Drug Abuse: the habitual use of drugs to alter mood, emotion, or state of consciousness, excessive use of drugs

Addiction: Compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit forming substance

The drug abuse and addiction is a serious problem facing many people today. Although no one knows why some people turn to drugs, there are other reasons why some do. Some people turn to drugs because of pain inside. Could it be that has lost a loved one and can not or can not cope with her personal problems, or sometimes, people can suffer from depression. Who really knows why? Only the person. It’s a sad thing to see because there’s nothing you can do to help a person with an addiction until they are willing to help themselves. Sometimes they’ve gone so far that are in denial. They really believe they are not addicted and that there is nothing wrong with them until they see it, is nothing you can say or do.

Addiction is a hard thing to tackle for the individual and his family. It is difficult to see a loved one with an addiction. It takes a toll on all parties involved. To go through so many stages. The worst part is when they hit you might think the rock background, but nothing can convince them that they are bad. Once arrived at the realization of their own then this is another stage to go. Now is the time to be rehabilitated. Rehabilitation is a slow and patient process, both for the family and the individual. The family has to keep faith that this will improve and the person must believe they can do this.

Substance use as a cup of coffee a day, consuming alcohol in a social context, or the use of medicines prescribed or recommended, it is often accepted as normal behavior. Abuse occurs when the use of these drugs begins to affect personal relationships, performance in studies on work, personal finances, or other negative behaviors. It is at this point that addiction need medical or psychiatric treatment.

Almost everyone has had or will have to make decisions regarding the use or abuse, whichever way it touches our lives. Education is the first and most important step needed to make the right decision.
Who is at risk.

Accessibility, peer pressure at work or study and the attraction to the physical effects they cause are all kinds of people in the world to fall into drug abuse. Often the abuse begins as a richer experience. We want to satisfy our curiosity about drugs, and usually we are in control of the situation. But as the use of these drugs continues to the point of excess, lost control and develops an addiction, which ultimately prevents any possibility of stopping.

In some cases, a person may be predisposed to drug abuse on the basis of family history. Some research indicates that the immediate families of drug abusers are prone to abuse. Other potential risk factors include environmental influences and some mental illnesses or emotional.

A drug is any chemical, natural or synthetic, that once ingested alters the behavior, perception, mood changes, increases or decreases the physical or mental performance. Its most important feature is that they create habits, there is an irrepressible desire to repeat their use because they give the man a sense of well being.
The drug addiction is a state of change, sometimes poisoning, caused by ingestion of one or more drugs.

Drug addiction is poisoning caused by different agents such as alcohol, snuff or alkaloids that disrupt life and may lead to its destruction.

The main reasons are toxomanías all fear of pain and anxiety of being. All addictive drugs are detrimental to health and lead to disorders that are manifested by internal pains, loss of consciousness and disturbance increasingly severe nerve ending in crisis with hallucinations and delusions similar to those of schizophrenia.

The neurological basis of drug dependence are almost established. There is talk of a change in the levels of dopamine in certain brain areas as the main cause of addiction. Addictive drugs can change the fundamental modes brain says Leshler (*), producing drug craving and compulsive and uncontrollable.

Moreover, excessive consumption of alcohol, nicotine, and falls within the definition of drug abuse. In the narrowest sense is meant, however, the almost exclusively illegal consumption of drugs: opiates (opium, morphine, heroin), euphoric substances such as cocaine or khat, designer drugs (ecstasy, speed) and hallucinogens such as cannabis (hashish, marijuana), mescaline, LSD , Liquid Ecstasy.

Does the concentration of the drug in the body after, there will be depressed, sometimes aggressive moods. To get out of this unpleasant phase again, books by Dieter Wunderlich the person is hungry for a fresh intake of the drug. A drug addiction (the term “addiction” is considered obsolete) means that the dose must be increased to obtain the desired effect. Some drugs – opiates, nicotine, alcohol – lead to a physical dependence, but even if this is not the case, there is a risk of addiction, which is associated with other mental disorders – especially in less stable personalities. Help for mental problems of uncontrolled drug use in any case. A risk of drug abuse is also often available for non-established persons.

