dopamine high—an effect known as tolerance.

Long-term abuse causes changes in other brain chemical systems and circuits as well. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that influences the reward circuit and the ability to learn. When the optimal concentration of glutamate is altered by drug abuse, the brain attempts to compensate, which can impair cognitive function. Brain imaging studies of drug-addicted individuals show changes in areas of the brain that are critical to judgment, decision making, learning and memory, and behavior control. Together, these changes can drive an abuser to seek out and take drugs compulsively despite adverse, even devastating consequences—that is the nature of addiction. Drug Abuse.gov

This is why Drug addiction is considered to be a disease, or why mental illness is considered to be a disease. It's not a disease, it's more of a learned disability that over time transforms into disorder.

Disability is a condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness is the consequence of an impairment that may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, developmental, or some combination of these that result in restrictions on an individual's ability to participate in what is considered "normal" in their everyday society. A disability may be present from birth, or occur during a person's lifetime. Any loss or abnormality of physiological, psychological, or anatomical structure or function, whether permanent or temporary. Identifying impairments that contribute to disability, a functional problem for a patient, is a key factor for a health professional to determine appropriate treatment.

Disorder is a physical condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning.

Developmental Disorder is a group of psychiatric conditions originating in childhood that involve serious impairment in different areas.

Impairment is a symptom of reduced quality or strength. The condition of being unable to perform as a consequence of physical or mental unfitness.

Vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhealthy habit (such as an addiction to smoking). Vices are usually associated with a transgression in a person's character or temperament rather than their morality. Synonyms for vice include fault, sin, depravity, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption.

Jonesing is to have a strong need, desire, or craving for something. - Crutch

Craving is a psychological urge to administer a discontinued medication or recreational drug. Cravings may be triggered by seeing objects or experiencing moments that are associated with the drug or usage of it, and this phenomenon, termed post acute withdrawal syndrome, may linger the rest of the life for some drugs. For the alcohol withdrawal syndrome, the condition gradually improves over a period of months or in severe cases years.

Withdrawal - Coming Down

Withdrawal is the group of symptoms that occur upon the abrupt discontinuation or decrease in intake of medications or recreational drugs. In order to experience the symptoms of withdrawal, one must have first developed a physical or mental dependence. This happens after consuming one or more substances for a certain period of time, which is both dose dependent and varies based upon the drug consumed. For some, withdrawal is going to hurt, like pulling out a bad tooth, you go through the temporary pain in order to avoid the long term agonizing pain. In order to stop getting more cavities you need to stop eating the sweets and sugary snacks. In this case, stop doing the thing that is killing you. Body and Mind Connection.

Drug Withdrawal is the group of symptoms that occur upon the abrupt discontinuation or decrease in intake of medications or recreational drugs. In order for the symptoms of withdrawal to occur, one must have first developed a form of drug dependence. This may occur as physical dependence, psychological dependence or both. Drug dependence develops from consuming one or more substances over a period of time. Dependence arises in a dose-dependent manner and produces withdrawal symptoms that vary with the type of drug that is consumed.

Neonatal Withdrawal is a withdrawal syndrome of infants after birth caused by in utero exposure to drugs of dependence. There are two types of NAS: prenatal and postnatal. Prenatal NAS is caused by discontinuation of drugs taken by the pregnant mother, while postnatal NAS is caused by discontinuation of drugs directly to the infant.

Physical Dependence is a physical condition caused by chronic use of a tolerance forming drug, in which abrupt or gradual drug withdrawal causes unpleasant physical symptoms. Physical dependence can develop from low-dose therapeutic use of certain medications such as benzodiazepines, opioids, antiepileptics and antidepressants, as well as the recreational misuse of drugs such as alcohol, opioids, and benzodiazepines. The higher the dose used, the greater the duration of use, and the earlier age use began are predictive of worsened physical dependence and thus more severe withdrawal syndromes. Acute withdrawal syndromes can last days, weeks or months. Protracted withdrawal syndrome, also known as post-acute-withdrawal syndrome or "PAWS", is a low-grade continuation of some of the symptoms of acute withdrawal, typically in a remitting-relapsing pattern, often resulting in relapse and prolonged disability of a degree to preclude the possibility of lawful employment. Protracted withdrawal syndrome can last for months, years, or depending on individual factors, indefinitely. Protracted withdrawal syndrome is noted to be most often caused by benzodiazepines. To dispel the popular misassociation with addiction, physical dependence to medications is sometimes compared to dependence on insulin by persons with diabetes.

Post-acute-Withdrawal Syndrome describes a set of persistent impairments that occur after withdrawal from alcohol, opiates, benzodiazepines, antidepressants and other substances.

Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome is a set of symptoms that can occur following a reduction in alcohol use after a period of excessive use. Symptoms typically include anxiety, shakiness, sweating, vomiting, fast heart rate, and a mild fever. More severe symptoms may include seizures, seeing or hearing things that others do not, and delirium tremens (DTs). Symptoms typically begin around six hours following the last drink, are worst at 24 to 72 hours, and improve by seven days.

Withdrawal is the act of ceasing to participate in an activity, or the termination of drug taking. A retraction of a previously held position. Reboot.

Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels or effects from alcohol. Sobriety is also considered to be the natural state of a human being given at a birth. A person in a state of sobriety is considered sober. In a treatment setting, sobriety is the achieved goal of independence from consuming alcohol. As such, sustained abstinence is a prerequisite for sobriety. Early in abstinence, residual effects of alcohol consumption can preclude sobriety. These effects are labeled "PAWS," or "post acute withdrawal syndrome." Someone who abstains, but has a latent desire to resume use, is not considered truly sober. An abstainer may be subconsciously motivated to resume alcohol consumption, but for a variety of reasons, abstains (e.g. a medical or legal concern precluding use). Sobriety has more specific meanings within specific contexts, such as the culture of many substance use recovery programs, law enforcement, and some schools of psychology. In some cases, sobriety implies achieving "life balance.

Slow it Down, Then Stop

Wean is to gradually reduce and decrease intake so that it makes it easier to eventually stop doing something or to stop liking something. Wean off and then stop liking it. If you think that you still like something, then remind yourself that you only like the feeling something gives, and that you don't like the side effects or the damage that it does. So you need a replacement for that good feeling, a feeling without harmful side effects or damage. Weaning is the process of gradually introducing a mammal infant to what will be its adult diet and withdrawing the supply of its mother's milk. The process takes place only in mammals, as only mammals produce milk. The infant is considered to be fully weaned once it is no longer fed any breast milk (or bottled substitute). Taper is to diminish gradually.

Reprogram - Adapt - Withdrawal

Recovery Approach to a mental disorder or to a substance dependence emphasizes and supports a person's potential for recovery. Recovery is generally seen in this approach as a personal journey rather than a set outcome, and one that may involve developing hope, a secure base and sense of self, supportive relationships, empowerment, social inclusion, coping skills, and meaning.

Transtheoretical Model of behavior change assesses an individual's readiness to act on a new healthier behavior, and provides strategies, or processes of change to guide the individual through the stages of change to Action and Maintenance. It is composed of the following constructs: stages of change, processes of change, self-efficacy, decisional balance and temptations. The transtheoretical model is also known by the abbreviation "TTM" and by the term "stages of change." A popular book, Changing for Good, and articles in the news media have discussed the model. It is "arguably the dominant model of health behaviour change, having received unprecedented research attention, yet it has simultaneously attracted criticism.

Hypnosis to Control Addictions - Subliminal Stimuli - Subconscious

Cold Turkey refers to the abrupt cessation of a substance dependence and the resulting unpleasant experience, as opposed to gradually easing the process through reduction over time or by using replacement medication. Sudden withdrawal from drugs such as alcohol, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates can be extremely dangerous, leading to potentially fatal seizures. For long-term alcoholics, going cold turkey can cause life-threatening delirium tremens, rendering this an inappropriate method for breaking an alcohol addiction. In the case of opioid withdrawal, going "cold turkey" is extremely unpleasant but less dangerous. Life-threatening issues are unlikely unless one has a pre-existing medical condition. Don't Come Down Alone.

Smoking Cessation is the process of discontinuing tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which is addictive and can cause dependence. Nicotine withdrawal often makes the process of quitting difficult.

Cessation is stopping something.

Cease is to stop and put an end to a state or an activity.

Cease and Desist is a document sent to an individual or business to stop purportedly illegal activity ("cease") and not to restart it ("desist"). The letter may warn that if the recipient does not discontinue specified conduct, or take certain actions, by deadlines set in the letter, that party may be sued. When issued by a public authority, a cease and desist letter, being "a warning of impending judicial enforcement", is most appropriately called a "cease and desist order".

Stop is to prevent something from happening or developing. Prevent completion or to hold back. The state of inactivity following an interruption. A restraint that checks the motion of something.

Value - Morals - Anxiety - Awareness

Coding Therapy (also known as the Dovzhenko method) is a catch-all term for various Russian alternative therapeutic methods used to treat addictions, in which the therapist attempts to scare patients into abstinence from a substance they are addicted to by convincing them that they will be harmed or killed if they use it again. This did not work well with cigarettes or any other forms of addiction. You do need to inform people of the dangers, but you need to educate people more beyond cause and effect.

Brain Knowledge - Dopamine - Food Chemistry (flavoring - taste)

Nucleus Accumbens has a significant role in the cognitive processing of aversion, motivation, reward (i.e., incentive salience, pleasure, and positive reinforcement), and reinforcement learning; hence, it has a significant role in addiction. It plays a lesser role in processing fear (a form of aversion), impulsivity, and the placebo effect. It is involved in the encoding of new motor programs as well.

Gross Yourself Out

If you make yourself believe that something is very unpleasant or disgusting, and that something is highly offensive that causes a feeling of intense dislike, you can train yourself to stop liking something. Operant Conditioning.

Gross is something perceived to be outrageously bad or something that has very poor quality or is in bad condition.

Repulsive is arousing intense distaste or disgust.

Harnessing the Power of Disgust: A randomized trial to reduce high-calorie food appeal through implicit priming.

Sensory-Specific Satiety is a sensory hedonic phenomenon that refers to the declining satisfaction generated by the consumption of a certain type of food, and the consequent renewal in appetite resulting from the exposure to a new flavor or food.

When people get sick from a particular food they might not eat that food again - Something Clicks.

Aversion Therapy is a form of psychological treatment in which the patient is exposed to a stimulus while simultaneously being subjected to some form of discomfort. This conditioning is intended to cause the patient to associate the stimulus with unpleasant sensations with the intention of quelling the targeted (sometimes compulsive) behavior. Aversion therapies can take many forms, for example: placing unpleasant-tasting substances on the fingernails to discourage nail-chewing; pairing the use of an emetic with the experience of alcohol; or pairing behavior with electric shocks of mild to higher intensities.

Priming in psychology is an implicit memory effect in which exposure to one stimulus (i.e., perceptual pattern) influences the response to another stimulus. The priming paradigm provides excellent control over the effects of individual stimuli on cognitive processing and associated behavior because the same target stimuli can be presented with different primes. Thus differences in performance as a function of differences in priming stimuli must be attributed to the effect of the prime on the processing of the target stimulus.

Valence in psychology means the intrinsic attractiveness (positive valence) or aversiveness (negative valence) of an event, object, or situation. Emotions popularly referred to as "negative", such as anger and fear, have "negative valence". Joy has "positive valence". Positively valenced emotions are evoked by positively valenced events, objects, or situations. The term is also used about the hedonic tone of feelings, affect, certain behaviors (for example, approach and avoidance), goal attainment or nonattainment, and conformity with or violation of norms. Ambivalence can be viewed as conflict between positive and negative valence-carriers.

Mu Opioid Receptor. Most of the potent analgesics currently in use act through the mu opioid receptor. Although they are classified as mu opioids, clinical experience suggests differences among them. Opiates have been used to manage pain for centuries. Opium, which contains a number of alkaloids including morphine and codeine, was eaten, smoked and used as a tincture. Following isolation, morphine and codeine, are used individually. Thousands of analogs have been generated in an effort to avoid some of the difficulties encountered with opiate use, such as respiratory depression, sedation and constipation. Most of these agents act through mu opiate receptors, as defined by the selectivity of their binding for the three classes of opioid receptors that have been cloned. Μ-opioid Receptor are a class of opioid receptors with a high affinity for enkephalins and beta-endorphin, but a low affinity for dynorphins. They are also referred to as µ(mu)-opioid peptide (MOP) receptors. The prototypical µ-opioid receptor agonist is morphine, the primary psychoactive alkaloid in opium. It is an inhibitory G-protein coupled receptor that activates the Gi alpha subunit, inhibiting adenylate cyclase activity, lowering cAMP levels.

Opioid System Controls Pain, reward and addictive behaviors. Opioids exert their pharmacological actions through three opioid receptors, mu, delta and kappa whose genes have been cloned (Oprm, Oprd1 and Oprk1, respectively). Opioid receptors in the brain are activated by a family of endogenous peptides which are released by neurons. Opioid receptors can also be activated exogenously by alkaloid opiates, the prototype of which is morphine, which remains the most valuable painkiller in contemporary medicine.

The Sinclair Method is a treatment for alcohol addiction that uses a technique called pharmacological extinction—the use of an opiate blocker to turn habit-forming behaviors into habit-erasing behaviors. The effect returns a person’s craving for alcohol to its pre-addiction state. Tricking Dopamine by pretending to be Grossed Out. Gross Yourself Out (book).

Coping

Coping is dealing with a difficult situation and making a conscious effort to solve problems and to minimize stress and tolerate conflict. To come to terms with an unexpected change.

Coping Strategies work on changing how we face challenges and how we solve problems. Targeting how we experience our feelings and regulate our emotions. They can be broken down between active coping strategies, which affect how we deal with stress head-on, and avoidant strategies, which involve distancing ourselves from the problem. Like defense mechanisms, coping strategies vary in how effective or healthy they are.

Breathing - Mindful - Emotion Regulation - Resilience - Not being overly Sensitive

Coping skills program helps social service workers reduce stress, trauma after disasters.

Be understanding toward yourself and be kind to yourself when you experience negative feelings instead of ignoring the pain or punishing yourself. Treat yourself as you would a friend who needs help. Recognize that you are not alone with this problem. Everyone struggles with difficult emotions at some point in their lives and has made mistakes in dealing with them. Be open to the difficult emotions you are experiencing in the moment without making them seem bigger than they actually are. Acknowledge you are in distress without being swept away by negative reactions.

Enabling - Codependency

Codependency is a type of dysfunctional relationship where one person directly or indirectly supports, helps or enables another person's drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling addiction, poor mental health, immaturity, irresponsibility, or under-achievement. Among the core characteristics of codependency, the most common theme is an excessive reliance on other people for approval and a sense of identity. Co-Dependents Anonymous.

Intervention - Prevention - Divest - Accessory

Enabling someone in a negative way is to influence or encourage dysfunctional behavior or to help a person to be irresponsible. When third parties make accommodations for a person's harmful conduct. Enabling behavior shields people from experiencing the full impact and consequences of their behavior. This is why the Media can be extremely harmful and why the education system needs to improve. Enabling can be positive when you help and support someone in making good decisions. Incentive for good and right instead of an incentive to be bad and wrong. Helping is a skill and hurting is an ignorance. Make sure you're helping someone in the right ways. Giving empathy without enabling or spoiling someone.

If you're not helping someone, you may be hurting someone. And sometimes when you try to help someone, you may do more harm than good. Be careful. Sometimes helping someone can backfire.

How do you help someone without enabling them? What Is the difference between supporting and enabling? What Is the difference between being supportive of someone you care about and enabling bad behaviors? Supporting or helping includes assisting with things that he or she is incapable of doing for him or herself, or doing things that help facilitate them gaining control of their behaviors and life. Enabling behaviors can sometimes keep someone from dealing with the negative consequences of their actions. Not dealing with these consequences gives the impression that their behavior is somehow acceptable. Enablers will also often try to solve the problems for the people they are trying to help. Solving their problems makes the enabler feel as though they are doing something good for the person they care about. Enabling behavior that needs to change will also create a negative dynamic in the relationship. The person needing the help becomes unable to live their life in a healthy, independent and responsible manner, and therefore becomes dependent on others. The enabler then takes on responsibilities that are not truly theirs. This can ultimately create resentment in the enabler and a very unhealthy and unbalanced relationship overall.

Conformity - Passive - Complicity - Patience and Tolerance without Acceptance - Denial

Dependent Personality Disorder is a personality disorder that is characterized by a pervasive psychological dependence on other people. This personality disorder is a long-term condition in which people depend on others to meet their emotional and physical needs, with only a minority achieving normal levels of independence.

Dependent - Independence - Introverts - Spoiling (ineffective attention)

Learned Helplessness is behavior where a person endures repeatedly painful or otherwise aversive stimuli in which it is unable to escape or avoid. After such experience, the organism often fails to learn or accept "escape" or "avoidance" in new situations where such behavior would likely be effective. In other words, the organism learned that it is helpless in situations where there is a presence of aversive stimuli and has accepted that it has lost control, and thus gives up trying. Such an organism is said to have acquired learned helplessness. Learned helplessness theory is the view that clinical depression and related mental illnesses may result from such real or perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation.

Displacement is an unconscious defense mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for goals felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.

Sublimation is a mature type of defense mechanism where socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are unconsciously transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior, possibly resulting in a long-term conversion of the initial impulse.

Displacement Activity occurs when an animal experiences high motivation for two or more conflicting behaviors: the resulting displacement activity is usually unrelated to the competing motivations. Like when a human may scratch his or her head when they do not know which of two options to choose.

Regression is a Defense Mechanism leading to the temporary or long-term reversion of the ego to an earlier stage of development rather than handling unacceptable impulses in a more adult way.
Empathy Gap is a cognitive bias in which people underestimate the influences of visceral drives on their own attitudes, preferences, and behaviors. Visceral factors are an array of influences which include hunger, thirst, sexual arousal, drug cravings for the drugs one is addicted to, physical pain, and strong emotions. These drives have a disproportionate effect on decision making and behavior: the mind, when affected (i.e., in a hot state), tends to ignore all other goals in an effort to placate these influences. These states can lead a person to feel "out of control" and act impulsively.

Attribution is the process by which individuals explain the causes of behavior and events. Attribution theory is the study of models to explain those processes. Interpreting someone's behavior as being caused by the situation that the individual is in.

Attribution Bias is a cognitive bias that refers to the systematic errors made when people evaluate or try to find reasons for their own and others' behaviors. People constantly make attributions regarding the cause of their own and others' behaviors; however, attributions do not always accurately mirror reality. Rather than operating as objective perceivers, people are prone to perceptual errors that lead to biased interpretations of their social world.

Compensation in psychology is a strategy whereby one covers up, consciously or unconsciously, weaknesses, frustrations, desires, or feelings of inadequacy or incompetence in one life area through the gratification or (drive towards) excellence in another area. Compensation can cover up either real or imagined deficiencies and personal or physical inferiority. Positive compensations may help one to overcome one's difficulties. On the other hand, negative compensations do not, which results in a reinforced feeling of inferiority. There are two kinds of negative compensation: Overcompensation, characterized by a superiority goal, leads to striving for power, dominance, self-esteem, and self-devaluation. Undercompensation, which includes a demand for help, leads to a lack of courage and a fear for life.

It's hard to be in control when you don't know what being in control is or know the things that are controlling you. If you don't know how to be in control, or if you don't know who's in charge, or if you don't know why things are done the way they are, then you need to learn? It's something that you could eventually teach yourself, but this is not a magic trick, it's a process that has many particular courses of actions that are intended to achieve a result. And you will need to update what you know and learn new knowledge. It's not that complicated, you can learn because you have a memory, but you have to commit to learning, and you will have to be inspired to learn. If you don't, you may be a slave to your own ignorance. Mostly a self induced ignorance because you failed to see the importance of learning. But schools don't teach these facts, or is the public have access to these facts. Why?

Why having a job that you don't like can have devastating consequences. Why does working certain types of jobs makes a person feel like they just want to do stupid things just to feel alive or feel good about themselves? Like buying things that you don't really need. And experiencing things that do more harm than good. Why do people feel that just because they work and have money gives them the right to do stupid things. This is another good reason why education needs to improve, and another reason why people need to continually educate themselves in a world that is controlled by scumbag criminals who do not want people to be educated, or to be more knowledgeable or to be more aware. Stress from this abuse causes most of the vulnerabilities that people have to addiction. People don't have an addiction problem, people have a problem with abuse. Stop the abuse and that addictions will fade away, like the ignorance that causes it.

Some people are addicted to ignorance. they use the same knowledge and information over and over again, and naively expecting different results. They use the same knowledge and information that they have had their whole life. They never continue to educate themselves, and they never increase, add or update their knowledge. So they never understand the themselves or the world any better then they did when they were 18 years old. And on top of that, they have no idea that they're addicted to ignorance. Just like most addicts, they are either living in denial or they are oblivious to the addiction and unaware just how much harm the addiction is doing to themselves and the world around them.

Dependency - Everyone is Dependent on Something

Dependency Need is "the vital, originally infantile needs for mothering, love, affection, shelter, protection, security, food, and warmth." (Segen, 1992) A dependency need is thought to be characterized by two components: (1) It is a real need of an organism, something that must be present in order for the organism to be able to thrive, (2) It is something that an individual cannot provide for him or herself. It is well known that infants have many dependency needs; some of these needs are obvious, others have only come to the attention of researchers as the result of epidemiological studies. The more obvious needs of infants include: adequate feeding, adequate watering, adequate cleaning, adequate shelter, and more specifically, keeping the infant's body temperature within the narrow range of normalcy. Interdependent.

When Dependency Turns into an Addiction - Privilege - Altricial.

Needs versus Wants or Likes. Wanting versus Liking.

Desire is a sense of longing or hoping for a person, object, or outcome. The same sense is expressed by emotions such as "craving". When a person desires something or someone, their sense of longing is excited by the enjoyment or the thought of the item or person, and they want to take actions to obtain their goal. Sex Addiction.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Humanistic Psychology

Like is to prefer or wish to do something. Find enjoyable or agreeable. Be fond of. Feel about or towards; consider, evaluate, or regard. Love - Gratification.

Reasons or Excuses? Explanation of the cause, justification.

Substance Dependence is compulsive, out-of-control use, despite negative consequences. An adaptive state that develops from repeated administration or use, and which results in withdrawal upon cessation or stopping of drug use. Drug Addiction.

Independent (self manage) - Technology Dependency.

"Addiction is a compulsive behavior despite the person knowing about the negative consequences. Addiction to a substance is not necessary for a person to function normally, they only believe that because of their lack of knowledge."

Addictions - Bad Phase in your Life to Overcome

Behavioral Addiction is a form of addiction that involves a compulsion to engage in a rewarding non-drug-related behavior – sometimes called a natural reward – despite any negative consequences to the person's physical, mental, social or financial well-being.

FOSB is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the FOSB gene. Regulators of cell proliferation, differentiation, and transformation role in the development and maintenance of pathological behavior and neural plasticity involved in both behavioral addictions (associated with natural rewards) and drug addictions, where it is genetically modified, split off and shortened. This modification under the stimulus of the drug results in the protein being more stable and therefore remaining longer in this part of the brain than in its original form -- even as much as several weeks after withdrawal of the drug. This means that a craving for this stimulus persists. This addictive craving is stored in a sort of "memory" function and, surprisingly, can still be detected after death.

Excoriation Disorder is a mental disorder characterized by the repeated urge to pick at one's own skin, often to the extent that damage is caused. Research has suggested that the urge to pick is similar to a body-focused repetitive behavior but others have argued that for some the condition is more akin to a substance abuse disorder. The two main strategies for treating this condition are pharmacological and behavioral intervention.

Psychological Dependence is a form of dependence that involves emotional–motivational withdrawal symptoms (e.g., a state of unease or dissatisfaction, a reduced capacity to experience pleasure, or anxiety) upon cessation of drug use or engagement in certain behaviors Psychological dependence develops through consistent and frequent exposure to a stimulus.

Autonomous (drone) - Autonomic Nervous System

Sympathetic Nervous System - Limbic System

Disposition is an artificial habit, a preparation, a state of readiness, or a tendency to act in a specified way that may be learned. A belief that is held in the mind but not currently being considered, and in the latter case, to a belief that is currently being considered by the mind.

Negligent - Denial

Cocaine Users’ Brains Unable to Extinguish Drug Associations - Cocaine users display a marked reduction in VMAT2.

Cocaine Addiction traced to increase in number of Orexin Neurons. The findings identify a promising avenue for treating addiction with orexin-based therapies. Cocaine refers to the immediate and deleterious effects of Cocaine on the body. Although cocaine intoxication and cocaine dependence can be present in the same individual, these syndromes present with different symptoms. Cocaine increases alertness, feelings of well-being, euphoria, energy, competence, sociability, and sexuality. Common side effects include anxiety, increased temperature, paranoia, restlessness, and teeth grinding. With prolonged use, the drug can cause insomnia, anorexia, tachycardia, hallucinations, and paranoid delusions. Possible lethal side effects include rapid heartbeat, abnormal heart rhythms, tremors, convulsions, markedly increased core temperature, renal failure, heart attack, stroke and heart failure. Depression with suicidal ideation may develop in heavy users. Finally, a loss of vesicular monoamine transporters, neurofilament proteins, and other morphological changes appear to indicate a long-term damage to dopamine neurons. Chronic intranasal usage can degrade the cartilage separating the nostrils (the septum nasi), which can eventually lead to its complete disappearance.

New Molecule Stops Drug Cravings in mice, with fewer side effects. New class of drugs may promise more specific cell-signaling with fewer side effects. Researchers have developed a synthetic molecule that selectively controls the physiological rewards of cocaine in mice. The molecule selectively activates beta-arrestin without activating the G protein, making its signal to the cell much more specific. Duke University researchers have developed a synthetic molecule that selectively dampen the physiological rewards of cocaine in mice. In mice that were treated with the stimulant cocaine or methamphetamine, the new molecule was found to calm their drug-induced hyperactivity and interfere with the dopamine system's ability to change metabolism in the brain's rewards center. In mice that were allowed to self-administer cocaine, the treatment slowed down their drug use in 20 minutes to an hour, and reduced the amount of drug they used by more than 80 percent, compared to a control group of mice. The molecule, SBI-553, activates cell surface chemical receptors called G protein-coupled receptors or GPCRs, which are the target of more than 35% of all FDA-approved drugs. (The discovery and characterization of GPCRs earned the team's Duke colleague, Robert Lefkowitz, the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry.) When a GPCR is activated by a signaling molecule, it transmits that signal to the inner portion of the cell via interaction with two intracellular proteins: G protein and beta-arrestin. Most GPCR drugs in use today indiscriminately activate both G protein and beta-arrestin, and sometimes activating both molecules withthe same GPCR can produce dramatically different physiological effects. For decades, researchers working on drug abuse and addiction have pursued molecules that would activate one specific GPCR called neurotensin receptor 1 (NTSR1) as a way to interrupt the actions of stimulants and treat cocaine and methamphetamine addictions. Neurotensin is known to be involved in drug-seeking behavior and food intake in mice. "It regulates the brain's reward system and motivated behavior," said senior post-doctoral fellow Lauren Slosky, who is the lead author on the paper. But so far, the drugs that activate NTSR1 have severe side effects for blood pressure, body temperature and motor coordination, because those are also controlled by NTSR1. One small molecule called SBI-553 that emerged from the screen acts at a previously unknown site on the NTSR1 and selectively activates the beta-arrestin without activating the G protein. SBI-553 can bind the NTSR1 at the same time as this receptor's natural activator, a peptide known as neurotensin, and it promotes neurotensin's ability to activate beta-arrestin while blocking its ability to activate the G protein. Like conventional NTSR1 activators, SBI-553 was found to reduce the amount of cocaine the animals consumed and their associated drug-craving. But it did so without the usual side effects of decreased blood pressure and body temperature and motor coordination problems.

Unhealthy Attachments

Irresistible Impulse is a defense by excuse, in this case some sort of insanity, in which the defendant argues that they should not be held criminally liable for their actions that broke the law, because they could not control those actions, even if they knew them to be wrong.

Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal or with an obsessive enthusiasm. "redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim". The fanatic displays very strict standards and little tolerance for contrary ideas or opinions.

Kleptomania is the inability to refrain from the urge for stealing items and is usually done for reasons other than personal use or financial gain.

Remember that you're not broken, you're just learning how to make better choices, and learning to know yourself better.

