Drug Abuse: Prescription drugs and Street drugs

What happens when you take drugs?

Drug abuse or substance abuse, involves the repeated and excessive use of prescription or street drugs. In one way or another, almost all drugs over stimulate the pleasure center of the brain, flooding it with the neurotransmitter dopamine which produces euphoria. That heightened sense of pleasure can be so compelling that the brain wants that feeling back, again and again.

These drugs cause increased energy, rapid heart rate and elevated blood pressure, but they also produce racing thoughts and make you feel overly-stimulated. Continued use causes rapid breathing, irritability, impulsiveness, aggression, nervousness, insomnia, weight loss, tolerance, addiction, and possible heart failure. These drugs also cause an impairment in cognitive functioning which negatively affects memory and impacts the ability to learn.

Understanding The Signs, Symptoms, and Effects

Drugs are chemicals that have a profound impact on the neurochemical balance in the brain which directly affects how you feel and act. People who are suffering emotionally use drugs, not so much for the rush, but to escape from their problems. They are trying to self-medicate themselves out of lonliness, low self-esteem, unhappy relationships, or stress. This is a pattern that too often leads to drug abuse and addiction.

Drug Dependence: How drug use can lead to addiction

People with conditions such as Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) or mood disorders such as depression and anxiety may find that a street drug makes them feel less jumpy, depressed, or anxious.

The line between substance abuse and drug dependence is defined by the role drugs play in ones life. Addiction and drug dependence occurs when drugs become so important that you are willing to sacrifice your work, home and even family. Once your brain and body get used to the substances you are taking, you begin to require increasingly larger and more frequent doses, in order to achieve the same effect.

Drugs such as heroin, a painkiller, over stimulate the pleasure centers of the brain producing euphoric effects which cause compulsive drug seeking behaviors and affect self control and judgement. These drugs are highly addictive and require a medical detoxification (detox) to cleanse the chemicals from your system. The severity of withdrawal symptoms such as shakes, muscle pain, nausea, vomiting, headaches, and cravings can be reduced in detox with prescribed medications that can be slowly decreased over time. Withdrawal affects you physically and emotionally resulting in sadness, depression and exhaustion.

Signs and symptoms of Drug Dependence