Stimulants are called uppers for a simple reason: they get your body and mind moving, and you start to feel pretty good. You’re able to get lots of work done; it seems like one thought feeds into the next. You’re inspired. In any case, that’s usually what happens when you take stimulants and you aren’t prescribed them.
When you’re depressed, it’s difficult to do all those things. It’s difficult to get up and go; it’s hard to even get dressed or take a shower, much less go about your day and talk to others. Since stimulants affect the part of the brain where dopamine is created, they can provide a positive shift in depressive moods. Stimulant use can significantly lift depression, as well as affect the ability to concentrate for sustained periods of time, create greater energy and activity levels, as well as feelings of improved self-confidence and sociability.
Amphetamines, methamphetamine, and cocaine are just a few examples of the types of stimulants that spike dopamine levels in the brain. In comparison, antidepressants are used to treat depression by balancing out neurotransmitters in the brain, rather than increasing dopamine. Stimulants are now rarely prescribed in the treatment of depression (though they once were), because the instability that stimulants create do not benefit nor improve depressive moods.
If you’re accustomed to feeling good after taking stimulants and you experience depression on a regular basis, every time you feel depressed, you’ll want to bring yourself back again, so you might decide to pop an amphetamine. Since your dopamine levels have been temporarily heightened, they are likely to drop just as quickly. What’s more: stimulants can trigger manic tendencies, in the form of severe mood swings, rapid speech, increased heart rate and blood pressure (thus raising the risk of seizure or stroke), and irrational, risky behavior. Stimulants and depression shouldn’t be paired, as the actual results certainly outweigh the benefits: only a temporary relief, followed by a swift downturn in mood.
