I often need to be stimulated by ideas, to move me from my asocial torpor, but lately I haven't felt much like responding to anyone about anything. So here's my music playlist from YouTube.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
unloquacious
There seems to be a clear line between the impulse to express my thoughts, and the impulse to socialize. I often depend on being reactive, looking for other people's ideas so that I might feel compelled to respond. Many of my blog entries, inspired by some podcast I've been listening to, or my political comments in response to some article, or some other commenter.
Saturday, October 28, 2017
compensatory mechanisms
Addiction is an oft misused term. Addiction is the body becoming accustomed to the presence of a drug. When you remove the drug, it takes time to adjust physiologically, and this results in withdrawal symptoms. This does not occur just from taking the drug. It occurs with regular use. The more you do, the more regularly, the more your body will try to get used to it.
This also results in tolerance. As the body compensates, in assuming the presence of the drug, the less of an impact it will have. Common wisdom is that you need more to get the same effect, but the truth is, that never quite works as well. The system absorbs some chemical reactions better than others, resulting in a different balance. A diminished efficacy, as long as compensatory mechanisms are involved.
The drug becomes a blunter instrument, the more dosage is increased. Less of what you want, and more of everything else. The more desperate you are to feel it anyhow, the more you keep upping the dosage anyhow. Sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes it's dangerous.
Dr. Hart thinks the problem is ignorance, and I'm sure that he is right, to some degree. If only people knew, not to combine sedatives, such as opiates and alcohol, he says. Except, addicts do that because they know it's a way of pushing through tolerance. I wonder how many would keep doing it anyhow.
Addiction is not something that happens just from taking a drug. Opioids are especially addictive, but people often take them for weeks without becoming addicts. Recreationally, people use all sorts of drugs intermittently.
We live with addictions all the time, and with a steady intake of the drug, they aren't necessarily a problem. They're never really ideal, though. It takes the brain months to return to normal, from caffeine addiction. Not from drinking coffee at all, but from drinking 2-4 cups a day, every day, for decades.
In the US, drug overdoses are the leading cause of death now, in people under 50. I appreciate the crusade against Big Pharma on their victims' behalf, but I've always felt blaming the dealers to be almost as misguided as blaming users. Addiction occurs when people already have a problem. The reason they're doing the drug every day. That's not the effect of addiction, it's the cause.
This also results in tolerance. As the body compensates, in assuming the presence of the drug, the less of an impact it will have. Common wisdom is that you need more to get the same effect, but the truth is, that never quite works as well. The system absorbs some chemical reactions better than others, resulting in a different balance. A diminished efficacy, as long as compensatory mechanisms are involved.
The drug becomes a blunter instrument, the more dosage is increased. Less of what you want, and more of everything else. The more desperate you are to feel it anyhow, the more you keep upping the dosage anyhow. Sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes it's dangerous.
Dr. Hart thinks the problem is ignorance, and I'm sure that he is right, to some degree. If only people knew, not to combine sedatives, such as opiates and alcohol, he says. Except, addicts do that because they know it's a way of pushing through tolerance. I wonder how many would keep doing it anyhow.
Addiction is not something that happens just from taking a drug. Opioids are especially addictive, but people often take them for weeks without becoming addicts. Recreationally, people use all sorts of drugs intermittently.
We live with addictions all the time, and with a steady intake of the drug, they aren't necessarily a problem. They're never really ideal, though. It takes the brain months to return to normal, from caffeine addiction. Not from drinking coffee at all, but from drinking 2-4 cups a day, every day, for decades.
In the US, drug overdoses are the leading cause of death now, in people under 50. I appreciate the crusade against Big Pharma on their victims' behalf, but I've always felt blaming the dealers to be almost as misguided as blaming users. Addiction occurs when people already have a problem. The reason they're doing the drug every day. That's not the effect of addiction, it's the cause.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
positive avolition
It's shocking how tired I am. Either my daily coffee has been hiding this horrible ailment I have, or this is caffeine withdrawal. I haven't even gone a whole day without it, yet. I'm also out of ibuprofen. It would seem I am going to need more.
I've decided that drinking coffee every day makes terribly inefficient use of a really good stimulant. I know that regular use of other stimulants builds tolerance and dependence, and worst of all, causes them to stop working. I don't see why caffeine would be any different. I need it, and yet barely feel like I'm breaking even, by drinking it every day.
