Thread: Rant and Rave, Cry and Complain

Speaking of Hallucinations I had the second drug induced one I can actually remember and it was just like the first, Saw my arms and body aging till I was old, It was on Shrooms this time not DMT though, and lasted much longer.

Originally Posted by ZeraCook

Speaking of Hallucinations I had the second drug induced one I can actually remember and it was just like the first, Saw my arms and body aging till I was old, It was on Shrooms this time not DMT though, and lasted much longer.

Was that still the only thing you saw?

Yeah, actually there was a moment where I Whited/ Reded out and my vision completely left me, I didn't freak out or even move from where I was sitting, but I remember my face felt really hot. but IDK if i would count that as a hallucination.

there was also the one time I was seeing stuff on the road and hearing things, not on the shrooms that was from sleep deprivation awhile back, I think I posted it here somewhere but I'm to lazy to go find the link.. so total in life time 3 hallucinations, 2 known to be drug induced.

so I wonder if I have a fear of ageing and growing,since that was the hallucinations or if I crave it?

The first time was only fear full because it was the first time I hallucinated, and the first time I did DMT, but this time I wasn't fearful at all while hallucinating, but It was kinda a scary trip over all because my bros were tripping, and they were kinda getting hostile with each other, and we were in a basement the whole time, with three guns not locked away.

Their was definetly paranoia spreading through the group, the way every time someone would leave the room someone would say, one of us better keep an eye on him, or whoa whoa wheres he going, and similar things casting suspicions around about at each other.

Originally Posted by ZeraCook

Yeah, actually there was a moment where I Whited/ Reded out and my vision completely left me, I didn't freak out or even move from where I was sitting, but I remember my face felt really hot. but IDK if i would count that as a hallucination.

there was also the one time I was seeing stuff on the road and hearing things, not on the shrooms that was from sleep deprivation awhile back, I think I posted it here somewhere but I'm to lazy to go find the link.. so total in life time 3 hallucinations, 2 known to be drug induced.

so I wonder if I have a fear of ageing and growing,since that was the hallucinations or if I crave it?

The first time was only fear full because it was the first time I hallucinated, and the first time I did DMT, but this time I wasn't fearful at all while hallucinating, but It was kinda a scary trip over all because my bros were tripping, and they were kinda getting hostile with each other, and we were in a basement the whole time, with three guns not locked away.

Their was definetly paranoia spreading through the group, the way every time someone would leave the room someone would say, one of us better keep an eye on him, or whoa whoa wheres he going, and similar things casting suspicions around about at each other.

That first thing sounds like something that happens to me when I meditate. Interesting.... And yeah, I remember the sleep deprivation thing.

The aging thing is actually a very common type of hallucination. Most of the people I've ever talked to who've tripped enough have experienced it at least once. There can be lots of growing and decaying themes with psychedelic visuals. The only time I can remember having it though is when I mixed four grams of mushrooms with four hits of acid. I was pretty out of it and when I saw my hand degrading into bone I thought it was actually happening, and I ended up trying to inspect my hands to "see beyond" the visuals (which was not possible at the time) until my finger nail was like a centimeter away from my eyes, and I had a flashlight held up right next to it trying to see it better. I was so frustrated that the flashlight wasn't helping at all, and I just couldn't figure out why. It took me a good fifteen minutes or so to realize that the room light was already on. I was completely sure that I had been sitting in darkness. >_> (As soon as I realized that I laughed it off and forgot the whole thing.)

But yeah, you should probably... put those guns away when you do that.... Faaaar away. When things get bad with psychedelics, they can get really bad. Like psychopath bad. It's not a common experience or anything but you definitely want to prepare for the worst, keep in mind that when people are on drugs they're not the people you normally know, especially with hallucinogens. Don't forget that perfectly regular people can end up attacking people or doing something very, er, extreme in fits of passion in their dreams, and when you're tripping sometimes you don't know the difference.

