Hey, I was curious to see if anyone else here had a drug problem that hindered there training. for me to get my shit together enough to get to bjj or mt 2 times a week is a miracle even tho i pay to go 3-4 times. i’ve been through rehabs all unsuccessfully obviously, the only thing that really inspires me to be clean is bjj
basically i was wondering if anyone has every beat a drug problem via positiveness of martial arts or if im the first to try.
There’s been several studies done regarding martial arts and the reduction of antisocial behavior.
Having positive activities to do is one element of recovery.
Detox and rehab alone are not enough to kick a serious substance abuse addiction*. You need to consider either individual or group therapy as a continuation of your treatment to help you avoid lapses and relapses. Your BJJ may be therapeutic, but it does not count as therapy.
If you have a gym that is open all day as opposed to 4 times a week might help. Or training at home to get your mind off drugs. Keep yourself busy, and focused.
I’ve known martial artists who replace drugs with training, I wonder sometimes if they are training too much, or if it’s just trading one addiction for another.
I dont think you can ever beat a drug problem. It never goes away. Never give up though, that is simply not an option.
In a way, all you are doing is replacing the action that drugs cause (reward/pleasure activity, dopamine/serotonin/opoid depending on what your poison is/was)
with activities that cause them in what society would say is natural or “normal”
such as Martial Arts
and these activities can be as much an addiction as the drugs themselves.
That’s why there’s a notion of “balancing your life out.”
I’m sure everyone’s heard of sexaholics(nymphos/satyrs), workaholics, etc.
Cocaine / Amphetamines / Caffeine = Dopamine (Focus, Attention, Motivation, Drive, Feelings of Power)
MDMA / Opiates = Serotonin/Opoid (Joy/Pleasure/Happiness)
Your just trading out one stimulation (drugs do nothing to contribute to society, or better yourself, and cost you money, and your time.) as opposed to a rewarding job/activity that would contribute to society.
That’s why drugs are viewed societally as evil.
but even that line is a bit gray when you consider that many psychotropic substances are socially acceptable.
ie. Alcohol, Nicotine and Caffeine.
… yeah i got a bit off subject there…
so yes.
martial arts can be a healthy way to get the required feelings of accomplishment you need as well as support your health. which in turn changes how you look, so you feel better about yourself… so the opposite sex will like you… so then that leads to joy of different kinds.
so I would say an addiction to martial arts is leagues better than an addiction to narcotics…
//BS Biology.
///Obsessed with Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology and Neuropsychology.
I got the general gist of that^^ and i agree.
I’m not an expert or anything, and the only thing would be kinda addicted to is chocolate, so you can completely disreguard this if you like…
If you have a postive atmosphere at your BJJ, awesome- use it. Converse with the people there, get to know people in this positive place. Not only will you be getting healthy, you’re making another circle of friends. Keeping busy always helps me take my mind off things, so i hope you can find something that works for you.
Even if you ignore that^,
Good for you dude, really, i wish you all the best of luck, and fun, with it.
Another thing, be careful who you train with. You dont want to train with guys like…me. Bad influence. I was told not to hang around Sifu outside of the school because I might get him in trouble. I’m working on it though.
Find good friends. Men of respect walk with men of respect, no exceptions. family included. Sorry if I sound preachy, these are just things that help me.
Caffeine is a psychotropic drug?
That’s why drugs are viewed societally as evil.
Strange. Painkiller use increased 90% over 10 years in recent history. Must be a lot of hypocrites. Along with those people who take chemo, synthetic insulin, and synthetic thyroid hormone. Hypocrites, the lot of them to take drugs that they think are evil.
While addiction and substance abuse are fundamentally based on chemical and biological reactions, it’s a gross oversimplification to address the situation only in that domain. The same applies for your description of sexaholics.
The psychological benefits of martial arts training extends far further than chemical stimulation. For instance, he might have found a healthier group of people to associate with rather than his heroin friends from before*
I would say an addiction to martial arts is leagues better than an addiction to narcotics…
Look up “ANOREXIA ATHLETICA” and “Compulsive Exercise.”
*I’m assuming Vulgar is trying to kick heroin based on his comment in the “Vices” thread. I apologize if that’s not the case.
