5 Highs, Explained

How your body responds to love, running, weed, and more While marijuana (and other drugs) get most of the ink when it comes to psychoactive effects, many other external influences produce them too. Sex, for example, triggers the release of oxytocin, giving you a high that’s unique from those you’d get from running, skydiving, or smoking weed. In general, you can break highs up into two categories, explains Jeffrey Morrison, MD, founder of The Morrison Center in New York City. The factors that cause them act either on catecholamines—hormones such as adrenaline and dopamine—or on your body’s endocannabinoid system, which creates restorative brain chemicals. Here, how the psychologic and physiologic effects of five such forces compare: