Why does Meth make users so angry?

When you found out that answer let me know too, my daughter is like that. No matter what I say or do its always wrong.

Dopamine makes you feel happy, satified, pleased with yourself and things around you. Overall -- fan-freakin-tastic.

Take away dopamine, lots of it, by using meth, leaving your brain with much lower levels of the "happy, satisfied, please with yourself and things around you" chemical and you are pissed off, displeased, annoyed, irritated and all around edgy.

They are irritable becuase their brain doesn't have enough dopamine to make them any other way! Sometimes when they have recently used, and are still high, they are mostly tolerable. it just can't last if they keep using.

Meth speeds up the body and makes you TENSE. It can make you very irritable, especially coming down. Add to that no sleep, and no food to nourish your body and the depressed state from lack of dopamine in the brain.

I'm surmizing here....but I would guess that they feel guilty and weak and worried about finding the money to buy more. An active addict is always playing the blame game and it is much easier to point the finger at someone else rather than looking at themselves.

I can only speak for myself when I was high I was happy as could be. When I was coming down watch out!!!! I was like a bomb going off on anyone that crossed my path. The life if a tweaker is up and down like a yo yo. Its insane.....

*edit* Get a bunch of tweakers that are coming down at the same time its NOT a pretty sight. Other tweakers go off on each other bigtime. We all did anyway.

From a behavioral perspective (which is not my strength by any means) when a user isn't pumped up with dopamine, the emotional issues that they normally use getting high to avoid, push aside, forget about, etc. are back at the forfront which makes them feel uncomfortable. All of us get edgy when we are uncomfortable for any length of time.

They are also extremely fatigued. I know not a nice person to be around when I'm dead tired. (Peanut gallery comments not required on that one! haha)

Some users are also hip deep, at least, in drama drama drama. Nothing is going right and they believe it's all someone else's fault. That would make for a pretty irritable person to be around.

yep it's the dopamine thing. when you use meth it changes the natural chemical balance

I don't know if this is true or not, but shortly after I got clean I saw a special on meth, and it stated that meth increases agressive and/or violent tendencies by 90%.

My husband was a very angry user. But, he was a very angry human being.

My anger when I was using was with myself, but I know I projected it upon those around me, including my kids. I believe it was my guilty conscience that made me so angry

Loraura,
So do the addicts feel good for a little while after taking the drug, and then they start to feel angry if they don't have more when the drug starts to subside? They must have to have more and more of the drug to keep the same HIGH as in the beginning! Obviously the drug makes them feel good for awhile or they wouldn't even try it a second time!
I appreciate all the information you always have!

I have a somewhat different answer than Loraura. I'm not sure mine's the right one either but it's how I used to always explain the anger issue to people. It isnt like normal anger (well, not like my normal anger) in the sense that it's about nothing. Like Nano said, it's the simple question and the person flies off the handle.

My belief was always that this hyper-sensitivity was related to the release of the neuro transmitter Norepinephrine which I understand is also one that meth effects strongly and which is basically described as adrenaline by alot of folks.

Having so much adrenaline constantly in your blood makes you very tense, and more than that.. it means that the fight/flight part of your brain is out in full force. It makes a user much more likely to perceive an interaction as a verbal attack even when it isnt one. This is especially true if many of your interactions are 'fights' because it the user will commonly expect critisim/attack and so will respond with such a sudden rage-feeling it's impossible sometimes to controle.

I know there were times when I had to tell my girlfriend through clenched teeth that she needed to not talk to me because I was feeling irritated. I told her it was the drugs.. and when it happened I knew it was.. but even knowing that I couldnt controle how I felt. She understood and would leave me alone. but then she was a user too.

But yeah.. that's my best description of the feeling.. and also my thinking on what causes it. It's more than just a lack of dopamine.. because it's a sudden RAGE... and I have never been someone to lose controle of my emotions.. I know what a lack of dopamine feels like. I was always very analytical of the chemical states my brain was in and became very good at diagnosing what I needed to add to the mix to 'fix' myself. I have never had a fit of rage.. but there were times I remember flipping out and yelling.. then immeadiatly afterward appologizing.. because I knew it was stupid and it was the drugs.

Anyhow.. Now I'm just rambling.. I hope that helps you some to at least understand. Though I want to be clear, I don't absolve a user of any resposibility for their actions just because I understand them. They choose to use.

I think anger possibly has something to do with meth, but also has something to do with the person.

I didn't use with angry people. My addict thinking would have thought that was no fun.

****My husband was a very angry user.*****
****But, he was a very angry human being**

Same here, Using took away awhat little self
control he had.
There wasn't much to start with.

Quote:

So do the addicts feel good for a little while after taking the drug, and then they start to feel angry if they don't have more when the drug starts to subside? They must have to have more and more of the drug to keep the same HIGH as in the beginning! Obviously the drug makes them feel good for awhile or they wouldn't even try it a second time!

Well, depending on how long the addict has used, and how heavily, some meth addicts do not feel "good" when they use. They just feel something closer to normal, somewhere closer to functional, something less completely miserable than without the meth. It's pretty much impossible to keep the same high, as each time they use they allow more and more dopamine to be destroyed.

This is why it's so common to start out as a party drug, occasional thing, then only on the weekends, then only thurs through Monday, then Wednesday's are OK for a little pick me up to get thru till Friday, then before they know it, it's every day.

I was all lovey dovey when I was high. I stayed pretty happy when I had dope. It was when my baggie started to get low, or when I did my last line and ran out, I got angry. Knowing I was out, I was pissed. I would then fall into the sleep pattern for about three days. Then it was off to the supplier for more dope, and I was lovey dovey again.