I’m a Scientist is like school science lessons meet the X Factor! School students choose which scientist gets a prize of $1000 to communicate their work.
Scientists and students talk on this website. They both break down barriers, have fun and learn. But only the students get to vote.
This zone is the Organs Zone. It has scientists studying health and disease in various parts of our bodies. Who gets the prize? YOU decide!
All street drugs have effects on mental health: that is why people use them. They are all likely to affect the way you see things, your mood and your behaviour. Unfortunately, while they may give a short-lived burst of pleasure, or an exciting experience, many of them have longer-lasting harmful effects and, for some people, they may cause long-term mental health problems.
Many street drugs may be mixed with other substances, some of which may be poisonous and increase the risk of harmful effects.
The effects that drugs may have on you depend on:
the type of drug
the amount you take
how often you take it
your previous experience of it
what you want and expect to happen
the environment or social situation in which you take it
your mental state.
You may react differently to the same drug at different times or in different situations. If you are used to taking a drug in the same place and in the same way, a dose which is safe in that situation may become extremely dangerous if you take it somewhere else, unexpectedly, with no preparation.
Drugs may cause symptoms that are similar to those that lead to a psychiatric diagnosis. In the worst cases, drug use may trigger serious conditions such as schizophrenia or long-term depression.
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Carina’s got this covered too.
I’ll just add my 2-cents:
Drugs can be classified into groups. “Uppers” and “Downers” are the main ones. They either make you feel “high” or “low”. The problem with ANY drug abuse it that too much of a “high” will mean that you feel “low” in a normal setting (when you stop taking the drug). This then means you want/ need to take more to just feel normal. So you completely destroy your bodies normal state!
The problem that most people don’t think about is that drugs usually don’t just do one thing! They don’t only affect one part of your body. The have adverse affects for other parts of your body. So that’s 2 ways you’re ruining your body.
The 3rd is the thing no one ever thinks about, and that’s your kidneys. Your kidneys are what need to break down any chemical in your body and filter it out. Just imagine the pressure you can put on them by taking a lot of drugs! That’s why “substance abusers” have kidney troubles, where some risk death because both kidneys stop working… They will not be eligible for an organ (kidney) transplant because they use drugs…
It’s a vicious cycle of self harm. It really is quite stupid when you think how bad you’re ruining your body, chasing the momentary “high”…
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These guys have done a great job of answering the question, but did you have a question about a specific drug, zeekybom?
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Agree, these folks have answered it well.
Illicit drugs are illegal because they pose harm to your personal health and have not met the standards which allow them to be registered for therapeutic use (by the TGA- Therapeutic Goods Administration of Australia). Most are also psychoactive- meaning they affect your brain and the way messages travel between nerve cells. So this means that illicit drugs (uppers,downers) can increase or decrease activity in different parts of your body including your brain!
For example a depressive/downer/inhibitory drug taken may make you chilled and more mellow and reduce stress or ability to think, but it can also be dangerous if it decreases heart rate and breathing rate and lead to an unconscious state/coma.
All chemicals can be drugs and all substances (including water!) can be toxic, depending on the amount, duration of exposure, your reaction to it, etc.
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Drugs hijack your reward centres in the brain. That’s why they feel good. Most of them release the chemical brain signal dopamine, which is also released when you eat, interact socially and have sex. Some can release oxytocin, which is also released when you hug.
Drugs can change the level of chemicals in your brain on the first time you take them but with long-term use drugs can have very bad effects. When chemicals are released normally in the brain, the brain soaks them up, breaks them down and makes more for the next time they need to be released. This is how brain cells signal to each other, through the release of chemicals and then the turning off of this chemical signal.
Drugs release abnormally large amounts of chemicals, but the brain is clever, and makes structural changes to the neurons to dampen down this signal. The next time the drug is taken, in order to get the same effect, the person needs to take more of the drug. A huge problem with this is that the reward centre of the brain has been dampened down and the person no longer finds natural things rewarding – like eating, seeing their family, sex, listening to music, dancing. How sad 🙁 This is called drug addiction.
When lots of drugs are taken, the brain can’t keep up and free radicals are produced which can kill neurons — and these cells never grow back! People who take drugs actually have brain damage.
So drugs are causing changes in your brains, sometimes they kill neurons.
Your brains haven’t even finished developing by the time you turn 20 and this is later for boys. Its important to be careful about everything you put into your bodies and in your brains when you are young. You’ll want your brain to be working well when your 30, 40, 50 and beyond.
Another important thing to remember, Caffeine (from coffee and energy drinks), nicotine (from cigarettes) and marijuana are also drugs that can change your brain development.
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