Look at your recovery as an adventure that will change your life. Like climbing a huge mountain, it's painful, it's a struggle, but it's well worth it. And just like life, the moment at the top is only a tiny percentage of the whole journey. The climb up, the climb down and the time between peaks is where you will find meaning. And this isn't Tommy where you're following one persons experience, this is you benefiting from millions of people who shared their knowledge, and now it's time for you to share yours. Live, Learn, Love and Prosper

If you need to do something in order to feel good about yourself, then you are heading for disaster. It's extremely dangerous to allow yourself to have that kind of vulnerability, and to allow something to control you and influence you and cause you to make bad decisions. That's like locking yourself in a prison and the giving the key to someone else, someone who's unpredictable and unreliable. Not only do you give up your freedom, there's no guarantee that you will be able to escape your prison when you need to. No one should hold the key to life except for you. You have to be the key master. Everything is locked unless you hold the key. But you have to learn how to unlock the doors of knowledge because they don't open themselves. You have to use the key, and the key is learning. And when you do get the key, remember to use it. That's the Key.

Learn how to be in control, learn how to adapt, and learn how to prepare yourself for changes. These responsibilities are small when you compare them to the preservation of life and to the progress of life and all the enjoyment that you can squeeze out in between. To be All Natural will be then new wealth, the new power.

Do what you Love, and Love what you do. But just don't do something because it feels good, do it because it is good, and not just good for you, but good for everything.

Breathe. Let a deep breath be a reminder of your power, your control, your values, your goals, your dreams, your priorities. Remember the important things, make a list. The greatest number of relapses occur during the first 90 days of being in recovery. Learning is your greatest strength. Label your triggers, learn to recognize them, learn to anticipate them. Define them. Understand them. You have the power to control and remove these triggers, but only if you learn to recognize them and control their influences. Temptations only exist when you allow them to exist. Learning how these triggers and temptations work is the first step in controlling them, instead of them controlling you. When you recognize a trigger say this... "I have seen you before and I know who you are now, you're bad news, and you will no longer have that power or control over me. Though I might forget sometimes and let my guard down, I will eventually remember and not to let you control me. I am the captain of my ship, so walk the plank you scallywag."

Our bodies and minds are preprogrammed for survival. But these natural processes have vulnerabilities. Don't ever think for a moment that addiction is only about drugs. Addiction is behaviors, thoughts and actions that are very difficult to control and be aware of. And it's not just the addictions themselves, it's all the thinking and all the different influences that supports addictions, which allows addictions to continue without the awareness of the damage that it's doing. Like eating bad unhealthy food, or watching mindless TV programs for long periods of time, or doing work just for the money without considering the consequences of the work, which may be destroying and poisoning the environment and other people, including yourself.

Addiction is more of an education problem then it is a therapy or rehab problem. And since most schools have no idea about what a high quality education is supposed to be, then that means that any therapy or rehab program will not be as effective as they can be, thus too many people relapse.

Self Inflicted Harm - You're Hurting Yourself

Self-Harm also known as self-injury, is defined as the intentional, direct injuring of body tissue. Injury can also be done internally from drinking or eating  foods that are bad for you.

Self Inflicted is when you are the cause of an injury or the reason why something bad happened to you. You bring upon yourself your own suffering. A self-imposed punishment can be voluntarily or done unconsciously where the person is not fully aware of the damage that they are causing to themselves.

Self-inflicted wound is the act of harming oneself where there are no underlying psychological problems related to the self-injury, but where the injurer wanted to take advantage of being injured.

The reasons why some people hurt themselves could be a combination of different things, so a complete and thorough investigation must be done. When someone is suffering, they may say horrible things and do horrible things. And sometimes people could be suffering from voluntary self infliction or as a result of an unconscious reaction that they are not fully aware of or understand. So you don't want to blame people for their ignorance. When someone does something that's illogical or harmful, you don't want to take things to heart or over-react. How you approach a situation or interaction is extremely important sometimes. There is a process and a procedure to follow, but you can't expect your handling of a situation to work or succeed every time. You have to be willing to adapt and to listen carefully. Intervention.

Harm Reduction is a range of public health policies designed to reduce the harmful consequences associated with various human behaviors, both legal and illegal. Harm reduction policies are used to manage behaviors such as recreational drug use and sexual activity in numerous settings that range from services through to geographical regions. Critics of harm reduction typically believe that tolerating risky or illegal behavior sends a message to the community that such behaviors are acceptable and that some of the actions proposed by proponents of harm reduction do not reduce harm over the long term. Harm Reduction.

Body-Focused Repetitive Behavior Problems. Prevalence in a nonreferred population and differences in perceived somatic activity. Body Image.

Body Focused Repetitive Behavior is an umbrella name for impulse control behaviors involving compulsively damaging one's physical appearance or causing physical injury. The main BFRB disorders are: Skin: Dermatillomania (excoriation disorder), skin picking. Dermatophagia, skin nibbling. Mouth: Morsicatio buccarum, cheek biting. Morsicatio labiorum, inner lip biting. Morsicatio buccarum, tongue biting. Hands: Onychophagia, nail biting. Onychotillomania, nail picking. Nose: Rhinotillexomania, compulsive nose picking. Hair: Trichophagia, hair nibbling. Trichotemnomania, hair cutting. Trichotillomania, hair pulling.

Foundation for Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors.

Interactive program for Excoriation (skin picking) Disorder (SP) available.

Nail Biting is an oral compulsive habit. It is sometimes described as a parafunctional activity, the common use of the mouth for an activity other than speaking, eating, or drinking. Nail biting is very common, especially amongst children. Less innocent forms of nails biting are considered an impulse control disorder in the DSM-IV-R and are classified under obsessive-compulsive and related disorders in the DSM-5. The ICD-10 classifies the practice as "other specified behavioral and emotional disorders with onset usually occurring in childhood and adolescence". However, not all nail biting is pathological, and the difference between harmful obsession and normal behavior is not always clear. Washing Hands.

Parafunctional Activity is the habitual exercise of a body part in a way that is other than the most common use of that body part. The term is most commonly used by dentists, orthodontists, or maxillofacial specialists to refer to para-functional uses of the mouth, tongue and jaw. Oral para-functional habits may include bruxism (tooth-clenching and/or grinding), tongue tension ("tongue thrusting"), fingernail biting, pencil or pen chewing, mouth breathing, and any other habitual use of the mouth unrelated to eating, drinking, or speaking.

Itch is a sensation that causes the desire or reflex to scratch. Itch has resisted many attempts to classify it as any one type of sensory experience. Modern science has shown that itch has many similarities to pain, and while both are unpleasant sensory experiences, their behavioral response patterns are different. Pain creates a withdrawal reflex, whereas itch leads to a scratch reflex. Unmyelinated nerve fibers for itch and pain both originate in the skin; however, information for them is conveyed centrally in two distinct systems that both use the same nerve bundle and spinothalamic tract, which is a sensory pathway from the skin to the thalamus.

Scratch Reflex is a response to activation of sensory neurons whose peripheral terminals are located on the surface of the body. Some sensory neurons can be activated by stimulation with an external object such as a parasite on the body surface. Alternatively, some sensory neurons can respond to a chemical stimulus that produces an itch sensation. During a scratch reflex, a nearby limb reaches toward and rubs against the site on the body surface that has been stimulated. The scratch reflex has been extensively studied to understand the functioning of neural networks in vertebrates. Despite decades of research, key aspects of the scratch reflex are still unknown, such as the neural mechanisms by which the reflex is terminated.

How a light touch can spur severe itching. Aging linked to decline in cells that control itch response.

Intervention (behaviors)

Weak Mindedness is unable to fully control oneself in certain situations, having or showing a lack of mental firmness; Uncertain how to act or proceed; vacillating, exhibiting a lack of judgment or faith. Undereducated. Vulnerable.

Assessment Flaws

Instinct or second nature, is the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behavior. The simplest example of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern (FAP), in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a clearly defined stimulus. (Reflexive).

Controls - Gratification Delay - Self-Control - Will Power - Hypnosis - Decision Making - Human Operating System.

A Personal Story about using Drugs over Many Years

This is one persons learning experience with drug use. Things you need to be aware of when taking drugs. It's unfortunate for me to say that I have a lot of experience with using drugs. When I was younger I experimented with all types of drugs. Some of those experiences were pleasant, some of those experiences were not so pleasant, with some of those experiences nearly killing me. I'm certainly not proud of it. I just didn't know any better, just like any fool. Call it peer pressure, call it being social, call it being stupid, call it having fun, call it trying to relax, or just wanting to feel alive, or wanting to feel like I was living, or wanting to feel like I belonged. Whatever the reason you have you will eventually realize that the reasons you thought were justified were not logical. I made mistakes because I did not know enough about my choices or the real impacts of those choices. I know I made risky decisions, which was not all that bad because taking risks is what humans do, we are born with it. If humans didn't take risks we could not survive. But because we can learn, we can choose when to take risks more carefully. Our increased knowledge gives us the ability to measure our cause and effects more accurately so we can make better decisions. But because humans have vulnerabilities and weaknesses, we are prone to make mistakes. But luckily the more we learn about ourselves and our world, the less mistakes we make. One of the reasons why taking drugs was alluring, was sometimes it was like an adventure. You thought you were doing some research and that you would discover something new. But I was not educated or knowledgeable enough to do this type of research, so it did more harm then good. Another reason for trying drugs was that when I was younger I didn't know how to make myself feel good about life, so I relied on drugs to help me feel good. And all I wanted was to just feel good. But I had no idea that in order to feel good about life, you would have to learn how to feel good. It took many years of research, but with the internet and millions of people sharing knowledge, I was able to learn what I needed to learn. Luckily I saved 90 percent of everything that I learned and published it on BK101, the other 10 percent of what I learned is still in my head. But eventually that too will also be shared.

Interpersonal Intelligence - Know Thyself - Intelligence

How Addiction Hijacks the Brain

When you don't even know who are just yet, it's kind of dangerous to use drugs to explore your mind. Exploring uncharted territory is dangerous. You need common sense, you need a good guide, and you need a good map. Because you don't want to get lost out there, because you may never find your way back, and even if you do make your way back, you might not be the same person or like the changes that you have gone through. And since you are not clearly defined yet, and your personality hasn't fully formed just yet, then understanding those changes, or just being aware of those changes, is nearly impossible. So you will not know if the changes are good or bad. If you liked an experience but you can't explain it, then you better learn to explain it, because that understanding and knowledge is the key. The drug just enhances the experience, drugs do not create experiences, drugs just make you aware of experiences that are already there. This is not Total Recall. And the more you understand that, the more you will be able to learn from it, and eventually learn enough to enhance your experiences without using drugs, or at the least, without abusing drugs. It's your mind, use it or lose it. You don't want to be out of control, having control is much more enjoyable.

I know I wasted a lot of time, I know I have done damage to myself and I know that I have hurt other people, all because of drugs and the poor decisions that I made. I regret the mistakes,, but I regret more not learning from those mistakes the way I should have. 

I'm also afraid to have children because of the chance that Psychoactive Drugs may have effected my genes, or from the chemicals that I was exposed to from the corporations that I worked for, and also from the exposure to toxins in our environment. You really have no idea how ignorant you are until you get the information and knowledge that finally reveals your ignorance. But even then, if you don't take the steps to repair your vulnerabilities, you will stay vulnerable. And once you learn that you are an addict, or learn that you have an addictive personality, you will always be vulnerable unless you learn about the techniques and the skills that will keep your addictions from controlling your actions. This process of Self-Control is not easy, but it can be done. Support groups and Mentoring can also be beneficial but you need the right information and knowledge at the right time and in the right environment. Learning is a process that the human brain is very capable of doing. Don't get discouraged or get frustrated by a slow progress, just keep learning. You will eventually experience the power and control that comes from a well educated brain. An Awareness that only comes from increased information and knowledge. Self-Medication has more dangers then it does advantages. Experimenting needs caution and control.

"Knowledge is the Greatest Drug in the World..Have you taken your Knowledge Dose Today?"

Consume Knowledge - Ideas

The greatest drug in the world is knowledge, and I have collected some of the highest quality knowledge that the world has to offer. I don't mind being a dealer of knowledge, or a "Knowledge Dealer", because this drug has more benefits then any other drug in the world. Increased awareness seems to be the only downside, which means that you not only see the good, but you also see the bad. Except now you are driven by knowledge to correct the bad, while embracing the good. Knowledge gives you Power Control Freedom.

Addicted to Love, the Love of Knowledge (youtube, with different words of course)

This is the main reason why we have to make knowledge available to everyone, otherwise people will not even know that knowledge exists, or will they know the potential that knowledge gives you.

When wanting to feel alive is actually killing you. I want to feel alive, I want to feel like I'm living, but why is that even a problem? We can't be reliant on external things to make us feel good when it's the internal things that we use to experience the world that are the most important. We have become masters of of a lot of things in our environment, but we are still not masters of our internal world. But we are getting closer.

"The only good addiction is the addiction to knowledge, but even that needs balance."

"It’s not finding the right medication, it's finding the right information."

"Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind." (Rudyard Kipling)

"Addiction is like being a puppet on a string, where the addiction is the Puppet Master."

Control - Change

Addictions are a weird thing. We allow things that we like to hurt us and shorten our lives. All because we want more then what is needed. Our senses were not meant to control us, they were meant to give us control. The word "consumer" will no doubt become a bad word in the near future. When we learn about what we don't need, we create more room for what we do need, so our lives become richer and fuller.

Over Eating (more harm then good)

"We can have more in our lives when we learn what having more is." Sustainable.

It was more then just wanting to feel good. I knew I had better alternatives and better choices that were more sustainable. But that's the power of addiction, it has the power to override your common sense and your self-control. So even though you're knowledgeable and somewhat aware, an addiction can still have the power to override your knowledge. And it's more then just an error or a glitch in the system. It's almost like a computer virus that overrides your operating system, now who's controlling who? But, the addiction is actually not all that bad, because it makes you aware that you have a problem with addictions, and also that you have a vulnerabilities. If you're vulnerable to one addiction your probably vulnerable to more. So now you have to ask yourself, how many more addictions do I have? And how many am I aware of? Not all addictions are noticeable, and not all addictions are related to chemical substances. So it's time to take notice and actually pay attention to our behaviors, and to our actions.

It's a good idea to write down and record how you spend your time, from morning till night, for at least 7 days in a row. You will most likely have to perform some preventive maintenance in order to gain some kind of control so that you can start making adjustments. Paying more attention to yourself will take some time to get used to. But it's necessary if you want control.

