Opioids versus Opiates
An opiate is a drug naturally derived from the flowering opium poppy plant. Opioid is the broader term that includes opiates.
When I say opioid, I refer to natural brain opioids. When I say opiate, I mean the drug derived from the poppy plant.
PANIC/GRIEF System
The PANIC/GRIEF system has two opposing sides. When the infant is in a state of GRIEF it vocalizes distress and the mother picks it up and feeds, changes diapers, and soothes it. This causes the release of endogenous brain opioids and the baby feels a deep sense of comfort and security.
Throughout our lives, we continue to feel more complete and at ease when in the company of people we love and trust. With our emotional kin, we have the feeling that things are good, at least getting better. This feeling is mediated by the same endogenous opioids as the baby in the comfort of the loved mother or father. The endogenous opioids strengthen the bonds between infant and mother/father and later between us and our trusted friends and family.
When we do not have friends and family available to us, when we are more or less isolated, we lack the endogenous brain opioids and feel GRIEF. When there is no one to call out to, some of us turn to opiate drugs to replace the missing natural brain opioids. And this solves the problem, for a while.
Opiates
Opiates produce powerful euphoric pleasure or emotional relief that opiate users come to treasure. Then when the drug washes from the body, it is intensely craved. In place of the euphoric pleasure, all that is left is an affect of PAIN. Long periods of use are commonly followed by drug tolerance, meaning that increasing amounts of the drug are required to produce powerful positive feelings.
Opioids
Endogenous brain opioids do not cause addiction. We can keep them coming on and on and continue to feel things are good. Not so for chemical opiates. The more drug opiates we take, the less effective they become. We need more and more just to feel “normal.”. Now if deprived of the drug unbearable misery sets in and we must do whatever is necessary to get the next fix.
Therapies
Therapy for GRIEF had better include warm caring, even caring touch. A warm hug provides a cache of endogenous opioids. This is a major part of the healing process. Clients learn to SEEK CARE for themselves in order to maintain their brain supply of endogenous opioids. SEEKING is one of the prime-affect systems. CAREing, too, is one of the seven primary affect systems. SEEKING and CARE counter GRIEF and PANIC.
Since the absence of endogenous opioids in the brain cause GRIEF, PANIC, and PAIN, why not prescribe a low dose of opiates. And actually, this was the standard medical treatment for depression and GRIEF before the advent of triglycerides and SSRIs. In many biographies written before triglycerides and SSRIs, mostly women were prescribed low doses of opiates on a regular basis. So why not treat depression and GRIEF with opiates today?
It turns out you can. Recently psychiatrists have begun prescribing buprenorphine for difficult cases of depression, GRIEF, and addiction. Buprenorphine promotes opiate activity at very low doses. At high doses it blocks opiate receptors, so you cannot overdose or become drug-tolerant and addicted.
Mapping the PANIC/GRIEF System
The PANIC/GRIEF and other six systems are prime because you can stimulate the PANIC/GRIEF system with an electric current in the brain and the person will feel PANIC/GRIEF and even cry. These prime affect systems are deep in the midbrain and are not controlled by our executive higher cortical brain. Of course, once they reach the cortical level you can decide whether to cry or hold back. And with most men the decision becomes automatic. “Big boys don’t cry.”
Researchers mapped the seven primary affective systems by stimulating points in the animal brain with electricity. Antonio Damasio published PET scan images of human beings feeling very sad and the same areas light up in PET scans as the ones stimulated electrically in animals.
The stimulated regions of the GRIEF system are the anterior cingulate (AC), involved in coordination of affect and cognition, the dorsomedial thalamus (DMT), involved in memory, and the periaqueductal gray (PAG), the control center for pain modulation.
Self-help books that help:
Total Self-Renewal through Attention Therapies and Open Focus
The Open-Focus Brain: Harnessing the Power of Attention to Heal Mind and Body
