What are stimulants?
Stimulants are drugs that 'stimulate' the central nervous system. In other words, they increase the activity in your brain. Though each stimulant has unique effects, all stimulants increase your heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. By increasing the electrical activity in your brain, stimulants cause you to be more alert, decrease fatigue, and prolong physical activity. Stimulants can also improve your mood and increase self-confidence. For these reasons, stimulants are also referred to as 'uppers.' Stimulants push the human body beyond its ordinary limits. Dance all night; have marathon sex that lasts for days; lose weight without trying; meet a deadline at work without losing focus or catching any shut-eye – all while feeling invincible and uninhibited.
Some of the common types of stimulants are, caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and methamphetamines. Stimulants can be injected or snorted for a rapid high, or smoked or swallowed for longer lasting but less intense effects.
The short-term effects of stimulants include exhaustion, apathy and depression—the “down” that follows the “up.” It is this immediate and lasting exhaustion that quickly leads the stimulant user to want the drug again. Soon he is not trying to get “high,” he is only trying to get “well”—to feel any energy at all.
The long-term effects are that stimulants can be addictive. Repeated high doses of some stimulants over a short period can lead to feelings of hostility or paranoia. Such doses may also result in dangerously high body temperatures and an irregular heartbeat.
Symptoms and signs of stimulant addiction are, you look forward to the high stimulants have to offer, but after a while you begin to need them to function normally. You’re tired but can’t sleep, know you should eat but have no appetite and you begin to question reality. Stimulant addiction is no fun. If a person finds that they cannot function in their daily lives without taking a stimulant or feel uncomfortable symptoms when they stop taking stimulants for any period of time, it could be time to seek treatment for an addiction. Seeking treatment is not an easy decision to make but it is a necessary first step if a person wants to live an addiction-free life.