MYTH: MARIJUANA IMPAIRS MEMORY AND COGNITION. Under the influence of marijuana, people are unable to think rationally and intelligently. Chronic marijuana use causes permanent mental impairment.
FACT: Marijuana produces immediate, temporary changes in thoughts, perceptions, and information processing. The cognitive process most clearly affected by marijuana is short-term memory. In laboratory studies, subjects under the influence of marijuana have no trouble remembering things they learned previously. However, they display diminished capacity to learn and recall new information. This diminishment only lasts for the duration of the intoxication. There is no convincing evidence that heavy long-term marijuana use permanently impairs memory or other cognitive functions.
MYTH: MARIJUANA CAN CAUSE PERMANENT MENTAL ILLNESS. Among adolescents, even occasional marijuana use may cause psychological damage. During intoxication, marijuana users become irrational and often behave erratically.
FACT: There is no convincing scientific evidence that marijuana causes psychological damage or mental illness in either teenagers or adults. Some marijuana users experience psychological distress following marijuana ingestion, which may include feelings of panic, anxiety, and paranoia. Such experiences can be frightening, but the effects are temporary. With very large doses, marijuana can cause temporary toxic psychosis. This occurs rarely, and almost always when marijuana is eaten rather than smoked. Marijuana does not cause profound changes in people's behavior.
While he's on the whacky tobacky, yes, he probably would be dumber. I've tried a little experiment of my own with a couple different I.Q. tests. Surprisingly I found my I.Q. to be higher after smoking a small amount of the happy herb. And lower if I'm full blown ripped out of my mind. It all depends on how much is smoked I guess. As for the headaches, that's just me. It's probably different for everyone depending on how much they take in. It's just a plant after all and not everybodies into that sort of thing. I accept that, I wasn't trying to be a pusher or anything.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
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I know you're not selling anything- I'm just really scared of anything that (even temporarily) reduces my brain's aility to function.
I needs all I's gots!
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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quote:Originally posted by LOA: I've never even heard of one of those tanks.... but I have to tell you, when I get a bad migraine, my neck starts to kill me soon after because I get so tense from the pain... chronic pain takes a lot out of a person... a lot....
Have you tried a chiropractor? This doesn't compare at all to what you are going through but I started going when I had wincing pains travel up my neck and over my scalp. The Chiropractor concentrated on my C1 and C2 (Atlas and Axis) and it made a difference. Then I got sick of that chiropractor - I felt that she was just getting me to a point not far from more or less totally better, plus she was a Nazi at keeping appointments. Mum was going to a different Chiropractor - I went to him - and he actually worked on my JAW - the pivot point - and sticks his (gloved) finger in my mouth and pulls at the little tendons that hold the jaw together. The pain goes pretty much with in an hour and the accompanying ulcers do too. He's very relaxed and I don't have to make continual appointments - whenever I need to he said.
Andrew
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
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Andrew, that would be Swedish. Timo's the one in Finland.
Liz... Do you know if your migraines are mechanical or chemical? Makes a HUUUGE difference in what therapies will have an impact. Jen's tend to be stress-based, hence musculo-skeletal and much easier to mess with than if it were a chemical or hormonal imbalance. I'm glad my imbalances weren't pain-inducing. Bad enough my libido went to Hawaii a couple years ago and didn't invite me along...
And even if your head starts working right again, I still wouldn't mind heading out your way as soon as I can drive again. I'm going very slightly nuts, being cooped up a my parents' house.
Oh, and incidentally, it's "Jonah", not "Jason" -- although it is nice being called after a Greek Hero instead of a rebellious prophet... Don't worry about it, though. People have been getting my name wrong for most of my life. Joshua, Joseph, Jacob, Johan, Noah, Jonathan...
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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"I may try oxygen threapy (wherein you're stuck in a pressurized tank of 100% oxygen for several hours a day). I keep picturing those Gemini astronauts..."
Or Michael Jackson...
"...Hellerwork/Rolfing..."
That sounds like it means doing a lot of labor, then vomiting.
