Somewhere I read that an alcoholic was someone who always remembers their last drink whether it was an hour ago or a decade ago.
How to know if you’re addicted
171–180 of 213 posts
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same here, I'm probably considered an alcoholic because of the ammount of liquour I drink per week/month but I can work out every single day and stay in great shape but come friday and saturday I do empty quite a few units. Stopping the weekend urge is hard.
Anecdotal evidence so take this as you will. I have alcoholism in my family. When my Dad finally went into a 30 day in-patient treatment, I was still a sophomore in college. I was very much like you. An athlete (played D3 soccer), so I was working out, and in great shape, but wouldn't touch alcohol during the week - when I first got to college, my drinking was all done on the weekends. Then when I was of legal drinki…
I don't judge people that don't drink.
But people that drink I don't believe that it is only alcohol that is their demise.
There was probably whole range of feelings your father had that led him to that.
Cannot blame anyone but your father would be the only person that could explain it. Because people are so different and even if you think you know your father, there is bunch of emotions that are outside of anyone that can comprehend.
Well it is true also for EMO kids as we are ale separate entities struggling with life.
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't know about that. I know that anecdotes != empirical data, but, anecdotally, I've seen video games and gambling destroy several peoples careers, relationships, etc. One dorm-mate was kicked out of college because he spent ALL of his time playing WoW (World of Warcraft) and failed all of his classes. (Side note: I remember being scared to go near that game from hearing so many similar stories at the time.) I've…
It's interesting that for some people, the pursuit of real-life activities is a fair opportunity cost of spending time on a computer (I won't claim I'm not one of them). Has there ever in history been a diversion that is able to keep people inside their homes for months on end?
Why is the computer activity the "diversion" while "real-life activity" the thing diverted from? The computer is only an extension of the human user. It can be used for almost any purpose.
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#174"Addiction can be defined as a persistent, compulsive need to use a substance, despite the negative consequences to you or others." What about things that are beneficial but unclear if they're healthy? Staying up late on the computer but then taking a sedative to fall asleep immediately so that you don't spend an hour staring at the ceiling. You get more sleep, but you're probably addicted to the sleeping pills. With…
Sleeping pills may be better than getting no sleep at all, but cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTi) may be a better treatment approach than medication [0]. A problem with sleeping pills is that they reduce sleep quality, so you aren't as well-rested versus sleeping without them. From an interview with Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology [1]: "The quality of sleep that you have when…
How are they measuring sleep quality? I've been taking benadryl before bed because of allergies, and I am definitely sedated but my metrics as far as quantified sleep seem good. Heart rate drop, movement "deep sleep". Are they measuring brain activity? What is the metric?
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
There’s a Reddit support group for recovering porn addicts, the stories over there are pretty interesting. One of the withdrawal symptoms mentioned is a total lack of interest in sex that they call “flatlining.” https://nofap.com/porn-addiction/
There's a fine line between support group and cult...
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Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#176The worst of the bunch is tobacco. The effect is basically nothing, but it hurts ones health and wallet. I've done cocaine, marijuana, mdma, speed, xtc pills, and some research chemicals. Protips: don't smoke, and never combine any two drugs. If you really want a certain substance, do at least the first session with someone sober to keep an eye on you. Never accept drugs from strangers and don't give in to peer press…
Vaping is worse. Wrapped in a nebulous belief that it is probably a lot safer then the leaf form, it is mighty hard to give up. Mostly because you can vape anywhere and everywhere, constantly, making your body expect dopamine 24/7.
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sometimes I catch myself when I unconsciously type the address of a web site. I think I've been addicted to the internet for 20 years.
- OK, enough reddit for now, let's do something productive like work - closes tab - starting a compiler run - ctrl-t types old.reddit.com - my man, what are you doing there? bangs head Much more often than I'd like to admit
The ol’ burst-of-dopamine addiction…
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's even hard data on this with regards to alcohol and cocaine that show that some people are predisposed to have a higher risk of addiction. With alcohol we know it's at least partially hereditary, so people with histories of alcohol abuse in their families are often told to be extra careful. I would love to see more research on this and even the ability to give individuals info on their own risk levels. The onl…
Are people who take antidepressants addicted? The reason I am asking is that opiates can be used as such. > Opiates promote goal-directed behavior. > Interestingly, the mechanism of antidepressant action for ketamine may not even involve NMDAR blockage and may instead involve modulation of other CNS binding sites, such as being an agonist (activator) of opioid receptors. I can see how opiates would help with anxiety…
If you look at online forums (/r/TherapeuticKetamine) for depressed patients taking doctor prescribed ketamine you notice a few things:
1) Dose escalation as tolerance builds. Either through increased dosages or attempting another ROA like rectal to temporarily increase bioavailability.