Why do some People Live to Party while other People just Love to Party? Social identity?  Reckless behavior? Why is it sometimes so hard to socialize without drinking alcohol? Social Anxiety? Why do some social settings like Bars encourage drug use? Drug Dealer? Why do I associate certain moments or feelings with wanting to get high? Bad memory or bad info? Why do I associate certain friends with getting high? Bad influence or just an excuse? If I didn't have Drug Connections would I still be an addict? Out of Sight, Out of Mind? - When something is not nearby, it is forgotten about.

What to Do If Your Adult Friend or Loved One Has a Problem with Drugs?
Signs of Addiction and Drug Use
Recognizing an Addiction Problem
Working to reduce substance abuse among adolescents by supporting families and engaging with teens

Of all the good memories I have and of all the good times that I had, drugs and partying were not on the list, though at the time I thought they were. Could I have had fun without drugs? Of course I did. Did drugs help me? At that time I thought they did. But I had nothing else to rely on or nothing else to compare it to. There was this void of knowledge, and it was not my vault. There is only so much a person can be aware of, especially when you are not given a complete education, which till this day still does not exist, but I'm working on it.  You don't have to abuse drugs in order to enjoy them, we have a lot to learn. "If those good times that you experienced doing drugs don't produce any new information or knowledge then the experience was basically the same thing as spinning around in circles. You know that thing you use to do as a kid, except that it was a lot safer then doing drugs. If you're not going anywhere then where are you going?" You can't get there from here, so where is here?

"Learning to run your life is a lot easier then just trying to run away from your life."

"Reality is for people who can't handle drugs, drugs are for people who can't handle reality, fantasy is for people who can't handle reality or drugs, and life is for people who can handle almost anything and keep everything in balance."

Crutch

To use something as a Crutch means to use that thing as a way to avoid dealing with problems directly or in the correct way. For example: A person might use drugs or alcohol as a crutch to try to forget about their problems, or appear to have a more interesting personality, or to avoid the effort of finding more healthy activities. An unemployed person receiving financial help from friends or family might use that support as a crutch, avoiding looking for a job as long as they are getting money from others. So a crutch may appear to be holding you up, but in reality, it's slowly tearing you down. (gruccia/stampella).

Vulnerability is when defensive measures are diminished, compromised or lacking and you are susceptibility to injury or attack. It's the inability (of a system or a unit) to withstand the effects of a hostile environment. A window of vulnerability (WoV) is a time frame where someone is exposed to danger.

It's easy for me to say don't go down that road, your just wasting time and causing more harm then good. The only thing you will learn by going down that road is that you should have never gone down that road. But how would you even know that you were on that road?

Symptoms

Medical Sign is indication of some medical fact or characteristic that may be detected by a patient or anyone, especially a physician, before or during a physical examination of a patient.

Symptoms is showing something not normal or feeling like something is not normal. A departure from normal function or feeling which is noticed by a patient, reflecting the presence of an unusual state, or of a disease. A symptom is subjective, observed by the patient, and sometimes cannot be measured directly, whereas a sign is objectively observable by others. For example, paresthesia is a symptom (only the person experiencing it can directly observe their own tingling feeling), whereas erythema is a sign (anyone can confirm that the skin is redder than usual). Symptoms and signs are often nonspecific, but often combinations of them are at least suggestive of certain diagnoses, helping to narrow down what may be wrong. In other cases they are specific even to the point of being pathognomonic. The term is sometimes also applied to physiological states outside the context of disease, as for example when referring to "symptoms of pregnancy". Many people use the term sign and symptom interchangeably.

Symptomatic a symptom or sign, especially of something undesirable.

Asymptomatic is a disease or infection that shows no symptoms. A condition might be asymptomatic if it fails to produce noticeable symptoms that are usually associated with that particular infection or disease. Asymptomatic conditions may be clinically silent and not be discovered until the patient undergoes medical tests.

Just Suppressing Symptoms can sometimes do more harm than good. Prevention - Personalized Medicine.

Symptomatic Treatment is any medical therapy of a disease that only affects its symptoms, not its cause, i.e., its etiology. It is usually aimed at reducing the signs and symptoms for the comfort and well-being of the patient, but it also may be useful in reducing organic consequences and sequelae of these signs and symptoms of the disease.

Sequelae is any abnormality following or resulting from a disease or injury or treatment. Cause and Effect.

Subclinical Infection is an infection that is nearly or completely asymptomatic and showing no signs or symptoms. Many pathogens spread by being silently carried by some of their host population, and their existence is only identified by microbiological culture or DNA Techniques such as polymerase chain reaction.

When your body experiences changes you may feel it. And it's how you react to that feeling that may make all the difference. Are you thinking or feeling? Do you know what thinking is, and do you know what feeling is? Body Mind Connections.

Syndrome is a set of medical signs and symptoms that are correlated with each other.

Effects - Tolerances

Side Effects is an effect, whether therapeutic or adverse, that is secondary to the one intended; although the term is predominantly employed to describe adverse effects, it can also apply to beneficial, but unintended, consequences of the use of a drug. Interactions.

Dosage - How much should I consume at one time or in one day?

Adverse Effects is an undesired harmful effect resulting from a medication or other negligence such as pollution.

Adverse Drug Reaction is an injury caused by taking medication. ADRs may occur following a single dose or prolonged administration of a drug or result from the combination of two or more drugs. The meaning of this term differs from the term "side effect" because side effects can be beneficial as well as detrimental. The study of ADRs is the concern of the field known as pharmacovigilance. An adverse drug event (ADE) refers to any injury occurring at the time a drug is used, whether or not it is identified as a cause of the injury. An ADR is a special type of ADE in which a causative relationship can be shown. ADRs are only one type of medication-related harm, as harm can also be caused by omitting to take indicated medications.

Idiosyncratic Drug Reaction are drug reactions that occur rarely and unpredictably amongst the population. Idiosyncratic drug reaction denotes an aberrant or bizarre reaction or hypersensitivity to a substance, without connection to the pharmacology of the drug. It is what is known as a Type B reaction. Type B reactions have the following characteristics: They are usually unpredictable, might not be picked up by toxicological screening, not necessarily dose-related, incidence and morbidity low but mortality is high. Type B reactions are most commonly immunological (e.g. penicillin allergy).

Paradoxical Reaction is an effect of medical treatment, usually a drug, opposite to the effect which would normally be expected. An example of a paradoxical reaction is pain caused by a pain relief medication.

Adverse Reactions is an injury caused by taking a medication. ADRs may occur following a single dose or prolonged administration of a drug or result from the combination of two or more drugs. The meaning of this expression differs from the meaning of "side effect", as this last expression might also imply that the effects can be beneficial.

Interactions is a situation in which a substance (usually another drug) affects the activity of a drug when both are administered together. This action can be synergistic (when the drug's effect is increased) or antagonistic (when the drug's effect is decreased) or a new effect can be produced that neither produces on its own. Typically, interactions between drugs come to mind (drug-drug interaction). However, interactions may also exist between drugs and foods (drug-food interactions), as well as drugs and medicinal plants or herbs (drug-plant interactions).

Drug Tolerance is a pharmacological concept describing subjects' reduced reaction to a drug following its repeated use. Increasing its dosage may re-amplify the drug's effects, however this may accelerate tolerance, further reducing the drug's effects. Drug tolerance is a contributing factor of drug addiction.

Drug Intolerance is a lower threshold to the normal pharmacologic action of a drug. It is not to be confused with drug allergy. Drug intolerance is uncommon and idiopathic, thus extremely difficult to predict except in persons with a prior history or a family history of intolerance to that specific drug. Some drug intolerances are known to result from genetic variants of drug metabolism.

Drug Sensitivity (pharmaceuticals)

Drug Metabolism is the metabolic breakdown of drugs by living organisms, usually through specialized enzymatic systems.

Drug Resistance is the reduction in effectiveness of a drug such as an antimicrobial, anthelmintic or an antineoplastic in curing a disease or condition. When the drug is not intended to kill or inhibit a pathogen, then the term is equivalent to dosage failure or drug tolerance. More commonly, the term is used in the context of resistance that pathogens have "acquired", that is, resistance has evolved. Antimicrobial resistance and antineoplastic resistance challenge clinical care and drive research. When an organism is resistant to more than one drug, it is said to be multidrug-resistant. Even the immune system of an organism is in essence a drug delivery system, albeit endogenous, and faces the same arms race problems as external drug delivery.

Iatrogenesis refers to any effect on a person, resulting from any activity of one or more persons acting as healthcare professionals or promoting products or services as beneficial to health, that does not support a goal of the person affected.

Teratogen is the study of abnormalities of physiological development. It is often thought of as the study of human congenital abnormalities, but it is broader than that, taking into account other non-birth developmental stages, including puberty; and other non-human life forms, including plants. The related term developmental toxicity includes all manifestations of abnormal development that are caused by environmental insult. These may include growth retardation, delayed mental development or other congenital disorders without any structural malformations.

Frontal Lobe Injury is when an individual’s abilities to make good choices and recognize consequences are often impaired. Memory impairment is another common effect associated with frontal lobe injuries, but this effect is less documented and may or may not be the result of flawed testing. Damage to the frontal lobe can cause increased irritability, which may include a change in mood and an inability to regulate behavior. Particularly, an injury of the frontal lobe could lead to deficits in executive function, such as anticipation, goal selection, planning, initiation, sequencing, monitoring (detecting errors), and self-correction (initiating novel responses).

Take the Edge Off: Taking the edge off means that you won't know when you're close to the edge. So you don't feel the abuse and damage that you are doing to yourself. The edge is to let you know when you have gone to far. We have senses for a reason.

Don't let convenience or opportunity control your decisions. Just take a moment to think before you act. You have to base you decisions on facts, so you must be aware of the facts, and also be aware of what normal is. I'm aware, but I'm usually thinking about things, so I'm not aware of everything, I'm more in automatic mode, so what is automatic mode? Impulse control? Basically ignoring facts and reality. Not focused on things that are relevant or important, I'm just moving and thinking without full awareness, meaning or purpose. There is no routine, but I'm working on it, it's sometimes hard to implement.

Why is drug use seem so pleasant and fun most of the time? Drugs are a teaching tool to help us realize our natural abilities to create Euphoria on our own with out using drugs. Drugs are not the reason for addictions, it's our lack of knowledge that cause addictions. Drugs are just a reminder, and not a controller. A transition from being the follower to being the leader. A transition, not a life style. Drug's are not the reason for fun, drugs are only a realization for our potential for fun, we are the creators of fun.

Something's become a problem when you can't live or function normally without it. So first you have to define what normal is? Then you have to learn how to maintain this normal state without being dependent on outside substances or help. You must be aware, aware of normal. What if you have no idea what normal is? What if you have no idea how to maintain this normalcy? Then Let's learn. This is the time to manually activate your love for exploring and learning.

"Certain Drugs have the ability to cause behavioral changes and make personalities change. Sometimes the changes are temporary and other times the changes last for years, why?" This is all related to a persons knowledge and wisdom. It's not from the lack of experience, because experience can be misinterpreted. Some people see the experience like this, because the drug doesn't kill you, well at least not yet, or at least not you, you keep doing the drug because you feel safe. Or maybe you just don't care about the damage? Either way you are misinformed. Displacement.

So the Experimenting has turned into an addiction. And when you are addicted you can no longer be fully aware of yourself or fully aware of the world. In a sense you stop learning. And learning is the only hope that you have of freeing yourself from this prison that you built, a prison that most people are not even aware of.  What's the difference between Psychosomatic and Coping?  What's the difference between a Remedy and a Cure?

To say that you are an Addict is an incomplete sentence. To be more correct a person should say, "I am vulnerable to Addiction because of my lack of knowledge and information about the inner workings of my brain and the external factors in my environment that cause me to make bad decisions. I am more then just someone in Recovery, I'm in the process of Discovery. Discovering who I am and learning about my abilities as well as my vulnerabilities. I am more then just Sober, I am a human on a journey of great importance. The 12 Steps are just some of the thousands of steps I will take in my life, and each step I take I will learn."

You need to Know your true self, you need to distinguish between who you are when you've been drug free for a while, and who you are on drugs. When you can truly define yourself, this is where healing and learning begins."
So..Who are You ? " " I Am ? "

Knowing the difference between the Placebo and the Sedative, which is the reduction of irritability or agitation by administration of sedative drugs, generally to facilitate a medical procedure or diagnostic procedure.

Chemical dependence is not the only factor of drug addiction. There may be other underlying problems that need to be resolved.

Addictions will control you, so you either learn how to control your addictions, or you will continue to suffer the consequences from not having full control over your life. Addictions will not solve your problems, you have to learn how to solve your problems. And there's a lot of help and resources, it's worth it to take some time and effort to solve your problems, the benefits are enormous.

There's a difference between knowing there has to be a change, and actually taking the necessary steps in order to make the change happen. You need to Build the Framework. You need to list the processes that are required for having a good awareness and having more control. Software Framework.

When trying to stop, some people like moving their drug of choice to a new location, or they even try hiding it, out of sight out of mind. Though this might not work all the time, sometimes you do succeed. So you need to keep making adjustments. Eventually you will overcome your addiction, if not, at least you will have more control because you are at least trying.

What was I just thinking a couple of seconds ago? What controls our thought patterns and Moods? Is it just certain Keywords? Is it our Environment? Is it our Chemistry? Is it our Memory? Is it our ability to stay Focused? Is it our lack of Goals? Is it Food?

Gambling

Please don't gamble with your life. If people spent their gambling money on projects that help advance and improve their world, then eventually everyone would win and everyone would be a winner. Gamble with your head and not with your heart, wishful thinking is illogical when playing the odds. Insurance.

Gambling Addiction is an urge to gamble continuously despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. Problem gambling is often defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others, rather than by the gambler's behavior. Severe problem gambling may be diagnosed as clinical pathological gambling if the gambler meets certain criteria. Pathological gambling is a common disorder that is associated with both social and family costs.

Gambling Problem: Free and Confidential Consultation 1-888-789-7777.

"Gambling is either you benefiting by having other people suffering loses, or another person benefiting from you and other people suffering loses. The only thing that is a guarantee when it comes to gambling is that a large amount of people will suffer loses. So in conclusion, you would be an ignorant moron if you choose to be a gambler. It only feels good because you're an idiot."