Yeah I know, We decided as a group after that we weren't gonna do anything more than weed and drinking there anymore, because its not really our house, We're just guests and we can't move the guns, I've talked to the house owners about locking them up just in case, but they really are more irresponsible then us and basically denied me. In fact I actually quit every thing for the time being, its really hard, but I'm trying to get a good job and it requires a 6 month probation period, plus I find that I'm more motivated to get work up, but honestly, Its stunted my will to play and record music, plus I'm having trouble falling asleep at night, I laid in bed for three hours last night not sleeping, and I haven't smoked in a week, I spend a couple hours laying awake everynight since then.

Originally Posted by ZeraCook

Yeah I know, We decided as a group after that we weren't gonna do anything more than weed and drinking there anymore, because its not really our house, We're just guests and we can't move the guns, I've talked to the house owners about locking them up just in case, but they really are more irresponsible then us and basically denied me. In fact I actually quit every thing for the time being, its really hard, but I'm trying to get a good job and it requires a 6 month probation period, plus I find that I'm more motivated to get work up, but honestly, Its stunted my will to play and record music, plus I'm having trouble falling asleep at night, I laid in bed for three hours last night not sleeping, and I haven't smoked in a week, I spend a couple hours laying awake everynight since then.

Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, that's definitely not an environment I would want to trip in then.

If you can't fall asleep, get up and do something else. Get used to utilizing your time and it'll help you in the long run. You're just going through withdrawals, and you might as well make the best of a bad situation. Here's a chemistry fun fact for ya. There is a dual system in the motor control center of the brain for some depressant effects. This system involves adenosine and endocannabinoids. Basically, cannabinoid receptors there cause the effects that let you fall asleep more easily and feel anesthetized when you're high, and adenosine receptors modulate those cannabinoid receptors. The more adenosine you have, the stronger the cannabinoid effects will be. This is why you get more sedated when you smoke and you've been up for longer, because adenosine levels slowly rise from the time you wake up (which is actually part of why you get tired by the end of the day). Caffeine is an adenosine antagonist. It blocks adenosine and cannabinoids from having effects in the motor cortex. The point of this is that cannabinoid withdrawals actually have motor effects comparable to caffeine, which is why it becomes so hard to fall asleep.

In addition to that, your melatonin levels are probably much lower than normal right now. Try taking some before bed and it may help, that's what I usually do when I'm not smoking. And just remember that these effects are temporary, don't let yourself get worked up about them because that just hurts your resolve. They will disappear with time.

And good luck with your break.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

It's oxytocin. It has to be. Oxytocin levels are high during REM. 5-HT2A receptors have oxytocinergic effects, in addition to 5-HT1A, 5-HT2C, D2, and alpha1-adrenergic receptors. It's likely that 5-HT2B indirectly stimulates oxytocin secretion as well through increasing serotonin levels. It all makes sense if you think about it. The more similar a chemical is to serotonin, the more oxytocin it's probably going to release. Tryptamines generally have 5-HT1A activity, while the phenethylamines often don't. I think that's why tryptamine psychedelics are more likely to feel real and spiritual than phenethylamines. The exception would be for those phenethylamines that clearly have D2 activity, such as mescaline and 2C-E. LSD actually binds to 5-HT1A and D2 in addition to its psychedelic effects, and DMT binds to 5-HT1A, 5-HT2B, and alpha1, and it's more similar in structure to serotonin than LSD is. They're also commonly touted as the most realistic and mind-expanding psychedelics. Notably, however, bufotenine is often said to be more realistic and complex than DMT by DMT vets, and it's almost identical in structure to serotonin. Oxytocin is the love hormone, but I mean that in a way more than just creating feelings of love for someone. It creates those feelings of acceptance and high emotional states, and most importantly to what I've been thinking about now, it's involved in facial recognition. DMT entities are often regarded as real beings.... Could it be because the large release of oxytocin puts life in their eyes? Any hallucinogen can create perceptions of human(oid)s, but tipping the scales like this could be what makes DMT entities stand out from those on other drugs. Another thing to consider is serotonin releasing agents, like MDMA. They're known to create a large amount of their effects from a strong increase in oxytocin levels, and drugs that are simultaneously 5-HT2A agonists and serotonin releasing agents are often recognized for creating convincing hallucinations. These would include AMT, MDA, 6-APB, and MMDA, among others. MDMA is also known to cause hallucinations to become more structured and delirious when combined with strong 5-HT2A agonists. MMDA is the most significant to me, though, as it's actually a selective serotonin releasing agent and it's known to produce intensely realistic visuals. MMDA is a very rare drug that very few people have ever sampled recreationally (at least, people who talked about it afterward), it was illegal before the research chemical scene really came into existence and a lot of people don't know about it, so reports are scarce. However, one of my favorite trip reports is of MMDA and the person who took it, who is quite experienced with many hallucinogens both common and rare, claimed that the only thing that he could compare to the reality of it is DMT. He specifically stated that the entities he perceived on it seemed really alive.