I’m sorry, but I have to call bullshit on this one. My best friend of 8 years got into heavy meth use and damn near ruined his life forever. After a couple of years of it, and getting busted a few times, he realized he was fucking up big time. I was there for him during his drug court probation, and when probation was up, he never went back to it. He is still clean to this day and is married with 2 kids now. I know from first-hand observation it can be done.
Of course it can be done. But you can ask him, is the temptation still there? Don’t believe for a minute his fight is over.
As a former practising addict, I’ll have to agree. I wouldn’t call it temptation, but the reflex is always going to be there, just the concious effort to resist becomes stronger. If I start again, i.e. drink etc, I’ll get hooked again. They had a study that 42% of Americans abuse alcohol, so I’m not alone. Now that doesn’t mean that 42% of us are chronic addicts, but there are more people hooked on booze than they realize. All that macho shit about how manly drinking is can be summed up by Hemingway’s exisitence- he wrote about how manly drinking was and wound up shooting himself.
At the same time, you don’t want your whole life to revolve around AA forever. I have a friend that is 25 years sober, and he was a mess at 21. At first, he went to meetings etc, but eventually, he wanted to get away from being a “former addict made good” and got heavily involved in coaching soccer and Koi fish as a hobby. It’s tough to clean up, but you have to be as hard core about it as you were about trying to score, really.
One last thing. I know a lot of stoner/boozer martial artists (Eddie Bravo, El Guapo, if you need some famous examples), so be careful . They’ll tell you “one drink won’t hurt you” and so on, and you’ll be back where you started. Hey, maybe one drink won’t hurt THEM, but you have to make sure you’re healthy. It’s a hell of a lot easier staying away from people that use drugs and alcohol then trying to “fit in”. Good luck.
I don’t know what kind of drugs you use, but I hope you’re not going to train when you’re high. Injuries are likely enough in BJJ already. Your classmates deserve better than to have a stoned training partner. Anyway, maybe you’re not, but I wanted to throw that out there.
The fact that you did not know that caffeine is a psychoactive substance is evidence enough to substantiate the concept that I am most definitely NOT oversimplifying the situation. If you wish to support that argument throw some supporting statements and scientific data/fact.
The chemical reactions i describe are the mechanisms BEHIND the behaviour you psychologists overanalyze to hell.
Caffeine is psychotropic indirectly. It is an Adenosine receptor antagonist. By reducing the amounts of adenosine receptors it increases the response to the normal amount of adenosine in the body. The increased response of adenosine leads to a increased amount of dopamine which is ultimately what causes the mental alertness / awakeness that caffeine provides.
The difference between caffeine and cocaine/amphetamine is that caffeine indirectly causes increase of dopamine via PNS. The increased response to adenosine also causes undesirable peripheral effects that cocaine/amphetamine often don’t.
Cocaine and amphetamine differ in that cocaine is a Dopamine Reuptake inhibitor preventing dopamine from being recycled where as amphetamine forces the release of dopamine from its reserves.
The addiction of cocaine comes from its pharmacological kinetics. It has a extremely short half life. Meaning its in, you hit a peak, then its a quick drop.
The difference between therapeutic ritalin and cocaine is purity and the half-life.
I shouldn’t have to explain this to a psychologist who should know the basics of neuropharmacology and neuropsychology as part of a any substance abuse program.
a psychologist without a decent background in neuroscience is no better than a pastor/priest/confessional/good friend.
If you wish to support that argument throw some supporting statements and scientific data/fact.
If someone is regularly dealing with a stressful situation, dealing with the situation is going to be more effective than treating the chemical outcome from the situation.
The fact that you did not know that caffeine is a psychoactive substance is evidence enough to substantiate the concept that I am most definitely NOT oversimplifying the situation.
No, it means that I didn’t know that caffeine was considered psychotropic.
I shouldn’t have to explain this to a psychologist who should know the basics of neuropharmacology and neuropsychology as part of a any substance abuse program.
I’m not a psychologist. I’m a master’s student, and my primary area of research interest is eating disorders.
Having variously trained regularly and been addicted to opioids, I prefer the training.
First off I was a bit drunk when I wrote my reply.
Not an excuse. An explanation if you will,
I ASSumed you were the psychologist i read who posted earlier.
I sincerely apologize for my arrogance and the insult.
