Anorexia Nervosa & Anorexia

Anorexia is a general loss of appetite, or a loss of interest in food. Anorexia may be a symptom of other diseases such as cancer.

Anorexia Nervosa is a life threatening eating disorder that is characterized by an obsession with losing weight. People who suffer from this disorder fear weight gain of any amount. They will go to extremes toprevent gainingeven a single ounce by doing things such as starving themselves, excessive exercise, and forcing themselves to vomit if they think they ate too much. These people may be severely thin or underweight  and will still completely believe they are “Fat”. No matter how many positive comments an anorexic may get about being thin, or how someone wishes to be as thin as them, it does not affect the way they think about themselves. Both men and women suffer from anorexia nervosa, but it is most commonly found in women, especially teenage girls.

 

The man in the picture above was a male model who passed away due to Anorexia Nervosa.

This disorder is uncontrollable and it takes over the lives of people if they don’t get professional help early enough. People can not live a normal life while living with this illness. Anorexics will spend hours each and every day staring at themselves in the mirror, picking out every Flaw they can find. Their mind is flooded 24/7 with thoughts of food, their weight, and their body image. They have an extreme fear of eating, even the items that are the safest against gaining weight like water, fruits, and vegetables.

People with anorexia nervosa do eat, but they eat very little amounts, and they usually don’t like eating in front of other people. An example of something one might eat for lunch would be a cup of lettuce and a few slices of cucumbers. They would have very small portions like this for breakfast and dinner as well. An anorexic eats just enough or less than is needed to survive, this is why so many die from this disorder.

This is a very hard disorder to try and overcome alone. Since your entire body is nutrient deficient including your brain. You can’t think properly, your ability to think of a solution or even to fully understand advice given to you will just be ignored and wiped away by thoughts of food. Imagine being hungry and your stomach is growling, the only thing you can think of is food and how bad you want some. Lucky for most people we only get this feeling maybe a couple times a day. Now imagine having this illness, you feel like you’re starving and those thoughts of hunger are constantly on your mind every second of every day. Your brain and entire body are craving food all day long. Even though their fridge and cupboards may be completely full of delicious food and snacks, they restrict themselves to maintain or reach the weight they want to be.

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People may ask “Why can’t you just eat more?”

Living with this illness is not a choice,  putting a plate of food in front of an anorexic and telling them to eat it is like putting a plate of rat poison in front of a normal person and telling them to eat it. No one will eat the poison because they know it is harmful to their body, anorexics have the same mindset but of regular food, they believe it is harmful to their body in terms of gaining weight. They mentally can not get themselves to physically eat.

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Risk Factors that May Cause Anorexia?

• Dieting
• Puberty
• Weight Gain
• Having Depression
• Being a perfectionist
• Family history of Anorexia
• Being in a sport that requires a fit body
• Having Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
• Media and cultures that put a high value on thin bodies
• A traumatic event (ex. death of a loved one/ sexual abuse)
• Age and Gender (Most common in teen and young adult women)

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 Things that may help someone with Anorexia Nervosa

• Get Professional Help
• Realize and admit to yourself that you are not okay
• Don’t keep it in, talk to your family and friends
• Look for success stories of people on youtube and take their advice
• Challenge your beliefs about food and eating
• Try to find away to change your mindset
• Don’t be in denial about getting treatment
• You have to want to recover to be able to recover and get better

 Sean. 

 

 

Ecstasy / Molly / MDMA

Names for Ecstasy : MDMA, Molly, ADAM, M, X, E, Scooby Snacks, Hug Drug, Love Drug, Skittles, Vitamin E.

Ecstasy vs. Molly vs. MDMA

These are all the exact same drug, they are just prepared in different ways.

Ecstasy – Is a pill that is pressed into different shapes, with different logos on them to represent a specific drug dealer or just for the look. These pills contain very little MDMA (the actual drug), and are mostly made up of different additives such as caffeine, aspirin or other over the counter medications.

