Popular myths among drug users are prevalent, and perhaps none of the myths are as well-established whilst the misconception that it’s difficult to become addicted to hallucinogens. While physical dependence and addiction to hallucinogens does not occur as rapidly as addiction to opiates, barbiturates, benzodiazepines or alcohol, it will happen and can have severe results. Because those who use hallucinogens experience significant distortions in what they see, hear and feel, chronic use of these substances can lead to a number of psychological and physiological problems, including addiction syndrome.
Hallucinogens are a hard class of drug to define but generally include any drugs that cause prominent altered states of perception that greatly distort a user’s ability to differentiate between what’s a hallucination and what’s reality. The most frequent and well-known hallucinogen is LSD or Lysergic Acid Diethylamide – a strong hallucinogen synthesized from spurned wheat or corn ergot. Other hallucinogens include Ecstasy, PCP, Psilocybin, Mescaline, Ketamine and Dextromethorphan. And though some people might argue that not many of these drugs are true hallucinogens, all of them cause addiction.
In general LSD, ecstasy, psilocybin and mescaline are considered true hallucinogens and work by disrupting the brain’s ability to create and utilize serotonin. Serotonin really helps to regulate sleeping patterns, mood and sexual desire, among other things. Other drugs that are not true hallucinogens – like Ketamine, PCP and Dextromethorphan – block the neurotransmitter glutamate, which will 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 operate normally. In response the human body will make changes in the central nervous system to conform to and mitigate the results of the drugs. Over time and with continued use these changes are more permanent, culminating at a place where the human body only functions “normally” when the drug is in the system. This is known as physical dependency. While not the same as addiction, some individuals consider physical dependency and addiction to be synonymous with each other.
However, while addiction is a clinical, neurological disease psychedelic mushroom chocolate bars available California, it is frequently classified by a small grouping of behaviors as opposed to physical signs or symptoms. This is because hallucinogens cause the pleasure and reward center in the mind to be stimulated. Once the mind associates a drug with an atmosphere 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 just “remembers” the pleasurable feeling of hallucinating, but additionally 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 principal purpose to recreate the pleasurable event, they cause severe and uncontrollable cravings in the user to get high on the drug again and again, and true addiction is born.
Addiction to hallucinogens is just as real and life threatening as addictions to drugs like heroin and cocaine. And because the very nature of addiction does not allow most sufferers to seek help by themselves, it’s up to you to get help when someone you like is fighting an addiction to hallucinogens.