Comment:
Yes, I have found as a spouse of an addict that self-care is absolutely crucial to survival. You are so right that is is not selfish, but actually necessary to be able to have something to give to others.
Out of curiosity, do you think that pot has a similar effect on the emotions as alcohol, or are the two different?
Response:
Yes, Charlotte, 1000%. They are somewhat different chemically but act on the same dopaminergic “reward” system of the brain. I get this alot, that smoking pot is all good dude. I get it even from parents and spouses, who want to convince themselves that their child or spouse is okay because they’re just smoking pot now and it’s not addictive. They say even doctors have told them it’s totally fine to puff down yo. Such wisdom and duty to the Hippocratic oath.
First of all, the meme above is somewhat inaccurate because if you’re smoking pot, you’re already in relapse, as pot is, of course, a drug, i.e. a mood/mind-altering substance, and the allergy an alcoholic/addict has to mood-altering substances crosses all lines. And yes, it is addictive. I previously quoted in “Pot” regarding the action of THC, “Via CB1 activation, THC indirectly increases dopamine release and produces psychotropic effects. Cannabidial also acts as an allosteric modulator of the mu and delta opioid receptors.”
Physical addiction is characterized by the presence of craving and withdrawal, both of which are present in spades with any regular pot smoker, and especially in the fully blown addict. Remove the pot and you are removing excessive and superficial dopamine (as with alcohol), dopamine that floods the reward system of the brain once these mu and delta opioid receptors are activated. This is precisely what happens when any other drug similarly acts on opioid receptors specifically responsible for euphoric effects on our CNS and the “muting” of pain, no pun intended.
Any superficially added dopamine when removed will cause various withdrawal effects, some physical, some psychological/emotional. First, the pothead will crave more, which is a physical event. Second, the pothead will suffer from a myriad of emotional effects – anger, depression, boredom, anxiousness, restlessness, discontent, dissatisfaction. Some will even suffer rage and become verbally abusive.
Pot UNQUESTIONABLY mutes the natural surfacing and progression of feelings and thoughts, and since it also has psychotropic effects, it can and will wreak all sorts of biochemical havoc, effecting serotonin levels etc… even despite deranged, Orwellian media outlets such as CNN ignorantly promoting pot use to your children, let alone promoting all other manner of deviance including recent pieces promoting the benefits of “cuckolding” and defending pedophilia as a sexual orientation, which is by all accounts satanic. Truly disgusting.
I only mention this because I’ve actually been called a racist and a bigot for arguing against pot use and for suggesting God and moral action as the solution for addiction. I guess tolerance only applies if you agree with the one preaching tolerance. Am I an evil, racist bigot? I’ve spent every waking moment since I recovered just trying to do the right thing, help my family and other addicts and their families. I don’t give a shit what color anybody is. All I care about is what kind of person you are and what you do. I care about character, not appearance. Perhaps it is those who only see skin color and scream racism at every turn who are the true racists.
Sorry, but when you call anyone who simply disagrees with you on a policy matter a fascist or a racist, you really should be looking in the mirror when referring to mental illness. When Dr. Seuss, the national anthem and my 3-year old daughter’s Elsa halloween costume are now racist, you really have to question the sanity of these social justice warriors, who have become perhaps one the most entitled, uniformed, ignorant, self-loathing, isolated and just plain clueless groups I have ever observed. Also, calling anyone who disagrees with you about anything a facist is, um, sort of what fascists do. That said, because I believe in and cherish freedom, I believe they can spout anything they want. It’s unfortunate, however, that their belief is that free speech only applies to them.
I suspect that behind this smug superiority complex is profound self-hatred. Moreover, this sort of derangement and irrational, despotic hatred and attack on free thought, free speech or anyone who disagrees is disturbingly similar to the demeanor of a drug addict, including potheads. The lens through which an addicted pothead perceives self, others and world is quite warped, to say the least.
So someone please shoot me in the head if I blow 200K for either of my children to attend college, suck on a bong for four years, acquire zero skill sets, major in sociology or gender studies and come home unrecognizable, psychotic and suicidal claiming that I am an evil, fascist, cisgendered, capitalist bigot, lol… before demanding cash, of course, a new iphone and a free apartment… blood money aside.
By the way, it has historically been the left that becomes violent, and it has been leftist ideologies that have sanctioned the wholesale execution of anyone who disagrees or dares to dissent. You can see how leftist groups are again becoming violent, blocking conservative speakers on college campuses and firing professors who even dare challenge the PC lunacy, which is the precise opposite of intellectual curiosity, as universities more resemble modern-day gulags rather than bastions of free thought and scientific inquiry. At the same time, students have just been offered free counseling at UCONN to soothe them of the overwhelming stress, discomfort and violent abuse they’ve suffered at the mere “thought” that Ben Shapiro might give a talk on campus. LMFAO.