Molly – This is the purest form of MDMA. It is sold in its pure crystal form in capsules or  rocks depending on how much you buy. there is usually zero additives since it would be very hard to hide them while selling crystals.

MDMA – This is the pure crystal form crushed into a powder and cut (mixed) with other drugs or additives such as caffeine, bath salts, DXM, Ephedrine and many many more substances that are detrimental to your health.

What is Ecstasy? 

Ecstasy is a designer drug that was originally created by Merck pharmaceutical company in 1912 as MDMA (Methylene-Dioxy-Meth-Amphetamine). It’s a designer drug because it was created for the purpose to make you feel “High”. In the 1970’s it began being used as a party drug, sold illegally under the table with the brand name of Ecstasy.

Ecstasy is a chemical substance that combines both a Stimulant and Hallucinogen. Users experience intensified feelings whether they’re good or bad. A typically good experience while being high on Ecstasy would be, the user feels very positive, energetic, intense feelings of love and empathy for everyone they’re around. Users feel as if they’re in a dreamy mind state, music sounds like the most amazing thing on the planet, and overall it seems like a harmless drug that does wonders to your happiness. This drug is Extremely addictive, in many cases during the after effects of being high, users experience crippling depression leading them to want to get high again and again to avoid the after effects.

The majority of the people who take drugs like Ecstasy are led to believe it’s safe because of what their peers tell them, or from doing a quick internet search and find out it’s safe based on peoples experiences on some forum.

This drug is a chemical that was made by humans in a laboratory, it can cause neurotoxicity ( When your brain is exposed to natural or artificial toxic substances that alter the activity of your brain in such a way that causes damage).

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How Ecstasy Works

Ecstasy works by increasing the activity of a few neurotransmitters (the chemical messengers of brain cells) such as, Serotonin, Dopamine, and Norepinephrine, Serotonin is mostly affected. Serotonin plays an important role in our brain, it regulates our mood, sleep, pain, appetite, and our behaviours. When Ecstasy enters the body, it forces the brain to release excess Serotonin which causes mood elevating effects.

Effects on The Brain

After being high on Ecstasy, your brain will be depleted of its serotonin levels which will leave you feeling down and depressed over the next few days after being high, until your brain regenerates more Serotonin.

Because of the significantly increased activity of these neurotransmitters that would not normally happen without a substance, serotonins regenerative abilities are damaged. Long-term and heavy usage of this drug can severely damage the regenerative abilities of your neurotransmitters (Brain Damage). You might not feel stupid or like you’ve been dumbed down after taking this drug, this is because it doesn’t effect the memory parts of your brain. But if you do experience changes in your mood like depression, anxiety, or aggression, or if you have new sleeping disturbances you haven’t had before, these are all signs of damage to your brain.

Medical Uses of Ecstasy

In the 1960’s, Ecstasy was being used as a psychotherapy medication to lower inhibitions (a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed and natural way.)

It no longer is used for medicinal purposes due to its negative effects on the brain.

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Side effects of Ecstasy

• Sweating
• Dry Mouth
• Grinding of teeth
• Clenching of Jaw
• Dehydration
• Increased Heart Rate
• Blurred vision
• Increased Body Temperature
• High blood pressure
• Thirst

Withdrawal Symptoms

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Panic Attacks
• Reductions in Mental Abilities
• Lack of Appetite
• Sleep Problems
• Agression

Sean.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Every once in a while people feel anxious/ nervous, wether it’s because of a social event, a fight they’ve had with someone, a break up, a presentation or whatever it may be.

