TL;DR: Drugs are a wide classification of chemicals that alter your biology for medical, recreational, or other reasons. Drugs that affect your consciousness are termed psychoactive, with the main categories being stimulants like caffeine, depressants like alcohol, antipsychotics like SSRIs, and hallucinogens like LSD.
Let us just start by saying that, we are not doctors. This article is not medical advice, nor should it be treated as such. This article is purely for educational purposes. Finally, we do not condone the use of any illegal substances nor the use of any prescription drug without a say-so from your physician.
The phrase “feed your head” is taken from the song White Rabbit, the 1967 hit song by Jefferson Airplane, which condoned hallucinogens using Alice in Wonderland as an image [b]
Introduction
Caffeine, alcohol, weed, cocaine, magic mushrooms, peyote, LSD, meth, heroin…
You’ve heard of them, rockstars do them, you’ve probably tried them, and people told you to stay away from them.
DRUGS.
What are they?
Drugs interest everyone. Half the world is probably on them right now. People do drugs for different reasons, some medical, some for performance enhancement, some for spiritual endeavors, and some just do them for the heck of it.
We can all name a handful of drugs we have tried or know about, but do you know how they work? Do you know what makes alcohol a depressant, or caffeine a stimulant, or why certain drugs make you feel so much different than others? What about which ones are the most and least dangerous?
This article covers basic knowledge of psychoactive drugs, including the categories and how each works, risks, and where to get them (just kidding).
What Is a Drug?
A drug is a chemical substance that alters an organism’s physiology or psychology when ingested [1]. Nutrients also do this, but the difference is that drugs don’t seem to serve any necessary biological function.
A psychoactive drug is a drug that alters an organism’s psychology by affecting the central nervous system causing changes in perception, mood, or consciousness [1].
Drugs can be taken in many ways, including orally, transdermally, intravenously, or can be inhaled, or snorted depending on the drug.
Drugs encompass a wide range of categories, here are some:
- Medical drugs like aspirin for pain, metformin for diabetes, or sildenafil (viagra) for erectile dysfunction
- Antibiotics, antiparasitics, and antifungals to kill certain harmful organisms in our body (read more on the microbiome here)
- Hormone replacement therapy, like insulin, testosterone or thyroid hormone replacement
- Physical performance enhancing drugs like steroids for physical athletics
- Psychoactive drugs like alcohol for recreation, psilocybin for recreation or medical use, or peyote for recreation or spiritual use
- Psychoactive “smart drugs” for mental enhancement like caffeine, or methylphenidate (Ritalin)
Common psychoactive drugs include caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, and THC. These kinds of drugs act on receptors in the nerves that make up our brain and central nervous system which alters the signals they send to each other. This change in signalling is what produces the changes in our minds we recognize.
What Is the Mind?
Psychoactive drugs make our mind work differently. But, what is the mind? Perception, mood and consciousness describe it pretty well, but what’s the difference between mind and consciousness?
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The famous mind-body problem is at the centre of this first question; we don’t know how the physical brain gives rise to a non-physical mind. Where does the mind come from?
One idea called the computational theory of mind suggests that the nervous system gathers information from the body and the environment and turns them into electrical signals. This information in the form of electrical signals is the mind, like electricity through wires.
So if the mind is the flow of information through the nervous system, what is consciousness?
Consciousness is the subjective experience of that information flow, the first hand experience of life. The word consciousness comes from Latin conscius, essentially meaning “knowing that one knows”, or sharing knowledge with oneself [3]. So something that shares information with itself is conscious.
We actually have two different aspects of our consciousness, or two distinct levels. There’s the part of us that feels and senses and perceives things directly like animals do, like we’re in a flow state of pure existence. Then, we have a part that has a name for itself, thinks, and is self aware. Only humans really appear to have much of this second level, but animals and humans both have the first. Even insects, bacteria, and inanimate objects have a degree of that first level of consciousness according to some physicists who think the whole Universe is conscious of itself.
