By Chloe Kunnemann, Guest Columnist
This week’s mental health column focuses on preventing substance abuse, specifically regarding stimulants and opioids.
STIMULANTS
Stimulants are commonly misused and abused within the college community to adhere to the deadlines placed on students. Many will use stimulant drugs to cram study, allowing the individual to stay awake throughout the night. Stimulants are mistakenly believed to help students increase their GPA and make studying better.
Some students think they are harmless and can even be mixed with alcohol. Mixing stimulants with alcohol can cause alcohol poisoning and even death. Stimulants also cause the unprescribed user to experience anxiety, sleep deprivation, stroke, nervousness and addiction.
Stimulants can affect the student’s performance while studying for and taking exams, and this has been found to lower the individual’s GPA.
Prescription stimulants are prescribed to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and uncontrollable episodes of deep sleep. The medication allows the individual to experience heightened alertness, attention and energy.
The prescription increases the activity of two different brain chemicals. The first, dopamine, reinforces rewarding behavior for the individual chemically. Norepinephrine directly affects the blood vessels, blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar and breathing within the body. However, the side effects of stimulants increase based on usage and dosage of the individual. Higher dosages of prescription stimulants can cause dangerously high body temperatures, an irregular heartbeat, heart failure and seizures.
Stimulants make an individual feel more awake, alert, confident or even energetic. Many times, stimulants are often thought of as just amphetamines. However, stimulants are much more common than believed.
Stimulants also include caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, crystal methamphetamine (ice), betel nut and synthetic cathinone. Synthetic cathinone typically is found in the form of white or brown powders, chunky crystals and even capsules or tablets.
Did you know that nicotine, one of the most common stimulants, can cause confusion, faintness, seizures, fast breathing and respiratory arrest? Long-term use of nicotine can even cause diabetes, reduced fertility, ectopic pregnancy and hip fractures.
OPIOIDS
How do opioids work? Opioids are used to cover pain perception while boosting the feeling of pleasure within the individual.
This is done by attaching to the brain’s opioid receptor cells. Individuals using the drug can feel sleepy, and at higher dosages, the drug will even slow the person’s breathing and heart rate.
What makes the drug addictive is the feeling of pleasure that is released on the opioid cells allows the individual to feel. Individuals may try and chase the continuous pleasure that they have found upon using opioid drugs. A few types of commonly known opioids are morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and fentanyl, all of which are addictive.
Males throughout the years have had higher rates of deaths caused by opioids than females. What has been found to be the leading cause of opioid deaths over the years? Synthetic opioids, also known as fake and/or illicit fentanyl, have led to a spike in synthetic opioid death in America.
Despite the rise in synthetic opioids, other substances such as psychostimulants, heroin, benzodiazepines and antidepressants have also increased throughout the years.
However, many deaths through the years have been caused by a combination of psychostimulants with synthetic opioids other than methadone. Psychostimulants are also known as stimulants. Having the combination of two drugs creates a contradicting reaction within the human body.
If you or someone you know needs to talk to someone about drug addiction or substance abuse, dial 988, a helpline for immediate crisis and non-emergency assistance for mental health and substance use issues.
For serious medical problems or any imminent, life-threatening situation, dial 911.
Northwestern student Chloe Kunnemann wrote this column on behalf on the Northwestern Counseling & Career Services Office.