Posted by SLS on April 3, 2013, at 13:32:52
In reply to Does this get better?, posted by AMD on April 2, 2013, at 9:50:52
> Seventy two hours after a party where I drank heavily, insufflated cocaine, inhaled amyl nitrate, took one huff of some other inhalent, and, horribly, smoked crystal meth --
Don't do that anymore.
What was your motivation for taking these substances?
> this an all-time low -- I'm still feeling ill, depressed, and generally hopeless.
Some of these drugs can produce damage to nerve cells - especially methamphetamine. Don't do that anymore.
> Does this get better?
It is hard to say. The brain is somewhat resilient, and may find ways to repair itself or compensate for tissue damage by rerouting neural circuits. It is difficult for me to imagine that you have damaged the physiology of your brain in a way that would leave you "stuck" in depression. Instead, I would think it more likely that you "triggered" a latent depressive disorder that is treatable. In fact, it might be that you have been experiencing a subsyndromal depression for quite awhile, which led you to "self-medicate" and experiment with various. Many addictions are the result of anomalous brain function that is hard to treat behaviorally. I'm glad that you are scared. I hope you stay scared. Stick with the addiction programs offered to you and take a serious look at the possibility that you triggered a major depressive episode.
How old are you?
- ScottSome see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1041529
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20130322/msgs/1041611.html