Uppers and Downers: What’s the Difference?

What Are Uppers?

Different drug types will create various side effects on your physical and mental health. Uppers are considered stimulant drugs that will impact your central nervous system by increasing your heart rate, blood pressure, and energy levels. Uppers or stimulant drugs are known to increase the levels of dopamine produced, affecting your reward and well-being senses. Many stimulant drugs will increase your alertness and focus while decreasing your appetite. Stimulant drugs will change your sleep patterns, often resulting in periods of extended wakefulness or insomnia. Uppers can come in drug types cocaine addiction, meth addiction, or prescription stimulant drug addiction.

 

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What Are Downers?

Downers are considered a drug type that can create feelings of sedation, euphoria, and relaxation. These drug types are CNS depression, which can significantly reduce your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, impair your cognition, and create feelings of sedation. Depending on the downer drug types, including alcohol addiction, opioid addiction, or prescription drugs, you are still engaging in substance abuse. Your body will experience various symptoms and side effects from your substance abuse.

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Dangers of Mixing Uppers and Downers

There are risks associated whenever someone is engaging in substance abuse. However, when individuals begin combining uppers and downers, there becomes an increased risk to your overall health and safety. The dangers of mixing and combining uppers and downers can create the following side effects:

Substance abuse with stimulant drugs and downers will often counteract the effects of the other. This process often leads to a misconception that you are not intoxicated from your substance abuse leading individuals to use more drugs and alcohol without considering the impacts on their physical and mental health.

Combining alcohol and cocaine addiction can be a dangerous combination of uppers and downers. Alcohol will impact how the body processes cocaine abuse, creating a cocaethylene chemical. This chemical is poisonous, resulting in heart or liver damage, and, in some cases, sudden death can occur.

The use of stimulant drugs can create severe dehydration in its users. Mixing uppers and downers such as alcohol and stimulant drugs can worsen the onset of extreme hydration. Individuals will feel physical health symptoms such as dizziness, nausea or vomiting, disorientation, physical exhaustion, and strain on regular bodily functions.
Combining uppers and downers can strain physical functioning resulting in irregular heart rate, heart disease, and death.

Each person engaging in substance abuse will experience side effects and symptoms that are unique to them. Combining uppers and downers can result in severe and life-threatening side effects, including sudden overdose deaths.

Uppers and Downers

Getting Help for Drug Addiction

WhiteSands Alcohol and Drug Rehab provides treatment that will support you in addressing and healing from your drug or alcohol addiction. We offer all levels of care that will help you no matter where you are in your recovery journey. Patients can participate in a medical detox program monitored by health care professionals, inpatient alcohol or drug rehab, outpatient programs of either a partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient program, and aftercare planning.

Each individual has a unique history of substance abuse developed from their own history of emotional distress, difficult memories, or traumas that have influenced their addictive behaviors. You will receive a treatment plan incorporating various evidence-based therapy methods such as cognitive behavioral therapy, dual diagnosis treatment, medication-assisted treatment, family therapy, and relapse prevention or life skills development. The goal of your addiction treatment program is to support patients in healing from their past to develop a healthy, stable future in sober living.

Whether you have one particular substance of choice or are engaged in multiple drugs, your addiction treatment program will be catered to meet your needs and goals for sober living. Contact WhiteSands today to hear more about the individual therapy and treatment programs that will be provided that will empower you to establish a new lifestyle in addiction recovery.

If you or a loved one needs help with abuse and/or treatment, please call the WhiteSands Treatment at (877) 855-3470. Our addiction specialists can assess your recovery needs and help you get the addiction treatment that provides the best chance for your long-term recovery.

About the Author

Jackie has been involved in the substance abuse and addiction treatment sector for over five years and this is something that she is truly eager about. She has a passion for writing and continuously works to create informative pieces that not only educate and inform the public about the disease of addiction but also provide solutions for those who struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.