I tried giving up coffee a few years ago. I was successful, but after a few months I decided I was better off as an addict. All or nothing. Now, I'm not giving it up entirely. I just want to break the addiction, so that I can enjoy it more, 2-3 times a week.
I wonder why this approach seems so unusual. It makes sense to me, but it's taken me years to learn for myself how stimulants work, and to think of trying even coffee this way. I've never seen anyone suggest this. So, I wonder if my body works differently. Maybe others don't build tolerance as quickly, or experience as much drop-off in efficacy because of it. I don't put it past people though, doing everything wrong for millennia, without learning anything.
Other people do seem to be more impulsive than I am. Maybe that's what makes this a more viable approach for me. I feel lousy, but this isn't some monumental act of willpower. I'm really good at not doing things.
I've decided that drinking coffee every day makes terribly inefficient use of a really good stimulant. I know that regular use of other stimulants builds tolerance and dependence, and worst of all, causes them to stop working. I don't see why caffeine would be any different. I need it, and yet barely feel like I'm breaking even, by drinking it every day.
I tried giving up coffee a few years ago. I was successful, but after a few months I decided I was better off as an addict. All or nothing. Now, I'm not giving it up entirely. I just want to break the addiction, so that I can enjoy it more, 2-3 times a week.
I wonder why this approach seems so unusual. It makes sense to me, but it's taken me years to learn for myself how stimulants work, and to think of trying even coffee this way. I've never seen anyone suggest this. So, I wonder if my body works differently. Maybe others don't build tolerance as quickly, or experience as much drop-off in efficacy because of it. I don't put it past people though, doing everything wrong for millennia, without learning anything.
Other people do seem to be more impulsive than I am. Maybe that's what makes this a more viable approach for me. I feel lousy, but this isn't some monumental act of willpower. I'm really good at not doing things.
Monday, October 2, 2017
good morning, america
I don't care that much about the gun control issue. I woke up horrified this morning, but the whole debate is this convoluted swamp of insanity. Of course, guns should be banned. All of them. Better yet, let's ban all weapons. Anything that's designed to kill people, how about just outlawing, with any grey area litigated in court like anything else. I don't really care enough to argue the point, or get into specifics, but that's roughly my stance. A stance I'm too cynical to care about.
It's not just that we're nowhere near it. They won't even talk about it. They've given so much ground to the right, that they bicker over whether or not there should be limits on magazine sizes. In this case, sure, that could have saved a lot of lives, but this isn't the norm. This is like terrorism, in that it's especially triggering, it speaks to us emotionally, in a way that the everyday violence does not.
Fifty eight people died to gun violence today. Not counting all the other firearm suicides, homicides, and police shootings that happened today, as they do every day. I think it adds up to at least that many. every single day in America.. and no, they can't even get limits on magazine sizes.
Anyhow, 3D printed guns are still a thing, and they keep getting better, the materials cheaper. Their creators more creative. It's a pathologically uphill pointless battle, in a world that's falling apart around us. Have I mentioned that I've been kind of depressed, lately?
Deadliest Mass Shooting in US History
"There have been a total of 273 mass shootings in the United States since 2017 began 273 days ago, according to the Gun Violence Archive."
It's not just that we're nowhere near it. They won't even talk about it. They've given so much ground to the right, that they bicker over whether or not there should be limits on magazine sizes. In this case, sure, that could have saved a lot of lives, but this isn't the norm. This is like terrorism, in that it's especially triggering, it speaks to us emotionally, in a way that the everyday violence does not.
Fifty eight people died to gun violence today. Not counting all the other firearm suicides, homicides, and police shootings that happened today, as they do every day. I think it adds up to at least that many. every single day in America.. and no, they can't even get limits on magazine sizes.
Anyhow, 3D printed guns are still a thing, and they keep getting better, the materials cheaper. Their creators more creative. It's a pathologically uphill pointless battle, in a world that's falling apart around us. Have I mentioned that I've been kind of depressed, lately?
Deadliest Mass Shooting in US History
"There have been a total of 273 mass shootings in the United States since 2017 began 273 days ago, according to the Gun Violence Archive."
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