Addiction: From coffee and tea to drugs of abuse

7th entry - Addiction: From coffee and tea to drugs of abuse

 I’m not very familiar with drugs more serious than alcohol or cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t know people who have tried them.

I’m not a supporter of the idea that people who has tried drugs is the typical stereotyped young people, with a rastafari look, because it’s not true. A few of my school friends have tried a widely range of drugs, because they think there’s nothing wrong in experimenting, if they are responsible about that.

I tried once LSD to know how it was, because the experience was appealing to me and LSD isn’t addictive, and it’s not like everyone thinks. It’s not about seeing crazy stuff, like flying dragons, pink elephants or whatever. It’s more like your senses are more developed. You see everything like “high-definition” (more colorful, with more contrast, like the camera options) and you find mandala-like patterns in everything. The touch and the hearing are deeper too. But for the other people, you look exactly the same as always, but your pupils are dilated and you become a little bit philosopher.

This is how people usually think it is...

...and this is how it REALLY is (or at least, the closer I could think of).

Aside from the medicament drugs benefits, I can’t recall another benefit to the other kind of drugs, like ecstasy, methamphetamine, cocaine… To my appreciation, drugs are a way to “escape” from reality, and often the people who consume them are unable to be responsible about it (not always, as I said before). Then, they develop long-term symptoms like forgetfulness, fatigue…

The people who usually consumed the higher-addiction drugs get withdrawal symptoms because their “emotional” bond with them and the dependence created because of the alteration of the normal behavior of the nervous system. The symptoms vary about the drug consumed, usually being the counter-part of their effects.

I know a few friends who are “addicted” to cigarettes, and they all say the same: it’s an expensive, unhealthy addiction and they want to quit it.

This is how smoking affect our lungs.

Post Graduate Studies

6th Entry - Post Graduate Studies

I'm surely going to after I get my professional degree, because it's kind of a tool to perform better my future job (research). I mean, the more I know, the easier it would be to me to develop new knowledge in the area.

I would like to study a PhD or Master degree in Neuroscience or Clinical Biochemistry (or maybe both) because, aside from being really interesting, they would give me the necessary abilities to success.

I’ve thought of studying here in Chile the Master degree and my PhD abroad… If not in Spain, I would study maybe in London or Canada, where the biochemistry field is more advanced. But as far as I can think of, first I’ve to finish my undergraduate degree, and that’s my principal concern.

Surrey University Campus. It's located in the South East of England, UK. It's one of the best colleges to study biochemistry around the globe.

I would like to study an intense, full-time course, to end as soon as possible (my dreams can’t wait!). However, if I study abroad, I would take some time to tour wherever I take my post-graduate degree, after I finish the course. It would be silly if I don’t do it.

Once one of my school teachers told me that if I don’t take a gap year before or after university, and I start working right after ending my studies, then I would never be able to stop working and take it… So I think after I get my PhD, I will travel around the world, and accomplish all of my personal goals (write a book, travel at least to twenty different countries, learn to program and learn a few songs in my ukulele, etcétera).