So, the nervous system is like a computer, the mind is like software running on the computer, and consciousness is like the person telling them what to do [4]. This gives us a model to work with.
Psychoactive drugs chemically change how our neurotransmitters work in our nerve cells, which changes the electrical signals sent between them. By changing this information flow, we change where our mind flows, which changes the self-experience of this information that is our consciousness.
Alcohol makes our GABA receptors more effective. GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, meaning it dulls signals in our nerves [f]
Types of Psychoactive Drugs
We hear of lots of different types of drugs like stimulants, depressants, psychedelics, opioids, cannabinoids, pain killers, and more. It seems these categories boil down to different combinations of the four below categories:
Cool drug chart [c]
You’ll notice many drugs are in multiple categories. It’s good to view substances as being able to exhibit characteristics of any category. For instance, psilocybin – the active ingredient in magic mushrooms – is both a stimulant and a hallucinogen. It’s the same thing with THC, which is, or can be, a hallucinogen, a psychedelic, a dissociative, a stimulant, and a depressant to certain degrees (read more on cannabis here).
Taking different drugs at the same time can be dangerous, such as when they’re both of the same category. This is why two depressants, such as alcohol and codeine (often found in purple drank/lean), are risky to take together as they can slow your nerve signalling so much that you may stop breathing.
New drugs are made all the time now for a variety of applications. LSD is a well known one made in the 60s from a compound found in a fungus. Most antipsychotics have only recently been synthesized. Synthetic drugs have a variety of medical applications, but have also been made for physical or mental enhancement.
Stimulants
Read more specifically on caffeine in our article here [g]
Stimulants, also known as “uppers”, speed up your central nervous system. This has the effect of increasing alertness, awareness, wakefulness, endurance, productivity, as well as motivation, arousal, movement, heart rate and blood pressure. They usually reduce your desire to sleep. They activate the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) over the parasympathetic (rest and digest). Often, people feel a “crash” after stimulants wear off.
Stimulants usually work by increasing transmission of the catecholamine neurotransmitter between nerve cells (like caffeine does). They do this by blocking the reuptake of it, or by causing more to be sent from presynaptic nerves to synapses. This increases how much your receptors get, which increases signalling making your neural circuitry run faster.
Stimulants are often used to improve mental performance, as in the case of caffeine or more powerful prescription drugs like methylphenidate (Ritalin), dextroamphetamine (Adderall), or Modafinil for conditions like ADHD. Due to these desirable effects, a large amount of the world frequently uses and becomes addicted to stimulants like caffeine, nicotine, cocaine and others. College students often take these more powerful drugs to study, though they are designed for learning disabilities and other special cases. [5]
Depressants
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Depressants, also known as “downers”, reduce stimulation and arousal of the nervous system. This can cause a reduction in heart rate and blood pressure, a reduction in anxiety, worse motor control, memory impairment, relaxation and pain reduction, and sometimes euphoria.
Depressants work in a variety of ways, such as increasing the effects of GABA, a primary inhibitory neurotransmitter our nerves use to reduce signaling when needed. The oldest psychoactive drug, and still one of the most widely used in the world, ethanol (drinking alcohol), does this. Strangely, depressants don’t necessarily activate the rest and digest mode like you might think from learning about their stimulant counterpart. In fact, alcohol can actually be somewhat stimulating paradoxically. Read more on alcohol here.
Depressants are often used to numb pain. Some of these drugs include alcohol, Xanax, and many opiates. This leads to relatively common addiction because those in chronic pain become dependent on these numbing effects.
Antipsychotics
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Psychosis is the condition of finding it hard to distinguish between what’s real and what’s not. It can include seeing and believing in things that aren’t real. It’s mostly seen in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Antipsychotics reduce these symptoms and are often prescribed and taken for extended periods; they were first produced in the 1950s.
