Melissa Dolce

HCI College

PSY 2012: General Psychology

Drugs and Narcotics

Jennifer Birchbauer

September 10, 2020

 Abstract

Overall, psychoactive drugs, or psychotropic substances, contain four groups. These

include stimulants, depressants, opioids, and hallucinogens. Stimulants are substances like
ecstasy and nicotine, while depressants include alcohol and sleeping pills. Opioids are
drugs such as pain medication and heroin. Additionally, pain medication, when taken
correctly, can be innocuous, just like sleeping With the ability to change the brain’s
functionality, they quickly alter mood, perception, and consciousness. In some cases, the
effects of psychoactive drugs mimic other naturally occurring states of consciousness. For
instance, sleeping pills are prescribed to create drowsiness, and benzodiazepines are
prescribed to create a state of relaxation. In other cases, psychoactive drugs are taken for
recreational purposes with the goal of creating states of consciousness that are pleasurable
or that help us escape our normal consciousness. . (
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-psychology/s09-02-altering-
consciousness-with-ps.html)
 Hypnosis and altering consciousness

Hypnosis the altered state of consciousness is actually what it is; another kind of awareness from

the mean one. The being hypnotized would be rather tuned-out. One of the obvious symptoms of

hypnosis is a decrease in unconscious attention moved to the point where subjects are frequently

reminded to flash. From the observers' point, studies can look like they are not paying any

attention. In comparison, they are really intensely thoughtful and focused and some areas of the

mind that rest on normal awareness are awoken to hyper-activity in a hypnotic trance. This

trance allows studies to focus on psychological imagery which is self-created from what is

proposed to them. The principle goes that hypnotized participants can react differently on mental

tests because of being in The 'state' of hypnosis includes a fascinating real-simulator pattern,

which has been developed to operate for possible bias. Interestingly it has been seen that there is

much really a small variation in terms of reaction to suggestion between hypnotized and

unhypnotized studies. Participants react rather equally to the idea of whether or not it is delivered

in hypnosis. This has led some to conclude that This hypnotic 'state' constitutes the irrelevance,

while others think that any reaction to thought comes within the realm of hypnosis.
 Psychoactive Drugs

People have used, and often abused, psychoactive drugs for thousands of years. Perhaps
this should not be surprising, because many people find using drugs to be fun and
enjoyable. Even when we know the potential costs of using drugs, we may engage in them
anyway because the pleasures of using the drugs are occurring right now, whereas the
potential costs are abstract and occur in the future. Psychoactive drugs are chemicals that
change our state of consciousness. They work by influencing neurotransmitters in the
CNS. Using psychoactive drugs may create tolerance and, when they are no longer used,
withdrawal. Addiction may result from tolerance and the difficulty of withdrawal.
Stimulants, including caffeine, nicotine, and amphetamine, increase neural activity by
blocking the reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin in the CNS. (
https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-psychology/s09-02-altering-
consciousness-with-ps.html)
Referenes: https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/beginning-psychology/s09-02-
altering-consciousness-with-ps.html)

Ciccarelli, S., & White, J. N. (2015). Psychology: An exploration. Pearson.