How a drugs affect an individual is dependent on:

• body size

• general health

• the amount and strength of the drug

• whether any other drugs have been taken around the same time.

• a person’s mood or the environment they are in.

• The effects can be physical and psychological.

• Drugs can impact the way you think, feel and act.

Reasons for drug use:

People use drugs for many reasons, these reasons might include to:

• Feel good

• Relax

• Cope with stress, anxiety, depression, emotional pain or a history of trauma

• Experiment

• Stay awake

• Fall asleep

• Enhance social experiences

Drugs affect the body's central nervous system, how a person thinks, feels and behaves.

The seven main types: depressants, psychedelics, stimulants, empathogens, opioids, cannabinoids, and dissociatives.

• Depressants - slow down the messages travelling between the brain and the body. Reduce arousal and stimulation, making a person feel relaxed or drowsy.

• Psychadelics - affect all the senses, altering thinking, sense of time and emotions. They can cause hallucinations.

• Stimulants - Drugs that speed up messages travelling between the brain and body. Make a person feel more awake, alert, confident or energetic.

• Empathogens - Increase a person’s feeling of empathy and kindness towards others.

• Opioids - Any drug that acts on opioid receptors in the brain, and any natural or synthetic drugs that are made from or related to the opium poppy. Slow heart rate and breathing and provide sensations of pleasure and pain relief.

• Cannabanoids - chemical compounds found in all parts of the cannabis plant. They have a psychoactive effect and can make a person feel happy, relaxed, anxious or paranoid.

• Dissociatives - cause people to feel separated or detached from reality, hallucinations or other changes in thoughts, emotions and consciousness.

Drugs can cause...

• Taking part in risky behaviours such as drink driving or unprotected sex.

• Changes in behaviour/ mood swings/ increased aggression.

• Impact on sleep/insomnia.

• Cognitive/memory problems.

• Reduced appetite.

• Regular colds/flus.

• Long term health impacts - liver, kidney and heart problems. Cancer (depending on the type of drug used and how frequently it was used)

• Cavities and gum disease

• Mental health issues such as anxiety and depression

• Dependence

• Overdose

• Psychosis

• Infectious disease from shared injecting equipment

• Damage to veins from unsafe injecting practices

• Financial, work or social problems.

Effects of certain drugs:

Cannabis:

• Relaxation and altered perception.

• increased heart rate/blood pressure.

• Relaxed and happy.

• Lethargy, anxiety, paranoia, and psychosis in extreme cases.

• Mental health problems - such as schizophrenia

• When smoked - lung diseases such as asthma chronic bronchitis and lung, throat,tongue and mouth cancer.

• How your brain works - concentration.

• Reduces your fertility

Cocaine:

• Increased energy.

• Makes you feel happy, awake, confident and less inhibited.

• Overstimulates the heart and nervous system - can lead to a seizure, brain haemorrhage, stroke or heart attack.

• Reduces your pain perception and may result in injury.

• Carries greater risk if mixed with alcohol or other stimulants.

• Harms your baby during pregnancy, may cause miscarriage.

• Increases the risk of mental health issues such a s anxiety, paranoia and psychosis.

• If snorted, can cause damage to the lining of the nasal passage and nose.

• If injected, can cause vein collapse and increased risk of HIV and hepatitis infection.

Ecstacy:

• Alert, warm and chatty.

• Can make sounds and colours seem more intense.

• May cause anxiety, confusion, paranoia and even psychosis.

• Is linked to memory loss, depression and anxiety

• Can lead to overheating and dehydration

• Tends to stop your body producing enough urine, so your body retains fluid.

Effects of a drug comedown:

• Feeling anxious, depressed or irritable.

• Tiredness.

• Shaky.

• Dizzy.

• Sweaty.

• Headaches.

• Nauseous.

• Lack of appetite.

• Sleepy or unable to sleep.

• This side effects you depend on which medication you take and your individual reaction to it.

• Some people get certain side effects while others don't.

• If you do get side effects, they could be mild or severe.

Side effects of antidepressants:

SSRIs and SNRIs (impact the amount of serotonin in your body or both serotonin and norepinephrine)

• Headaches.

• Decreased alertness.

• Nausea.

• Sexual problems.

• Tooth decay.

• Diabetes.

• SIADH.

• Gatstrointestinal bleeding.

• Serotonin syndrome.

• Suicidal feelings.

• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

• Hypomania/mania.

  
  

  
  

  Tricyclicsan ( an older type of antidepressant but can be more dangerous if an overdose is taken. They cause more unpleasant side effects than SSRIs and SNRIs) :

• Antimuscarinic effects.

• Tooth decay.

• Decreased alertness.

• Suicidal feeling.

• Serotonin syndrome.

• SIADH.

• Diabetes.

• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

• Hypomania/mania.