"For chronic pain I recommend Marijuana. It really does work better than the man made pills and other chemical garbage on the shelves these days. I'm being 100% serious here. Just don't use it for headaches. Seems to make them worse for me. If you can get a prescription all the better."
That may work in the wilds of midland Canada, but you're not going to get a prescription for it here. Not a legal one, anyway. (Thus making it not "all the better".)
"Plus, ultimately, I would like to get well enough to be a musician again. So no smoke in my lungs if I can avoid it. Not of ANY sort."
Not that I'm necessarily advocating it (nor discouraging it, for that matter), but no-one said you had to smoke it. I understand brownies are a popular alternative.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Andrew: My paper is in swedish, but here's an abbreviated form, adapted to forum format, with occasional additions. LOA, I'm sorry if it's a lot of text, if you have trouble with that during headaches. I promise you it'll be worth your while, though.
quote:How it works:
Basically, being in a floatation tank affects four of the five bodily senses. It's lightproof so the eyes are the first things to relax. Hearing gets affected by your ears being underwater, usually you get issued earplugs as well, against the underwater sounds. Your smell gets kind of defaulted due to breathing the fumes of the epsom salt in the water (german "health" salt, not sea salt, good for the skin's healing abilities). The greatest effect, of course, is the lifting force of the salt water and the neutral temperature, blurring the line for where the surface ends and the body begins. Pressure and tightness in the spine, neck and all joints disappears. Arms, hands and head float on the surface and as long as you don't move, the muscles and tendons don't give off any notice either, making it possible to have a slight out-of-body experience or being in space. It's good to read up on this before the first times and talk to the people running the place to get a feel for it.
A normal session lasts an hour and if you are sufficiently relaxed (usually during the second session) your brain activity relaxes too; the brain works with different brainwaves in different modes. You work in beta waves when you're awake, alpha-waves when you're shutting your eyes and relaxing, theta waves in the short time just before you fall asleep (kind of a bridge) and then delta waves for deep sleep or unconsciousness. During the last twenty minutes of the floating session, it is possible to get down to theta (yes yes ha ha lron) or delta levels, allowing for a period of sleeping awake, which kicks the immune system into high gear, improves marrow production, stimulates serotonin leves and is optimal for mediation and prayer. During this time the contact between the brain halves improve also.
Indeed, for mental discipline it's best not to get carried away by trains of thought and instead stand back in your mind and just accept and wonder at the things flying past, non-judgementally. One hour of floating is regarded as 4-6 hours of sleep, depending on your level of relaxation and how used you are you are to the procedure.
Target groups:
Primarily, floating is used for stress control but it has proven effective on people with chronic pains, tense headaches, migraine, psoriasis (stress related), rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. It's doubly effective on psoriasis patients, due to both taking away stress and having a therapeutic effect on the skin, due to the 36% epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) water, making skin soft and hair lithe. I like that word, lithe. I so rarely get to use it in a sentence. ... Hm.
Reactions:
There are no side effects whatsoever, since essentially it's just returning to the womb for a while. It usually takes two or three sessions to get accustomed to it, you don't even let your head rest freely on the surface of the water until after about 15 minutes, it's an inherited instinct. Like with Neo and the building jumping test. There are very many variations of tanks but usually it's a very large, slightly rectangular box. It's always large enough so that a normal person cannot reach the walls or roof while lying on the surface, for obvious psychological "immersion" reasons. The water's about a foot deep, 600 liters or so. Again, as for claustrophobia, it won't affect a normal person, you forget all that when you start experiencing the weightlessness. But if you're a person who can't go into a public restroom stall, then you need to see a shrink. Regardless. For some people, the silence and tranquility can seem irritating, if your usual day is spent in a clamor of phone calls, music and noisy work places and if you notice you dislike quiet rooms. Ironically these people are the ones most in need of doing floating or just basic anti-stress activity. An important effect of floating that was the chief interest of its creator, Dr John Lilly, was the altered state of consciousness achievable through the practice. Emotions and thoughts from long-term memory and the subconscious can be allowed to resurface. Some people can react to it but it's very rare. The altered state and general softness after a floating session can be likened to a mild drug buzz, similar to taking LSD; you get very creative and attentive for several hours after, but the capacity for logic thinking and hard mind-work is slightly diminished, scientists believe this is because the left (logic) side of the brain slows down during floating or sleep, while the activity in the right (creative) side increases. You shouldn't do floating before a school test or a boardroom/office meeting, it's also important to let yourself "land" to get as much out of the experience as possible. Take out some "me"-time, go home and listen to music, write a sonnet or masturbate (oh yes, that's right, I went there). Perhaps a combination of the three.