Secondly, I never instigated that chemical treatments were the solution.
I just was giving the rationale for why certain substances are abused and how they are “empty” substitutes for something that is “real”
In fact, I agree with you. If pharmas are to be used in treating most of these conditions, They should only be used as crutches to get them in the right direction.
and eating disorders… I haven’t read too much into that…
I generally think of it as a mind over matter(or biochemical) if you will, type thing. although I wouldnt mind more education on the matter.
Seems like something similar to what some of my friends and I go through.
except its not anorexia and its not overeating.
It’s like always having to improve and look/feel/be better.
(I was extremely underweight during HS. 5’6, 105lb). Started working out, doing MA and got OCD about nutrition and shot up to 147-151lb with 16% BF over a period of 3 years (I don’t desire to try “gear”).
but I personally dont see a difference. Other day a friend(another bodybuilder) goes up to me and is like damn you got big. and I thought he was making fun of me at first.
I’m not a psychologist. I’m a master’s student, and my primary area of research interest is eating disorders.
What a waste of time.
with the present percentage of women with eating disorders I think he has what is considered “job security”. My theory is that the fashion industry is run by gay men, who hate women (jealosy) so they make women want to be skinny (like boys), and dress them ridiculously.
Me and Nick Diaz feel your pain.
But if you ask the California state athletic commission, or Eddie bravo, you’ll find it’s actually a performance enhancer. See, you’re actually helping yourself!
Weed has never enhanced my kickboxing, and I no longer have the money (Texas = 20$ a half ounce for Brick, Alaska = 20$ a gram for MTF, Kush, Ak, etc.), the time, or the ability to smoke now, so who knows if it would enhance my grappling (though I was high a couple times doing sprawls and some takedown defense way back when I did no-gi cross training and it didn’t improve or detract). The fact is, my sparring partners had no idea when i was or was not high, as one of them never knew I smoked and stated so when I posted on myspazz about it, and the other sparring partner knew I smoked but never could tell the difference.
If anything, weed made me more even of keel (ie., calm) and maybe a bit more relaxed, but I smoked it so long and in such quantities that I functioned at the same physical and mental levels at all times, sober or stoned, and only the creative and logical processes changed in any relateable way. I never went to work high, though. Ethically, I couldn’t bring myself to go to a retail sales job stoned. Also, ethically, I have always stated that I believe alcohol and marijuana are in the wrong classifications and should be switched, as MJ has 0 deaths by overdose per year and alcohol reports at least 4000, MJ is a contributing factor in far fewer accidents per year than alcohol (national data points to an almost 10 to 1 ratio of alcohol related accidents to marijuana related), and alcohol is so much more volatile to the system than MJ.
Now, as for other narcotics, I only have experience with Codeine syrups (Lean for those from the south), Tussinex, Promethezine, etc. and those were like being drunk but without all the nasty hangover side-effects. Otherwise, no coke, no opiates, no meth, no barbs, no X, GHB, shrooms, LSD, etc. So I can’t really tell you much about their effects, the ability to replace addiction with training, etc.
I think it’s possible to replace weed or other casual drugs (such as alcohol prior to sliding into an alcoholic state) with training if you are using them for recreation, ie. more as a pasttime than in a need/want role. Otherwise, if you’re goal is to be high at all hours of the day, everyday, I don’t think it’s going to help much. You’ll just find ways to be high AND train. I had my period of smoking right after work and until I passed out at night, when I was my bipolar worst, and all the training in the world was merely an adjunct to the herb. I trained high, running through shadowboxing, kicking drills, bagwork, even sparring stoned. But I knew guys who were so hopped up on painkillers, to combat knee or shoulder injuries, that they really didn’t feel anything short of a KO to the skull in sparring. I didn’t really think I was that bad of an apple.
Nowadays, I doubt I’d train high. whether it enhances or detracts from my performance, I’d rather not mess with the hassle you get from a public that does what the federal drug control policy (read as: NASIs, or National Association of Socialist Idiots) tells it to do, regardless of how many people in said public actually smoke or are not against smoking herb.
thanks a lot for the input.
I find that i end up missing training by getting way to f’d up the night before a scheduled training day. or i’ll start drinking hours before training and 1 drink leads to 12. its way better then what it used to be before mma tho, always hope.