Game Theory is when one person's gains result in losses for the other participants. War.

Gamblers ignore important information when placing a bet. People with gambling problems are less likely to consider important information that could prevent them from losing, according to new research. People with gambling disorder pay more attention to irrelevant information from the previous gamble to inform their next choice.

Competition Kills (cooperation is more productive and sustainable)

Americans in 2013 lost $119 billion gambling, with an additional $70 billion—or $300 for every adult in the country—spent on lottery tickets. State-run lottery games had sales of $73.9 billion in 2015, according to the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries.

John Oliver: The Lottery (hbo video)

"I don't want to win the lottery, I want life to win the lottery, so I buy lotto tickets for life and not me. And buying lotto tickets is only one of hundreds of things that I do for life. Because life needs more then just Hope, life also needs action."

Risk Assessment - Life is sometimes a Gamble

Information and Knowledge is the Cure....We all need an Information Inoculation to protect ourselves from Misinformation.

"Ninety percent of our problems are a direct result from either our lack of Information and knowledge or from our misunderstanding of information and knowledge."

There's nothing wrong with people, it's just that people don't have enough of the right information and knowledge in order for them to have a full understanding of themselves or have a full understanding of the world around them. And the sad thing is, people don't even know that they are missing key information and knowledge. So people will never have the same awareness and they will always understand and see things differently. And this will never change unless we improve education to the point were we have an intelligent consensus on what key information and knowledge needs to be learned and when it should be learned.

Drugs can change your Awareness by changing the Brains Chemistry. A human can change awareness without drugs by changing the brains chemistry with exercise, diet, thinking or meditation. So how much control does a person have over their brains chemistry?

We are all Poly-Users in one form or another.

Does Love Addiction really exist?

"Why do some people take a drug rather then learn how not to need a drug?" Alternatives (brain food).

Either you don't have enough information and knowledge or you're not correctly understanding the information and knowledge that you have, in most cases it's both.

I would never say that you should never do drugs. I would only ask why? Is it a need? Is it a want? What are you searching for? What are you running from? What ever the reason is, if you lack the information and knowledge to make a rational decision then you should hold off from your experiment until you have learned everything there is to know. The information and knowledge is there, so It all depends on how and when you find it and if you understand it correctly.

There are other forms of addiction that are just as dangerous, so it's not just about drugs. This is more then just a drug problem. The drug just makes you aware that there is a problem. The problem is you. You are experiencing processing errors and you believe that you can correct your problems with drugs. You can't. Well maybe temporarily, or maybe you will make things worse. You may find some answers when doing drugs, but when you compare drugs to other ways of finding answers you are probably better off without drugs. Do you think that drugs are the only way to ask a question? If you don't know the question you're asking how will you know when the answer appears? It's like you keep asking the same question over and over again and hoping for an answer to appear. Remember that one of the characteristic traits of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. But don't feel bad, we are all idiots. The good thing though, is that we don't have to be idiots.

Most Addictions are created and formed when we are young , through Food, TV and irresponsible Marketing.

Environment: 95 percent of the people who were addicted in Vietnam did not become re-addicted when they returned to the United States. Our physical environments can influence our behavior.

When is it time to say goodbye to one of your favorite drugs, when is enough enough?

Time to move on and keep moving, standing still is no good for you any way, whether you're standing still in the mind or in the physical sense.

Aimee Mann - Wise up it's not going to stop (youtube)

"Denying or disavowing the facts does not remove the facts from reality. It only allows an addict to use a sad excuse to continue with its illogical behavior."

Cognitive Dissonance - Learning about the Human Brain

The "Just Say No" campaign was so ignorant and incomplete. So what is the most important ' NO ' in your life? If you don't explain ' Why ' to kids, then you end up saying nothing? If you're young and thinking about taking drugs, or you have been offered drugs, the main reason to say "No Thank You" is that your brain is not fully developed yet, so it's extremely dangerous to experiment with something that you don't need, especially when a drug could have adverse effects on your Mental ability. There are other safer ways to have fun without taking risks. Learning is fun, or at least it should be.

Looking for a Change - A Different Way of Thinking

What happens when experimenting turns into an addiction. You want to experiment because you want to find out for yourself what something is. But what if people have already done the research and found nothing except for an altered state of reality, which is something that you can do without drugs, so what's the point of experimenting? Drugs are not the answer. Drugs often create more questions than providing us with answers. But what other methods do we have for making us aware, besides knowledge? Certain drugs do have benefits, but it will take more than just drugs to learn what we need to learn. Yes the drug can make you realize something that was already there, but why couldn't you see it before? A drug may open a door, but you still have to walk through the door. A drug may provide you with a key, but you still have to use the key. Drugs will never replace learning and experience. There is a lot to process, so you must take the time to process. You have to keep advancing, you have to keep progressing, and you have to keep developing. Learning how much can you live without is just as important as learning how much are you willing to live with.

Changes - David Bowie (youtube) - Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, Turn and face the strange, Time may change me, But I can't trace time.

The Doors of Perception is a philosophical essay, released as a book, by Aldous Huxley. First published in 1954, it details his experiences when taking mescaline. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". He also incorporates later reflections on the experience and its meaning for art and religion. Virtual Reality.

"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern."

The Doors is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. The band got its name, at Morrison's suggestion from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception.

Terence McKenna

Alexander Shulgin was an American medicinal chemist, biochemist, organic chemist, pharmacologist, psychopharmacologist, and author. He is credited with introducing MDMA ("ecstasy", "mandy" or "molly") to psychologists in the late 1970s for psychopharmaceutical use and for the discovery, synthesis and personal bioassay of over 230 psychoactive compounds for their psychedelic and entactogenic potential. In 1991 and 1997, he and his wife Ann Shulgin authored the books PIHKAL and TIHKAL (standing for Phenethylamines and Tryptamines I Have Known And Loved), which extensively described their work and personal experiences with these two classes of psychoactive drugs. Shulgin performed seminal work into the descriptive synthesis of many of these compounds. Some of Shulgin's noteworthy discoveries include compounds of the 2C* family (such as 2C-B) and compounds of the DOx family (such as DOM). Due in part to Shulgin's extensive work in the field of psychedelic research and the rational drug design of psychedelic drugs, he has since been dubbed the "godfather of psychedelics".

A New York Banker R. Gordon Wasson goes to Mexico's mountains to participate in the age-old rituals of Indians who chew strange growths that produce visions.

The Psilocybin Solution - Simon G. Powell.

Psychedelic Experience is a temporary altered state of consciousness induced by the consumption of psychedelic drugs (such as mescaline, LSD, psilocybin, and DMT). For example, the term acid trip refers to psychedelic experiences brought on by the use of LSD.

Altered State of Consciousness also called altered state of mind or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. By 1892, the expression was in use in relation to hypnosis although an ongoing debate about hypnosis as an ASC based on modern definition exists. Enlightenment.

Altered States is a movie about Edward Jessup who is a 1970s psychopathologist who, while studying schizophrenia, begins to think that "our other states of consciousness are as real as our waking states." Edward begins experimenting with sensory deprivation using a flotation tank, aided by two like-minded researchers, Parrish and Rosenberg. At a faculty party he meets fellow "whiz kid" and biological anthropologist Emily, and the two eventually marry.

Religious Ecstasy is a type of altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness, frequently accompanied by visions and emotional (and sometimes physical) euphoria. Although the experience is usually brief in time, there are records of such experiences lasting several days or even more, and of recurring experiences of ecstasy during one's lifetime.

Psychopharmacology is the scientific study of the effects drugs have on mood, sensation, thinking, and behavior. It is distinguished from neuropsychopharmacology, which emphasizes the correlation between drug-induced changes in the functioning of cells in the nervous system and changes in consciousness and behavior.

Neuropsychopharmacology an interdisciplinary science related to psychopharmacology (how drugs affect the mind) and fundamental neuroscience, is the study of the neural mechanisms that drugs act upon to influence behavior. It entails research of mechanisms of neuropathology, pharmacodynamics (drug action), psychiatric illness, and states of consciousness. These studies are instigated at the detailed level involving neurotransmission/receptor activity, bio-chemical processes, and neural circuitry. Neuropsychopharmacology supersedes psychopharmacology in the areas of "how" and "why", and additionally addresses other issues of brain function. Accordingly, the clinical aspect of the field includes psychiatric (psychoactive) as well as neurologic (non-psychoactive) pharmacology-based treatments. Developments in neuropsychopharmacology may directly impact the studies of anxiety disorders, affective disorders, psychotic disorders, degenerative disorders, eating behavior, and sleep behavior.

Psychedelic Therapy refers to therapeutic practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly serotonergic psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, DMT, MDMA, mescaline, and 2C-B, primarily to assist psychotherapy. As an alternative to synonyms such as "hallucinogen", "entheogen", "psychotomimetic" and other functionally constructed names, the use of the term psychedelic ("mind-manifesting") emphasizes that those who use these drugs as part of a therapeutic practice believe these drugs can facilitate beneficial exploration of the psyche. PTSD.

How Psychedelics bind to key brain cell receptor. For the first time, scientists solved the high-resolution structure of these compounds when they are actively bound to the 5-HT2A serotonin receptor on the surface of brain cells. This discovery is already leading to the exploration of more precise compounds that could eliminate hallucinations but still have strong therapeutic effects. Psilocybin - the psychedelic compound in mushrooms - has already been granted breakthrough status by the FDA to treat depression.

Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. A non-profit research and educational organization that develops medical, legal, and cultural contexts for people to benefit from the careful uses of psychedelics and marijuana. Dosage.

MDMA is commonly known as ecstasy (E), is a psychoactive drug primarily used as a recreational drug. The desired effects include altered sensations and increased energy, empathy, and pleasure. When taken by mouth, effects begin after 30–45 minutes and last 3–6 hours. changing the balance between the prefrontal cortex, amygdala and the hippocampus.

Psychoactive Drug is a chemical substance that changes brain function and results in alterations in perception, mood, consciousness or behavior. These substances may be used medically; recreationally; to purposefully improve performance or alter one's consciousness; as entheogens; for ritual, spiritual, or shamanic purposes; or for research. Some categories of psychoactive drugs, which have therapeutic value, are prescribed by physicians and other healthcare practitioners. Examples include anesthetics, analgesics, anticonvulsant and antiparkinsonian drugs as well as medications used to treat neuropsychiatric disorders, such as antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotics, and stimulant medications. Some psychoactive substances may be used in the detoxification and rehabilitation programs for persons dependent on or addicted to other psychoactive drugs. Psychoactive substances often bring about subjective (although these may be objectively observed) changes in consciousness and mood that the user may find rewarding and pleasant (e.g., euphoria or a sense of relaxation) or advantageous (e.g. increased alertness) and are thus reinforcing. Substances which are both rewarding and positively reinforcing have the potential to induce a state of addiction – compulsive drug use despite negative consequences. In addition, sustained use of some substances may produce physical or psychological dependence or both, associated with somatic or psychological-emotional withdrawal states respectively. Drug rehabilitation attempts to reduce addiction, through a combination of psychotherapy, support groups, and other psychoactive substances. Conversely, certain psychoactive drugs may be so unpleasant that the person will never use the substance again. This is especially true of certain deliriants (e.g. Jimson weed), powerful dissociatives (e.g. Salvia divinorum), and classic psychedelics (e.g. LSD, psilocybin), in the form of a "bad trip". Psychoactive drug misuse, dependence and addiction have resulted in legal measures and moral debate. Governmental controls on manufacture, supply and prescription attempt to reduce problematic medical drug use. Ethical concerns have also been raised about over-use of these drugs clinically, and about their marketing by manufacturers. Popular campaigns to allow certain recreational drug use (e.g. cannabis) are also ongoing. Coffee.

Hallucinogen is a psychoactive agent which can cause hallucinations, perceptual anomalies, and other substantial subjective changes in thoughts, emotion, and consciousness. The common types of hallucinogens are psychedelics, dissociatives and deliriants. Although hallucinations are a common symptom of amphetamine psychosis, amphetamines are not considered hallucinogens, as they are not a primary effect of the drugs themselves. While hallucinations can occur when abusing stimulants, the nature of stimulant psychosis is not unlike delirium. In proportion to other effects, changes in thought, perception, and mood should predominate; intellectual or memory impairment should be minimal; stupor, narcosis, or excessive stimulation should not be an integral effect; autonomic nervous system side effects should be minimal; and addictive craving should be absent.

Lysergic Acid Diethylamide or LSD for short, is a hallucinogenic drug. Effects typically include altered thoughts, feelings, and awareness of one's surroundings. Many users see or hear things that do not exist. Dilated pupils, increased blood pressure, and increased body temperature are typical. Effects typically begin within half an hour and can last for up to 12 hours. It is used mainly as a recreational drug and for spiritual reasons.

Neural correlates of the LSD experience revealed by multimodal neuroimaging.
Increased Global Functional Connectivity Correlates with LSD-Induced Ego Dissolution.
How LSD Effects Drawing Skills (image) - Military Experiments.

How LSD Changes Perception. LSD changes the communication patterns between regions of the brain. LSD triggers a reduction in the communication between the brain regions that are responsible for planning and decision making. At the same time, LSD increases the connectivity in brain networks associated with sensory functions and movement. Based on patterns of brain signals, the scientists were also able to establish that the changes in brain connectivity caused by LSD are linked to a particular receptor in the brain (serotonin-2A receptor). When we blocked this receptor using ketanserin, LSD stopped having an effect.

1950's LSD Experiment - Artist (youtube) - An LSD experiment conducted in the 1950's where a researched gives an artist LSD while asking a series of questions over the duration of the experience. 1950s Housewife in LSD Experiment (rare footage) (youtube).

Spring Grove Experiment is a series of lysergic acid diethylamide or LSD studies performed from 1963 to 1976 on patients with psychotic illnesses at the Spring Grove Clinic in Catonsville, Maryland. These patients were sponsored by a federal agency called the National Institute of Mental Health to be part of the first study conducted on the effects of psychedelic drugs on schizophrenics. Then, the Spring Grove Experiments were adapted to study the effect of LSD and psychotherapy on patients including alcoholics, heroin addicts, neurotics, and terminally-ill cancer patients. The research done was largely conducted by the members of the Research Unit of Spring Grove State Hospital. LSD:The Spring Grove Experiment Part 1 (youtube).

