WHO DOES NOT WANT TO GET HIGH?! PART I

“Getting high” is fast becoming an in-thing amongst teenagers and young adults in our clime. In some environments, you might even be considered “geeky”, or “churchy” if you decide that you do not want to do the things that people commonly do to get high. An important question some are even asking is that “Is it really wrong to get high?” Some others are even of the opinion that “How can it be so wrong when so many people are doing it?” In this article, we will briefly examine these questions and see if we can proffer the needed answers.

The rising incidence of depression, amongst teenagers and young adults, gives credence to the fact that we should pay more attention to our emotional and mental well-being

GETTING HIGH DEFINED
First of all, “feeling good” is good; after all, nobody wants to “feel bad”. Getting high also seems to be an acceptable emotional state to escape depression, which medical experts have defined as the triad of low mood, reduced energy, and loss of pleasure in previously pleasurable activities (Anhedonia). The rising incidence of depression, even amongst teenagers and young adults, gives credence to the fact that we should pay more attention to our emotional and mental well-being. This brings to mind the sad incidence of the young man who, out of depression, recently committed suicide because of his inability to pass his United Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME/JAMB). (May his parents find comfort in such painful loss).

The question that naturally follows is “what are the things to do to make you feel good, and get high?” The phrase “getting high” in our environment is synonymous with the feeling of euphoria and elation that one supposedly gets from taking some substances like marijuana, cocaine, LSD, e.t.c. (don’t tell me you did not already know some of these examples). Most of these substances are illegal in Nigeria.

From a medical point-of-view, yes! There is something wrong with using these substances to get high and feel good.

However, there are some substances that are not illegal to possess, that have become substances that people commonly use to “get high”. They include seemingly normal ones like alcohol (which is infact, a central nervous system depressant so it inevitably makes you feel “low” and drowsy, in spite of the transient subjective highness you feel), cigarettes, some prescription medications like opioid analgesics (e.g codeine, tramadol, e.t.c); and some not so normal ones like glue, lizard feces, (please do not ask me how people use them to get high) e.t.c.

POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF SUBSTANCES OF ABUSE

An important question that should be asked is “is anything wrong with using these substances to get high and feel good?” There are several perspectives to this question, including importantly the moral perspective, which I am certain you must have heard a thing or two from your religious leader (Imam or Pastor), and possibly your parents, but the perspective I would be looking at it from is the medical perspective. The answer to this question from a medical point-of-view is yes, there is something wrong with using these substances to get high and feel good.

To be continued….