What Could Possibly Be Better Than Sex? Meth.
This article was originally posted on a previous website I owned, published 7/24/2017.
Substance or Co-Occurring Disorder
As I’m sure many of you have experienced at one point or another, building habits are hard. While not prioritizing time to blogging, I’ve taken an online class and more responsibility at work to learn about substance use, abuse, and recovery.
My decision to do this is a massive boon to my clinical experience. I learned very little about drugs and alcohol while getting my Master’s degree in Professional Counseling. Yet about 75% of people with a mental health issue also have a substance use issue. This is called a co-occurring disorder and is a not a problem to ignore, though it happens quite often.
My school is not unique in its close-to-nothing-training on substance use disorders. There is still a significant gap in the integration of substance use and mental health services throughout the nation. Alas, here I am, filling in the gap for myself.
Dopamine and Our Brain
In a weekly recovery group I’ve been shadowing, the topic has been focused on dopamine and our brain’s reward system to explain why drug addiction is not a choice, but indeed a disease. The group facilitators passed around a handout with graphs showing the amount of dopamine released when “rewarding” behaviors occur.
Dopamine is the neurotransmitter responsible for reward, pleasure, motivation, and movement. “Rewarding” in this context relates to the reward system being activated. Not all behaviors in the long-run are rewarding. We experience this when we eat so much of our favorite food that our stomachs start to burst, or when we go on a shopping spree but later regret how much we spent.
But then, while looking at how different drugs affect dopamine release… hot damn, amphetamines. Amphetamines released about 1,000 units of dopamine. Based on this study, that’s about 5x the amount of pleasure of eating food or having sex! How do you beat that? You can’t. And that’s the crisis.
Amphetamines and Meth, Possibly Better than Sex
Amphetamines are a stimulant with addictive properties. With a prescription, it is used legally as an ADHD and weight loss medication because of its ability to increase focus, alertness, and metabolism. There is a derivative of amphetamines.
However, that is cheap, accessible, and used illegally. Methamphetamines are a stimulant even more addictive and dangerous than pharmaceutical amphetamines. In 2012, 1.2 million people reported using meth in the past year. I don’t know 2017s stats, but I do know I come across a lot of clients who currently use or have used meth in the past.
Even if someone reports no longer using meth, it’s still important to talk about and monitor. Its intensity leads to the potential for relapse. To explain the power and control meth has on its users, I’m about to get a little science-y.
Meth. What Is It and How It Can Destroy
Meth is molecularly similar in shape, size, and structure to the neurotransmitter dopamine. As I said before, dopamine is the key to our pleasure and reward system. This makes meth dangerous. Meth users experience an increased sense of euphoria, increased alertness and energy, and decreased food intake and sleep. Some adverse effects include anxiety, depression, paranoia, aggression, hallucinations, hyperthermia, convulsions and death.
Meth also impairs judgment, which leads to risky behaviors like nonconsensual and/or unprotected sex. There is a culture around sex and meth use in heterosexual and queer relationships. This is because meth use is associated with increased libido.
Sex is already good, and if done mindfully, amazing. With meth, it can be beyond mind-blowing. I’m not able to describe this euphoria, but when there’s evidence to show amphetamines are 5x more powerful than sex, I can only imagine what that means about methamphetamines, which are even stronger.
While sex under the influence is happening, people may be more aggressive in their actions and movements for long periods of time, increasing the chances of injury and the danger of spreading infections, like HIV and hepatitis. If the point hasn’t been made clear yet this blog post is not about glamorizing meth.
Ironically, long-term use of methamphetamines actually destroys one’s sex life. Chronic meth use can damage dopamine levels risking a loss of pleasure in all areas of life, not just sex. It will become harder and harder to get pleasure from sex even as you increase the amount you’re using. This build-up of tolerance is one of the causes of overdose and potential death.
Prolonged meth use also ruins a user’s physical appearance as severe weight loss, sores, rapid aging, and rotting teeth (meth mouth) take over.
Stopping Is No Easy Feat
There is no easy way to stop using a drug so damn addictive, or any drug that alters our brain chemistry. The same way a brain gets rewired into addiction through continued abuse, it can be rewired back over time, though it may never be entirely “normal.”
With the help of inpatient treatment, outpatient groups and therapy, sober support, recovery support groups, harm reduction/abstinence, and a lot of education recovery are possible. Once people are in the recovery process, they can have conversations about how to reconnect to their sex life without the drug. It may be hard at first to feel aroused or enthused about sex, knowing what it was like to be entranced by something exceeding orgasmic, but the cons are deadly.