Well damn. While typing out all that I was still reading through different articles, and I found one called "Evidence for the existence of dopamine d2-oxytocin receptor heteromers in the ventral and dorsal striatum with facilitatory receptor–receptor interactions". This changes everything. (Well, not everything.) Now I'm starting to wonder if dopamine and oxytocin are meant to work in concert for facial recognition. Like I said before, any hallucinogen can create perceptions of faces and entities, in fact they're incredibly common at higher doses with most of them. This is especially true in the case of drugs that can cause psychosis, and I'm pretty sure that that largely works through the striatum. D2 is the main hallucinogenic dopamine receptor and so it should be implicated in this, and the thing is, it's verifiable that even drugs that bind to D2 but lower dopamine and oxytocin levels can still generate hallucinations of entities. I'm referring mainly to salvinorin A, the main psychoactive component of salvia. This is also observable in people who have high dopamine but low oxytocin naturally, like people with schizophrenia. They're still able to perceive faces just fine (unless they're hallucinating of course), but they have a difficult time recognizing them. So what I'm thinking is that maybe dopamine is involved in the sensory aspects of it while oxytocin is involved in the social aspects? And it's possible that this interaction is what creates a fully crisp and realistic image of reality, or of hallucinations in higher activity. Like, basically all hallucinogens work downstream through dopamine release, and the more oxytocin you have released at the same time would increase the activity of D2 specifically here, and that could explain what I went over above.

I wonder if anyone's ever tried to use oxytocin as a dream supplement before? Time to do some more research....

I actually had something else that was more of a complain to include too, but this is too distracting now. I'll post it in my next rant if it's still bugging me.

The first thing I thought of when reading the first few sentences was that most people report that they feel like they've been to the DMT realm before when they take it.
That would highly correlate with massive oxytocin release. It's like meeting a stranger that you just start talking to and you feel like you're not even strangers at all.

I have a few issues with your second paragraph. Mostly the schizophrenia stuff. There's not really any good evidence for dopamine being implicated in it. They use dopamine lowering drugs to treat it, but as is well known, they don't work very well. It's highly likely that something else is the cause.

Originally Posted by tommo

The first thing I thought of when reading the first few sentences was that most people report that they feel like they've been to the DMT realm before when they take it.
That would highly correlate with massive oxytocin release. It's like meeting a stranger that you just start talking to and you feel like you're not even strangers at all.

I have a few issues with your second paragraph. Mostly the schizophrenia stuff. There's not really any good evidence for dopamine being implicated in it. They use dopamine lowering drugs to treat it, but as is well known, they don't work very well. It's highly likely that something else is the cause.

That's an interesting way to think about it. I know that feeling you're talking about too, it does feel like returning to something very familiar. I also feel it on mushrooms and LSD, but not 2C-I. Hmmm....

I never actually meant to claim or imply that dopamine is implicated in schizophrenia. This does not change the fact that schizophrenic people have elevated dopamine levels, however. The only thing I was trying to highlight with that is that high dopamine is not enough to recognize faces well without oxytocin. I'll admit to not stating it very well, though, like I said I was kind of scatterbrained.

Edit: To be honest though, I do find it likely that dopamine plays a role in schizophrenia. Some medications may not work in the long run, but this is true of many conditions. Antipsychotics are still known to be effective in acute treatment of hallucinogenic symptoms. I think the issue is just that the elevated dopamine levels are an effect of something else and targeting them specifically isn't actually fixing the problem, just one of its outcomes, and that doesn't work forever.

