Drugs and alcohol

Are You Being Brainwashed?

Why people say they use drugs including alcohol and tobacco:

• It's fun!
• I'll try anything once
• Loads of my mates do it
• It relaxes me
• It shuts out all the crap in the world!

What's really going on…

Think about how we learn things…
By training our brain to remember something we have been told, seen, heard or touched e.t.c. we can retrieve that information when we need it.
The more we repeat something the more likely we are to remember it.

But how do we learn what feels good?
The part of the brain that regulates feelings of pleasure is called the limbic system or the reward system. This area is activated by pleasurable activities such as hanging out with friends, getting a compliment, or when we achieve something, or just seem to fit in. When we do something pleasurable a chemical called dopamine is released into the brain causing us to feel that pleasure.

Drugs also train the brain, by flooding it with chemical messages of intense pleasure. But they also turn down our natural reward system. So without drugs the normal things in life don’t feel as good as they used to and to feel really happy again we think we need more and more drugs.

At times it may seem fun or easier to pop a pill or smoke a spliff, but drugs mess with your head and can get you into the sort of trouble that hangs around like a bad smell.

Getting off drugs means feelings won’t be back to normal for a while and you will have to fight the urge to take drugs again.

If you want more information or to stop teaching your brain that drugs are the only way to make you feel happy get some help.

Talk confidentially to:

Niki Kerr – Young Persons Substance Misuse Worker
TH@W  - 0208355 3473