Tag Archives: intoxication

Three Phases of Addiction.

Three Phases of Addiction

Getting High, Avoiding The Low, & Craving Tobacco, alcohol, stimulants, opiates, and marijuana are all capable of leading to addiction. Some of these drugs are more addictive than others. Some people are more prone to becoming addicted than others. Authors of a recent review article in the New England Journal of Medicine define addiction as “the most severe, chronic stage[…]

Can You Be ‘Addicted’ to Water?

Can You Be ‘Addicted’ to Water

A Brief Look at Psychogenic Polydipsia, Hyponatraemia, And ‘Aquaholism’ In May 2015, I went to the cinema with my oldest son to watch Mad Max: Fury Road. The reason I mention this is because one of the characters in the film (who live in a world where water is a scarce commodity) tells someone else not[…]

Thinking About Craving

Thinking About Craving

It’s So Basic, But It’s Not Easy to Understand I have been thinking a lot about cravings lately. What is craving, really? What’s it all about? Craving seems to amount to a fundamental sense of being incomplete. When we crave, we want something to fill us up. We want to fill a hole, by taking[…]

Craving: When The Brain Remembers Drug Use

Craving When the brain remembers drug use

What Are Cravings & How Should One Cope? What are drug-use cravings? I agree with these descriptions and the idea that cravings are strong memories that are linked to the effect of drugs on the brain’s neurochemistry. Indeed, imaging studies have shown some intense brain activation when pictures that are linked to drug use (like a pipe, or a[…]