Scary meth fact

[susiestar]

I was watching a video on methamphetamine on national Geographic online.

It showed how the body reacts to meth.

Did you know that at first meth releases more dopamine (brain chemical that regulates pleasure) than even cocaine? Meth releases six times more dopamine than the body can produce on its' own.

Sadly, no high will ever be as good as that first high. After a while the body actually LOSES THE ABILITY TO FEEL HAPPY!!!

I knew ecstasy could destroy your ability to be happy but I had no clue that meth worked that way too. After using meth for a while you can get to a point where you can not feel happy at all.

That just is so scary to me. Personally I don't think any drug is worth that risk.

Here is the link to the video: http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/explorer/2592/Overview#tab-Videos/05499_00

 

[Lothlorien]

That's probably why it's so hard to kick that habit. If you can't feel happiness, why bother to kick the habit? That is really sad.

 

[Hound dog]

I think heroine works the same way. Not that I can prove it.

But my addict friend..........we'll lets just say she hasn't been "high" in forever. Not really. Not like the first time.

Burns out the receptors in the brain.

I don't understand the attraction to meth. Reg drugs are bad enough, but good grief......the stuff they make meth out of ........all of it is poisonous. Household cleaners and the like. Now why would someone willingly do that???

 

[BusynMember]

My daughter used to crush ADHD drugs into a pillcrusher. I don't know if she used anything besides them for that kind of high. Are they the same thing? It makes me very anti-stimulants at least for my own kids.

 

[Lothlorien]

So, in essence, is this what it also does to babies that are addicted to these drugs when they are born? These children have no shot of feeling happiness? That's even more sad.

 

[Jungleland]

I struggle with the idea that Aly and Jayme were both exposed prenatally to meth (amongst other drugs and alcohol!)

Aly has a real hard time being just happy. I wonder if that is part of her disorders. When she "plays" she makes it look like work, she works hard to have fun and it doesn't even seem like she is having fun.

Jayme was addicted at birth, tested positive for meth. I didn't get her till she was 3 months old, but she still had the arching of her back, stiffness, etc. But...she can play, she has fun, she is very imaginative. She is very reserved with people she doesn't know or strange places, has a much harder time being happy when not in familiar surroundings.

Aly, although they did not test her, I feel was addicted. She was inconsoleable, major back arching, stiffness, etc.

I have seen several shows on meth and what it's made of, how horrible the labs are to get rid of all the hazardous junk from production of the meth. It is super scary.

Ugly, scary stuff!

 

[donna723]

We have to take classes in all this stuff at work ... meth is some really horrible stuff! They say that it is so highly addictive that most people become hooked on it after the very first time they try it! That's what I don't understand. I can understand becoming addicted to something and getting in over your head ... but what I don't understand is what possesses anyone to ever try it THAT VERY FIRST TIME! In these classes, they show people who have inch-deep craters scratched in their arms because they feel like there's bugs crawling around under their skin! They show people with sores all over them and their teeth have crumbled right out!

In our very rural area there's lots of this going around, even some mobile meth labs that people have in the trunk of their cars! People make this carp in their houses with their small children right there breathing in the fumes, and they don't care! And sometimes the houses blow up and burn! There's a house that exploded and burned just outside the small town nearest to where I work. The outside of the house looks OK, but it's just a shell. There was an explosion right in the center of the house - there's a giant hole blown in the center of the roof and the whole inside of the house burned. And people still do it!

I have a question ... maybe some of you have heard of this before. Has anyone ever heard about a mother doing drugs while she's pregnant and those drugs can cause her child's teeth to be defective? My brother and sister in law had a terrible problem with their daughter - married to a really scummy guy. I know they did drugs, not sure what kind, and she probably did them while she was pregnant too. She had one little boy who is almost three now ... my brother and sister in law have raised him since birth. Then, against all medical advice, she got pregnant again, and had another little boy last winter. Thank God, when she got pregnant this second time, she came to her senses. She moved back home with her parents, got off the drugs, and filed for divorce from the scumbag. It was iffy at first, but the baby is fine. But her older little boy ... before he was even two years old his baby teeth started to break and crumble! They took him to a children's dentist who had to put little caps on all his baby teeth! He told them that he sees this quite often and that it is caused by the use of certain drugs by the mother while she is pregnant! So now they're just waiting to have to have this same procedure done for the second baby's teeth ... when he gets some! I had never heard of that, but it's really awful!

