Another week done in the blink of an eye…I am really grateful that time has been quickly passing. I played a lot of pickleball this week. The weather was perfect with sunny, clear skies and brisk evenings. Since my boss had not been to work in a week, I had deviated from my routine schedule. I still woke up every day by 6 am for breakfast, and prepped myself for the class I teach on Self-Esteem. This week’s lesson was on “dope” and “where can I get sum!” as I started off the class.
Perplexed by the question. I asked the guys where I could find some “dope” in prison. I needed some! Oh, in my studies as an educational psychologist, I focused extensively on the developing brain of pre-teens/adolescents and young adults. Naturally, neurocognitive development has multiple stages with various levels of chemicals helping the brain the work. It’s not rocket science but brain science 😛 When we want to feel good, our brains require dopamine or the feel good chemical. The abuse of prescribed or use of illegal drugs (stimulants like cocaine, meth, etc) bypass the brains natural routes for producing dopamine. The brain wants to be balanced. When these foreign substances rush the neuro system with stimulants mocking the dopamine experience, the brain stops producing dopamine. Thus, the abuse of drugs and use of narcotics leads to dependency or addiction. A person’s brain becomes addicted to the drug, especially to normalize and experience the “feel good”. Pre-teens/adolescents and young adults experimenting with drugs becomes more serious since the developing brain encodes a need for the drug and forms neuropathways for relying on the substance. After regularly substituting a chemical high, the brain does not begin to normalize its levels of dopamine after almost a year – 1 whole year. Sheesh, it is a struggle for any addict to refrain from relapsing, but it is almost a mechanism of survival at times that relapse happens. For those of us that have not struggled with addiction, it is difficult to comprehend on how dependent the impulse and urge for a drug becomes. Thus, pharmaceutical therapy is often necessary to help deter the urges of an addict to use, but even that treatment comes with risks.
Thus, I explained to my fellow inmates that our brains produce certain amounts of dopamine to balance our emotional wellbeing. Stress and traumatic situations cause cortisol to be produced, which is another chemical that blocks dopamine from producing. The trauma of experiencing a raid, being arrested, undergoing invasive scrutiny during pre-trial are some examples that would weaken dopamine levels – let alone just going to prison. To maintain or regulate our levels of dopamine, I shared an exhaustive list of things to do around the Morgantown prison (blogging to family was not on the list since I didn’t want to complicate how I have a family member post for me). Overall, I think the lesson went well and at least the guys were somewhat appreciative of my comical attempt to help them find ways to increase their self-esteem by getting some “dope” errr dopamine!
I also just found out that the next class that I will be teaching will be on home improvement and general contracting, which I am now beginning to prepare for. I really appreciate you taking the time and humoring my weekly experience. Continue to look for the little miracles in your life 🙂