These drugs typically work by blocking receptors for dopamine, and some work by blocking serotonin as well. It’s thought in those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other related disorders that nerves have too much dopamine signalling, overstimulating your brain and mind.
Wikipedia notes that “studies hypothesize dopamine dysregulation is involved in Huntington’s disease, ADHD, Tourette’s syndrome, major depression, manic depression, addiction, hypertension and kidney dysfunction”. [7]
Just like the other categories, people can become dependent on antipsychotics to stabilize themselves, though it seems less prone to recreational use than stimulants and depressants.
Hallucinogens
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Hallucinogens are the opposite of antipsychotics and can cause you to see things in the external world that aren’t there, to perceive things in a different way, and often cause an altered state of consciousness. The word comes from Latin hallūcinātus – to wander in the mind. Each hallucinogen is quite different from another, though they all seem to cause a change of consciousness more drastic than the other three categories. At the same time, users are typically very lucid and awake, there is no drowsiness or loss of intelligence or memory, and no addictive cravings are present. Taking hallucinogens is often called “tripping”, as in a journey, like “tripping acid”.
Types of hallucinogens include classic psychedelics like LSD, MDMA, and psilocybin, as well as newer categories including dissociatives like ketamine, deliriants like high doses of benadryl, and empathogens/entactogens like MDMA (again). Some of these have powerful medical applications. Hallucinogens, like antipsychotics, are less well understood and less widely used than stimulants and depressants.
Hallucinogens are not very addictive, as you can see from the examples like LSD and mescaline in the below chart [8].
Perhaps one special risk of hallucinogens is something called persisting perception disorder, aka “flashbacks”, where the distortions you experience on the drug come back for periods of time. This can be unpleasant or enjoyable depending on the circumstance, and may subside with time. However, there is a relatively strong link between having a psychotic episode on a hallucinogen, and later being diagnosed as a schizophrenic [9]. Those prone to psychosis should be careful with hallucinogens.
Medical Drugs
Often, medical drugs don’t affect our nervous system, so are non-psychoactive. They may affect our cardiovascular system like sildenafil (Viagra) does, our immune system like adalimumab (Humira) does, or anything else about our biology. Some medical drugs for mental conditions obviously do affect the mind, like SSRIs which are in the antipsychotic/stimulant category.
Performance Enhancing Drugs
Anabolic steroids enhance physical recovery and build muscle and athleticism faster. Since these are so effective, legality in sports is a contentious issue. Testosterone is a hormone and a steroid that we naturally produce, and it can be taken as a drug to boost performance. Read more on steroids in our article here.
Nootropics, or “smart drugs”, improve your mental abilities including memory, concentration, thought, mood and learning. Methylphenidate (Ritalin) and caffeine are two examples, as well as less-well known drugs like piracetam, and acetyl-L carnitine. They are often stimulants. There are also natural drugs like lion’s mane mushroom, and ashwagandha that are used as smart drugs. Some even microdose stronger psychoactive drugs like mushrooms or LSD to boost creativity and productivity. For more “smart drugs” see our article here, and our article dedicated to modafinil specifically here.
Spiritual Drugs
Some drugs, like the hallucinogen peyote, have thousands of years of history being used for religious and healing purposes. Many cultures recognize an immense power in these drugs’ ability to alter their state of consciousness for insight or spiritual experience. Some more primitive cultures even had highly respected Shaman, or “medicine men” who would use hallucinogens to inform their community and make important decisions.
Addiction and Harm
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Each drug above is measured by how deadly it is on the x-axis, and how addictive it is on the y-axis. Top right = dangerous, bottom left = less dangerous as a general rule.
Drugs are addictive. The habit-building machinery in our brains are designed to encourage good behaviour, however drugs shortcut this machinery by giving us instant gratification. We recognize the power of both habits and delayed gratification in our mindset articles, and we don’t want our habits negatively affected by misuse of drugs. Different drugs are clearly much more addictive than others, though it’s hard to measure precisely. Heroin and nicotine are known to be highly addictive, and drugs like caffeine are known to be somewhat addictive. Note that stimulants and depressants tend to be the most addictive (heroin and morphine being depressants).
