A FibOfAllFibs Guide to Pleasure (and other drugs)

AGuide
~to~
Pleasure (and other drugs)
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Hi. I'm FibOfAllFibs. I am a high school student in sunny San Diego, California. I am currently doing a research project on addictions and the brain, and I am finding out some shocking information that I feel my friends here on Sythe should be made aware of. This guide will cover the chemical source of "Pleasure" in the brain, and how drugs affect one's ability to fully enjoy life.​

Before one can really understand pleasure, one must first know where it comes from. Pleasure, including feelings of accomplishment (this is important), comes from a chemical messenger (neurotrasmitter) in the brain called dopamine. Dopamine is important in the brain for two reasons.
Firstly, it is involved in the control of the body's movements and motor functions. When there is not enough dopamine in the brain, a person exhibits trembling, a characteristic of Parkinson's disease. When there is too much, a person begins exhibiting signs common to schitzophrenia.
Second, the neurotrasmitter is involved in the feelings of pleasure and accomplishment. This is the important part. Essentially, dopamine is a "feel good drug." The only difference between dopamine and other drugs, however, is that dopamine is natural and healthy.

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When you accomplish something, such as scoring a touchdown on the football field or getting an A on a test, you (should) experience a feeling of exhileration and/or accomplishment. This is caused by a release of dopamine in your brain. Dopamine is what causes you to strive for things in life. When you score a touchdown, you will naturally want to do it again. This is because dopamine gives you a thrill that you want to repeat. This effect is what makes dopamine both healthy and dangerous.

The Dangers of Dopamine​

Have you ever wondered why people become addicted to things? Perhaps you or one of your friends is addicted to drugs. Maybe you know someone who has an alcohol addiction. Or perhaps you have an addiction to a video game. Whatever this addiction is, it is caused by a desire for dopamine. Natural things in life, like accomplishing goals, cause a brief boost of dopamine levels in your brain. Unnatural things, like drugs, porn, even video games, cause an unnatural amount of dopamine to flow through your brain. Porn and video games, while being unnatural sources of pleasure, are mildly controllable. The only thing that they do is they simulate the circumstances of an accomplishment to get you attracted to them. For example, in a baseball video game, it is much easier to hit a home run than in the real sport of baseball. Because of the shorter amount of time and the smaller amount of physical effort required, most people will choose to stay inside and play the video game (for a quick rush) rather than playing the actual sport. I am not here, however, to say that porn and video games are bad. They can actually be great stress reducers. Taking a load off and getting a quick dopamine rush is a great way to releave the stress of a hard day. However, there is a difference between these cheap sources of pleasure and substance drugs.

Drugs​

The most dangerous of the sources of dopamine are substance drugs. These are chemical substances (like marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamines, etc.) that cause tremendous "highs" in your brain. The problem with these highs is that they are extremely addictive. Remember how I said that when you get a dopamine rush your brain wants to get it again (like scoring a touchdown)? This is what causes addictions. When you accomplish something, the neurotransmitter is released into your brain at a certain level. Once this level of dopamine is released, your brain will want another rush consisting of even more dopamine. That is why people try to set new goals to surpass their previous their previous ones: because they get an even bigger dopamine rush than before. Now, again, I cannot stress enough that this is healthy and normal, if done naturally. The problem with drugs is that, as shown in the chart above, they produce a dopamine high so much bigger than ordinary things (like food and sex) that there is simply no possible way that you could naturally produce something even more extraordinary. The only way that your brain will ever be satisfied is if you continue to take more and more drugs (in larger and larger portions). If this cycle continues, it is very likely than you will overdose and, tragically, die.

I tried to figure out a way to "dramatically" end this guide, but I couldn't. I felt that this was very important and drastic information that as many people as possible should learn about. I hope you got a lot of information out of reading my guide. If you have any suggestions or commentary about my guide (or a way that I could end it better), please feel free to post below. Thanks for reading.

 

HOLY SHIT!

Nice guide man but i think you should delete it, people will get nightmares from this ^^

 

Nightmares? Not my intent haha. I posted it to let people be aware of the harm that dopamine stimulating substances do to their bodies.

 

Wow. All I can say is amazing guide.

I knew most of this already, but it is all information people should know.

Anticipate reading another guide from you soon!

 

amazingly written!

 

Thank you very much! I'm currently away from home, so I won't be writing another guide until sometime next week.