The Problem with Drug-Induced Euphoria Options

[kortikal]

The problem with drug-induced euphoria is subsequent dysphoria. For every peak, there is a trough.

Just something to consider.

[OnlyNow]

The problem with drug-induced euphoria is subsequent dysphoria. For every peak, there is a trough.

Just something to consider.

I have limited experience with euphoria, unfortunately. However, I think I've heard that there is usually no "hangover" after the high experienced from taking psilocybin-containing mushrooms. I don't know if lack of hangover necessarily translates to an absence of dysphoria. Anyone know?

[kortikal]

no, I'm not talking about hangover, which is a short-term largely physiological response, but rather something longer term and more psychological. Depression is not quite the word either since this is often associated with sadness. Dysphoria is a different beast.

[Darksanity]

Dysphoria is like total loss of motivation. Of course if you do LOTS of direct euphoria drugs (like MDMA, Methamphetamine, ect) frequently u will feel dysphoria but if u do some entheogens (like mushrooms) very occasionaly there will be not such a thing...

[xanadu]

What goes up must come down. The higher the high, the lower the low. In general that is and that's even more true with drugs. There are forms of direct brain stimulation that can produce the highest levels of euphoria. I posted some articles on it in another website. It can be done with an electrode implanted in the brain, with focused microwaves or with low frequency magnetic fields. There are experiments on doing it with other means. It can stimulate creativity as well as produce euphoria.

[Lindsay]

It seems to me that one of the things which causes dysphoria in many people is aging. Just today, I read a column by Don Martin of the National Post, Canada. The column is about how he feels now that he is turning fifty.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/columni...eb-3368a868499f

Here is what I wrote him:

Don Martin:
Regarding a life rushing by too quickly:

Your column, today, caught my attention for two reasons:
First, my only daughter, Catherine, born in 1958, turned 50 last April
She is a successful artist (carver, painter and writer) who lives
with her artist husband, Wayne Adams, also a carver. Both have quite a
number of pieces in the Thompson Gallery, Toronto. They live in a
floating home--a series of building including gardens, which covers
one quarter of an acre, near Tofino, BC. The area looks like this:
http://www.wildretreat.com/index.html

Second, you mention your concern about turning 50 and the challenges
of aging. I will not tell you to get over it. However, as one who was
born in 1930 and will turn 77, January 14, 2007, I can tell you what I
believe: Going through it is better, for all concerned, than the
obvious alternative.

By the way, in my opinion, old age, like birth is not, necessarily, a
disease. I had most of my death-threatening diseases, including TB, by
the time I was five. I was the seventh child of five boys and three
girls in a family of eight. That year, TB, probably caused by the
third-world living conditions in which I was born and raised on Bell
Island, NL, in the 1930's, killed my mother. She was fifty-five.
Quite a story. By the way, in 1942, when I was twelve, Bell Island
http://www.bellisland.net was attacked, twice, by enemy submarines.
Sixty-nine people lost their lives. I witnessed this happening.

Personally speaking, health-wise, from the age of five, onwards, I led
a charmed life. Except for the odd cold, slight flu, soccer bruises,
small wounds and toot aches, I was never seriously ill. I went
through school, university, and a career in the ministry, of the UCC
of over forty years, and never lost one day due to bad health.

My first brush with minor surgery came when I was sixty-six, two years
after I retired. I was experiencing some rectal bleeding which I
assumed was from a minor hemorrhoidal problem I had had for years. My
GP recommended me to see a surgeon.

The good surgeon said, "Yes, I can fix your hemorrhoid. You can be in
and out the same day. However, While I am doing so, I would like to do
a colon scope to check for polyps." I approved, and the surgery took
place. That was in May of 1996. At the consultation, which followed,
he said, "I found two polyps, which I removed. One, which looks
pre-cancerous, was the source of the bleeding. I suggest you take the
summer to heal. Come back in September when, to be one the safe
side--if there are any signs of cancer-- I will probably need to
remove about ten inches of your small intestine. The good news is:
You will not need the bag."

Interestingly, prior to the minor surgery, I talked to the surgeon
about the fact that a health-savvy friend of mine had recommended
that, even while going ahead with the surgery, I could benefit from a
colon-cleansing program involving the use of lactobasillus salavarius
and multi-enzymes. "This will help with the healing process" my friend
said.

The surgeon looked at the supplements I was taking and gave his
approval. "This is not my field of expertise. But because I feel it
will do no harm, go ahead and take them." That summer, while spending
two weeks at my daughter's floating home, I continued to take what my
friend recommended, plus herbal remedies recommend by my daughter, who
is a registered massage and drug less therapist.

To make a long story shorter: That September, in preparation for the
next step, I went back to the surgeon and had a full colonoscopy done.
To his surprise and to my great delight, the surgeon found no sign of
cancer. "Your colon looks very healthy" he said. The major surgery was
cancelled. That was ten years ago. To this day, the only pills I take
contain vitamins, minerals, enzymes, herbs and the like.

What about physical exercises? I highly recommend
http://www.mkprojects.com/pf_TibetanRites.htm
So does Catherine, who looks like Jane Fonda in her early forties.

By the way, Don, when is your actual birthday?

[AdonisBlue]

The problem with drug-induced euphoria is subsequent dysphoria. For every peak, there is a trough.

Just something to consider.

Good point. And it then becomes repetitive and extremely boring to watch....

[Spraggles]

So true. In fact many people seek both the peaks and troughs in anticipation of the opposite.

This is how base jumpers and parachuters get their high. They jump out/off of something that will most definitely cause death creating a state of extreme anxiety. But when their parachute opens they realize that death is not imminent and their emotional state swings in the opposite direction. Kind of like a drug but taken in reverse order; the hangover is experienced first so that the high follows.