Drugs can also be harmful and even deadly. Alcohol, for example, is moderately addictive and has an active dose/lethal dose of 0.1 meaning a 10-1 ratio. So, let’s say 4 beers makes you feel buzzed, then 40 will kill you (assuming it’s in a similar time frame). For a drug like LSD that takes 50 micrograms to feel the effects of, you would have to take at least 1000 times that, or 50 grams, to die from it. You’re far more likely to damage your body or brain and to die from drugs on the right of the chart. Most people can probably attest to the fact that a few too many drinks feels a whole lot worse than a few too many coffees the next day.
When drugs are both addictive and harmful, you’ve got a repeating damaging effect that’s at least partially out of your control, which is not ideal. See our article on combating addiction here. Although not technically a drug, porn often acts like one. See our article on the harms of porn here.
Tolerance
When we take a drug, our body tries to get rid of it because it wants to go back to a state of homeostasis. Each time it does this, it builds up machinery to do it faster the next time and it’s better at doing this for some drugs than others. Most people who start with one daily coffee and end up at 3 or 4 can tell from their experience that drugs get less effective the more you do them.
For more harmful drugs, tolerance can be an additional risk as more of the harmful substance is needed. Alcohol, being on a higher level of physical harm on the x-axis above compared to something like caffeine, shows this effect as alcoholics certainly look a lot worse off than caffeine addicts. Heroin addicts.. well..
Conclusion
Drugs are fascinating because they change our very selves, and can change our experience of life fundamentally. Some drugs don’t affect our minds, often medical ones, but drugs that do are called psychoactive drugs. These include stimulants, depressants, antipsychotics, and hallucinogens. Psychoactive drugs work by changing the signaling happening in our nervous system through altering neurotransmitter signals like those for dopamine. They can be addictive and physically harmful to us, and over time we need more of the same drug to feel the effects as our tolerance builds up.
People do drugs for a variety of reasons from medical to recreational to spiritual, but always to achieve a desired change in body, mind, or consciousness.
References:
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness#Etymology
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consciousness#Etymology
[4] https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/theory-knowledge/201112/what-is-the-mind
[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant#Mechanisms_of_action
[6] https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-drugs-work-in-your-body-1124115
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_antagonist
[8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen
[9] https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/drug-psychosis-may-pull-schizophrenia-trigger
Images
[a] https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDrug_harmfulness&psig=AOvVaw3VPLrKP-rf01dW9V57-sMP&ust=1616709575978000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCKDQvdL2ye8CFQAAAAAdAAAAABA9
[b] https://images.fineartamerica.com/images/artworkimages/mediumlarge/2/feed-your-head-ali-chris.jpg
[c] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Drug_Chart_Color.jpg
[d] https://d207ibygpg2z1x.cloudfront.net/image/upload/v1586561082/articles_upload/content/ejuktec3mb8wv51i9nlm.png
[e]https://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/styles/cropped_article_image/public/blogs_2017/02/2017_07_consciousness.jpg?itok=IkRmrc20
[f] https://howtogetabetternightssleep.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/GABA-A_Receptor-with-alcohol.jpg
[g] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/A_small_cup_of_coffee.JPG
[h] https://cdn-b.william-reed.com/var/wrbm_gb_hospitality/storage/images/publications/hospitality/bighospitality.co.uk/article/2018/04/26/beer-quiz-25-questions-to-test-your-knowledge/2807204-1-eng-GB/Beer-quiz-25-questions-to-test-your-knowledge_wrbm_large.jpg
[i] https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Zyprexa.PNG
[j] https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/4/2020/01/GettyImages-1151266850-9c8e491.jpg?quality=90&resize=768,574
