Drugs classified as depressants depress our central nervous system functions. They decrease the level of arousal or stimulation in certain areas of the brain. They decrease heart rate, lower blood pressure, slow our breathing, they can cause dizziness and lack of coordination. Most importantly they lower our processing speed, this is important because it can affect how we interpret and react to things going on around us. Several types of drugs fall into this category, barbiturates which are prescribed to help people calm down or sleep. It has also been used for anesthesia. Next we have benzodiazepines which are prescribed for just about the same things as barbiturates but less side effects as well as being able to treat seizures. The last major …show more content…
They can also cause heightened sensations, so things that feel real and are based in reality but are actually different from what is actually going on around them. To be clear these drugs aren’t stimulants or depressants despite the fact that their effects can make people energetic or sometimes calm them down a lot. According to Narconon Reviews, “These types of drugs are slightly different from other forms of psychoactive drugs. The main reason for this difference is that, the vast majority of psycadelic drugs are actually not lethal. This means that, even when taken in very large doses they do not kill the user; however they can cause permanent and physical damage.” (Narconon) These drugs are really classified by the perceptual changes that they bring about. That can include a ton of things besides hallucinations, these include emotional responses, feeling of connectedness, but also intense mood swings. This brings up an interesting point about this drug, which is that the exact experiences felt by the individual can be different depending on the individual personalities, or where they are, or who they are with. This class of drugs include Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), Psilocybin (mushrooms), PCP, and mescaline found in Peyote