Edit Again: Actually, I wonder if it's from lowered acetylcholine release? This is just something that just now came to mind though, haven't looked much into it... but I just remember reading a lot about nicotinic acetylcholine receptors being hypoactive in many schizophrenic patients. Nicotine supposedly fixes this problem by upregulating those receptors, and nicotine supposedly releases acetylcholine as well, so it's possible that the acetylcholine levels overall are lower too.... Gotta look into that.... The only reason it really comes to mind is that quetiapine (Seroquel) causes anticholinergic delirium in high doses, despite being a powerful antipsychotic. And I honestly don't know how many other explanations there could be for hallucinations that exclude dopamine. Hmmm....

Oh, almost forgot too that antipsychotics increase acetylcholine release (in medical doses) by blocking D2. Which could of course fix the problem in a roundabout way by going through dopamine, and is part of why it came to mind.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

You can edit your subscriptions through the control panel, check next to the threads you don't want email from, selected threads arrow, through my control panel only radio button. I don't get any mail from DV unless someone comments on my DJ, and that isn't happening xD

And Carrot: Hah I've worried about that too! Until I got genotyped. I'm a girl xD

I read your first DJ entry and I wanted to comment on it but there's no comment box for me.

Anyway my problem with doubting my gender is just my OCD, it makes me doubt everything even the most illogical things, although I did relate myself to a boy when I was young but I no longer do that now, I'd rather be a girl. xD

Originally Posted by Carrot

I read your first DJ entry and I wanted to comment on it but there's no comment box for me.

Anyway my problem with doubting my gender is just my OCD, it makes me doubt everything even the most illogical things, although I did relate myself to a boy when I was young but I no longer do that now, I'd rather be a girl. xD

Yep, I just pm people or post a visitor message. I hope they fix that soon. I have no idea why I doubted mine, maybe it's because I was such a tomboy. The only reason I'd rather be a guy is because they seem like they have more fun, but I'm happy being a girl

Aly: I can normally follow your posts, but ah... not this one. Did you read a book on all this to start with, or just research papers and internet stuff? I want to learn too.

had a good time at the strip club


Oh wait.....that's like low life territory. Why am I at the point where I have to pay women to dance with me?

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

That's an interesting way to think ab....

That makes more sense, I agree with all of that


Firefox is going fucking spastic. No idea what's happening.

*wakes up*



So my adviser is only available for the 8th, tuition is due at the 9th, I have to somehow set up an appointment right after that previous one on the same day, hope they appeal my funding, or else I'm soooooo fucked.

What a beautiful way to wake up in the morning!

Great, so today is going to be the day where I just drown in pity and hope things go well for me.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

Aly: I can normally follow your posts, but ah... not this one. Did you read a book on all this to start with, or just research papers and internet stuff? I want to learn too.

Just the research papers and internet stuff. There a few books I've been meaning to read but haven't really gotten around to it lol. What do you want to learn first? I can try to help get you started.

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My rant is that I spend so much money on so many random impulse buys for things that I'll never use. It always seems like a great idea at the time. I think I should just start putting all of my money in savings because I never actually use any of it on reasonable purchases. ._.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

My rant is that I spend so much money on so many random impulse buys for things that I'll never use. It always seems like a great idea at the time. I think I should just start putting all of my money in savings because I never actually use any of it on reasonable purchases. ._.

Did you ever go back and buy that statue?

Canis, your post nearly killed me. I had just taken a toke from my cig when I read "Anti-rant #2: My dogs aren't used to having stomach trouble and keep fleeing in terror from the sound of their own farts. I confess that I find this hilarious no matter how many times it happens." I nearly coughed up a lung. I hope your dog gets better soon.

