Popular myths among drug users are prevalent, and perhaps none of these myths are as well-established since the misconception it is not possible to become hooked on hallucinogens. While physical dependence and addiction to hallucinogens does not occur as rapidly as addiction to opiates, barbiturates, benzodiazepines or alcohol, it does happen and might have severe results. Because those who use hallucinogens experience significant distortions in what they see, hear and feel, chronic usage of these substances can lead to a number of psychological and physiological problems, including addiction syndrome.
Hallucinogens are an arduous class of drug to define but generally include any drugs that cause prominent altered states of perception that greatly distort a user’s capability to differentiate between what’s a hallucination and what’s reality. The most typical and well-known hallucinogen is LSD or Lysergic Acid Diethylamide – a powerful hallucinogen synthesized from spurned wheat or corn ergot. Other hallucinogens include Ecstasy, PCP, Psilocybin, Mescaline, Ketamine and Dextromethorphan. And although some people might argue that not many of these drugs are true hallucinogens, they all cause addiction.
In general LSD, ecstasy, psilocybin and mescaline are considered true hallucinogens and work by disrupting the brain’s ability to produce and utilize serotonin. Serotonin helps you to regulate sleeping patterns, mood and sexual desire, among other things. Other drugs that aren’t true hallucinogens – like Ketamine, PCP and Dextromethorphan – block the neurotransmitter glutamate, which can be accountable for controlling cognitive functions like learning and memory.
Whether true hallucinogen or not, many of these drugs cause major disruptions in the senses and deprive the mind of its ability to use normally. In response the human body will make changes in the central nervous system to adjust to and mitigate the effects of these drugs. With time and with continued use these changes be much more permanent, culminating at a place where the human body only functions “normally” once the drug is in the system. This is recognized as physical dependency. While not the same as addiction, many people consider physical dependency and addiction to be synonymous with each other.
However, while addiction is a clinical, neurological disease psychedelic mushroom chocolate bars on the market California, it is frequently classified by a group of behaviors as opposed to physical signs or symptoms. The reason being hallucinogens cause the pleasure and reward center in the mind to be stimulated. Once the mind associates a drug with a feeling of “reward,” it will continue to work to recreate that feeling whenever possible. Therefore, the longer a person runs on the hallucinogen like LSD or ecstasy, the more associations are built in the mind that not only “remembers” the pleasurable feeling of hallucinating, but also the environments in which the use took place.
This entire associative process builds neurological pathways in the mind to service them. Since these pathways have a primary purpose to recreate the pleasurable event, they cause severe and uncontrollable cravings in an individual to have on top of the drug again and again, and true addiction is born.
Addiction to hallucinogens is simply as real and life threatening as addictions to drugs like heroin and cocaine. And because ab muscles nature of addiction does not allow most sufferers to seek help by themselves, it’s your responsibility to have help if someone you adore is fighting an addiction to hallucinogens.