What Is a Natural High?
Some people want to get very basic and say “any activity that makes you feel good—but doesn’t involve drugs” is a natural high. But, that isn’t quite right. The euphoria caused by drug use is a very real thing. It happens at a chemical and hormonal level; it is biological. Therefore, it is more accurate to say that a natural high is one that triggers the same pleasure process that drugs would. How Do Drugs Trigger a High? You brain functions in a number of ways. One way it works is to communicate messages throughout the body and to other parts of the brain. It does this by triggering neurotransmitters to move from neuron to neuron by attaching to receptors. When the message is passed, transmitters come along and collect all of the neurotransmitters, so they can be reused. Some drugs trick receptors into accepting them and this sends wildly different messages than would occur naturally. Other drugs stop the transmitters from recycling, so the neurotransmitters just pool around the receptors and enlarge the degree of pleasure felt. Getting a Natural High To achieve a natural high, you have to participate in an activity that triggers feel good neurotransmitters, like dopamine, to be released. Exercise reliably does this and can cause the “runner’s high” that people talk about. Dopamine is also released after pleasurable activities, like hugging someone you love, consuming a fine meal, or having sex. Now, you don’t want to run around hugging everyone, eating everything, and having sex all of the time. What you want to do is acknowledge when you feel a natural high and appreciate it. When drug addiction treatment centers are in your plans, you have reached a point where you no longer enjoy the high but you have become dependent upon it. You have an addiction. As you continue through treatment and into recovery, you will learn to function without drugs to fall back on. One thing that will help you is the healthy or natural high. |