Good Critical Thinking About Drugs AND Physiologic Functions

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Supposed that a new “miracle pill” allows a person t function without sleep.Thus, a person who takes the pill will never sleep—or dream—again. Knowing what you do about the functions of sleep and dreaming, what would be the advantages and drawbacks of such a pill from a personal perspective? Would you take such a pill? Why or why not?
The “miracle pill” may seem encouraging and very useful especially for someone who wants to be productive and take advantage of time. However, several studies have already argued the importance of sleep and dreaming in the psychological and physiological wellbeing of an individual . According to Dr. Hobson’s study, REM sleep has significant physiologic use and benefit. In fact, the brain is activated during REM sleep, which also allows for the neural nerves to be conditioned for proper reception and processing of emotion, sight and sound during the conscious state. REM sleep among fetuses are also perceived to have pysiologic function, particularly in helping create images when they first open their eyes because it is believed to help build the brains neural connections which is significant especially in terms of visualization process. Hobson also theorized that dreams run parallel with an individual’s consciousness because of the assumption that dreams are usually the individual’s suppressed emotions when they are conscious. Hobson hypothesized that whatever is suppressed during the conscious state are typically manifested in dreams thereby allowing a psychological balanced individual. In an earlier study in 1983, it has been found that dream sleep allows the individual to reverse any unwanted but unconscious patterns of behavior. Authors Crick and Mitchison, dream sleep or REM sleep enables individual’s brain from being isolated from normal function which is supposed to allow the brain to relax and recover from its normal activity when the person is conscious and alert . Given all these information, I personally do not encourage anyone to take the pill because it facilitates a certain degree of imbalance that occurs with an individual’s physiologic and psychological functioning.
Imagine that you are working as a mental health professional. A college student confides in you that he is struggling with alcohol and marijuana addiction. How would you explain to him the difference between psychological and physiological dependence? What information would you explain to him regarding these classes of psychoactive drugs?
Psychological and physiological dependence are differentiated based on the symptoms experienced by the individual who abused a particular drug. To justify this generalization, a psychological dependence is a kind of reliance where the indvidual shows signs and symptoms of emotional and motivational withdrawal when a certain drug is removed . Examples of the said emotional and motivational withdrawal symptoms include anhedonia and dysphoria. On the other hand, a physiological dependence or most commonly referred to as physical dependence is one where the individual typically experience symptoms relating to physical or somatic withdrawal . Among the common examples of symptoms relating to physical or somatic withdrawal are delirium tremens and fatigues.
Psychoactive drugs like alcohol and marijuana have a severe impact in the brain, especially relating to functioning. In fact, these kind of drugs are often referred to as recreational drug because individuals used them to purposely change their mood, consciousness and perception just like what alcohol does for individuals . For example, for some people they drink alcohol to forget their problems. They believed that by consuming alcohol they can numb the physical and emotional pain. Nevertheless, there are those who drink because it facilitates an elated feeling. Hence, drinking alcohol are common form of bonding and activities for get-togethers. Given the varying impact of psychoactive drug, it has been argued that this kind of drug has a subjective impact to the user depending on the individual using the drug.

References

Crick, F., & Mitchison, G. (1983). The Function of Dream Sleep. Nature, 111-114.
Hanson, G., Venturelli, P., & Fleckenstein, A. (2009). Fleckenstein. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Hobson, J. A. (2009). REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 803-813.
Nelson, M. (2005). The Barbarian's Beverage: A History of Beer in Ancient Europe. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.