Rant: I have no patience. I tried posting yesterday but my incognito page wouldn't load so I gave up. And DV may be having issues, but something's up with my machine. Incognito is the only way I can reply to a post on any forum (I joined a couple for games and saw the problem existed there too
I've been playing a lot of WoW. My main character is almost level 50

Other than that, not much else has been going on.
I discovered my out of shape-ness is worse than I thought. Day before yesterday, I was bent at the waist and somewhat squatting as I sorted and moved a bunch of little stuff I had dumped onto my floor. I was doing that for MAYBE 15 minutes but my thighs are killing me. Major muscle aches. What the heck lol. All of my computer playing and inactivity must be causing my muscles to waste away to nothing! Something MUST be done about that. But, meh.

Oh, our shower water knob apparently broke. What the heck?! The tubs broke, the kitchen sinks broke and now the shower?! Ugh. I can't figure out how to take the stupid things off to properly replace them, so I end up breaking them off and using pliers to turn the water on and off. I'm getting more and more ghetto by the day it seems. MAJOR rant.

My pulse has been insane lately too (despite not being on any caffeine for a week or so). Bending over to clean that stuff made my pulse jump to 122. Speed walking through Wal-mart tonight made it jump to 125. My pulse goes down quickly once I stop moving but still.. that's crazy fast. Too many friggin cigarettes. I finally started writing down whenever I open and start a new pack. I go through 1 pack about every 9 hours.

And my room is still bone dry. I finally bought some petroleum jelly tonight to stick up my nose as well as some eye drops.

Okay.. I guess I had some rants in me after all

Originally Posted by Linkzelda

*wakes up*

Errday.

Originally Posted by Alyzarin

My rant is that I spend so much money on so many random impulse buys for things that I'll never use. It always seems like a great idea at the time. I think I should just start putting all of my money in savings because I never actually use any of it on reasonable purchases. ._.

These friggen ALDI stored here man.... They're like a supermarket but every Wednesday and Saturday they have just random stuff, TV's, cameras, hiking boots, language learning DVD's, bikes, just random stuff. And it's always cheap as hell.
I got all my motorbike gear there and have been hooked ever since. Fucking bastards
I do resist most of the time though, I think I learned a very valuable lesson when I spent all my money on this little asshole

as a kid.

Such a waste of money. lol

I feel like I repeat stories in this thread so much. Have I said that before? Ah well....

Dude Tommo! I had one of those too, as well as a robot cat and a robot plant, and even at one time a robot baby. I liked the first two a lot, the cat was cooler, the plant was weird and always looked high and made these slurpy noises, and the baby was creepy as hell. I got it for a birthday present and the person who got it for me was so excited... I just hid the thing in the closet.

Zhaylin: I don't know if this will help, but we made a ghetto humidifier by boiling water and letting it steam all day. Add some vanilla or cinnamon for a better smell (it's not very strong though, at least not for us).

Alyzarin: I'm really not sure where to start, because I have no idea where I want to end up. I guess what I'm most interested in is the effect of various drugs on neurotransmitter behavior and long-term effects on brain structure, as well as how neurotransmitters behave in certain disorders. I know the basics of the second one, but that's not enough

So I think in-depth info on various neurotransmitters, enzymes, and what have you. Anything else you can suggest would be great too!

Tiny rant:

I think I'm allergic to carrots. What the hell aren't I allergic to? *Sigh* and everything is overwhelmingly messy.

Anytime I see a good emotional movie, it's like stuck with me for the next few days. Last night I saw Les Miserables it was quite emotionally draining but sort of in a good way, made me cry a few times. Pretty intense ahh now it's all on my mind haha!

Originally Posted by tommo

I had one of these! It didn't work well either but still it was fun haha

^ LOL so did I. I remember our 80 pound real dog was so scared of it!

Originally Posted by Erii

Anytime I see a good emotional movie, it's like stuck with me for the next few days. Last night I saw Les Miserables it was quite emotionally draining but sort of in a good way, made me cry a few times. Pretty intense ahh now it's all on my mind haha!

Les Mis was fantastic, I was nearly brought to tears at the great ending.

