Dependence and Withdrawal
Difficulty stopping despite harm, with low mood, lost drive and fatigue on withdrawal. Recognised as a genuine dependence syndrome in around a third of long-term users, not a character failure.
Relationships
3 connectionsDependence and Withdrawal increases risk of
Dopamine Signalling
How strongly dopamine is signalling, mostly in the reward and motivation circuits. This is the route by which a compound that raises prolactin ends up flattening drive: dopamine holds prolactin down, so a sustained prolactin rise is read backwards as reduced dopaminergic tone.
Euphoria
A lifted, expansive, everything-is-working feeling, arriving within days on some compounds. Recorded because it is real, because it is a large part of why people continue, and because it is the strongest single predictor of the dependence pattern further down. Not marked as good or bad: it is the reward that makes the rest of the list acceptable to the person having it.
Withdrawal Syndrome
The cluster that arrives after stopping, while the natural axis is still shut down: flat mood, no drive, no libido, disturbed sleep, and in some cases suicidal thoughts. Separated from dependence because dependence is about the pull to continue and this is about what happens when you do not. It is the window in which almost all of the serious psychiatric events in the literature occur.
Beyond this page
Dependence and Withdrawal also connects to 11 entries in the applied modules, covering supplements, compounds, hormones and food sources. Those carry the mechanism and the evidence tier behind each link, and they are part of client coaching.
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