Worry, Anxiety, and Your Brain, 2

Think of the four emotions as four categories: joy, anger, fear, and sadness. Many languages, including English, have hundreds of words for emotions and feelings (because they lump those two words together and sometimes use them interchangeably or synonymously). That’s unfortunate since they represent different states and are believed to follow different pathways through the brain. It is my brain opinion that you can place each of the hundreds of words in one of those four categories. Worry and anxiety would go into the bucket of ‘fear’ since fear is all about helping you recognize that you are unsafe unless the fear is not about a bona fide situation of actual danger and represents your thoughts and beliefs about imaginary fears (e.g., I’m not smart enough or good looking enough or wealthy enough or . . .). Unfortunately, imaginary fears can still trigger the stress response . . . More tomorrow.

Worry, Anxiety, and Your Brain

Recently while lecturing in the United Kingdom, I was chatting with the producer of a TV program on which I was being interviewed. Both of us had heard someone say, “I was so anxious I was sure I was losing my mind!” Worry and anxiety seem to be global problems and we chatted briefly about their contribution to memory problems and even dementia. Flying back home I decided to do so blogs on the topic. First a reminder that I talk about four core emotions because they can be seen on the face of the fetus: joy, anger, fear, and sadness. Three of those (anger, fear, and sadness) are said to be ‘protective emotions’ because they help us manage a variety of types of events and situations. The protective emotions appear to be aligned with the right hemisphere of the brain, while the left hemisphere lights up on brain scans when the emotion of joy is being experienced. More tomorrow.

Origin of Phrases, 6

Origin of Phrases, 6

1.                  Cobweb: The Old English word for ‘spider’ was ‘cob.’

2.                  Riff-raff: The Mississippi River was the main way of traveling from north to south. River-boats carried passengers and freight but they were expensive so most people used rafts. Everything had the right of way over rafts which were considered cheap. The steering oar on the rafts was called a ‘riff’ and this transposed into riff-raff, meaning low class.

3.                  Ship state rooms: Traveling by steamboat was considered the height of comfort. Passenger cabins on the boats were not numbered. Instead they were named after states. To this day cabins on ships are called staterooms.

Beating Addiction

Because everything starts in the brain, my brain's opinion is that beating addiction starts by learning something about the brain and choosing a mindset of recovery. One resource I use is The Chemical Carousel: What Science Tells Us About Beating Addiction by Dirk Hansen. He explains in easy-to-understand language what happens in the brain when a molecule of cocaine or gin or THC finds its way there. And outlines the combination of molecular messengers (serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, glutamate, and CRF) that hit the brain reward system; pointing out that “everything that follows, from behavioral problems to broken marriages, from jail time to rehab, is a result of changes in infinitesimally small amounts of these chemicals in the brain.” Addictive behaviors represent a ‘disease’ in my brain’s opinion and need to be dealt with like all other diseases. Sooner than later, as they always result in negative outcomes . . .

Pot Withdrawal, 2

For some marijuana users, withdrawal can be a real challenge. Fortunately, over the last decade or so, a body of knowledge is being collected about the symptoms of pot withdrawal. For example, Dirk Hansen outlined some of these symptoms in his blog: “The syndrome is marked by irritability, restlessness, generalized anxiety, hostility, depression, difficulty sleeping, excessive sweating, loose stools, loss of appetite, and a general ‘blah’ feeling.” [You may want to access his blogspot for additional information.] For overall health, productivity, relationships, and success in life, I recommend that people put in the work to free themselves from addictive behaviors, especially those related to substances. They directly impact your brain and typically result in negative outcomes.

http://addiction-dirkh.blogspot.com/2007/10/marijuana-withdrawal.html

Pot Withdrawal

Dr. Ryan Vandrey of John’s Hopkins School of Medicine and colleagues compared symptoms of tobacco withdrawal with marijuana withdrawal and to the withdrawal in study participants who used both substances. The abstract of that study pointed out that “overall withdrawal severity associated with cannabis alone and tobacco alone was of a similar magnitude. Withdrawal during simultaneous cessation of both substances was more severe than for each substance alone, but these differences were of short duration and substantial individual differences were noted.” In working with addictive behavior programs, some of the program attendees reported that nicotine withdrawal was more of a problem during waking hours while marijuana withdrawal was more of a problem during sleeping hours—because of an increase in anxiety and insomnia (and sometimes in dreaming).

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871607002499

Illicit Drug Use Increasing

This week I’ll provide some comments and resources for those who have asked about illicit drug use. According to SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) for 2014: 27.0 million people aged 12 or older used an illicit drug in the past 30 days, which corresponds to about 1 in 10 Americans (10.2 %), higher than the percentage in every year from 2002 through 2013. That included 22.2 million current marijuana users aged 12 or older (can double their risk of being in a car accident); 473,000 young adults who used cocaine, including 29,000 who used crack (after just one use cocaine can rewire the brain and drastically affect decision-making); and about 435,000 people aged 12 or older were current heroin users (a dangerous and highly addictive opiod with no accepted medical use in the USA). The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported highest rates of dependence to lowest; the top three listed: Heroin, Crack, and Marijuana.

http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.htm