The water is 36% salt, a third more than the Dead Sea, so, you know, don't rub your eyes. It also tastes bitter (if you're like me, the curiosity gets you in the end). Have fun, and if anyone tries out floating, please give me feedback, I have only talked to a few who have tried it. It's interesting to compare experiences.
$$$$$$$$$$$$ $$$$$$$$$$$$ It can be highly tempting to...touch yourself in such an optimal environment, just to see what happens. Well what happens is floating clinics commonly have wires installed to administer a strong electric current if they have reason to think you are approaching your unmentionables. For legal reasons, IIRC. Standard boilerplate. Then they take your clothes and you have to run home in your birthday suit. Traditionally it ends up on page 5 or 6 in the local paper. That's were acupuncture is a much better therapy. No risks of getting fresh there.
quote:Originally posted by Peregrinus: Oh, and incidentally, it's "Jonah", not "Jason" -- although it is nice being called after a Greek Hero instead of a rebellious prophet... --Jonah
Nothing says you cant be both.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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I don't know if I could handle the floating tank right now.... it sounds wonderful, but one of the things that is the most disturbing to me with my migraines is the constant ringing in my ears.... if I was in an environment where there was no other sound, and that's all I could hear, I might go mad. Literally.
I keep telling my Neuro we need to get the rining under control, he keeps telling me Tinnitus can strike at any time, and there's nothing we can do.
I swear, my body is going on strike. S-T-R-I-K-E.
And Jonah, I apologize, I knew your name, I just thought I was talking to Jason Abbadon for a second in that last post. Blame it on the drugs.
And if you want to visit Spokane at some point, OK, but it's REALLY not all that exciting.... about the best thing we've got going for ourselves is a goat shaped garbage can that sucks up garbage in the park down town. Whoo, hoo.
-------------------- "You are anal twattypoo who has ruined my good mood" PsyLiam to TSN May 01,2006.
Registered: Mar 1999
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Most modern floating tanks have underwater loudspeakers for playing relaxation music (they had a choice of 6 tracks where I went) or whatever you want to bring. I've found that silence works best for me but for my first two sessions I chose a sea track and a forest track, that was nice too.
I wish I could go to the States. Won't be possible for a long time, now that I'm knee-deep in university studies.
Registered: Aug 1999
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I have little advice to offer on the migraine front...other than seek out migraine specialist. And you think about a floatation tank, just be sure you see Altered States first.
I can and do offer my sympathies on you stay in the hospital because I know that being in the hospital is no fun at all. All that laying about with nothing to do other than think and watch CNN can really drive one over the edge.
Do know that I am on the list of those who are hoping that everything goes as well as it possibly can for you as you go forward.
And for the rest of you Flareites...do try and stay out of the hospital.
-------------------- Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war. ~ohn Adams
Once again the Bush Administration is worse than I had imagined, even though I thought I had already taken account of the fact that the Bush administration is invariably worse than I can imagine. ~Brad DeLong
You're just babbling incoherently. ~C. Montgomery Burns
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by Nim: Most modern floating tanks have underwater loudspeakers for playing relaxation music (they had a choice of 6 tracks where I went) or whatever you want to bring.
It would be a great gag to play the theme from "Jaws" while someone's in there!
...hmmm....maybe some recordings of dirt being shoveled over the top of the tank...
quote:Originally posted by LOA: I was talking to Jason Abbadon for a second in that last post. Blame it on the drugs.
They usually do...
Sigh.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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