Effective connectivity changes in LSD-induced altered states of consciousness in humans. Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a psychedelic drug that reliably induces an altered state of consciousness and disrupts the normal functioning of the CSTC loop was largely responsible for the altered states of consciousness experienced by people who take LSD, psilocybin, and other classical psychedelics.

Neuropsychopharmacology an interdisciplinary science related to psychopharmacology (how drugs affect the mind) and fundamental neuroscience, is the study of the neural mechanisms that drugs act upon to influence behavior. It entails research of mechanisms of neuropathology, pharmacodynamics (drug action), psychiatric illness, and states of consciousness. These studies are instigated at the detailed level involving neurotransmission/receptor activity, bio-chemical processes, and neural circuitry.

Neurons associated with serotonin, ramped up. Sensory cortices, which process sensations like sight and touch, became far more connected than usual to the frontal parietal network. The stronger that communication, the stronger the experience of the dissolution [of self], happening is a confusion of information. The sensation is neurologically similar to synesthesia. Our brains normally generate a regular rhythm of electrical activity called the alpha rhythm. The Brain's ability to suppress irrelevant activity, hallucinogens, altered state of reality that comes with psychedelics might enhance psychotherapy.

One of my fears about using drugs; I was afraid that my personality would never return to normal after coming down from a drug. I worried that my awareness would never be the same. Sometimes it would take days for me to feel like myself again, and myself was not even defined yet. But that was still not enough to stop the drug use. I witnessed peoples personalities change because of drugs. I witnessed their lives being drastically altered, but even then, that was not enough to stop my own experimenting, why?

Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder.

Cortico-Basal Ganglia-Thalamo-Cortical Loop is a system of neural circuits in the brain that primarily consists of modulatory dopaminergic projections from the pars compacta of the substantia nigra, and ventral tegmental area as well as excitatory glutamatergic projections from the cortex to the striatum, where these projections form synapses with excitatory and inhibitory pathways that relay back to the cortex. The loop was originally proposed as a part of a model of the basal ganglia called the parallel processing model, which has been criticized and modified into another model called the center surround model. Current organization schemes characterize cortico-basal ganglia interactions as segregated parallel processing, meaning there is little convergence of distinct cortical areas in the basal ganglia. This is thought to explain the topographically organized functionality of the striatum. The striatum is organized on a rostro-caudal axis, with the rostral putamen and caudate serving associative and cognitive functions and the caudal areas serving sensorimotor function.

Psilocybin Mushroom are mushrooms that contain the psychedelic compounds psilocybin and psilocin. Common colloquial terms include magic mushrooms and shrooms. They are used mainly as an entheogen and recreational drug whose effects can include euphoria, altered thinking processes, closed and open-eye visuals, synesthesia, an altered sense of time and spiritual experiences. Biological genera containing psilocybin mushrooms include Copelandia, Galerina, Gymnopilus, Inocybe, Mycena, Panaeolus, Pholiotina, Pluteus, and Psilocybe. Over 100 species are classified in the genus Psilocybe. Psilocybin mushrooms may have been used since prehistoric times. They are possibly depicted in Stone Age rock art in Europe and Africa, and have a history of use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Many cultures have used these mushrooms in their religious rites and ceremonies.

Psychedelics impact the claustrum, a mysterious region of the brain believed to control the ego. Claustrum, taken from the Latin word for "hidden or shut away." The claustrum is an extremely thin sheet of neurons deep within the cortex, yet it reaches out to every other region of the brain.

Psilocybe Azurescens is a psychedelic mushroom whose main active compounds are psilocybin and psilocin. It is among the most potent of the tryptamine-bearing mushrooms, containing up to 1.8% psilocybin, 0.5% psilocin, and 0.4% baeocystin by dry weight, averaging to about 1.1% psilocybin and 0.15% psilocin, makes it one of the strongest mushrooms in psilocybe genus. It belongs to the family Hymenogastraceae in the order Agaricales.

Psychodysleptic is a substance That brings on a dreamlike mental state; hallucinogenic.

Peyote is a small, spineless cactus with psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline, which is a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid of the phenethylamine class, known for its hallucinogenic effects comparable to those of LSD and psilocybin.

DMT - Dimethyltryptamine is a tryptamine molecule which naturally occurs in many plants and animals. It can be consumed as a powerful psychedelic drug and has historically been prepared by various cultures for ritual and healing purposes. Rick Strassman labeled it "the spirit molecule". DMT has a relatively short duration of action, intense effects and rapid onset.

Ayahuasca is an entheogenic brew made out of Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the Psychotria viridis leaf. The brew is used as a traditional spiritual medicine in ceremonies among the Indigenous peoples of Amazonia.

5-MeO-DMT is a psychedelic of the tryptamine class. It is found in a wide variety of plant species, and a single psychoactive toad species, . Like its close relatives DMT and bufotenin (5-HO-DMT), it has been used as an entheogen in South America. 5-MeO-DMT was first synthesized in 1936, and in 1959 it was isolated as one of the psychoactive ingredients of Anadenanthera peregrina seeds used in preparing Yopo snuff.

Colorado River Toad also known as the Sonoran Desert toad, is found in northern Mexico and the southwestern United States. Its toxin, as an exudate of glands within the skin, contains 5-MeO-DMT and bufotenin.

Graham Hancock - The War on Consciousness BANNED TED TALK - Jan 12, 2013 (18:45, youtube)
Stepping Into The Fire (full ayahuasca documentary) (youtube)

Salvia Divinorum is a psychoactive plant which can induce visions and other spiritual experiences. Its native habitat is in cloud forest in the isolated Sierra Mazateca of Oaxaca, Mexico, where it grows in shady and moist locations. The plant grows to over a meter high, has hollow square stems, large leaves, and occasional white flowers with violet calyxes. Botanists have not determined whether Salvia divinorum is a cultigen or a hybrid; native plants reproduce vegetatively, rarely producing viable seed. Mazatec shamans have a long and continuous tradition of religious use of Salvia divinorum, using it to facilitate visionary states of consciousness during spiritual healing sessions. Most of the plant's local common names allude to the Mazatecs' post-Columbian belief that the plant is an incarnation of the Virgin Mary, with its ritual use also invoking that relationship. Its chief active psychoactive constituent is a structurally unique diterpenoid called salvinorin A, a potent κ-opioid and D2 receptor agonist. Salvia divinorum is generally understood to be of low toxicity (high LD50) and low addictive potential since it is a κ-opioid agonist and it has been indicated that κ-opioid agonist activation of the kappa opioid receptor as shown by salvia may, in fact, serve as a potent addiction treatment therapy.

Echinopsis Pachanoi - San Pedro cactus or Huachuma

Entheogen meaning "generating the divine within", is any psychoactive substance that induces a spiritual experience and is aimed at spiritual development. This terminology is often chosen to contrast with recreational use of the same drugs.

Acute Psychological Effects of 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “Ecstasy”) are Attenuated by the Serotonin Uptake Inhibitor Citalopram.

Ibogaine Addiction Interrupter (youtube)

Ibogaine is a naturally occurring psychoactive substance found in plants in the Apocynaceae family such as Tabernanthe iboga, Voacanga africana and Tabernaemontana undulata. It is a psychedelic with dissociative properties.

iboga Plant is a perennial rainforest shrub and psychedelic, native to western Central Africa. Iboga stimulates the central nervous system when taken in small doses and induces hallucinations in larger doses. In parts of Africa where the plant grows, the bark of the root is chewed for various pharmacological or ritualistic purposes. Ibogaine, the active alkaloid, is also used to treat substance abuse disorders and depression. A small amount of ibogaine, along with precursors of ibogaine, are found in Voacanga africana.

Alterative is medicine or treatment which works by changing processes within the body, rather than by evacuating something etc.

Esketamine nasal spray was approve by the FDA for severe depression. Esketamine nasal spray is used along with another antidepressant, taken by mouth, to manage treatment-resistant depression (TRD; depression that does not improve with treatment). Esketamine is in a class of medications called NMDA receptor antagonists. Esketamine acts primarily as a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. It also acts to some extent as a dopamine reuptake inhibitor but, unlike ketamine, does not interact with the sigma receptors. The compound is the S(+) enantiomer of ketamine, which is an anesthetic and dissociative similarly. It is unknown whether its antidepressant action is superior, inferior or equal to racemic ketamine and its opposite enantiomer, arketamine, which are both being investigated for the treatment of depression.

Ketamine Ketamine is a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anesthesia. It induces a trance-like state while providing pain relief, sedation, and memory loss. Other uses include for chronic pain, sedation in intensive care, and depression. Heart function, breathing, and airway reflexes generally remain functional. Effects typically begin within five minutes when given by injection, and last up to about 25 minutes. Common side effects include agitation, confusion, or hallucinations as the medication wears off. Elevated blood pressure and muscle tremors are relatively common. Spasms of the larynx may rarely occur. Ketamine is an NMDA receptor antagonist, but it may also have other actions.

Smart  Drugs - Brain Food

Tryptophan is an α-amino acid that is used in the biosynthesis of proteins. It contains an α-amino group, an α-carboxylic acid group, and a side chain indole, classifying it as a non-polar, aromatic amino acid. It is essential in humans, meaning the body cannot synthesize it and thus it must be obtained from the diet. Tryptophan is also a precursor to the neurotransmitters serotonin and melatonin.

Biopharmaceutical - Semi-Synthesized

Meditation - Spiritual Guides

New compound related to psychedelic ibogaine could treat addiction, depression. Ibogaine is extracted from the plant Tabernanthe iboga. There are anecdotal reports that it can have powerful anti-addiction effects such as reducing drug cravings and preventing relapse. But there are also serious side-effects, including hallucinations and cardiac toxicity, and the drug is a Schedule 1 controlled substance under U.S. law. Olson's laboratory at UC Davis is one of a few in the U.S. licensed to work with Schedule 1 substances. They set out to create a synthetic analog of ibogaine which retained therapeutic properties without the undesired effects of the psychedelic compound. Olson's team worked through a series of similar compounds by swapping out parts of the ibogaine molecule. They engineered a new, synthetic molecule which they named tabernanthalog or TBG. Unlike ibogaine, the new molecule is water-soluble and can be synthesized in a single step. Experiments with cell cultures and zebrafish show that it is less toxic than ibogaine, which can cause heart attacks and has been responsible for several deaths. TBG increased formation of new dendrites (branches) in rat nerve cells, and of new spines on those dendrites. That's similar to the effect of drugs like ketamine, LSD, MDMA and DMT (the active component in the plant extract ayahuasca) on connections between nerve cells. TBG did not, however, cause a head twitch response in mice, which is known to correlate with hallucinations in humans. A series of experiments in rodent models of depression and addiction show that the new drug has promising positive effects. These animal models -- conducted in accordance with NIH regulations and reviewed and approved by Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees -- remain vital to investigating complex psychiatric disorders. Mice trained to drink alcohol cut back their consumption after a single dose of TBG. Rats were trained to associate a light and tone with pressing a lever to get a dose of heroin. When the opiate is taken away, the rats develop signs of withdrawal and press the lever again when given the light and sound cues. Treating the rats with TBG had a long-lasting effect on opiate relapse.

Perspective - Changing the way you Think

Weed changes your perspective. It's like you're using a whole new set of parameters to think with. It's like you're running a different program. It activates receptors in the brain that are normally not active. The drug effects the memory and you recall different memories and understand those memories differently. It also temporally effects the file system that you use to remember things, so things that you usually find easy to remember, are some how not so easy to remember. The downside of drug use is that there is no system restore or a quick reset button or undo button, which would be cool because then you could analyze the differences in your thinking behavior a little easier. But for now the only reset button is to stop the drug for 24hrs and get 8 hours of sleep. But even after that, do I even know what reset is? I usually wake up to random thoughts. You need a systems check or a reality check. Some secret question or password hint that lets me know that I'm still me. What would be my keywords? What would be my short message service? What would be the perfect tweet? Weed changes the program that was uploaded to your brain from the mass media and from the educational institutions. This is why the wealthy and powerful hate weed, because when the the person is high, they're not running that brainwashing program anymore, people are thinking differently and asking questions. People are beginning to realize that this assimilation software sucks. So now we're making a new and better software. So people will have more than just windows, people will have also have doors too. People will not just be looking out, but looking in, and going inside and outside freely when they need to. There is no box, just lots of spaces to explore.

Parameter is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when identifying the system, or when evaluating its performance, status, condition, etc.. Patterns - Effects.

Dissociation is a break in how your mind handles information. You may feel disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories, and surroundings. It can affect your sense of identity and your perception of time. The symptoms often go away on their own. It may take hours, days, or weeks. Dissociation in psychology is any of a wide array of experiences, ranging from a mild emotional detachment from the immediate surroundings, to a more severe disconnection from physical and emotional experiences. The major characteristic of all dissociative phenomena involves a detachment from reality, rather than a loss of reality as in psychosis. Dissociation is commonly displayed on a continuum. In mild cases, dissociation can be regarded as a coping mechanism or defense mechanism in seeking to master, minimize or tolerate stress – including boredom or conflict. At the non-pathological end of the continuum, dissociation describes common events such as daydreaming. Further along the continuum are non-pathological altered states of consciousness. More pathological dissociation involves dissociative disorders, including dissociative fugue and depersonalization disorder with or without alterations in personal identity or sense of self. These alterations can include: a sense that self or the world is unreal (depersonalization and derealization); a loss of memory (amnesia); forgetting identity or assuming a new self (fugue); and separate streams of consciousness, identity and self (dissociative identity disorder, formerly termed multiple personality disorder) and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Dissociative disorders are sometimes triggered by trauma, but may be preceded only by stress, psychoactive substances, or no identifiable trigger at all. Although some dissociative disruptions involve amnesia, other dissociative events do not. Dissociative disorders are typically experienced as startling, autonomous intrusions into the person's usual ways of responding or functioning. Due to their unexpected and largely inexplicable nature, they tend to be quite unsettling. Splitting.

Deep posteromedial cortical rhythm in dissociation. In mice and one person, scientists were able to reproduce the altered state often associated with ketamine by inducing certain brain cells to fire together in a slow-rhythmic fashion.

One Thought Leads to Another Thought.

The moment I leave my bed, or right after my first bathroom break, I like to do my systems check. I start with relaxing my entire face. Then relax the rest of my body. I pay attention to my breathing. Then slowly begin to stretch. recalling yesterdays events and thinking about today's responsibilities. Make a habit of looking at your "To Do List" before you take a break. "One of the keys to change behavior is to change people's goals and intentions. Like eating the ice cream with your non-dominant hand. What this does is disrupt the learned body sequence that's driving the behavior, which allows your conscious mind to come back online and reassert control."

