Amber Hollingsworth introduces a YouTube video about meth and stimulant addiction, explaining her initial reluctance to cover the topic and promising to highlight both general commonalities across addictions and a few stimulant-specific nuances. She emphasizes two key stimulant-related points: (1) stimulant abuse can induce psychosis (delusions, paranoia) that raises safety concerns, and (2) post-acute withdrawal from meth/stimulants often lasts longer with persistent depression and sleep problems, as the brain’s recovery may be slower. The speaker directs viewers to another video on root causes of addiction for deeper context.
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So I've been asked multiple times to make a video about meth addiction and or stimulant addiction, and I've kind of resisted that, to be honest with you. I've had some mixed feelings. But recently I got asked that question again, or I got that suggestion as far as what to make a video about from Desiree. I hope I'm saying your name right. Thank you for the suggestion. So I decided, you know what, I just need to cover this topic. People want to know foreign. For those of you who are new here, I'm Amber Hollingsworth and you're watching the YouTube channel designed to help you understand the science and psychology of addiction. Our goal is to shed light on addiction because addiction can only live in the darkness. And once you put the light on it, it pretty much goes away. Okay, so let's get back to our topic, which is addiction to meth and or stimulants like Adderall, speed, all that kind of stuff. The first thing you might want to know is why were you resistant to making a video about that? Well, I have two reasons. I'm going to tell you what those two reasons were. The first reason is this because honestly, addiction is kind of pretty much the same regardless of what the addiction is. There are some little nuances that are slightly different because of the effect effects of any particular substance. But addiction itself, the process is like the same no matter the substance. It doesn't even have to be a substance. It could be a behavior. Addiction is addiction. And honestly, what does it take to get better from that is kind of the same too. So part of my resistance in addressing this specific substance is because I want everyone to understand that the commonalities between all the addictions are way more important than the differences. But because you've asked and you want to know, I will go over the. The little nuances, the important things that are a little different about being addicted to meth or stimulants that differ from other addictions. But before I do that, let me tell you the second reason why I was a little bit reluctant to cover this topic. This one is a little bit more about self preservation. Here it comes. I finally figured out that anytime I make a video about any specifics, substance or kind of substance, those are the ones I get really nasty negative comment remarks on. It doesn't matter what it is because it seems like, or at least I think this is what's happening. The people that find those videos are not looking for recovery or they're not looking for how to help an Addicted loved one. They're looking for how to abuse that particular drug. So the people that land on those videos tend to be the wrong people. And I get a ton of comments that are either mean or negative towards me, or mostly just justifying and defending the drug. I mean, it's crazy. It doesn't matter what drug I talk about. It's like you got all these people trying to defend that and say, well, that's not a problem or that's not addictive, or, you know, you shouldn't worry about that. I don't know, it's just kind of crazy to me. So that's my second reason. But hey, I promise to tell you some specific things about this type of addiction. You know, most people think that when someone gets addicted to meth that they're going to be totally tweaked out of their mind. They're going to be really. You know, we've seen that like, thing on YouTube, like the faces of meth addiction, and someone just looks like rails and their face is scabbed up and their teeth are falling out and they just look horrible. Hey, yeah, that is end stage meth addiction. And it can definitely, definitely look like that. But long before someone gets to that point, they're gonna look barely functional for a while. So it's surprising for a lot of people to know that there are a lot of people out there addicted to meth that are going to work, that are going to school, and that function okay for a pretty good long while. Eventually, if they keep using this substance, it's going to get unmanageable and you're going to see some of those stereotypical type of symptoms. Now, like I said before, there are little nuances that are specific to every little different type of addiction. But the two things that really stand out to me that are different about addiction to stimulants and or methamphetamine is this one. This is maybe the big one here, and that's that when you abuse stimulants, you can have psychosis. And what that means is sort of out of touch with your reality. You, you can become delusional, you can become paranoid. You think things that aren't true, you think people are after you, are trying to do bad things to you, and they really aren't. And when people are in that state of mind, they're a lot more dangerous. I mean, for the most part, when people have drug or alcohol problems, the substance itself doesn't necessarily make someone a danger, unless it's like driving intoxicated, that Makes someone a danger. Mostly what's problematic about people that are addicted to substances is what they have to do in order to obtain the substance that can be dangerous. Like stealing, manipulating, manipulating, lying and all that kind of stuff. Not necessarily the substance itself, but with meth and stimulants, it can be a little different because the effect of the substance can bring you to this point of psychosis and delusion. When people are like that, you don't know what they're going to do. If someone feels like their safety is in jeopardy or that you're going to try to do something to hurt someone they care about, you're dealing with someone in a fight or flight response and you don't know what's going to happen. So if you're dealing with a loved one that has that situation, I always want you to take that seriously. Because like I said, when people are like that, they're really unpredictable. Now, the second little nuance about stimulant addiction that I want to bring to your attention has more to do with the recovery process. You know, used to we thought that if you use drugs, it fried your brain. But for the most part, what we've learned is people's brains actually do heal most of the time when they stop using the substance. It's called neuroplasticity. Hope I said that right. And it's basically your brain's ability to change and be flexible. So for the most part, when people quit using substances, the brain stuff eventually comes back. It doesn't always come back immediately. It may take months. However, when it comes to addiction to methamphetamine or severe stimulant abuse like withdrawal, that post acute withdrawal period seems to last quite a bit longer. They seem to have depression that lasts longer, Sleep problems that are more persistent. In actuality, research has shown that the brain does not bounce back the same way from this particular addiction. So I'm not saying that it won't. I'm just saying that those post acute withdrawal symptoms may last a little bit longer. With this issue, other than those couple of factors which are slightly different, the important part here is what is causing the addiction, what's underlying addiction in general. And so the next thing I want you to do is watch this video about the root cause of addiction. Here's the underneath part. I'm going to put it right up here so you can watch that next.