But sorry guys, I'm gonna have to break this chain of modest rants today. I'm not a normally negative person, considering that half my posts in this thread are half-hearted complaints that aren't really to be made a big deal of, but today I have a real problem. Today, my landlord took my parents to court because old mom and pop owe them 17,000 USD. My dad can't find a paying job and my mom has to take care of my brother and I, seeing as I'm still puttin' on through the high school course with my younger bro trailing behind in middle school. I'm to move in two weeks. The only places that will accept such a short term move where are rentals... in Los Angeles (no family where I live, more money to mooch in L.A. heh). Considering that I live in San Diego, my parents are gonna have a hefty gas bill for a two hour daily commute to take me to school every day, or I'm moving schools. Common sense tells me the latter, but I can't seem to trust even that right now. Nonetheless, my friends won't be happy when they hear I'm moving so suddenly (my parents planned on moving to L.A. in the summer, so they already knew the inevitable), especially since I'm presenting a big project in Humanities next week on my own life as our final for the semester. The good thing is this move provides for an interesting ending to this project, the bad news is that I have to tell my friends I'm moving some time. I can personally find peace with that, but it's still an uncomfortable situation to be in. I'll handle it a lot better since I feel like they have made me grow so much more confident as a person.

There will absolutely be complications in my academic life as well - the new school must be able to accept, certify, and allow me to continue taking senior courses as a sophomore (AP Calc, AP Physics) and that I also would like a second semester in an ROP certified Computer Graphic Arts course to finish my elective. I've been bullshitting all of my classes for such a long time, and I might have to study for finals (more next week yay) for courses I probably won't be continuing onto second semester.

I need a hug.

Update: Listening to DesandNate to make me feel better. It's like sonic hugs >>

Originally Posted by Zhaylin

Canis, your post nearly killed me. I had just taken a toke from my cig when I read "Anti-rant #2: My dogs aren't used to having stomach trouble and keep fleeing in terror from the sound of their own farts. I confess that I find this hilarious no matter how many times it happens." I nearly coughed up a lung. I hope your dog gets better soon.

Ha, glad you enjoyed that! Believe it or not, actually seeing it is even funnier. It happened again this morning, and my reaction to it hasn't gotten any more mature. And thanks for the well wishes. The doggies are both doing better and better all the time.

Originally Posted by tommo

I do resist most of the time though, I think I learned a very valuable lesson when I spent all my money on this little asshole

Holy cow, we had that TEKNO thing too! (He was our winnings from a Christmas white elephant game.) Did everyone on the thread have one of these?? Does TEKNO the Robotic Puppy... cause lucid dreams?

Rant:

Okay, so the weather is nice and cold outside, 60 degrees Fahrenheit, but because it already rain, there are so many puddles I had to avoid so I wouldn't ruin my good jeans. Then I encountered all of this mud stuff that screws up my backpack with small splashes of dots all over.

Then I go to my biochemistry adviser to see if she can complete the questionnaire, and I printed out a copy to her. Turns out the application needs to be done online. I get a little irritated, but you know what, no point in doing that! So I just see it as a good thing because doing it online means it can get processed faster. So now I have to go around 4:00 PM, then when that's over with, set up an appointment with a counselor HOPEFULLY before 5 PM (because they close their services at that time).

Now, the thing is that really really really annoys me is that when they claim to be sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooo BUSY.....I go to the office, and there's practically NOBODY but staff members there.

Like seriously, if you had accepted my request that I inputted on the computer when I'm 10 feet away from you, and you respond in like 2 minutes.....you claim to be busy when I call you on the phone?

What bull-poopy is this?

I'm listening to freaking elevator music yesterday for like 15 minutes, and now suddenly your service is fast when I go to directly? This really annoys me a lot.

And even when I have the questionnaire done and filled out and set up an appointment, I still have to wait for that appeal to be accepted or not, so it's kind of hard pumping in optimism that it will go well when I feel it won't. It's just two more things, just TWO more freaking steps to get this thing finalized. After that, whatever happens, I have to suck my thumb in the fetal position and just hope it gets processed, or hello tuition payments that I still have to pay!

Yay!!!! -____-


Rave:

The only thing I have to rave about is that I have my own money to spend on food to mask the anxiety for what's to come.