2) Patients are usually upset if they don't have a dissociative experience.
3) Many patients wish that they could afford IV treatments and to do them much more often.
4) Many patients claim that oral and intranasal ketamine doesn't work for them despite studies showing that it does work well. Obviously oral ketamine won't cause the rather extreme disassociation of IV ketamine.
All the signs are there. And yes you are right about the euphoria. I have experienced it but it's not a topic that often comes up. People are more interested in talking about the woo woo stuff.
The same moderator runs all the ketamine subreddits -- even those where people are addicted and sharing advice on how to get high. Sort of a bias / conflict of interest, right?
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#179It’s a lot harder than you would think. I’m not a big drinker, not even a daily drinker, maybe once or twice per week.. and decided to do a month without drinking for fitness reasons. After two weeks it was hard to resist the urge every time I’d see people drinking on a TV show, or at the airport, or with dinner at a restaurant. While it may not be a full blown addiction it made me realize I’m much closer to addictio…
Did it get easier over time? I've quit sugar for months at a time and found that 2-4 weeks was the most difficult spot for cravings, after which it eased off (though never went away). I don't have experience with alcohol, though, and I hear it's higher on a scale of risks for physical dependencies than a lot of substances, so sugar may be a poor comparable.
For me (regular drinker feeling it was getting a little too regular) it took a couple of months dry to stop wanting a drink most days, then about another 7 months until I didn't miss it at all.
I'm only 14 months in though, and I don't assume I'm finished. YMMV obv.
Re: How to know if you’re addicted
#180Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sleeping pills may be better than getting no sleep at all, but cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBTi) may be a better treatment approach than medication [0]. A problem with sleeping pills is that they reduce sleep quality, so you aren't as well-rested versus sleeping without them. From an interview with Matthew Walker, a professor of neuroscience and psychology [1]: "The quality of sleep that you have when…
How are they measuring sleep quality? I've been taking benadryl before bed because of allergies, and I am definitely sedated but my metrics as far as quantified sleep seem good. Heart rate drop, movement "deep sleep". Are they measuring brain activity? What is the metric?
It looks like the interview excerpt refers to the following passage in the book "Why We Sleep" by the interviewee Matthew Walker:
"The irony is that many individuals experience only a slight increase in “sleep” from these medications, and the benefit is more subjective than objective. A recent team of leading medical doctors and researchers examined all published studies to date on newer forms of sedative sleeping pills that most people take. They considered sixty-five separate drug-placebo studies, encompassing almost 4,500 individuals. Overall, participants subjectively felt they fell asleep faster and slept more soundly with fewer awakenings, relative to the placebo. But that’s not what the actual sleep recordings showed. There was no difference in how soundly the individuals slept. Both the placebo and the sleeping pills reduced the time it took people to fall asleep (between ten and thirty minutes), but the change was not statistically different between the two. In other words, there was no objective benefit of these sleeping pills beyond that which a placebo offered.
"Summarizing the findings, the committee stated that sleeping pills only produced “slight improvements in subjective and polysomnographic sleep latency”—that is, the time it takes to fall asleep. The committee concluded the report by stating that the effect of current sleeping medications was “rather small and of questionable clinical importance."
The study cited for this passage on the book is a meta-analysis (or a study of multiple studies, as you might already be aware) [0]. The relevant excerpt from the study is: "All 13 studies included comparisons of at least one of our primary outcomes. Ten studies (22 comparisons) assessed polysomnographic sleep latency and seven (11 comparisons) assessed subjective sleep latency. The eight remaining secondary outcomes appeared in fewer studies: four studies (seven comparisons) assessed subjective total sleep time, two (two comparisons) assessed total polysomnographic sleep time, four (six comparisons) assessed subjective number of awakenings, three (four comparisons) assessed polysomnographic number of awakenings, two (four comparisons) assessed subjective sleep quality, three (five comparisons) assessed sleep efficiency, three (three comparisons) assessed polysomnographic waking after sleep onset, and one (one comparison) assessed subjective waking after sleep onset."
Polysomnography is defined as followed by the Mayo Clinic [1]: "Polysomnography, also called a sleep study, is a comprehensive test used to diagnose sleep disorders. Polysomnography records your brain waves, the oxygen level in your blood, heart rate and breathing, as well as eye and leg movements during the study."
TL;DR: It looks like the meta-analysis of multiple studies, included studies that examined "brain waves, the oxygen level in your blood, heart rate and breathing, as well as eye and leg movements during the study."
[0] https://www.bmj.com/content/345/bmj.e8343
[1] https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/polysomnography/...