 

[Hound dog]

Donna I'm pretty sure this area is a major meth hub. Actually I know it is as the DEA and FBI drops in every now and again in case we forget. I watched a major bust go down on my way to the bank one morning.

Keep in mind we're a small rural town.

But there are meth labs everywhere here. Nothing to hear about one exploding. Happens alot.

 

[KTMom91]

We have labs all over the place as well. When I was teaching adult school I had several students with few teeth left because of their habit. According to them, it's because they never ate anything, and their teeth just rotted from lack of nutrients. I imagine it would do the same if a baby was born addicted.

 

[susiestar]

I don't see how a baby could avoid being damaged by the mother's meth usage. I have no clue if this is true, but I can imagine that the genetic material provided by the father could be damaged and even contribute to that. NO idea if that is true, but drugs affect every part of your body, so the dad may provide damaged material. It makes sense but little if any research will EVER be done because men don't like to think their little swimmers could be damaged.

As for babies with meth mouth, I also don't see how they could avoid that. It is criminal, in my opinion, and should be dealt with by sterilization of the mother if she uses drugs while pregnant. And I do include alcohol as a drug. If ANYONE did things like that with a baby they would be arrested. But parents keep giving birth to drug addicted babies and then not taking care of them. I am harsh on this, and think that having used while pregnant the mother should not be able to have more kids. I am for protecting the CHILD's rights far more than the mothers. Using drugs while pregnant should make you lose your rights. It is unforgiveable, in my opinion. (my niece was very much at risk while in utero - her mother's sobriety is very very shaky.)

Meth is speed, which heroin is not. heroin is an opiate, more a downer. The thing about stimulants is that meth is so many times stronger than anything else on the market. Most stimulants are no where near as powerful.

When used by someone who truly has ADHD, stimulant medications are actually NOT stimulants. They sedate the person. Someone who has true ADHD and takes stimulants is CALMED. They do not have the high that people who are not ADHD get. it is one way to truly tell if someone has ADHD. Someone who truly has it will fall asleep if they take too much.

Similarly, pain medications (opiates and others) have a very very small addiction risk IF the person is truly in pain. For those of us with chronic pain the medications make us MORE able to do things rather than making us stoned. It is a difference in the way our bodies use the medications. I personally have never ever felt "high" while using pain medications. Not ever. Part of me wonders what the big deal is, why people would want to use these medications, simply because I do not feel that way. The doctor explained it to me as similar to a color blind person. they simply can't see colors because their body is wired differently. I can no more understand that "high" from pain medications than a color blind person can see colors.

The other medication that terrifies me is ecstasy. I have a cousin who LOVED it. It also burns out your bodies ability to feel happiness and pleasure. Depression is HUGE among ecstasy users and past users. There is little that antidepressants can do to help someone who used ecstasy. There are no receptors that still work if you did a lot of it.

As for meth labs, my dad offered to ride around town noting addresses of all the meth labs for the cops. He and I have super sensitive sense of smell. He pointed out 2 meth houses close to the campus one day. A few days later one got busted. Then the other one exploded a week later. Meth making has such a terrible smell that landlords here have had to destroy houses because they just couldn't be cleaned up. I know a landlord with a lot of property near campus. He has had to destroy property every year for the last couple of years.

Meth making has been such a HUGE problem that we are the state that started the laws limiting how much sudafed you can buy. It was being bought in large amounts or shoplifted in large amounts because it is used for making meth. The law drastically lowered the number of meth labs and the amount of meth they can make. After it was proven to work here then it was adopted elsewhere until it became federal policy.

 

[Marguerite]

Tatracyclines will damage a baby's teeth in utero. It was little-known when my eldest sister was having her first child - when his first teeth came out they were a funny colour and had white flecks on them. But because he didn't take tetracyclines until he was an adult, his adult teeth when they came in were perfectly OK. But his baby teeth were tiny, malformed and a weird mottly orange colour. Soft, too.

Marg