Tweakers, or, Methamphetamine and the Homeless

I could rattle off so many names of methamphetamine addled people... we call them “Tweakers” out here...

I've known for a while now that meth does something to the brain. It changes it for the worse. I see little in the way of consistent behaviour of meth addicts, save that they all seem to be a little strange, a little off, and difficult to reason with. The other most common tendencies, in my experience, are toward thievery and violence, in that order.

Among the homeless, meth addiction is rampant. At least half of all the homeless I know have been exposed to it. It has got to the point where if I see a thief, I automatically assume that person does meth, and if I know someone does meth, I assume that person is also a thief. I'm right too often not to make that assumption, it's become part of me.

And what is also sad is this: there are people out there who would otherwise be valuable friends who are on the stuff.

There's this one homeless man, I'll call him Jay. Unless you are completely brain dead, Jay will strike you as dangerous. It would probably be true whether or not he ever did meth, he's just that type of guy. Like most people who do meth, he is a little off. Not quite right. He'll talk to you in circles around what he really means to say, never quite getting to the point, but getting his point across in his way. The way he speaks, it will be enough to make you nervous without his having issued a threat.

Frightening though Jay may be, you can't help but like him. Having a conversation with him you get the sense that this man actually has a sense of honour about him. You'll become aware that he does live by a certain code. He will not cross you if he doesn't feel he's been crossed by you first.

I've heard of things Jay's done, and they're not pretty. He has a history of violent behaviour and a well established reputation of being dangerous. A few of those who know him suspect he suffers from extreme bouts of rage. He's highly intelligent and, do I dare say, cunning. He's what one might think of as a Bad Boy on Steroids. I only ever saw Jay do one thing that could be described wrong. I saw him drop a man with one punch. I really don't know the details of how he got into the fight, but that impressed me greatly.

I imagine that at some point, I'll be close enough to something Jay's does to have to write about it. At that point, he'll be enraged and I'll have to watch my back very carefully. Jay doesn't mess around. What would Jay be like had he never done meth? I imagine he'd probably be the kind of man one could rely upon to have your back.

There are others, of course, who I cannot imagine being any way other than what they are. This probably has more to do with how far gone they are. Methamphetamine is not the only drug plaguing the homeless, of course. There is a lot of pill popping, and some heroin. A whole lot of pot smoking. Meth, in my opinion, is simply the most dangerous.

I was speaking with Joe Van Fossen the other day, having a long conversation about just this subject. I only recently started speaking with Joe. He's a university student, very young, with the dream of becoming a doctor. I told Joe that I believed methamphetamine to be the biggest contributing factor to homelessness amongst those who use it. In the course of the conversation he began to describe to me why methamphetamine does what it does, why it's so addictive and why it changes brain chemistry.

I have to tell you, I'm not very good at following conversations about biochemical effects, but I managed to understand enough of what he was saying to conclude that I was right in my thinking. What follows is Joe's summary of what meth does to the brain. Having read it, I have to beg all of you parents out there: do what ever it takes to keep this stuff away from your children. It will destroy their lives.

Speeding to Psychosis

By Joe Van Fossen

Methamphetamine messes up your brain, simply put. Specifically, it alters the brain's reward system.

The reward system consists of a few structures in the middle of the brain that work with other structures to regulate emotional response and influence behavior. Dopamine (a chemical released by neurons to send signals to other neurons), plays a key role in driving what people do.

When you eat, read, write, use the bathroom, exercise, fall in love, make love, see somebody you love, breathe a particular way, you experience a natural rush of dopamine in the form of relief, happiness, peace of mind. Anytime you feel good, great, or better, dopamine is being released and reabsorbed in your brain.

Natural dopamine release (or the lack thereof) is crucial for our survival because it increases the likelihood that we will repeat behaviors that preserve and proliferate our existence; it really has a powerful effect on what we do and what we do not do.

The dopamine system can easily be hijacked. People do it all the time. Even you. How?

From overindulgence, a broad term which here means to repeat a pleasurable act for the feel-good feeling it gives you, and especially to your detriment.

Of all things to indulge in, methamphetamine is the most dangerous. It lets loose more than ten-fold the amount of dopamine released after sex. The relative amount of "feel-good" is supposedly unparalleled-- as is the crash.

Methamphetamine's over-stimulation of dopaminergic neurons induces a dopamine psychosis: including the highest high and the lowest low. Speed affects the reward system and, thus, behavior. Damage occurs right away.

The addiction pattern of meth-users (often called “tweakers”) is largely consistent in that erratic and irrational behaviors develop and persist. Three common interpersonal behaviors exhibited by most tweakers are theft, violence, and deception.

Why so consistent?

Most meth-users share a similarly out-of-whack reward system. They all crave the intensity of their first rush (now impossible to achieve, due to neuronal damage and "natural" down-regulation), but the damage caused with each use decreases the brain's capacity to release and receive dopamine. Each addict has an insatiable dopamine craving.

The urge is so powerful that it out-competes both natural and deeply conditioned drivers of behavior. People who abuse meth have a tendency to choose the drug over food, sleep, and even water; let alone responsibilities of family, hygiene, and work.

In the long-term, damage to the brain’s limbic reward system is usually irreversible. The least extreme damage could include a temporary (one or more years) decrease in mental capacity and cognitive functioning. Most heavy users, however, suffer less temporary deficits in holistic neural functioning—if they manage to quit. Meth leaves some dead, some scarred, and many unable to feel happy again, persistently doing whatever it takes to chase their first methamphetamine high.