Most recreational drugs directly affect the central nervous system.
The optic nerves go straight from the eyes to the brain.
When you do a big honkin’ line of coke, your nervous system gets excited, sending a powerful signal from your brain to all your nerves and the muscles they control. This affects the muscles connected to the optic nerve, causing your pupils to dilate.
Conversely, downers like opiates depress your nervous system, relaxing your muscles, which causes constricted pupils.
Glassy eyes can be chalked up to a general lack of focus/fogginess caused by any intoxicating drug.
The eyes are most seeing humans primary sense organs. Drugs affect your brain, which makes you need and want to perceive more, so your eyes react accordingly. Vascularization and innervation aspects explains it and is also true, but I think you’re asking why are affected, not how.
The eye size is actually the size of our pupils, and they are richly innervated by two types of receptors of the autonomic nervous system which is the one which we cannot consciously control, the receptors being muscarinic and nicotinic receptors, if the muscarinic receptors are stimulated then pupils become constricted or small which is done by acetylcholine, neostigmine like drugs and pupils dilate when there is anti muscarinic action such as by atropine or tropicamide(which is used by eye doctors before checking your eyes ).
Now our usual drugs act via these receptors and depending upon their action on these receptors they either dilate or constrict your pupil
As I would explain it to an actual 5 year old: Your brain and eyes are friends and talk to each other a lot through little messages. When you are excited or take a drug that makes you jumpy, the messages change and tell your eyes to be alert and the black dot in your eyes gets bigger.
When you take tired drugs, the messages tell the little black dot in your eye to get smaller.
The messages can also tell other things around your eyes to get bigger or smaller and that’s why your eyes might feel dry or get unfocused.
Pupils are controlled by your nervous system. Any drug that stimulates or depresses the nervous system will change pupil size. This is because many drugs influence neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, etc), which can affect eye control, focus, and blinking.
Stimulants (coke, molly, meth) activate the sympathetic system which causes glassy eyes and pupil dilation. People high on these drugs look wide-eyed because their body is preparing to take in more visual information, like it would if they were in danger.
Depressants (opioids, heroine) stimulate the parasympathetic systems which causes pupil constriction (“pinpoint pupils.”) Blinking is also slower so the eyes look droopy and unfocused.
Comments
[removed]
Its not that it affects your eyes. Drugs directly affect your circulatory system, either dilating or constricting your blood vessels.
Guess what the eyes are full of? Blood vessels so its easier to see the effects from drugs.
Most recreational drugs directly affect the central nervous system.
The optic nerves go straight from the eyes to the brain.
When you do a big honkin’ line of coke, your nervous system gets excited, sending a powerful signal from your brain to all your nerves and the muscles they control. This affects the muscles connected to the optic nerve, causing your pupils to dilate.
Conversely, downers like opiates depress your nervous system, relaxing your muscles, which causes constricted pupils.
Glassy eyes can be chalked up to a general lack of focus/fogginess caused by any intoxicating drug.
The eyes are most seeing humans primary sense organs. Drugs affect your brain, which makes you need and want to perceive more, so your eyes react accordingly. Vascularization and innervation aspects explains it and is also true, but I think you’re asking why are affected, not how.
[deleted]
The eye size is actually the size of our pupils, and they are richly innervated by two types of receptors of the autonomic nervous system which is the one which we cannot consciously control, the receptors being muscarinic and nicotinic receptors, if the muscarinic receptors are stimulated then pupils become constricted or small which is done by acetylcholine, neostigmine like drugs and pupils dilate when there is anti muscarinic action such as by atropine or tropicamide(which is used by eye doctors before checking your eyes ).
Now our usual drugs act via these receptors and depending upon their action on these receptors they either dilate or constrict your pupil
As I would explain it to an actual 5 year old: Your brain and eyes are friends and talk to each other a lot through little messages. When you are excited or take a drug that makes you jumpy, the messages change and tell your eyes to be alert and the black dot in your eyes gets bigger.
When you take tired drugs, the messages tell the little black dot in your eye to get smaller.
The messages can also tell other things around your eyes to get bigger or smaller and that’s why your eyes might feel dry or get unfocused.
Our eyes are actually not conected to the brain but an extension of the brain. Drugs effects brain the most, and eyes are part of it
Pupils are controlled by your nervous system. Any drug that stimulates or depresses the nervous system will change pupil size. This is because many drugs influence neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine, etc), which can affect eye control, focus, and blinking.
Stimulants (coke, molly, meth) activate the sympathetic system which causes glassy eyes and pupil dilation. People high on these drugs look wide-eyed because their body is preparing to take in more visual information, like it would if they were in danger.
Depressants (opioids, heroine) stimulate the parasympathetic systems which causes pupil constriction (“pinpoint pupils.”) Blinking is also slower so the eyes look droopy and unfocused.
in the womb, eyes literally develop as an extension of the brain