Anxiety is an uncomfortable feeling of worry, uneasiness, and feeling that something bad is going to happen. It becomes a problem when it happens almost every day and becomes excessive and uncontrollable. Anxiety causes a whole range of symptoms including:

• Sweating
• Heart Palpitations (Faster heart beat)
• Dizziness
• Nausea (Feeling of sickness or inclination to vomit)
• Inability to be calm
• Diarrhea
• Frequent Urination
• Dry Mouth
• Trembling
• Shortness of breath
• Feeling of Panic, Fear, and uneasiness

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Generalized Anxiety Disorder is diagnosed to people who experience anxiety on a daily basis, who worry excessively and uncontrollably about daily life. For an adult, they may worry about things such as finances, health of themselves and their family, work performance, the economy, and much more. Teens and adolescents may worry about things such as the amount of friends they have, followers on social media, dating, if they’re going to get invited to the next party,  grades, presentations, going to school, their future, etc. Excessive anxiety causes a great deal of distress and causes people to feel  tense, on edge, tired, irritable, focus and concentration problems, and difficulty sleeping. Anxiety makes even the smallest aspects of your day worrisome and uncomfortable.

This disorder is considered to greatly reduce the quality of life for the people who suffer from it, but it is less severe than Panic Disorder

Things to Reduce Anxiety

• Do NOT drink ANY diet drinks. Diet drinks contain Aspartame, this is a substance that completely screws up your brain and the way it works. To get over anxiety, you have to be in control of your mind and when you put harmful substances in your body, these substances change the way your brain works and you are no longer in total control.
• Do Not chew any sugar-free gum as they all contain Aspartame as well.
• Do NOT consume anything with Caffeine, this drug will give you heart palpitations which can cause anxiety.
• Reduce your Sugar intake.
• Try breathing exorcises
• Eat properly
• Listen to good music that boosts your mood
• Scream at the top of your lungs (it works)
• Find something that relaxes you (reading, gaming, puzzles, exercise, etc)

 Sean. 

 

 

Xanax

Names for Xanax : Niravam, Xanax, Xanax XR

What is Xanax? 

Xanax is a prescription drug that is mostly used to treat patients who have Anxiety Disorders.

It is classed as a Benzodiazepine. This class of drugs possess sedative, anti-anxiety anticonvulsant (anti-epileptic/ anti-seizure), and muscle relaxant properties. Benzodiazepines are psychoactive drugs used to treat anxiety, insomnia, and many other conditions.

How Xanax Works

Xanax works by slowing down the movement of chemicals in the brain that may become unbalanced. This causes a reduction in nervous tension. If chemicals in the brain do become unbalanced, this can cause anxiety and possibly panic attacks.

This drug works very fast to calm down tension and anxiety (within 20 min).  When you’re living with a disorder like anxiety,  it is a living hell on a daily basis to be able to get little things done. The fact that Xanax works so quickly, greatly increases the risk for developing a psychological dependence.

Effects on The Brain

Benzodiazepines like Xanax affect a key neurotransmitter in the brain called Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid (GABA). This neurotransmitter has an inhibitory effect on motor neurons, thus the presence of GABA slows or stops neuronal activity. Benzodiazepines enhance the activity of GABA, effectively slowing nerve impulses throughout the body.
As a consequence of the enhancement of GABA’s inhibitory activity caused by benzodiazepines, the brain’s output of excitatory neurotransmitters, including norepinephrine (noradrenaline), serotonin, acetyl choline and dopamine, is reduced. Such excitatory neurotransmitters are necessary for normal alertness, memory, muscle tone and co-ordination, emotional responses, endocrine gland secretions, heart rate and blood pressure control and a host of other functions, all of which may be impaired by benzodiazepines.

Medical Uses of Xanax

Anxiety Management – Used as short-term treatment of anxiety and for the management of certain anxiety disorders.

Panic Disorder – Considered an effective medication for panic attacks. Although it is effective for treating this disorder, it is not a first option for treatment due to its very high potential abuse.

Side effects of Xanax

• Drowsiness
• Slurred Speech
• Skin Rashes
• Constipation
• Dry Mouth
• Hallucinations (Rare)

Withdrawal Symptoms

• Depression
• Intense Anxiety
• High Blood Pressure
• Shaking
• Hypersensitivity to touch
• Tremors
• Sleep Troubles
• Muscle Pain
• Tremors
• Death (Extremely Rare)

To prevent withdrawal symptoms it is Very Important to Taper off Xanax Gradually (slowly decrease your dosages).

Sean.