Kafli 4. Feeling No Pain – The opioid Era
I do not think that anyone completely understands its mechanism, but it is a fact that there are
foreign substances which, when present in the blood or tissues, directly cause us pleasurable
sensations; and they also so alter the conditions governing our sensibility that we become
incapable of receiving unpleasurable impulses
- Sigmund Freud
Positive Psychology and Natural Highs
When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion - Ethiopian proverb UNIVERSAL DESIRE TO FEEL
• Addiction: Self-induced changes (psychology) in GOOD
neurotransmission (biology) that result in problem
behaviors (sociology). The experience of pleasure is
• Addiction: Behavior characterized by compulsion, loss of derived from stimuli, originating
control and continuation despite harmful consequences outside or inside the body, that
• Natural highs: Self-induced changes in brain chemistry increase the concentration of
that result in positive feeling states, health, and well- dopamine in the nucleus
being for the individual and society.” accumbens, the primary reward
center of the human brain.
THE FAINTING GAME
Lonnie told me how one kid would spend a minute or so
hyperventilating until he was dizzy and when he was seeing
spots a mate would hug him from behind so hard and so
ADDICTION
suddenly
TO that all the air was crushed from his chest...
Lonnie and I tried it a few times. When he flat out
fainted, I went into a panic. He came to with a strange
moan and a stupid look on his face. Then he did it to me
and I went down with a curious tunnel vision and the whole
frame of my consciousness seemed to melt at the edges
before give way entirely…
The attraction was plain enough – it was cheap
weirdness in the days before we knew about drugs.
EXPERIENCE
-Tim Winton
Breath
Drugs and Personality
• We repeatedly pursue three avenues of
experience as antidotes for psychic pain.
These preferred styles of coping—
1 satiation, arousal, and fantasy—may
have their origins in the first years of life.
• Childhood experiences combined with
genetic predisposition are the
, The Opioid Epidemic
From 2013 and 2014 there was an increase of about 3.000 lethal opioid-related overdoses and are
probably are significant of these overdoses are linked to fentanyl.
According to Courtwright (2001), the majority of opium/morphine addiction cases in the
19. century U.S were due to doctors prescribing or recommending these substances.
For a number of decades, opioid use was • According to Centers for Disease controls
relatively rare – until the late 1960. Heroin 2014: 60% of all fatal overdoses are due
to opioids in USA
popularity died again only to make a comeback in
• More overdoses are linked to
the 1990s (the era of “heroin chic”). prescription opioids (oxycodone
The current problems with opioid abuse are (oxycontin) hydrocodone) than heroin
• Every day 52 Americans die from
due in part to the increase in prescription opioid pain prescription opioid overdoses, which
medication. The annual number of lethal overdoses equals 2 deaths every hour
• According to the Centers for Disease
of opioids has more than quadrupled since 1999. Control and Prevention, 91 Americans
die each day from opioid overdoses, and
• The majority of the world’s prescriptions for that figure is rising (SciAm, July 2018)
opioids are written in the U.S. – street
opioids are often less expensive and more
easily obtained leading some opioid abusers
to switch from pills to heroin… complicating
the situation.
• NIDA estimates: 1 out of 15 people using
opioids for non-medical purposes will end up
trying heroin within 10 years…more negative
consequences for the user.
2
I do not think that anyone completely understands its mechanism, but it is a fact that there are
foreign substances which, when present in the blood or tissues, directly cause us pleasurable
sensations; and they also so alter the conditions governing our sensibility that we become
incapable of receiving unpleasurable impulses
- Sigmund Freud
Positive Psychology and Natural Highs
When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion - Ethiopian proverb UNIVERSAL DESIRE TO FEEL
• Addiction: Self-induced changes (psychology) in GOOD
neurotransmission (biology) that result in problem
behaviors (sociology). The experience of pleasure is
• Addiction: Behavior characterized by compulsion, loss of derived from stimuli, originating
control and continuation despite harmful consequences outside or inside the body, that
• Natural highs: Self-induced changes in brain chemistry increase the concentration of
that result in positive feeling states, health, and well- dopamine in the nucleus
being for the individual and society.” accumbens, the primary reward
center of the human brain.
THE FAINTING GAME
Lonnie told me how one kid would spend a minute or so
hyperventilating until he was dizzy and when he was seeing
spots a mate would hug him from behind so hard and so
ADDICTION
suddenly
TO that all the air was crushed from his chest...
Lonnie and I tried it a few times. When he flat out
fainted, I went into a panic. He came to with a strange
moan and a stupid look on his face. Then he did it to me
and I went down with a curious tunnel vision and the whole
frame of my consciousness seemed to melt at the edges
before give way entirely…
The attraction was plain enough – it was cheap
weirdness in the days before we knew about drugs.
EXPERIENCE
-Tim Winton
Breath
Drugs and Personality
• We repeatedly pursue three avenues of
experience as antidotes for psychic pain.
These preferred styles of coping—
1 satiation, arousal, and fantasy—may
have their origins in the first years of life.
• Childhood experiences combined with
genetic predisposition are the
, The Opioid Epidemic
From 2013 and 2014 there was an increase of about 3.000 lethal opioid-related overdoses and are
probably are significant of these overdoses are linked to fentanyl.
According to Courtwright (2001), the majority of opium/morphine addiction cases in the
19. century U.S were due to doctors prescribing or recommending these substances.
For a number of decades, opioid use was • According to Centers for Disease controls
relatively rare – until the late 1960. Heroin 2014: 60% of all fatal overdoses are due
to opioids in USA
popularity died again only to make a comeback in
• More overdoses are linked to
the 1990s (the era of “heroin chic”). prescription opioids (oxycodone
The current problems with opioid abuse are (oxycontin) hydrocodone) than heroin
• Every day 52 Americans die from
due in part to the increase in prescription opioid pain prescription opioid overdoses, which
medication. The annual number of lethal overdoses equals 2 deaths every hour
• According to the Centers for Disease
of opioids has more than quadrupled since 1999. Control and Prevention, 91 Americans
die each day from opioid overdoses, and
• The majority of the world’s prescriptions for that figure is rising (SciAm, July 2018)
opioids are written in the U.S. – street
opioids are often less expensive and more
easily obtained leading some opioid abusers
to switch from pills to heroin… complicating
the situation.
• NIDA estimates: 1 out of 15 people using
opioids for non-medical purposes will end up
trying heroin within 10 years…more negative
consequences for the user.
2
