Drugs Don’t Get You High, Brain Chemicals Do

Drugs Don’t Get You High, Brain Chemicals Do. In this infographic, you’ll see that drugs don’t get people high directly.  Instead, it’s the way drugs interact with chemicals that are already in your brain called neurotransmitters that cause feelings of euphoria and a general state of being “high.”  But as it turns out, it’s the brain’s way of fighting off these effects that eventually causes severe neurological addictions.

In order to prevent the interference with neurotransmitters, the brain and central nervous system develop tolerance to certain substances.  However, this often drives people to take more of the drug more frequently to achieve the desired effects.  Over time, this leads to addiction, and it can happen with a surprising number of substances.  In fact, anything that causes interference with key neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, endorphins, glutamate and others can cause addiction.  Check out the infographic to learn more, or skip below for the bio and references:

References:

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/science-addiction/drugs-brain

http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/cocaine
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