BY Cliff Seaward

I was taught the toilet flush metaphor for dopamine depletion, but have always struggled with it as it doesn’t cover dopamine re-uptake suppression. After spending a couple of months reading up on current theories of crack/cocaine brain chemistry I have come up with a new metaphor for what happens in the brain when we use crack and the initial crash after use.

Crack Crash Metaphor

Imagine your brain is a gigantic house in the country, a mansion or chateau, with a lake out front and thousands of windows. Now you are living inside your brain and there is a firework display outside on the front lawn – it’s is a millennium eve on Sydney harbor bridge; a great firework display. (This is taking crack)

You are amazed as you watch the colors light up all the rooms, with reds, greens, blues and oranges throwing dramatic patterns of light and shadow across the walls, gradually your many servants stop what they are doing and watch the display from all over the House, until the Head butler realizes just how close the fireworks are and that there is a danger the house might catch fire.

He barks to the servants to run around and close all the shutters on the windows and word spreads until all the servants are furiously slamming shutters closing out the light and protecting the house.

Now if you only ever did crack once the next day the servants would go around as time permitted with their other chores and open up the shutters, gradually letting back in the light and beautiful views of your gardens, lakes, trees, the maze, the vegetable garden, the rose garden, the streams and waterfalls.

If however you have another firework display the next night or later in the week, the servants now aware of the dangers would automatically run to shut all the shutters closing them faster and faster as they got better at this particular job.

As the fireworks display become more and more frequent, the servants decide to leave some of the windows shut, perhaps in distant dusty wings of the house as you don’t go there very often, over time more and more of the windows are left shut, cutting out the beautiful views. And if these window shutters are left shut long enough they get painted over or even bricked up.

You are now living in a very dark house with little light and no view, so the temptation to brighten things up with a firework display is even greater, but each time you have a display there are less and less windows to see them through until all the windows are shut, though some people might still try displays hoping for a peep of color through the shutters.

Cocaine works similarly; its just the fireworks are a little further away.

Now the good news is that when you stop using crack, the servants will gradually begin to open the shutters, they will make sure there are no more displays then go around running a knife down the painted up windows once again giving you the beautiful views you deserve from your splendid mansion, but this sort of major work takes time – some windows have been bricked up remember. As the months pass and you stay away from fireworks(!), more and more windows open and you have more beauty back in your life though if you let off even one firework the servants now so well trained will slam the shutters like clockwork.

Getting all your window open again takes time; the more firework shows you have had the longer it will take, but some windows will open and the more you walk around enjoying the view the quicker this will happen but it may take six months, or even nine but as long as you stay away from fireworks one day all the windows will be open and your house will be full of sunshine.