If you've ever known people who could hold their liquor to
an astonishing degree or show no visible effects from mild-altering drugs, you
have probably witnessed the effects of a phenomenon called substance tolerance.
Some individuals have a naturally high tolerance to particular drugs, while
others develop tolerance over time.
Unfortunately, a tolerance for alcohol or drugs can expose
the body and brain to ever-increasing risks of damage or disease. It can also
reinforce and encourage a destructive spiral of abuse and addiction. If you
worry about your own tolerance and its effects on your wellness, learn more
from these frequently asked questions.
What Kinds of Substance Tolerance Can an Individual
Experience?
Tolerance refers to the ability to ingest certain amounts of
legal or illegal substances without experiencing the expected levels of
drunkenness, disorientation, sleepiness, agitation, or hyperactivity normally associated
with those substances. People can have a physical tolerance, psychological
tolerance, or both.
Tolerance to alcohol, prescription drugs, or illicit
substances can take a variety of forms. Some individuals can ingest these
substances regularly without developing a tolerance for them, while others may
already possess an inborn tolerance or develop an acute tolerance the first
time they ever try the substance in question.
If your brain adapts to the effects of alcohol or drugs to
the extent that you can appear sober or minimally intoxicated, you have
developed a functional or learned tolerance. This functional tolerance may seem
higher in a familiar environment as opposed to when you use the substances in
question in an unfamiliar environment.
The body can also display a physical or metabolic tolerance
to a particular substance or class of substances. For example, if you drink
alcohol regularly, your liver may produce more enzymes to metabolize the
alcohol as efficiently as possible, thus requiring you to drink more to
experience the same intoxicating effects.
How and Why Does Cross-Tolerance Occur?
Certain classes of drugs tend to work on the same areas of
the brain in similar ways. As a result, an increased tolerance to one drug in
that class may also appear when using another drug in the same class. Doctors
refer to this phenomenon as cross-tolerance.
Examples of recognized drug classes include sedatives,
opioids, stimulants, and psychedelics. Sleeping pills, alcohol, and the
benzodiazepines all count as sedatives, while both prescription painkillers and
heroin fall into the opioid category. A tolerance for amphetamines can boost
tolerance for cocaine or even ADHD drugs.
Psychedelic drugs such as LSD and psilocybin alter the
serotonin levels in the brain, just as marijuana, DMT, and PCP do. If you
develop a tolerance to one of these drugs, you may end up with a tolerance to
all of them.
What Dangers Can Tolerance Pose?
On the surface, it might seem that someone with a higher
tolerance can safely take larger amounts of a drug without concern. However,
tolerance to a drug does not mean protection against its potential dangers. On
the contrary, it may actually place the user at higher risk than someone who
feels a drug's effects more strongly.
No matter how much of a substance you can take without
feeling high, your body and brain may have their limits as to how much of that
substance they can withstand before damage or an overdose may occur. As you
require more and more of the drug to achieve those effects, you also raise your
risk for addiction to that substance.
If you worry that your rising tolerance for alcohol or drugs
puts you at risk or feeds your dependence on legal or illegal substances, contact
Oak Arbor and ask for
our help. Our experienced team can help you break the cycle of tolerance,
abuse, and addiction so you can return to a safer, healthier way of living.
