Drugs change the brain’s reward system, which is responsible for motivation and goal-oriented behavior. In other words, naturally, drugs make you feel good and keep you returning for more.
But over time, drugs can change how your brain works, making you more likely to become dependent. As a result, your body will crave more potent drugs that will give you a higher level of effects then only way to cure is meth detox program for you if you want to live your life again.
If you continue to use drugs, these substances might affect your health in ways such as:
Physical Effects
Drug use can alter brain chemistry, affecting how your body works. For example, drugs may increase or decrease heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration (breathing). They also affect blood sugar levels and cause changes in body temperature. These changes can lead to serious health problems if they aren’t treated quickly.
The following are some of the more common physical effects of drug addiction:
- Withdrawal: Withdrawal symptoms occur when you stop using drugs after you go through addiction treatment from https://jacksonhousecares.com/treatment/dual-diagnosis/. Withdrawal symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramping in your stomach or bowels. Some people experience hallucinations during withdrawal from certain substances, such as benzodiazepines used for anxiety.
- Drug Overdose: Drugs like heroin and cocaine are highly addictive and can cause an overdose if too much is taken at once. An overdose occurs when the amount of drug in your body exceeds what it can handle. Some drugs cause breathing to slow down or stop altogether, which can result in death.
- Infections And Complications: Some drugs make it more difficult for your body to fight infections. Hepatitis B and C are serious liver diseases that can develop when you share needles with someone with hepatitis B or C. In addition, certain sexually transmitted infections can pass along more quickly if you use drugs or alcohol.
- Accidents And Injuries: Drug abuse can impair judgment, coordination, reaction time, and memory, which are vital for driving safely. So, it’s not surprising that people who abuse drugs are at high risk for motor vehicle accidents and falls from heights. They also may be more likely than others to engage in risky sexual behaviors that increase their chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
- Weight Loss: When people use heroin, the drug affects their brain cells by causing them to release dopamine into the synapses between two neurons. Dopamine is a chemical that causes feelings of pleasure and happiness in your brain when released into these synapses.
- Cardiovascular Issues: Heart attacks and strokes can occur in people who use illegal drugs and prescription medications like opioids. Aside from that, long-term use of cocaine or methamphetamine can elevate blood pressure to dangerous levels. This incident can cause the narrowing of the arteries, restricting blood flow through your body. When this issue happens to your heart’s arteries, it can lead to a heart attack.
Cocaine abuse can also cause high blood pressure or hypertension, stroke, and seizures due to changes in brain chemistry during addiction. A stroke occurs when an artery becomes blocked or ruptured, cutting off the blood supply to the brain. This incident causes brain cells to die, resulting in permanent damage or death.
- Cancer: In addition to the risk of cardiovascular disease, cocaine use has been linked with various types of cancer, including lung and oral cancer. This issue happens because cocaine can suppress the immune system so that it cannot fight off infections or diseases.
- Respiratory Conditions: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive disease in which the airways and air sacs in the lungs are damaged. The damage can make breathing hard, produce wheezing and coughing, and aggravate health problems like heart disease. This illness usually comes from long-term usage of illegal drugs.
- Constipation: This condition is often accompanied by abdominal pain, bloating, irritability, and restlessness. Thus, cocaine can cause constipation by increasing serotonin levels in the body, slowing down bowel movements.
- Sexual Dysfunction: Cocaine is the common cause of this condition, alongside excessive alcohol use. This problem occurs because cocaine affects the dopamine levels in the body, leading them to experience delayed orgasms. Dopamine is responsible for controlling pleasure and reward sensations in the brain. So, when someone abuses cocaine, they’ll experience an increased amount of dopamine, leading them to become addicted.
- Appearance Alteration: Drug abusers typically show signs of premature aging, such as sagging skin, muscle tone, and hair loss. These changes are due to malnutrition and poor health resulting from an inability to care for oneself.
Psychological Effects
The psychological effects of drug addiction are profound and can have a devastating impact on the user’s life, especially if they don’t complete rehab. Drug addiction can lead to many different behaviors, including:
- Depression: This severe medical illness is a common symptom among people who have been addicted to drugs for some time. Depression may stem from many reasons, including guilt over past actions while under the influence of drugs and anxiety about future consequences if they continue using them. Feelings of hopelessness are also common among those with depression stemming from drug abuse.
- Inability To Control Mood: Individuals who use drugs often find themselves unable to control their moods or emotions. This issue can be actual when they are coming down from a high or using a drug that causes them to feel excellent, such as cocaine or heroin.
- Impulsivity: This tendency can lead to poor decisions that negatively affect themselves and others. People may act on a whim to buy something they cannot afford, engage in risky sex, work aggressively toward others, or drive while intoxicated. Impulsivity increases the likelihood of people engaging in addictive behaviors like drug abuse and alcohol dependence. These activities can cause significant harm to individuals and society as a whole.
- Intense Pleasure: Drugs can cause extreme pleasure, making them highly addictive. People may feel that they need to take more and more of the drug to feel the same effect, leading to a cycle of increasing tolerance and dependence.
- Negative Reinforcement: The use of drugs is often reinforced by their ability to block unpleasant or enhance positive feelings. For example, a person who feels depressed may start taking antidepressants to feel better. However, the antidepressant works by blocking the reuptake of serotonin, which causes an initial rush of euphoria. As a result, this person may become dependent on it to feel normal.
- Paranoia: This persistence is one of drug abuse and addiction’s most common psychological symptoms. People who are paranoid may believe that everyone is out to get them or that someone is trying to harm them somehow. This feeling often leads them to isolate themselves from others to protect themselves from imagined threats. It also causes them to make poor decisions about their health because they believe they’ll be better able to defend themselves if they don’t seek help from others.
- Lower Sense Of Self-Control: People who are addicted to drugs have a lower sense of self-control than those who aren’t addicted to drugs. This problem means they’re more likely to give in to their poor decisions rather than trying to control them. They also have less willpower when resisting temptation and avoiding situations that may lead them back into drug use.
- Impaired Memory: Drug abuse is one of the reasons why you might have trouble remembering recent events in your personal life. This psychological disorder may include difficulty recalling recent conversations or forgetting where you put essential items like car keys or wallets.
Social Effects
With all the physical and psychological issues included above, it’s apparent that drug addiction can also affect your social health. Here’s a four-item list of how this neurobiological disease can impact your ability to socialize:
- Relationship Problems: Drug abuse often disrupts relationships with friends and family members because users will choose to use drugs over spending time with others. As a result, they may have few, if any, close relationships when they finally seek help for their addiction problems. A lack of support during recovery increases the risk that it will occur sooner than they would.
- Financial Issues: Drug abusers often spend large amounts of money on drugs, which can result in financial problems. In addition to spending their money, they may try to get friends or family members to give them money or even steal it from others. Drug abusers may also take out loans or engage in other forms of criminal activity, such as prostitution or theft, to acquire money to buy prescription drugs.
- Family Burden: Drug use can place a significant burden on families. Families are often faced with funding the drug habits of their loved ones and may also be victims of violence and other criminal activity associated with drug use. Children may also become victims if they witness drug use or become involved in illegal activities themselves to help pay for their parents’ habits.
- Legal Issues: Drug addiction can lead to legal trouble for various reasons. For example, if you’re using drugs, you may be unable to hold a job or care for yourself properly. As a result, this issue can land you in trouble with the law if someone reports you for neglecting your child or not providing your family with food and shelter.
Key Takeaway
Drug addiction is a severe issue affecting active users and those surrounding them. So, you must read this article to prevent yourself from taking drugs. As a result, you might avoid these health effects and continue living a healthy lifestyle.