If the drug makes you smarter, then eventually you should become smart enough not to need the drug at all.

"Sometimes people just don't know what questions to ask, internally or externally. And if you don't know what questions to ask you will most likely never get the answers you need."

"Even being addicted to learning could be problematic, especially if you learn the wrong things at the wrong time. When you learn things in the wrong sequence, you could easily jump to conclusions and make mistakes. We need to learn things in the correct sequence, it will save a lot of time."

Though Marijuana is the safest drug that I have ever done, marijuana still has its dangers. With so many types of marijuana, which one is right for me? I can't do it everyday, so how much is actually safe? Zero or a little? I noticed that when I stopped smoking weed for a week or more every once in a while it helped put things in perspective. Call it Detoxification, fasting, change, rebooting or just reevaluation. Which ever way you want to look at it, it's necessary. And not just with drugs but also with food, hobbies or other activities. And it wasn't that difficult considering I only took a couple of drags a day, and usually it was at the end of the day when work was over. Another thing I noticed was that when I took Hemp Protein it reduced the craving for marijuana. That's one of the reasons why I like Medical Marijuana Dispensaries because they offer multiple Alternatives for consuming the same drug. Some alternatives being Healthier then just smoking weed. So I wonder if other drugs like cocaine had healthier alternative methods for consuming, it might help someone Wean themselves off from their addiction, like chewing Coca Leaves to take a way the Craving for Cocaine? 

You can change your Perspective without Drugs. You can see the world differently and you can feel totally different, just by meditating, reading a book, watching a movie, listening to music, exercising, talking to someone, starting a New Hobby, Cook a Delicious and Healthy Meal and so on and so on. The only drug you need is knowledge, knowledge that provides you with the necessary skills to change your perspective.

I never looked at it that way before. I never thought about it in that way before or thought about it from that point of view. I should document this so that I can remember this tomorrow and in the future. What did I learn? And do I understand learning?

You only remember information that you know, or that you perceive to know. And knowing is not a fact, knowing is just an acknowledgement of some information.

People don't realize just how important having a good awareness is...Drugs change your awareness, it changes your thinking, it uses different areas of the brain to process information, it recalls different memories and remembers them differently. Even your dreams change. And each drug has it owns unique effect on different areas of the brain. But all of it is not bad. Drugs can help expand learning if used correctly. But when drugs are abused then all the possible benefits are negated, and you become too sedated and delusional, which is a missed opportunity to improve your life. This is why sometimes Drugs can help people with mental problems. But only if it's done right and under the right guidance. If not, then drugs become extremely dangerous to the user. It's like having children playing with fire, it seems harmless at first, but having very little experience means that you are prone to mistakes, with some mistakes being fatal. So do these new parameters have any benefits? What are the dangers? You really need to study these changes, but you need to have enough knowledge and information in order to understand these changes and be able to ask the right questions. We need to design a questionnaire and design brain games, and have an overall check of the human senses and how they are effected. We have learned so much, but we still have so much more to learn. This is another reason why drug education is so extremely important. And it's not just knowing the drug, but understanding all the different reactions that people have to drugs. Besides, drugs are just a few of the thousands of elements that are in our environment that need our full attention. So it wouldn't be just drug education, it would be more about human reactions to their environment. 

Drugs in small amounts to treat depression - Dosage

"It's not so much an addiction problem but more of a memory problem. We forget what we have learned and we forget to apply our knowledge and focus when needed."

Replacing Bad Habits with Good Habits - Replace Old Thoughts with New Thoughts

Change is coming, ready or not, you will need to adapt. One of the best things about having something better to think about, is that it leaves no time to think about nonsensical things that are not worth thinking about.

Lifestyle Changes are the changes that you make in your daily routine that will improve your health and well being. Like eating healthier and not over eating. Exercising and being more active outdoors. Sleeping enough. Having more balance in your life. Taking breaks when necessary. Avoiding things that can compromise your mental health. Learning something new everyday and continually educating yourself on a regular basis. Reprogram.

Transform - Parameters -  Substitute - Mantras - Self Hypnosis - Subconscious - Sleep Learning

Behavior is kind of like a computer program running on a computer. And a computer program is a set of instructions that tells the computer what to do, but you have to push a button in order to activate the program. Now let's say that you had know idea that you were pushing the button that activated a program that made you do certain things, and you do these things every time you unknowingly pushed that button, whether it's several times a day, or once a week. Your behavior is a program. It's time to learn how to program a computer, but this computer is your brain. You need to learn how to replace bad habits with good habits, because we all know the power of repetition. So if you're going to have any kind of habits at all, it better be good habits, habits that actually benefit you. This way your life will continually improve instead of continually degrade. If you're going to be addicted to something it should be an addiction that benefits you. But even then, you still need control, you still need balance, you still need awareness, and you still need to know when and how to modify your actions. So behavior is a set of instructions, and these instructions are formed by the experiences that you had in your life, and they are also formed by the information and knowledge that you have learned in your life, and over time these elements create a particular behavior. So you need to define these instructions that are in your brain so that you can modify them in a way that benefits you, and also at the same time benefits everyone and everything around you. Labeling things with words helps our brain process that information easier and more accurately. When you discover a particular part of a behavior that you can describe with a word, or words, then when you experience that behavior again you have a better understanding of it. Words are powerful tools, words are more then just symbols, numbers and letters. The reason why we can speak before we can read is because our brain is built for language, and this gift of communication is our greatest strength. A computer program is a time saver because it repeats many different actions without you having to do each action separately and manually every time you want to perform a certain function. A behavior is also a time saver because you don't have to think about all the different details of why this behavior is important, so your brain is free to process other information. The only time you need to know all the details of a program, or a behavior, is when you need to modify it, or change it. Alternative Reinforcers. New Procedure.

Switching a bad habit with a good habit that is more productive and healthy. Every time you catch your self thinking a bad habit or doing a bad habit, start doing the other good habit that you want to replace the bad habit with. Every time you are aware of your bad habit, you are now also aware of the good habit too, so eventually the good habit will take over.

Keystone Habits lead to the development of multiple good habits. They start a chain effect in your life that produces a number of positive outcomes. Three great good Keystone habits are exercising, eating healthy and learning something valuable each day so that you acquire some knowledge and information that will give you a better understanding of yourself and the world around you.

2 Minute Rule. Making yourself do something for 2 minutes each day. Starting a new habit should never take more than two minutes to do. When you only have to do something that will take 2 minutes, you are more likely to do it and not be discourage by the amount of time that's needed. That's the trick. If you just start a task that you have been putting off, and stop ignoring something needed to do because of you perceive this activity as being boring or not important, or maybe it's something that doesn't appeal to you, so you lack the motivation to do it, what ever the excuse is, if you just start it, usually, you will do it for more than just 2 minutes and eventually form a new beneficial habit, or finish a particular task, or at the least, put in the necessary time that's needed in order to reach a particular goal. Just do It, 2 Minutes, Each Day. 1 Minute Principle - 20 Minutes a Day.

Compartmentalization of Thoughts and Experiences helps you to control and manage certain thoughts and memories of past experiences. The compartment symbolizes the name of the folder that the thought or experience is now in. When a thought or memory is distracting you, it's good idea to give that thought or memory a name. A name the makes you realize that this particular thought or memory is now in the folder named "emotional attachment removed". So when that thought or memory returns, you know how to react. You are not forgetting the feeling that you use to have, you have just replace the old feeling with a new feeling with a more positive reaction. This releases the negativity that has been haunting you, and when this negativity has been released, you will now have more room for positive energy. Your power and control is now activated. But you still have to flip the switch and activate those particular brain neurons. It's your responsibility to maintain these connections and keep them strong. Learning is Key. Seeing the Whole Picture.

"When a stupid thought or worry enters your mind, just remind yourself that you have better things to think about. Just tell yourself, "Sorry, but I can't take your call right now, I'm on the other line with a very important client, myself."

Some habits will take about three months for a change to become routine. Plan ahead and be realistic. Successful resolvers focus on achievable goals. You have to do some self-monitoring and record and track your progress. Reinforce progress at certain milestones with healthy rewards. Cues that can trigger your bad habit should be removed from your home. Publicly announce your resolutions and write them down. Avoid blaming yourself if you slip up. Replace a bad habit with a good habit.

Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion. Most changes don't have to start out as big changes. You can make small changes or small moves that are perfectly calculated. Tiny habit changes can add up to one big habit change. Small improvements can add up to one big improvement. Reinforce the change by giving yourself some emotional support. Feel good about yourself and your small successes, and remember how good you feel about it. Remind yourself that this is a good thing and make sure that you remind yourself just how important this change is, and that this is part of a much bigger picture. Thank yourself, be grateful. Feel good about it and feel happy about it. Let yourself know that you appreciate your effort and that you recognize the steps that you're taking. Having an Emotional attachment to a new beneficial behavior will make it more enjoyable because you understand the responsibility and the benefits that will come from it. Make an appointment everyday for that important change, choose the day, choose the time and choose the place. Make sure that you have everything you need to succeed. Design your environment, make it work.

Reinvent Yourself is to build a better version of yourself by changing outdated habits, routines and roles that keep you from living a fuller life. Changing the direction of your life by making a new set of choices, setting a new set of goals and objectives and drawing out a plan for achieving them and building a new set of patterns and behaviors that are aligned with the goals you want to achieve. You need to potentially give up things that you have been clinging onto for many years. This will take sacrifices and a commitment to doing things differently. Reboot.

Dopamine Fasting is to abstain from any experience that brings a perceived pleasure in order to increase the ability to control it and understand its effects.

Urge Surfing is a technique that can be used to avoid acting on any behavior that you want to reduce or stop. Abstinence.

Desensitization in medicine is a method to reduce or eliminate an organism's negative reaction to a substance or stimulus.

Programming - Reprograming

Program is a series of steps to be carried out or goals to be accomplished. A system of projects or services intended to meet a public need. An integrated course of academic studies. Computer Program.

Programming is setting an order and time for planned events. Creating a sequence of instructions to enable the computer to do something. The software or design logic that controls a machine.

Finding the necessary vocabulary or software to change your inner monologue.

Reprogram is to program something again, sometimes in a different way.

Adaptive Behavior is a type of behavior that is used to adjust to another type of behavior or situation. This is often characterized as a kind of behavior that allows an individual to change a nonconstructive or disruptive behavior to something more constructive.

Whether you call your addiction a disease or a disorder doesn't matter, because it's still a behavior problem. And learning how that behavior works, and learning how your behavior controls you, takes a lot of work. You have to learn how to analyze, examine and assess all the different elements that causes your behavior to be activated. You have to learn what things in your past created this behavior, and what things in your present thinking that helps reinforce this behavior. Behaviors are learned, so new behaviors can be learned and old behaviors can be modified. This means you can adapt to a reality that is more accurate, a reality that is more productive, a reality that is more stable. and a reality that is a lot more happier. But learning to correctly analyze yourself and all the information and knowledge that you are processing every day is not easy, but it's not impossible. First you have to understand all the different ways that you learn and then choose the best learning method that works best for you. Then you have to have access to the right information and knowledge that you need, because everyone is a little different, you might need certain information that pertains to you and your personal experiences. And once you start this process, everyday will bring more control and more understanding of yourself and the world around you. You will also discover all the potential that you have and all the different possibilities that this potential will give you. And when you get to that point you will never be bored again or be vulnerable to illogical thinking. It may take a year or two or more, but it's totally worth it because the benefits will be endless. Don't waste time regretting the mistakes that you made or regret the time that you lost, just be thankful that you finally learned from those experiences, and that you now have the world at your fingertips and you have a future that you can see and you have the power to create a positive influence.

Change Bad Habits (wiki-how) - Change and Replace

Thought Suppression is when an individual consciously attempts to stop thinking about a particular thought.

Depression Loop is a cycle of negative thoughts, feelings, sensations and behaviors. You have to learn how to avoid these downward spirals and negative spin.

Practice - Brain Plasticity

If you believe that your reaction to a particular memory is beneficial to you, then keep that interpretation that memory. but if you believe that your reaction to a particular memory is not beneficial to you, then paint a different picture. You still have the memory, you just react to it in a more beneficial way.

Paint a Different Picture is to describe something or show something in a particular way or in a specific way that is different from the original, in order to show a different point of view, or improve the way of looking at something.

Adults can Still Learn - Therapy

Behavior is the range of actions and mannerisms made by individuals, organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with themselves or their environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the (inanimate) physical environment. It's the manner of acting or controlling yourself and the way a person behaves toward other people. The action or reaction of something (as a machine or substance) under specified circumstances. The way in which an animal or person acts in response to a particular situation or stimulus.

Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

Displacement Activity occurs when an animal experiences high motivation for two or more conflicting behaviours: the resulting displacement activity is usually unrelated to the competing motivations. A human may scratch his or her head when they do not know which of two options to choose. Displacement activities may also occur when animals are prevented from performing a single for which they are highly motivated. Displacement activities often involve actions which bring comfort to the animal such as scratching, preening, drinking or feeding.

Unhealthy Attachments

Cognitive Inertia refers to the tendency for beliefs or sets of beliefs to endure once formed. In particular, cognitive inertia describes the human inclination to rely on familiar assumptions and exhibit a reluctance and/or inability to revise those assumptions, even when the evidence supporting them no longer exists or when other evidence would question their accuracy.

"If you sense your craving is about to be triggered, take a short, brisk walk. A 15-minute walk reduces the urge, reduce cue- or stress-related cravings."

Lewin's Equation is a formula that states that behavior is a function of the person and his or her environment. B = f(P, E). B is behavior, P is Person, and E is the environment.

Indirection is manipulating a value through its memory address.

Awareness of Thoughts - Human Operating System

I had to put my foot down and put my beer down. I had a good run. I had a lot of fun. It's time to put down the rum. There comes a time in a persons life when change is inevitable. A new way of living has arrived. No longer need to chance it. So face it, and embrace it, and don't waste it. Things need to be done.

Memory Erasure is the selective artificial removal of memories or associations from the mind.

