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Euphoria (emotion)

 

 
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Euphoria (emotion)
 
 
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Euphoria is medically recognized as an emotional and mental
Mental

Mental can refer to:* Mind, the collective aspects of intellect and consciousness* The Mental nerve, part of the peripheral nervous system in the face...
 state defined as a sense of great (usually exaggerated) elation
Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of Philosophy, Religion, Psychology and Biology approaches have been taken to defining happiness and identifying its sources....
 and well-being
Quality of life

Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people.Quality of life cannot be measured directly, however the perception of QOL is made up of of two components: the physical and the psychological....
. Technically, euphoria is an affect
Affect (psychology)

Affect, like the adjective affective, refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism?s interaction with stimuli....
, but the term is often colloquially used to define emotion as an intense, transcendent happiness combined with an overwhelming sense of well-being. The word derives from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , "power of enduring easily, fertility". Euphoria is generally considered to be an exaggerated state, resulting from psychological or pharmacological stressors and not typically achieved during the normal course of human experience, although some natural behaviors, such as activities resulting in orgasm
Orgasm

An orgasm is the conclusion of the Human sexual response cycle#Plateau phase of Human sexual response cycle, and may be experienced by both males and females....
 or the winning triumph of an athlete
Athlete

A sportsperson or athlete is any person who participates regularly in a sport.Athletes can be Professional sports or amateur . A superior athlete is one who has above average physical skills and is thus more suited for physical competition....
, can induce brief states of euphoria.






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Euphoria is medically recognized as an emotional and mental
Mental

Mental can refer to:* Mind, the collective aspects of intellect and consciousness* The Mental nerve, part of the peripheral nervous system in the face...
 state defined as a sense of great (usually exaggerated) elation
Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. A variety of Philosophy, Religion, Psychology and Biology approaches have been taken to defining happiness and identifying its sources....
 and well-being
Quality of life

Quality of life is the degree of well-being felt by an individual or group of people.Quality of life cannot be measured directly, however the perception of QOL is made up of of two components: the physical and the psychological....
. Technically, euphoria is an affect
Affect (psychology)

Affect, like the adjective affective, refers to the experience of feeling or emotion. Affect is a key part of the process of an organism?s interaction with stimuli....
, but the term is often colloquially used to define emotion as an intense, transcendent happiness combined with an overwhelming sense of well-being. The word derives from Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
 , "power of enduring easily, fertility". Euphoria is generally considered to be an exaggerated state, resulting from psychological or pharmacological stressors and not typically achieved during the normal course of human experience, although some natural behaviors, such as activities resulting in orgasm
Orgasm

An orgasm is the conclusion of the Human sexual response cycle#Plateau phase of Human sexual response cycle, and may be experienced by both males and females....
 or the winning triumph of an athlete
Athlete

A sportsperson or athlete is any person who participates regularly in a sport.Athletes can be Professional sports or amateur . A superior athlete is one who has above average physical skills and is thus more suited for physical competition....
, can induce brief states of euphoria. Euphoria has also been cited as a high connection with God. Prophets and those having seen visions and prophecies have claimed to have felt an indefinite sense of love and happiness, a state of mind associated with euphoria.

A common theme among a subset of drugs used recreationally
Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of psychoactive drugs for recreational purposes rather than for employment, Medicine or Spirituality purposes, although the distinction is not always clear ....
 is their ability to induce a state of euphoria. Drugs such as amphetamines, cocaine
Cocaine

Cocaine is a crystalline tropane alkaloid that is obtained from the leaves of the coca plant. The name comes from "coca" in addition to the alkaloid suffix -ine, forming cocaine....
, opiates/opioids (heroin
Heroin

Heroin is a opioid synthesized from morphine, a derivative of the opium poppy. It is the 3,6-acetate ester of morphine . The white crystalline form is commonly the hydrochloride salt diacetylmorphine hydrochloride, however heroin Freebase may also appear as a white powder....
), nitrous oxide
Nitrous oxide

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as "laughing gas", is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Nitrogen2Oxygen. At room temperature, it is a colorless Flammability gas, with a pleasant, slightly sweet odor and taste....
, marijuana, benzodiazepines, barbituates, alcohol
Alcoholic beverage

An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol . Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and distilled beverage....
, nicotine
Nicotine

Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants which constitutes approximately 0.6?3.0% of dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots, and accumulating in the leaves....
, caffeine
Caffeine

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and a mild diuretic. Caffeine was discovered by a German chemist, Friedrich Ferdinand Runge, in 1819....
 and taurine
Taurine

Taurine, or 2-aminoethanesulfonic acid, is an organic acid. It is also a major constituent of bile and can be found in the lower intestine and in small amounts in the tissues of many animals and in humans as well....
 can induce mild to intense euphoria. Intensity of euphoria is dependant on the biological and chronological factors of the individual, the method of administration and the class, purity, quality and quantity of the drug. Methamphetamine
Methamphetamine

is a stimulant and sympathomimetics psychoactive drug. It is a member of the family of phenylethylamines. The levorotary levomethamphetamine is an over-the-counter drug and used in Vicks Inhalers for nasal decongestion and does not possess the Central nervous system activity of dextro or racemic methamphetamine....
 and ecstasy (MDMA) of the amphetamine class of psychoactive drugs, and heroin or cocaine may induce the most powerful euphoric experiences when administered intravenously, users often describe the feeling as a "full body orgasm". Consequently, euphoric experiences from illicit drug use are short-lived and sometimes followed by dysphoria
Dysphoria

Dysphoria is generally characterized as an unpleasant or uncomfortable mood, such as sadness , anxiety, irritability, or restlessness. Etymologically, it is the opposite of euphoria ....
 which can be severe. Subsequent dysphoria or the "comedown
Comedown (drugs)

Comedown refers to the after effects of heavy recreational stimulant use, usually MDMA, but also amphetamine and cocaine. It can be characterized by depression , apathy, anxiety, fatigue, intense hunger, paranoia and insomnia....
" can be longer than the drug induced euphoria, especially after regular or long term use of certain drugs.

On a neurological level, psychoactive drugs that induce states of euphoria typically due so by acting on dopamine
Dopamine

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter occurring in a wide variety of animals, including both vertebrates and invertebrates. In the human brain, this phenethylamine functions as a neurotransmitter, activating the five types of dopamine receptors ? D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5, and their variants....
, epinephrine
Epinephrine

Epinephrine is a hormone and neurotransmitter.Epinephrine increases the "fight or flight" response of the Sympathetic nervous system of the autonomic nervous system....
, and serotonin
Serotonin

Serotonin is a monoamine neurotransmitter synthesized in serotonergic neurons in the central nervous system and enterochromaffin cells in the gastrointestinal tract of animals including humans....
 neurotransmitters and opioid
Opioid receptor

Opioid receptors are a group of G-protein coupled receptors with opioids as ligands. The endogenous opioids are dynorphins, enkephalins, endorphins, endomorphins and nociceptin....
 receptors in the brain. The NMDA
NMDA receptor

The NMDA receptor is an ionotropic receptor for glutamate . Activation of NMDA receptors results in the opening of an ion channel that is nonselective to ion....
 and CB1 receptors have also been identified as causing euphoria through the mechanism of action induced by nitrous oxide and marijuana use.