  
  

  MAOIs - ease depression by affecting neurotransmitters used to communicate between brain cells, they include isocarboxazid, phenelzine, selegiline, and tranylcypromine.

• Decreased alertness.

• SIADH.

• Suicidal feeling.

• Serotonin syndrome.

• Diabetes.

• Neuroleptic malignant syndrome.

  
  

  How do these side effects affect me?

  
  

  Antimuscarinic effects - side effects caused by changes to the level of the chemical acetylcholine in your body.

  If your level of acetylcholine changes, this can have effects all over the body. These effects include:

  • Blurred vision.

  • Confusion and agitation.

  • Constipation.

  • Difficulty urinating.

  • Drowsiness.

  • Dry mouth/ tooth decay.

  • Erectile dysfunction.

  • Hallucinations.

  • Hot or dry skin, and decreased sweating.

  • Increased pressure in the eye.

  • Low blood pressure (taking hot baths increases this risk).

  • Nausea.

  • Rapid heartbeat and disturbed heart rhythm.

    
    

  Decreased alertness - Antidepressants can make you feel less alert or able to concentrate. This can happen especially when you first start taking them. This may affect your ability to drive and to do other skilled tasks.

  
  

  Diabetes - Long-term use of antidepressants over several years may increase your risk of diabetes. This is especially in people who are:

  • Over the age of 30.

  • Taking SSRIs or tricyclics.

    
    

  Gastrointestinal bleeding - A rare side effect of some SSRI antidepressants is bleeding inside your gastrointestinal system, which includes your stomach and intestines. The risk of gastrointestinal bleeding is higher for older people. If you are over 80, your doctor may prescribe you a different antidepressant to avoid this risk.

  
  

  Hypomania or mania - This may stop if you stop taking the antidepressant. But sometimes it may be a sign of Bipolar disorder.

  
  

  Neuroleptic malignant syndrome - NMS is a rare neurologic disorder, which means it affects your nervous system.

  It is a side effect of antipsychotic drugs. But it can sometimes happen with antidepressants. It usually develops rapidly over 24 to 72 hours.In rare cases, it can be fatal.

  
  

  Symptoms:

  • Sweating or fever, with a high temperature.

  • Tremor (shaking), rigidity (feeling stiff and unable to move your muscles) or loss of movement.

  • Difficulty speaking and swallowing.

  • Rapid heartbeat, very rapid breathing and changes in blood pressure.

  • Changes in consciousness, including confusion, lethargy or going into a coma.

  
  

Certain drugs and their affects:

LSD - Increase in heart rate/ increase in body temp/dizziness/sleepiness/increased blood pressure/loss of appetite/dry mouth/sweating/numbness/weakness/tremors/ impulsive behavior.

Peyote - Increase in heart rate/increase in body tempuncoordinated movements/excessive sweating/ flushing.

DMT - Increase in heart rate/agitation and body distortions.

Psilocybin - Feelings of relaxation or introspection/ nervousness/ paranoia and panic.

Anxiety is a constant, uncontrolled feeling of worry that doesn’t stop. When these feelings become strong enough and frequent enough to severely interfere with day to day activities, it’s an anxiety disorder.

• Traditional treatments and therapies include psychotherapy—like cognitive behavioral therapy—and medication, such as antidepressants.

Supplements for anxiety:

Ashwagandha - An Ayurvedic herb that works well for anxiety and insomnia, it has been shown to improve sleep and stress resilience. More research on the right amount and length of time ashwagandha must be reviewed.

L-Theanine - A plant-based compound most commonly found in tea leaves. It has some positive studies for its effect on sleep initiation, and conflicting studies on anxiety.

Magnesium - clinical studies suggest that when combined with other vitamins like vitamin B6 or zinc, it may be a promising treatment for easing anxiety in a range of populations, including stressed adults and people with type 2 diabetes.

Vitamin D/B6 - There are a small amount of studies.

CBD - A plant-based bioactive compound found in the cannabis plant. One of the top reasons people say they use CBD is to help treat self-reported anxiety. Evidence of CBD’s effects on anxiety is still very limited.

• He does handmade, digital and animated collages.

• They are based on the power of images and the diversions resulting from various visual combinations.

• 'He defines his work as ‘data-ism’, and when mixing elements, he often seeks to evoke a story that, although absent from the known reality, is powerfully present before the viewer and inspires ‘nostalgia for a period in time that never truly existed’.'

• The artist intervenes in the mind and memory of the mesmerized audience, distorting realities, enriching or irreversibly eliminating worlds that we find ourselves comfortable living inside them.

• A theme that seems to interest Matthieu Bourel is identity, marked by its lack (the absence of the head, for example) or multiplicity.

MY ANALYSIS:

Bourel's work is both surreal and mesmerising as the daunting images portray a certain mindset or thought process - I feel like, for me, this create the exact visuals I imagine when thinking about mental health and anxiety.