The truth is that the authoritarian tyranny lies within, yet is falsely projected outward. The hatred, intolerance, racism, prejudice and bigotry lie within. The true bully lies within. You are now branded an evil bigot and can even be charged and arrested in some regions just for using biological pronouns. If this isn’t insane, I really don’t know what is.
If you want to see a person lose one, if not all, of the following – their sanity, their will, their ambition, their maturity, their wisdom, their common sense, their logic, their reason, their work ethic, their moral compass, their emotional and mental stability, their self-respect, even their personal hygiene – just observe a pothead or a progressive ideologue. I know from experience because I was also a deranged liberal many years ago when I was an active drug addict and spiritually sick. The two go hand in hand. When presented with any truth, fact, statistic or challenge that contradicts his or her worldview, they seem incapable of thinking straight or engaging rationally, if not becoming completely unraveled and enraged, with the sole defense of just calling you a moron, low-life, racist, bigot, inbred hick, blah, blah, blah. Even when presented with social, economic, historical or scientific truth (real science that is, not science that is state-sponsored for bias, political agenda, control and taxation), there is sort of an immediate misfiring of neurons and apoplexy ensues.
Needless to say, the moral outrage you see everywhere today is clearly feigned and drenched in hypocrisy, while the intellectualism and “classroom wisdom” is as empty and meaningless as the collective aggregate of accomplishments. And I presume the narcissistic vitriol towards those who work hard to achieve success and economic freedom is simply an outward denial and diversion of an inner refusal to grow up and assume the responsibility and accountability of a principled, God-fearing, sober adult. I really don’t understand this war on family, freedom and God, other than a continuation of a grand holy war between good and evil that has ensued since the beginning of human history.
But we know better. We know that this is simply a propaganda campaign meant to divide and control. We know the progressive elite and their media puppets have been trying to incite some kind of civil war or race war, and while most of us aren’t falling for this bullshit, many gullible young people are. We also know this agenda to divide and conquer was initiated by the former regime, an admitted socialist who despises America and all that America stands for. We also know that their entire premise contradicts itself by constantly dividing people into groups and assigning value judgments based on the fiction of race. Race itself is but a social term, as all biological notions of race are false. We should be referring to racial differences as ethnic differences, which are solely based on variables such as physical geography, climate, isolation etc. There is only one human race, so for those who preach equality to see everything through some concocted social/racial lens is asinine and it is identity politics at its worst.
Please take the time to look at the utter depravity of socialist/communist countries today such as Venezuela or North Korea- the poverty, the corruption, the abuse, the oppression – and you have to wonder why in God’s name would these braindead professors be indoctrinating students to embrace such horrible, abusive, destructive, disgusting ideologies? They will rip the human spirit, will, independence, ingenuity, creativity and dignity out of the people faster than you could think ever possible. They tear apart the very fabric of a society, replacing freedom, hard work and success with envy, dependence, division, fear and state control.
So the agenda for the elite is not social justice. They couldn’t care less about the people. In fact, many of them hate the people – we the great unwashed deplorables. Social justice, like global warming or climate change (not polluted air and water, which nobody wants), are just political terms meant to manipulate and incite clueless mellenials and ignorant, self-righteous progressives into accepting globalism, massive government power and theft via taxation. The agenda is to incite domestic war and bring America to its knees in order to maintain the power of the status quo on both faux political sides. Problem, reaction, solution. Works every time.
The establishment doesn’t care about anything. They want votes. They want external power, which is perhaps the greatest drug of all. They want to become career politicians and get rich without having perform a single day of honest work. Many of them have never worked, just like many of these loony tune professors, students and SJWs have never worked, served or had children. They are blinded by the delusional bubble of intellectualism, which ironically can reduce wisdom and true knowledge. They have no understanding of the real world because they have no real world experience. They are terrified. They hate freedom and thus project their own personal failure onto others.
What I don’t understand is the clear as day hypocrisy. How is anyone to believe that these people on the left actually care about children and people? And if they want to win elections, perhaps they should stop murdering their unborn future voter base. Yup, said it. If you don’t like it then start your own blog about how killing your children out of inconvenience is just so awesome.
So does pot have similar emotional effects as alcohol? I would say yes. Let the anonymous keyboard thugs and bullies have at it… I couldn’t care less 😉
