(This is Part 1 of a 2-part series.)
It's helpful to understand the difference between the primary and secondary effects of drugs.
The primary effect is the reason we take the drug. For instance, we take an antacid to reduce stomach acidity, or we drink a cup of coffee to give us a lift, or we take a tranquilizer to calm us down, etc. That's the primary effect.
But let's look more closely at this. Let's say we take a stimulant of some kind to give our energy a boost. The stimulant can be coffee or cocaine or speed; it doesn't matter. What matters is that it's "stimulating" the body.
Or is it? Where is that extra energy coming from? From the body of course. That extra living energy can't come from a dead pill. It can only come from the body, which obediently supplies the extra energy.
When we give the body a stimulant what we're really doing is asking the body to give us more energy than it wants to do in that moment. And it does.
But then there's a cost long-term. It's like Newton's gravitational law—that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The same is true of the body.
Thus, when we keep taking the "stimulant" the body pays a price long-term. Its energy account falls lower and lower, and eventually we're feeling fatigued a lot and not knowing why.
That's the secondary effect of the stimulant, long-term exhaustion. Notice that it's the exact opposite of the primary effect.
Or suppose we take an antacid to counteract acidity. Studies have shown that antacid-takers produce more stomach acid long-term. The body compensates in the opposite direction. That's the secondary effect.
Or suppose we take something to calm us down. It can be valium, it can be heroin, it can be a barbiturate, it can be alcohol. The primary effect is that we get more calm in some way that we like.
But have you ever seen someone in withdrawal from one of these "calming" drugs? In all cases, what is left when the drug is withdrawn—and the reality is revealed—is that the person is much more anxious. Then they medicate the increased anxiety with more of the drug.
So when taking any drug, finally we reach a point where we are taking the drug to temporarily reduce the condition that the drug is making worse long-term!
The powerful radiation and chemotherapy that we take to get the primary effect of reducing cancer makes the body much more toxic long-term, and thus paradoxically, more prone to cancer long-term. That's the secondary effect.
The secondary effect of every drug is to produce a result that is the exact opposite of—and eventually greater than—the primary effect.
With people who feel a lack of energy, everything that's given to the body as a "tonic" or "stimulant" results in more exhaustion and fatigue long-term.
(This is the end of Part 1. Go to Part 2.)
—jim sloman, 01/31/01 for Jan 31
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