|
Addiction
Alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, cocaine and amphetamines
increase dopamine levels in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical transmitted
between neurons that helps transmit feelings of satisfaction, arousal,
reward or euphoria. As someone uses drugs, their brain learns to
associate the drug with feelings of pleasure. The brain fails to
reaffirm connections between pleasure and activities that the person
used to find pleasurable. For this reason the old associations die,
causing a person to feel less pleasure from the simple things in
life like watching a sunrise or listening to their favorite music.
The person continues to increase their consumption of drugs to fill
in the gaps from daily pleasures, which they no longer feel. As
the person's body becomes used to the drug, they develop a tolerance
to it. A tolerance is the ability to
consume a drug without feeling its effects. Although the drug may
still be damaging the body, the person taking the drug does not
feel as high or intoxicated as they used to when they first began
taking the drug. They require larger doses of the drug in order
to achieve a high. This pattern can continue until the person overdoses,
dies, or increases their tolerance until they no longer feel any
pleasure from the drug. When they aren't taking the drug they feel
depression, weakness, or pain. These are symptoms of withdrawal.
Withdrawal is the experience and associated
pain occurring when a person stops taking a drug. In order to escape
the pain of withdrawal the person may take larger doses of the drug
just to function. Some users will increase their dosage to avoid
pain until they overdose or kill themselves.
Signs of drug addiction include...
- Reluctance or inability to pay attention
- Reluctance to work or socialize
- Extreme drowsiness
- Frequent mood swings
- Restlessness
- Significant changes in personality
- Loss of appetite
- Desire to be alone
- Easy loss of temper
- Reoccurring sickness. All drugs weaken the
immune system in one way or an other making the user more susceptible
to sickness and disease.
Withdrawal symptoms can include...
- Headache
- Deep depression
- Irritability
- Insomnia
- Sensitivity to light and noise
- Diarrhea
- Hot and cold flashes
- Sweating
- Irrational thinking
- Disorientation
Withdrawal causes people to...
- Replace their satisfaction with sugary junk
food, until their teeth rot and fall out.
- Center their lives around the single objective
of acquiring more drugs.
- Destroy their life for the sake of continuing
drug abuse.
- Break close relationships with family and
friends
- Fail in school
- Lose their job
- Commit crime in order to pay for their habit
Drugs injected into the
blood stream carry the inherent threat of acquiring AIDS,
which is still incredibly not enough to deter an addictive user.
Some drugs such as crack
require only one use to induce a dependency.
Some people have genes that
make them dangerously vulnerable to addiction. One use of
a drug could start a dependency for these people.
The longer you abuse a drug,
the higher your risk of relapse after quitting. Long-term
drug abuse can change brain function in ways that persist long after
an individual has quit a substance. This is why it is easy even
after years of abstinence to have a relapse and fall back into addiction.
The best cure for addiction
is to never try the drug in the first place. If you have
an addictive personality or a susceptibility to addiction due to
your genetic makeup, even legal drugs can be addictive after one
use. Cigarettes have been designed to be extremely addictive. People
can develop an addiction to virtually any drug existing today. If
you want to live a happy healthy life, you must recognize that drugs
are addictive, and drug abuse is toxic to your body. The more drugs
you take, the more prone to addiction you become. For these reasons
it's important to avoid illegal drugs, all of which are highly
dangerous and addictive, to only take prescribed medication as instructed
by your doctor, and to only take over-the-counter medication when
absolutely needed.
To Quit an Addiction
Use more than one strategy to give yourself a
better chance of quitting. When you want to beat an addiction do
not screw around! If you want to quit, you mean business. Hit that
slime-ball addiction with all the artillery you have access to.
- Group support:
Meet with other addicts who are trying to quit and discuss your
progress.
- Professional help,
whether it's a school counselor, nurse, doctor, or psychologist.
- Unless
you're suffering from alcoholism, wean yourself off the drug
gradually over four weeks or longer to reduce the effects of withdrawal.
If you're trying to stop smoking, use the nicotine patch to
deliver progressively smaller amounts of nicotine to your blood.
If you're suffering from alcoholism, unfortunately, weaning
yourself off alcohol does not work. Any consumption of alcohol
will cause your disease to persist. For this reason, you must
consult your doctor for the best way to treat your alcoholism.
- Medication: Doctors
can prescribe medicine that prevents the "high" induced by narcotics.
Zyban (bupropion hydrochloride) can be prescribed by your doctor
to reduce withdrawal symptoms.
- Aerobic Exercise:
Regular aerobic exercise releases natural chemicals, called endorphins,
that induce a feeling of euphoria. You can use exercise to replace
the energy and pleasure you used to get from drugs. Plus exercise
provides a number of other health benefits, including control
over any weight gain you may experience.
- A well-balanced nutritious
diet containing fresh fruits, vegetables, protein and complex
carbohydrates like pasta to give you the physical strength to
quit.
- Support from friends:
Call your friend when cravings hit too hard, or to celebrate each
month you stay off drugs.
- Books and magazines:
There are many books available with helpful information and inspiring
stories that may give you the extra wisdom to make quitting a
little easier.
- Read Taking
Control of Your Life as many times as you need
to.
Center for Substance Abuse:
Treatment and National Hotline
1-800-662-4357 treatment & referrals
www.samhsa.gov/csat/csat.htm
National Clearinghouse
for Alcohol and Drug Information
1-800-729-6686
www.health.org
Narcotics Anonymous World
Service Office in Los Angeles: An international, community-based
association, holding weekly meetings for recovering drug addicts.
To locate your local chapterÉ
(818) 773-9999
www.na.org/links-toc.htm
|
|
