Answer Addiction

Tag: memory

  • Can Quitting Marijuana Improve Memory For Teens?

    Can Quitting Marijuana Improve Memory For Teens?

    Impaired memory functions from marijuana use don’t have to be permanent.

    New research on the impact of marijuana use among teenagers appears to corroborate other studies that suggest cannabis can be detrimental to the development of their brains.

    However, the recent study also suggests that abstinence from marijuana use for 30 days or more may reverse its effect on memory, attention and the ability to retain new information.

    The results of the research have raised additional questions about marijuana use and teenagers, including the possibility of permanent impairment if no abstinence is undertaken.

    As Science News noted, studying marijuana use among this age group runs afoul of ethical issues—unlike adults, children can’t be asked to use a drug in order to study its effects. So the researchers—from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School—circumnavigated the problem by recruiting teenagers who reported using marijuana at least once a week to participate in their study.

    Eighty-eight Boston-area teens and young adults between the ages of 16 and 25 who reported weekly marijuana use were recruited, and 62 of them were offered money to stop using for a month. Payments increased as the month wore on, with some participants earning more than $500 for their abstinence.

    Of the 62 that received payment, urine tests revealed that 55 of them were able to remain abstinent for the full 30 days. All 88 test subjects were also tested on levels of attention and memory; these included directional tests and the monitoring of number sequences, as well as retention of information.

    The study results—which were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry on October 30—found that while attention remained largely unchanged for the abstinent participants, they showed moderate improvement on memory tests, especially those that required them to remember lists of words. Those participants that continued to use marijuana during the test period showed no signs of improvement on these memory tests.

    Neuropsychologist and study co-author Randi Schuster said that the test results showed that marijuana use can have a negative impact on how young people retain new information, but abstinence may play a role in reversing those effects. “From these data, we think that at least some of that impairment is not permanent,” she noted.

    Response to the study results focused on the effect of marijuana use beyond the study time frame. “If somebody is using very heavily over a prolonged period of time, is there a point at which these functions may not recover?” asked clinical neuropsychologist April Thames of UCLA.

    To answer these questions, Schuster and her fellow researchers plan additional, longer-term studies, including studying the effect on memory among 13- to 19-year-olds who abstain for a period of six months.

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • 5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Hit Rock Bottom

    5 Things I Wish I Knew When I Hit Rock Bottom

    When you’re at your lowest point, it’s easy to feel like there is no hope, like you are completely alone, like your life will never be full again.

    Rock bottom is such a common term in the world of recovery. And while everyone has a rock bottom, no one has the same one. When you’re at your lowest point, it’s easy to feel like there is no hope, like you are completely alone, like your life will never be full again. I certainly felt all those things and more a little over five years ago when I hit my bottom.

    But they say hindsight is 20/20, and in looking back, there are a few things I wish I had been able to reach out and grasp from my bottom. In hopes that they might help someone else, here they are:

    1. There Is Always a Light at the End of the Tunnel

    When I think back to the first few days and weeks following my rock bottom, I remember an all-encompassing feeling of utter hopelessness. I felt there was literally no way life would ever get better, that things would only get worse as time went on. I didn’t think there was any way out of the hole I had found myself in. I was really, truly incapable of envisioning a life in which I was happy without alcohol. I know I’m not alone in those feelings. Those emotions and struggles are true of many people when they hit their lowest of lows. It is called rock bottom for a reason — that reason being that you cannot go any lower. The only direction to go is up. But in the midst of it all, it’s so hard to see that. At rock bottom, I wish I had been able to reach out and grasp that little bit of hope that everything would be OK, rather than fixating on how my life was falling apart at the seams. Seeing that light at the end of the tunnel is something that would have been helpful. But what matters is that the light eventually made its way to me, and when it did, I kept walking toward it. Some days, I still am.

    2. Even in Your Loneliest Moments, You Are Not Alone

    In addition to feeling utterly hopeless early on, I also felt completely, wholly alone — more alone than I have ever felt in my life. I couldn’t imagine that anyone in the world was going through what I was going through. And maybe that’s true, to an extent. But it’s also true that there were people going through similar things; I just hadn’t crossed paths with them yet. I also felt alone in the sense that I was scared to talk to the people closest to me about what I was feeling and thinking. Instead, I kept it all bottled inside, isolating myself even more. It was only when I began to let my guard down that I realized I had had people beside me all along. I had never been alone, I had just convinced myself that was the case.

    3. The People Who Matter Will Remain by Your Side

    As my life was falling apart five and a half years ago, one of my main concerns was what would happen to my relationships. I was so scared of losing the people who I thought were important to me. And the truth is that not all of my relationships would survive the coming weeks and months. There were some friends who I came to find were really just drinking buddies. Those were the ones who slowly faded away. But at my lowest point, the people who really cared about me as a person came forward and made it known. So many of my relationships became stronger in the months following my rock bottom, to the point that I barely noticed the relationships that hadn’t pulled through. When everything is changing without your permission, it’s easy to feel as if it’s for the worst. But just remember that’s not always the case.

    4. People Won’t Judge You as Harshly as You Think They Will

    This was one of my biggest fears at my rock bottom and is what kept me from moving forward in my recovery for some time. I was so terrified that when people found out what had happened in my life, they would pass judgement and jump to conclusions. I was afraid that they would look at me differently or tell me I was overreacting. And sure, some people did. But the majority of people commended me for realizing that my life was spiraling out of control and for taking the steps to better it. Most people were and are beyond supportive of the decision I made five years ago, and I wish I’d known that would be the case when I made that decision. One thing I’ve learned is that people will always surprise you — you just have to give them the opportunity to do so.

    5. Rock Bottom Is an Opportunity to Recreate Your Life

    Before I hit my rock bottom, I thought the life I was living was pretty good. I didn’t realize that I was disappointed in my behavior, unhappy with my physical appearance, frustrated with the way I was becoming a person I didn’t respect. But rock bottom gave me the clarity to see all those things. And while that wasn’t fun at first, it eventually gave me the chance to start doing my life the right way. I got back on track, whether it was with my morals, my workout regimen, my diet, my relationships. Getting sober gave me the time to focus on what I really wanted my life to look like and figure out how to get to that point.

    As I said before, rock bottom is different for everyone. But the common factor is that it’s a point that is the lowest of lows and it can be difficult to image anything getting better. So if you remember one thing in the depths of your rock bottom, just hold onto the fact that it really can only get better — as long as that is what you truly want for yourself.

    View the original article at thefix.com