Drugs and Neurons

Throughout chapter three, the main idea was about the brain and how information is sent from your brain to the rest of the body. Neurons are tiny brain cells that transmit information to different parts of the brain. Each part of the brain then controls a certain area of your body or a certain function such as language or balance. But what happens when a drug is taken? I always hear about different drugs and how they might make a person feel or act, but I never knew why this was happening. So, I thought it was really interesting to learn about why you act differently when you take certain drugs.
One substance that I looked at in depth was cocaine. Cocaine is a drug extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. It is a stimulus that affects the body's central nervous system. When cocaine is introduced to the body it blocks neurotransmitters from being able to bind with the opposite side of the synapse. When this happens, the brain is not receiving the correct signals and the user generally feels invincible, carefree, alert, and energetic. Then when cocaine is leaving the body and neurotransmitters and slowly making it across the synapse, the user typically feels depression, and anxiety. With something as small and complex as a neuron, even a small amount of a chemical, that is not typically involved with the sending and receiving of information in the body, can have a dramatic change on how the body feels and acts.