Morphine, heroin, codeine…
Probability is that you would have heard these names if you haven’t consumed them yet. These are opiates! The panacea for their consumers, hateful for non-consumers, and headache for law enforcement agencies…
Opiates have always been in the limelight: from being used as painkillers in their early phase to going through the backlisting phase, they are again seeing the dawn of a new phase where they are standard again. Whatever is the case, opiates have always been the talk of the town and ‘in’ usage.
Opiates are a big-time mystery for the world. Its users, as well as medical practitioners, are equally curious to know the enigma behind the impact of opiates: How on earth a substance can affect a person to the extent that he gets ‘high’. A sane person becomes insane, and a gentle person starts acting like a dork. Yes, that’s what opiates do to its consumers, but why?
Opiates raise different questions in our mind:
Do they turn us into a different human being?
Are they a magical substance, or have a distinct molecular formation that tampers the brain?
Is this tampering temporary or a permanent one?
If you have also been wondering about these questions, like the rest of the world, we have come up with answers to your queries.
Here is given what opiates do to the brain of its consumers:
What are Opiates?
Opiates are basically compounds that are derived from the opium poppy plant. They have a long history that spans over various countries and regions. The modern world now knows opiates with the name of opioid, a term used to describe all substances that chemically get bound to the brain’s opioid receptors. But there are some other substances, like mitragyna speciosa, that bind to opioid receptors but are not tagged as opioid yet.
Opioids are further categorized into four categories:
- Endogenous: Those opioid compounds that our body produce, like endorphins
- Opium alkaloid: Opioid compounds derived from opium poppy plant, like codeine and morphine
- Semi-synthetic: Drugs synthesized from opium, like heroin
- Synthetic: Laboratory manufactured opioids through chemical reactions, like fentanyl
If you think that opioids are only used as an illicit drug, then you might be surprised to know that doctors also prescribe them for different medical purposes. Like, doctors prescribe them to calm surgery’s acute pain and treat some other medical conditions.
But no matter they are used for which purpose, the question is what opioids do after binding to receptors?
What Opioids Do to Our Brain?
The human body naturally contains opioids, called endogenous opioids, which attach to the brain’s opioid receptors. This combination plays a role in pain reduction and maintaining the mood and the stress level. Whenever you feel pain or stressed out, the opioid system gets activated and regulates these issues. But things work differently when you take opioids as a drug.
Once you start taking opioids more than the prescribed portion, they start becoming addictive. It creates euphoria because taking a heavy dosage of an opioid floods your brain with neurochemicals, including serotonin and dopamine. The flooding of these pleasure triggering neurochemicals creates higher pleasure feelings than the natural happy sensations.
Once you continue taking drugs, the body becomes accustomed to feeling high sensations. The brain also becomes ‘normal’ with high happy vibes and takes these feelings superior to naturally occurring high feelings. When the brain starts becoming normal with these feelings, the brain and body become tolerant to these effects. And the prolonged usage of opioids reinforces the brain to take an even higher dosage to create that euphoric effect again. And like this, the person becomes an addict!
Conclusion:
The research shows that opiates do change the brain’s functionality if we take them in a huge amount and for a long time. If only taken according to the prescription, they can impart positive effects, like pain relief and stress relieving. Once you go beyond the limits of the prescription, things start going wrong. The brain continues to demand drugs unless you seek a doctor’s help to hinder the high dopamine requirement of the brain.
If you feel yourself getting dependent on any opiate, consult a doctor immediately. Healthy living is the best living style – stick to it!