Cry:

I hope I get to see my girlfriend again tomorrow and play some video games with her. I sound like some pathetic and desperate guy, but she's really awesome and I miss her :c

Last time I was being dumb and didn't realize I could reset the electricity current to have a decent time with her instead of being in a blackout with her with one room having backup energy... >.<


Complain:

Still have to overcome that point in meditation where I realize my body just goes "ploop" and drools all over the place. Now I just have to make sure I won't be laying down. Almost there, but it's so tough. But I can't do it! (this is like a half-rave half-complaint).

Ugh.

Originally Posted by Zhaylin

Did you ever go back and buy that statue?

No, thankfully. I've already spent an absurd amount of money lately. It would've been pretty cool to have, though.

Originally Posted by tommo

These friggen ALDI stored here man.... They're like a supermarket but every Wednesday and Saturday they have just random stuff, TV's, cameras, hiking boots, language learning DVD's, bikes, just random stuff. And it's always cheap as hell.
I got all my motorbike gear there and have been hooked ever since. Fucking bastards
I do resist most of the time though, I think I learned a very valuable lesson when I spent all my money on this little asshole as a kid.

Such a waste of money. lol

I feel like I repeat stories in this thread so much. Have I said that before? Ah well....

I remember those things.

Those stores would destroy me. I have a hard time learning lessons on this matter, apparently. I haven't stopped the reckless spending even since I made that last post, and pretty much all on MMO stuff too for games that I'm barely going to play if really at all. Sometimes when I see something and I know I have the means to get it I feel like I just need it, even if I'm clearly going to move past it really quickly, and all that collectors' and special edition stuff and the like that they sell can get at that side of me especially. This is why I've tried to stray away from games in the past and should again, I blow money on them several times faster than on drugs. >_>

And for the record, I think that was my first time hearing that story lol.

Originally Posted by NewArtemis

Alyzarin: I'm really not sure where to start, because I have no idea where I want to end up. I guess what I'm most interested in is the effect of various drugs on neurotransmitter behavior and long-term effects on brain structure, as well as how neurotransmitters behave in certain disorders. I know the basics of the second one, but that's not enough

So I think in-depth info on various neurotransmitters, enzymes, and what have you. Anything else you can suggest would be great too!

That's a good place to start, if you ask me. If you really want to get a good look at a something that covers all of that, you should start researching a lot about dopamine. It's involved in basically everything because almost every recreational drug increases dopamine levels, and those that don't work through related pathways in the brain. There's also a very large amount of research dedicated to exploring its place in addiction and behavioral changes with drug abuse, which is of course specifically about long-term effects. It's also thought to be either a cause or effect of many altered states such as psychosis, certain mental disorders both high and low (like with Parkinson's disease for the latter), and the generation of dreams. What I would recommend is researching enough about dopamine and its functions throughout the brain in a more general sense first to get a strong sense of what it does and what effects can or cannot easily be tied to it. Then, start researching the individual dopamine receptors - D1 through D5. Each of them has their own effects that balance out to create the full impact of dopamine, and drugs that bind to only certain ones or to all of them but with a different ratio will cause effects different from dopamine. When you start to see what those drugs are, since research articles tend to use a lot of the same chemicals over and over, you can easily find more articles about those specific receptors and see what their own functions are, and you can see how they bring about their effects by changing levels of other neurotransmitters in the brain. Once you find something you think is the most interesting in relation to changing those other levels, you can start looking into that chemical next, and rinse and repeat. (I recommend acetylcholine. )

Of course, you don't have to do it that way. That's just a method that comes to mind, you'll cover enough ground to get started and once you get through a few different chemicals and start to piece together a clearer image of what's going on you'll start to come across old information again that will make even more sense and increase your understanding. You tend to keep running into the same things over and over again with brain research, it's all cyclical in a beautiful way.

I can always PM you links to stuff if you need anything too, just ask.

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Today they announced the new Generation VI Pokémon games, Pokémon X and Y. They're about to come out with a whole new region and a whole new set of Pokémon again. I haven't even played Black 2 and White 2 yet. I need to get caught up!

I'm lonely.

That is all.