FT

In a word -- Don't.

I wrote on another forum yesterday about the "flat mood" thing, aka apathy. Try to remember what the term "homeostasis" means, if you ever learned it in biology class.

The reality of the situation is that the human body ALWAYS tries to achieve homeostasis. That's why the liver recognizes that drugs and alcohol are poisons and tries to eliminate them from the body. That's one of its many jobs. It tries to eliminate the very thing you used to try to force it to accept, by detoxifying, and by making more receptors to accommodate the flood.

The human body was never designed to be in a prolonged "heightened" state, which is why our natural high (from endogenous endorphins) comes in bursts after stuff like physical exercise, happy surprises, sex, (maybe a happy surprise, no?), and eating chocolate. Sometimes with other things, too.

If you force the body to be in a "heightened" state, multiplication of the pleasure receptor sites (i.e. dopamine receptors) occurs -- but these are damaged, unhealthy receptors that permit taking more and more drug without killing you -- for awhile.

The other bad thing, besides potential death of the human, is that after the receptor sites are multiplied, they never reduce back down again. Because of that, when you stop artificially forcing the body to accept high doses of alcohol and/or drugs, you naturally feel "flat," because the receptors "need" to be filled to even feel "normal," whatever that has become. Eventually, your ability to make more receptor sites is exceeded, and that's when overdoses often happen as the human tries to take enough drug for the former good feelings that have become more and more elusive.

An even worse (maybe) bad things, is that when you force-feed yourself drugs or alcohol, your body stops making its own pleasure chemicals (endorphins) because it doesn't have to. After you quit drinking or drugging, it takes time for your body to "remember" how to make its own pleasure chemicals again. And also to repair the damaged receptor sites so you CAN feel good again.

If you don't give your body enough time to do that, it will never be able to make its them. Don't make that mistake.

The good news is that your body WILL start making its own natural endorphins again, and they are BETTER than drugs or alcohol ever were. One way to speed things up is to add exercise to your routine. It really does help.

Hey, Eyes, I don't post here very often any more, but you are worth a post. No, I don't envision myself as having more sway than anybody else around here, but you rock. You are helping so many by being here. Stay strong. Helping others does become cathartic, if you haven't already noticed.

Hang in there.

FT