Memory Consolidation - False Memory - Propaganda - Internal Propaganda

Brain Plasticity - 10,000 Hour Rule - Brain Maintenance

Thoughts happen for a reason. If you know the reasons why certain thoughts were triggered and recalled, then you can analyze the thoughts and determine if the thoughts are accurate, or if the thoughts are incorrect. If the thoughts have no benefit and are not important, then you can delete the thoughts or rewrite the thoughts in a more beneficial way, or in a more productive way. You need to change how you remember the thought so that you can update the program. That includes understanding the triggers that activates these thoughts and determining if the triggers are necessary or even relevant. You are the writer of the program, which means that you are also the editor of all the programs that you have in your memory. Every fear that you have, every doubt, every memory attached to an emotion, and every experience that you can remember, they can all be edited or updated. And sometimes the ability to edit your own thoughts will require new knowledge and new information, so you might have to learn a few things first. Old outdate code needs to be replaced with new and improved code.

You are the Master Gardner of your thoughts, you weed out bad thoughts and then reap the rewards of a harvest of good thoughts.

Triggers - Activators

Trigger is any form of stimuli that can influence or set in motion a desire to engage in a bad or addictive behavior.

Trauma Trigger is a psychological stimulus or cue that prompts recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent or a piece of clothing. Triggers can be subtle and difficult to anticipate. A trauma trigger may also be called a trauma stimulus, a trauma stressor or a trauma reminder. The process of connecting a traumatic experience to a trauma trigger is called traumatic coupling.

Cues - Reflex - Buzzwords - Trigger a Memory - Memory Cues

Triggers come in many forms and can come from many different places. Behavior triggers, craving triggers (food advertisements), emotional triggers (news media) or perceived negative emotions can sometimes lead people to use drugs or alcohol and can easily lead a person back to their drug of choice or behavior of choice. Sometimes it's impossible to avoid triggers like feeling sad, feeling angry, feeling guilty, feeling hungry, feeling tired or feeling lonely. So you have to be aware and have a plan on how to effectively control or handle these particular moments that may trigger responses. Environmental triggers are factors in a persons environment that may have played a part in bringing on an eating disorder in an individual with a genetic and biological predisposition. Stress could also be a relapse trigger because of its broad range of effects on the mind and body. Becoming over-confident may also put you at risk for relapse. Positive life events are often overlooked as relapse triggers. Reminiscing about or glamorising past drug use may also put you at risk for relapse. Depression, anxiety, and other underlying mental illnesses can be a trigger. Social anxiety or social isolation and social situations or places where drugs are available may also put you at risk for relapse. Sex and relationships may also be a trigger at times. Sleep disturbances may also put you at risk for a trigger. An internal trigger is something going on inside our minds or bodies that promotes the urge to relapse. There are natural plants that can reduce triggers and cravings, but you still need to educate yourself and learn a lot of different things. A lot of this knowledge and information is on Basic knowledge 101.

Why does taking one drug create a craving for another drug? Drinking alcohol could cause a relapse and create a craving to smoke a cigarette or to take other drugs. Alcohol lowers your ability to exercise self control. Does alcohol also create a chemical reaction that causes a craving? How the Body can Affect the Mind, and vice versa. Breathing.

Trigger Warning is a message presented to an audience about the contents of a book or other media, to warn them that it contains potentially distressing material or difficult material that is marred with sexual or violent material, or racially, politically, or religiously charged topics. Movies Rated R.

Activate is to put in motion and initiate a reaction, a device or a circuit. Make active or more active, which means to exert influence or produce a change or an effect. Actuator.

Some people have trouble controlling their demons, or for better words, bad habits. It seems the biggest influence, or trigger, is people, but of course that can be just a copout and a poor excuse. It's all you, even the influences are created by you. So there's no justifying it. You have to continue to defeat each demon one by one. And as you do, you will feel a new energy. Eliminating vices from your life is an exhilarating experience. You free yourself from confinement of an addiction that was doing you more harm then good. To free yourself, is to be yourself. And when you become aware that you are in control, and you learn to use these controls, and have a firm understanding of its knowledge, this control produces a new strength. You begin to see more possibilities. Being in control of your impulses, your thoughts, your moods, your environment, your situation, is liberating. Freedom of choice is powerful. But it's something that you have to learn, practice and maintain. It's a skill that everyone should learn. If everyone had the skill of will power, that would fix a lot of problems in the world. Life can be so weird sometimes. There's an entire spectrum of human behaviors that controls our every move, every action we take is almost predetermined. We have become more like robots and machines. We have lost touch with our intelligence, our human spirit, our souls. So it feels great to be in-touch again. We have a lot of catching up to do. Impulsivity (habits).

Sometimes we do things without thinking. We must challenge our reality from time to time each day, because we can adapt to our environment so well that at times we become blind to the changes, changes that could kill us. Like a magic trick, we are easily fooled. But it's not Magic to the magician. So we have to learn to be like magicians. So that we are aware of our vulnerabilities, and our blind spots. And like a magician, you have to practice your tricks every day so that you become proficient and effective. Everyone is OCD in varying degrees. We are not as conscious as we think we are. You have to measure the effectiveness of your consciousness. These are my thoughts, these are my actions, and this is how I benefit from these actions and thoughts. We have to focus on things that we normally don't think about. Beyond being self-conscience, we have to be aware of what we're thinking about. You have to be aware of what you're doing. We have to exercise our consciousness. We have to see how many times in a day that we can be aware of what we're thinking about and what we're doing. What were you thinking about? What were you doing? Did you like what you were thinking about? Did you like what you were doing? Why did you not like about it? And what did you like about it? We are out of sync with ourselves and each other. Consciousness is another human ability that we are not using to our advantage. Autonomous.

Learn to control the sub-conscious mind, instead of having it control you.

The subconscious mind is very useful. We can do things without having to think about them, so we can focus on other things that are more important. Like being able to walk and talk at the same time, or listening to someone and writing something down at the same time, or driving your car but thinking about something else, which could be dangerous, because the subconscious mind also has vulnerabilities and a weaknesses. If the subconscious mind is doing something that is harming you, then the subconscious mind becomes a curse instead of a blessing. So you need to be aware of your subconscious mind and control the on and off switch. You shouldn't be running in the automatic mode all the time, because you may become vulnerable to a self-inflicted mind control.

Experiential Avoidance has been broadly defined as attempts to avoid thoughts, feelings, memories, physical sensations, and other internal experiences—even when doing so creates harm in the long-run. The process of EA is thought to be maintained through negative reinforcement—that is, short-term relief of discomfort is achieved through avoidance, thereby increasing the likelihood that the behavior will persist. Importantly, the current conceptualization of EA suggests that it is not negative thoughts, emotions, and sensations that are problematic, but how one responds to them that can cause difficulties. In particular, a habitual and persistent unwillingness to experience uncomfortable thoughts and feelings (and the associated avoidance and inhibition of these experiences) is thought to be linked to a wide range of problems.

Expressive Suppression is an aspect of emotion regulation. It is a concept “based on individuals’ emotion knowledge, which includes knowledge about the causes of emotion, about their bodily sensations and expressive behavior, and about the possible means of modifying them” (Niedenthal, 2006, 157). In other words, expressive suppression signifies the act of masking facial giveaways in order to hide a current emotional state. In fact, simply suppressing the facial expressions that accompany certain emotions can affect “the individual’s experience of emotion” (Niedenthal, 2006, 165). According to a study done by Kopel & Arkowitz (1974), repressing the facial expressions associated with pain actually decreased the experience of pain in participants. However, Niedenthal (2006) states that “there is little evidence that the suppression of spontaneous emotional expression leads to decrease in emotional experience and physiological arousal apart from the manipulation of the pain expressions”.

Thought Suppression is best when thoughts are replace with logical thoughts that produce positive actions.

"Who looks outside, Dreams, Who looks insides, Awakens."  Carl Jung

"Life is a series of adjustments; You can make adjustments along the way, but if you don't start moving forward you will never get any where." (Kimora Lee Simmons)

"We are the sum of our memories and our experiences. It's time that we examine what we remember and how those memories and experiences effect the way we see ourselves, and the world."

"In order to change you have to learn how to change, you have to be prepared for change, and be ready for change. You have to understand your choices, you have to exercise these new choices to help strengthen this new improved behavior so that you do not slip and fall and forget why these new changes are important. Change is a process, not an event. I'm going to change, I'm going to make better choices."

Awareness - Breathing Exercises

"When schools and education finally do improve, addictions will be a thing of the past."

"Just remember, you're not Broken."

"When you make the choice not to indulge your desire, decide and then take a deep breath, this combines the body and mind in memory, and also reconfirms your control over your body."

There's a Remedy for everything, for everything is Cause and Effect. Find the cause, define the effect, and then counteract.

High Functioning

High Functioning is a misnomer, like a genius who can't tie his own shoes. To say that someone is high-functioning, but on the other hand, say that they also have a serious problem, is misleading. Everyone is a high-functioning idiot of some sort, or maybe we're all just evil geniuses. Many people are not totally aware of what they're doing to themselves or doing to other people. People lack knowledge and information that would help them to understand the full impact of their actions. That's because the education system is flawed, and our media outlets are manipulated. This is why we have High-Functioning corrupt politicians, High-Functioning murderers, High-Functioning criminals, High-Functioning rapists, High-Functioning scumbags, High-Functioning junk food eaters, High-Functioning racists, High-Functioning abusers, High-Functioning liars, High-Functioning propagandists or news casters, High-Functioning priests, High-Functioning pedophiles, High-Functioning TV addicts, High-Functioning money addicts, High-Functioning power addicts, High-Functioning attention seekers, High-Functioning egomaniacs, High-Functioning corporate polluters, High-Functioning bankers or thief's, High-Functioning sports enhancing drug cheaters, we can go on like this forever. Everyone has problems, maybe not as extreme as yours, but they could easily be more damaging than yours. A high-functioning addict has the same characteristics of all the High-Functioning Dysfunctional's, people who live a double life, people who live a life in contradiction. They are the masters of disguise, and the masters of denial, able to keep their problem hidden from family members, friends, the public, and even themselves. They are able to stay in relationships, maintain friendships, hold down good jobs, maintain a successful appearance, they can act intelligent and charismatic, they can maintain a high standard of living, they can even be very productive. Is this a Chronic Brain Disease? No, and yes. The disease is called ignorance, or lack of knowledge and information. Ignorance is the most damaging disease on the planet. People believe they are thinking rationally. People believe they are living a good life, which turned out to be a good lie. But we are just realizing the power and the benefits of knowledge and information. We are also just realizing how incredibly inadequate are schools are, even though some people have pointed out this problem decades ago. But we haven't learned this because we don't teach this, and we also have an incredibly corrupt media outlets who refuse to accurately inform the public and make people more conscious and more aware and more knowledgeable. So when we improve education, and improve the flow of valuable knowledge and information, then everyone will be high-functioning intelligent humans, with only small insignificant abnormalities, ones that we are aware of, ones that we are learning to understand and control. All because we started learning the right things more completely, more effectively and more efficiently. What a concept. 

I'm High, but Functioning. Now that sounds crazy, you must be high. To what degree are you functioning? And can you accurately assess your own mental capacity? How can the word 'High' be next to the word Functioning? You would have to define Functioning, and then define what being High means? You can experience High-Functioning Depression, but that would also need to be defined? You have problems, but you're good at hiding them. Denial is a dangerous game because it does not solve problems, it makes problems worse, and not just for you, but everyone else who is victimized by your behavior.

"You are what you know, and if you don't know enough, then you will never be aware enough."

Songs that Glamorize our Drug Abuse Problems

Of course there are plenty songs about drugs, and movies, and books, and magazines and so on. So the problem is here. We don't have a drug problem, we have an education problem. Singing about our problems does not educate us enough about our problems. Even songs about learning will not teach us enough. We need to improve education in many areas.

Songs about Drugs (wiki) - Drug use in Songs (wiki)

Song Facts - Drug Songs

Songs with Hidden Drug References

Sia - Chandelier and Tove lo - Habits are two good songs, but they may send the wrong message to some people. I relate to them only in memory of a behavior that I let go of. How do we glamorize drug use without influencing people to believe that drug use is the answer, which it's not, because drug use is a question and not the answer. These songs would be just as good if they were about ignorant ways of dealing with your problems, and gave the alternatives and better choices on how to deal with your problems, like how to Learn. 

Paul Revere and The Raiders - Kicks (youtube) - Girl, you thought you found the answer, On that magic carpet ride last night, But when you wake up in the mornin', The world still gets you uptight, Well, there's nothin' that you ain't tried, To fill the emptiness inside, When you come back down, girl, Still ain't feelin' right. And don't it seem like, Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find, And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind, Before you find out it's too late, girl, You better get straight, No, but not with kicks you just need help, girl. Well you think you're gonna find yourself. A little piece of paradise, But it ain't happened yet, so girl, you better think twice, Don't you see no matter what you do, You'll never run away from you, And if you keep on runnin' you'll have to pay the price. And don't it seem like, Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find, And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind, Before you find out it's too late, girl, You better get straight. No, you don't need kicks, To help you face the world each day, That road goes nowhere, I'm gonna help you find yourself another way. Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find, And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind, (Oh, you don't need kicks, girl), Before you find out it's too late, girl, You better get straight, (You just need help, girl). Kicks just keep gettin' harder to find. And all your kicks ain't bringin' you peace of mind. (Oh, you don't need kicks, girl), Before you find out it's too late, girl, You better get straight, (You just need help, girl).

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats - S.O.B. (Lyrics)  "Son of a bitch, Give me a drink"

Oasis - Champagne Supernova - How many special people change? How many lives are living strange? Where were you while we were getting high?

Jefferson Airplane-White Rabbit, Go Ask Alice (youtube)
One pill makes you larger, and one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you, don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice, when she's ten feet tall.
And if you go chasing rabbits, and you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar has given you the call
He called Alice, when she was just small.
When the men on the chessboard get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom, and your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice, I think she'll know
When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's off with her head
Remember what the Dormouse said
Feed your head, feed your head.

"White Rabbit" is a song written by Grace Slick and recorded by the American rock band Jefferson Airplane for their 1967 album Surrealistic Pillow. It was released as a single and became the band's second top-10 success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was ranked number 478 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Number 116 on Rate Your Music's Top Singles of All Time, and appears on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 novel written by English author Lewis Carroll (the pseudonym of Charles Dodgson). It tells of a young girl named Alice, who falls through a rabbit hole into a subterranean fantasy world populated by peculiar, anthropomorphic creatures.