What happens in your brain when you’re high/stoned?
In: Biology
Your electronic pathways get disrupted. Cannabinoids disrupt your endocannabinoid system. Opioids disrupt your opioid receptors. So its basically taking the iPhone that is your brain and dropping it in the toilet.
Your brain and nervous system are made of neurons. These are cells that have branch-like projections called dandrites and axons. The ends or “terminals” of these branches attach to the branches of other neurons where they communicate through chemical signals or “neurotransmitters.”
When you introduce a substance whose molecular makeup is similar to your natural neurotransmitters, it enters your neuron receptors and delivers altered signals to the cell. This then results in a change in your conscious experience as well as other physical changes, aka being high or tripping.
This applies to psychedelics like LSD and THC. Some drugs work in different ways.
THC (tetrahydrocannabidiol – a phytocannabinoid or plant-based cannabinoid) interacts with and activates the cannabinoid receptors in your brain (CB1 receptors). Activating these receptors causes a lot of downstream molecular shit but most relevant to your question is what’s called depolarization (ie activation)-induced suppression of inhibition. It’s a neat type of retrograde signaling where if cell A is talking to cell B through typical neuronal signaling, cell B gets the unique opportunity to signal back to A. In our system as is, cell A is telling B to shut the fuck up but B releases endocannabinoids to tell A like, please don’t kill my vibe and this causes A to stop being such a downer (ie the inhibition from A is suppressed). A grossly anthropomorphized example but essentially THC is just hijacking that system artificially and letting the neurons chatter more 🙂
This video explains it perfectly in easy to understand language: https://youtu.be/H3KpR6EyZX0
When you consume cannabis (man my phone wanted that to be cannibals), the cannabis acts as a traffic cop in some parts of the brain when it’s trying to send messages. It either slows traffic down, speeds it up, or even lets traffic go down alleys it was never supposed to go down.
This leads to you feeling like some senses are “enhanced” — more traffic.
Some perceptions, like balance, reaction time, etc are dulled — less traffic.
Some perceptions aren’t _real_ — traffic going down the alley and tripping balls with the dealer in the shadows.
Here’s a good video on the effects explained in a fun way. Including what happens when you quit 🙂
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u_cm5b1s7Y](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u_cm5b1s7Y)
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