This illegal substance normally comes in a white powder and makes users feel more alert, social, and confident. Usage can lead to brain damage. The opposite of stimulants, depressants slow down your CNS. They can also dull pain receptors after a mild to severe injury. Other side effects of depressant use include slowed breathing, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, and poor concentration. You can develop a tolerance for them, which can eventually become an addiction. Alcohol is one of the most abused substances on the market, due to its availability and acceptance in society.
Although alcohol may start as a stimulant, giving you confidence and giving off feelings of happiness, it will eventually slow your system down. Opioids like Percocet, Vicodin, and OxyContin oxycodone are great for relieving moderate to severe pain, especially pain experienced after surgery.
Unfortunately, some people who take opioids as prescribed end up developing an addiction to them due to their pleasurable properties. Mixing stimulants and depressants falls under polydrug use.
This happens when you use more than one drug at a time. The effects of one drug can be powerful enough on your body, but polydrug use enhances the effects of any one drug and makes it more dangerous. One example of this is alcohol intensifying the effects of painkillers. Although taking two substances at once might feel great, you could also stop breathing as a result. Since there are hundreds of different stimulants and depressants, many different results could come from combining them. These two types of drugs send conflicting messages to your body.
Because of this, your body can be impaired by these combinations. One study showed that in , more than half of all alcohol-related emergency room visits involved illegal and prescription drugs as well.
As we mentioned earlier, mixing stimulants and depressants is never a good idea. This can lead to serious consequences, even death. Teenagers are the most likely to combine drugs like stimulants and depressants. Seven out of 10 teen drug users have combined drugs and alcohol with prescription painkillers.
Teens who do this are also more likely to get drunk and abuse marijuana. People with alcohol use disorder tend to mix alcohol with prescription drugs, like the ones used below:. Benzodiazepines like Xanax and Klonopin are commonly mixed with alcohol and also have similar effects. These substances act on the same neurotransmitters in the brain, and this combined effect increases intoxication. Since benzos and alcohol are both CNS depressants, taking both at the same time raises your chances of coma, respiratory failure, or death.
Mixing Adderall, Ritalin, and other prescription stimulants with alcohol has its own dangers. This combination produces effects similar to those of cocaine, and it can lead to long-term and immediate heart problems. Like alcohol, opioids are CNS depressants that lower blood pressure and slow down the respiratory system.
Prescription opioid painkillers like Percocet and Vicodin also have ibuprofen or acetaminophen, and mixing these with alcohol can lead to liver damage and stomach bleeding. Sleeping pills, which are sedatives, are enhanced by alcohol. However, this only increases your chances of sleepwalking injuries, coma, and even death. This is a common mix of stimulants and depressants. One study showed that more than half of people addicted to cocaine also suffer from alcohol use disorder. Combining these two substances is dangerous for several reasons.
Although it gives you temporary happiness, it can inflict major stress on your liver and cardiovascular system. Generally, depressants can be swallowed, drunk as a beverage, injected, snorted or inhaled. There is no safe level of drug use. Use of any drug always carries some risk. The onset and effects of depressants vary according to the type and specific chemical.
Some depressants may work instantly, with effects only lasting for a short time such as inhalants , while other depressants may take longer for the effects to start and may last longer. In general, when small to low doses of depressants are taken, the following effects may be experienced:. The effects of taking depressants with other drugs — including over-the-counter or prescribed medications — can be unpredictable and dangerous, and could cause:.
Use of any drug always carries some risk, however, if you choose to take it, always try a small test amount first. People who use depressants regularly, can develop a dependence and tolerance to them.
Tolerance means they need to take larger amounts of depressants to get the same effect. Dependence on depressants can be psychological, physical, or both. People who are psychologically dependent may feel an urge to use them when in specific surroundings or socialising with friends. People who depend on depressants may find that using the drug becomes more important than other activities in their life.
Cravings can make it difficult to stop using depressants. This means that approximately half of the people who abused depressants lost control of their use, so they needed professional help to treat this problem. Many people abuse depressants on purpose, because they want to feel a sense of well-being that these substances can temporarily create.
Abusing one depressant alone is dangerous, but when a person combines two or more depressants together, he greatly increases his chances of causing physical and psychological damage. Specifically, the side effects listed above can intensify when a person combines multiple depressants at the same time. This use can also increase the chances of developing a dependence on the substance. Additionally, it can damage the functions of multiple parts of the body, such as the heart, brain and lungs.
However, the greatest risk related to combining depressants is the chance of overdose. Since the effects of substance abuse are unpredictable, it is impossible to tell if and when a person is going to have sudden and life-threatening complications from a bout of drug abuse. Even a person who has never used a single substance in his life can overdose from abusing multiple depressants.
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