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The Right Drugs

Altruism Is Addictive

By Marissa shookPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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When life goes wrong and you can’t seem to do anything right, where do you turn? When you lose a loved one, where do you turn? When you think you are worthless, where do you turn? When that fails, where do you turn? Lots of people come to me to vent about how life kicked them in the teeth. My family, my friends, even random strangers have found themselves telling me about anything and everything. I am proud to say I will always try to be there for them. I do recognize that telling someone about it and dealing with the emotion and physical backlash of a rough situation are two entirely separate things. This insight into people’s minds has made reading Station Eleven all the more enjoyable. The author does a phenomenal job of showing people who are simply dealing with their lives. They are getting tattoos and drinking to deal. They are traveling around, performing, drawing, and leading cults to confront the backlash of stress.

In Station Eleven, we see people negotiating simple life, earth-shattering revelations, and the end of the world as we know it. Even before the world ends, people are struggling to deal with stress. Every time something goes wrong in her life, Miranda throws herself into her project. The entire orchestra is dealing with the end of the world through music and performing (Emily Mandel).

“Coping: to struggle or deal, especially on fairly even terms or with some degree of success” (dictionary.com). Why is it that some people cope better than others? What makes one coping mechanism "better" than any other? Why is it OK for me to be addicted to music but my friend’s addiction to marijuana needs therapy? Is it really OK to swap out one addiction with another and call it a coping mechanism? Rihta Sinha compared many different studies in an article for the New York Academic Science Journal. The article observes that dopamine helps you deal with stress. They also discovered that being stressed reduces the amount of dopamine your body creates. This chemical imbalance leads to a greater number of people abusing substances. It is also noted that dopamine is a chemical that helps us make rational decisions (Rajita Sinha 7). Basically, stress shuts down your happy chemicals, but happy chemicals shut down stress. This means stressed people are looking for a way to correct the chemical imbalance in their brains. When you’re stressed, you crave “comfort food” and other things that make you happy. Low dopamine levels also make it harder for you to make the right choice.

Since the imbalance is chemical in nature—pumping yourself full of chemicals could be a quick fix. That makes drugs the obvious solution. According to the National institute of drug abuse, that is exactly what people are trying to do.

“Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. When activated at normal levels, this system rewards our natural behaviors. Overstimulating the system with drugs, however, produces euphoric effects” (NIDA).

By that logic, drugs are the perfect way to unwind and compensate for stress. Most people are well versed in the negative side effects of drugs. Fortunately, people see drugs as a potential source of more problems and more stress. Therefore, drugs are not typically the first place most people turn. They seek highs almost without realizing it.

A lot of people turn to hobbies or distractions such as music and television. It turns out that these things tap into our brain the same way drugs do. That’s why Facebook rants are so popular. You hop on Facebook and get your little fix, effectively. Or maybe you blog in the head phones and blare your favorite tunes?

Music is something I think most people can relate to. When you are listening to a good song and you get goose bumps, those hairs on the back of your neck stand up, an inevitable grin, cackle or at least small smile takes hold, and you can’t help but let the music speak to you. That’s a music induced dopamine release. Technically you are getting high listening to music. Dance Music North West looked into this phenomenon. They gathered others research on the topic. This unveiled that those chills are really your body opening the flood gates on dopamine production. This lead to the concept that you also release happy chemicals when you are waiting for that high. (Dance Music NW)

A large group of researchers unveiled that most Americans turn to god in times of stress. “Ninety-five percent of Americans believe in God. More than 50 percent pray daily, and more than 40 percent attend church weekly. Almost three quarters of Americans say that their approach to life is grounded in their religious faith” (Religious Commitment and Health Status). Why is that? Is there science behind it? Guess what...prayer releases melatonin and dopamine too!

“Body physiological parameters such as blood pressure, body temperature, heart rate, and galvanic skin responses can also be measured. Other parameters such as immunological assessments, hormonal concentrations, and autonomic activity can also be evaluated to provide a thorough analysis of the effects of spiritual practices. These physiological parameters can be correlated with experiences and with neuroimaging measures to obtain a more thorough analysis of the overall effects of spiritual practices. Further, physiological measures might yield interesting results and point to the directionality of functional changes in the brain and body associated with such practice” (Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine). Prayer and meditation put you in what everyday people call a trance-like state. This state of being has actual physiological effects. your brain producing dopamine being one of these effects. Can something as harmless as beliefs be considered an addiction?

“There are four key parts to this definition of addiction:

1. Addiction includes both substances and activities (such as sex and gambling).

2. Addiction leads to substantial harm.

3. Addiction is repeated involvement despite substantial harm.

4. Addiction continues because it was, or is, pleasurable and/or valuable.”( mentalhelp)

Does a need to listen to music so loud that it causes hearing damage or even heart damage constitute an addiction? Dose going to church and praying or pushing your beliefs to the point it pushes your family away constitute an addiction? I will argue that any coping mechanism can go too far. It is a fine, blurry, grey line between a healthy way of dealing with stress and an addiction. All the research points to higher stress leading to a greater risk of addiction.

People may have different ways of dealing with stress, but it mostly boils down to getting your brain back to the chemical balance you need. Whether you are an adrenalin junkie, an egocentric actor, a melomaniac, a bible thumper, or a substance abuser—it all comes back to fixing the chemistry of your brain. The goal is to do so with minimal damage to the rest of your body. Dealing with stress is one of the hardest and most important skills everyone should hone. So, whether you get your dopamine from god, adventure, music, or performing, stay healthy and get addicted to the good stuff.

Works Cited:

Sinha, Rajita. “Chronic Stress, Drug Use, and Vulnerability to Addiction.” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1141 (2008): 105–130. PMC. Web. 19 Nov. 2017.

“Coping.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/coping

NIDA. "Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction." National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1 Jul. 2014, https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction. Accessed 19 Nov. 2017.

“Study Shows Science Behind Music Addiction.” Dance Music NW, 23 Nov. 2015, dancemusicnw.com/study-proves-music-addiction/.

Dale A. Matthews, MD; Michael E. McCullough, PhD; David B. Larson, MD, MSPH; Harold G. Koenig, MD, MHSc; James P. Swyers, MA; Mary Greenwold Milano. “Religious Commitment and Health Status: A Review of the Research and Implications for Family Medicine.” Archives of Family Medicine, JAMA, 1 Mar. 1998

Newberg, Andrew B. “The Neuroscientific Study of Spiritual Practices.” Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Media S.A., 2014

A. TOM HORVATH, PH.D., ABPP, KAUSHIK MISRA, PH.D., AMY K. EPNER, PH.D., AND GALEN MORGAN COOPER, PH.D. “Definition Of Addiction.” Definition of Addiction, 26 Aug. 2013

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About the Creator

Marissa shook

As a college student at lssu in u.p. MI. from wyoming. I am also a huge fan of poetry, music dance, art, and dogs. My father is a brewer and my mother is a business consultant. Me? I'm not good with people.

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