Over the Influence by Patt Denning

Author:Patt Denning [Jeannie Little and Patt Denning]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781462530861
Publisher: Guilford Publications

Changing the Amount or the Frequency

Less is more. You are more likely to actually enjoy your drug experience if you don’t do it all the time or in large quantities. Some drugs, or drug use patterns, lend themselves to changing the amount—tapering—others to changing the frequency. We can’t be comprehensive here, but the following guidelines should help structure your thinking. Use them in conjunction with the information in the section on drugs at the end of the book, but also keep in mind that websites and social media are the best way to stay up to date with drug information that can guide your decisions.

There is overlap, but here are some guidelines:

• If you are physiologically dependent, meaning that you have been drinking or using for a while, your body and brain have adapted to the drug’s effects, and you have to use more to get the same high. You have developed tolerance. Quitting will be harder and might be dangerous. See the section on withdrawal. Reducing the frequency of your use will be hard too. If you are a daily and dependent opioid, alcohol, or pill user, you are not going to take days off. If you are a daily and habitual caffeine or tobacco user, this is also unlikely. You are going to be more successful, and more comfortable, reducing the amount, or the dose.

• If you’re not physiologically dependent, the best and easiest way to decrease tolerance is to quit for a while. Even a few days can make a difference, but a few weeks is better. This time off will give you a chance to decide how much you will use once you start again. Be aware that, if injecting opioids, starting up again after some period of abstinence is a major risk factor for overdose. Always test your dose before injecting the full amount. If you don’t quit, you can space out the time between doses. Short-acting drugs, and drugs that you use occasionally—stimulants, hallucinogens, ecstasy, dissociative anesthetics, and inhalants—lend themselves well to frequency reduction. Cannabis can go either way.

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