Drug addicts often neglect everything else: members themselves, school, work. Not only as a drug dealer but also as a drug user is guilty of an offense in many cases. If the available financial resources no longer for supplies to procure the necessary funds are drug addicts sometimes) by burglaries and other crimes (drug-related crime.

The global annual sales in the illegal drug trade is estimated at 320 billion U.S. dollars. Cocaine comes from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia; opiates are mainly grown in Afghanistan, but also in Burma, Laos and Thailand. West Africa is developing in recent years to the hub of drug trafficking. A portion of this money earned will be invested by the drug cartels) into legitimate businesses (money laundering. “Drug barons” dominate, especially in Colombia and Afghanistan, entire regions. Farmers who depend on poppy production and is dependent on the protection of these drug lords are, it must first be offered another opportunity to build their lives before they can win their support.

In the Fifties housewives took Valium to Nachkriegsverlogenheit with tolerable offset the hippies with LSD in flower, in the eighties yuppie life with accelerated speed, and the eternal youth of the nineties was dancing with ecstasy. (Christina Berndt, Süddeutsche Zeitung, 6 June 2009)

While there were once more adults who have resorted to drugs – soldiers, intellectuals, the rich and famous, Working under high pressure to perform – they are since the late sixties in the affluent Western societies especially young people. When the hippies cannabis was “mind. In the nightclubs and rave scene, ecstasy and speed to be swallowed in order to be able to dance all night.

Coffee and cigarettes were yesterday. Ritalin and Modafinil will soon be as widespread. The amphetamine-like Ritalin (known as “Vitamin R” trivialized) is actually prescribed for restless children with attention deficit disorder, students and managers to take it to enhance their concentration. And the drug modafinil, which was developed against the sleeping sickness narcolepsy, makes Healthy allegedly extremely awake, some enthusiastic users reported an almost euphoric rush job. Even drugs for heart disease, Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia to be taken to address or to devour the memory spice [...]
As the brain-doping in the long run makes with the brain, is unpredictable. Only the acute effects are clearly described. They range from headaches and nausea than concentrating, depression and irritability to anxiety.

Drug abuse and addiction are a burden to society. By some estimates, the total cost of substance abuse in the United States, including costs related to health and crime and lost productivity, exceeds half a trillion dollars annually. This figure includes approximately $ 181 billion for illicit drugs, 1 $ 168 billion by tabaco2 and $ 185 billion by alcohol.3 Despite what these figures are daunting, they fail to fully illustrate the true impact of drug abuse and drug addiction on public health, including family breakdown, job loss, failure in school, domestic violence, child abuse and other crimes.
What is addiction?

Drug addiction is a chronic disease of the brain, often relapsing, characterized by search and compulsive drug use despite harmful consequences for the addict and those around him. Drug addiction is a brain disease because the abuse of drugs leads to changes in the structure and functioning of the brain. While it is true that in the case of most people the initial decision to take drugs is voluntary, over time changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can affect self-control and the user’s ability to take sound decisions, while sending intense impulses to use drugs.

Because of these changes in the brain is very difficult for the addicted to stop abusing drugs. Fortunately there are treatments that help to counteract the destructive effects of a powerful addiction and regain control. Research shows that for most patients the best method of ensuring success is a combination of medications for treating addiction, when available, with behavioral therapy. You can achieve a sustained recovery and a life without substance abuse using approaches designed specifically to address the drug abuse pattern specific for each patient in conjunction with any medical, psychiatric or social concurrently.

Like many other chronic, relapsing diseases like diabetes, asthma or heart disease, drug addiction can be successfully treated. Similar to other chronic illnesses, relapse is common and that begin abusing drugs again. Relapse, however, does not signal failure. Rather they are a sign that should reinstate or adjust treatment or that alternative treatment is necessary for the person to regain control and recover.
What happens to your brain when you take drugs?

Drugs are chemicals that infiltrate the brain’s communication system, interrupting the sending, receiving and normal processing of information between nerve cells. There are at least two ways that drugs can do this: 1) mimicking the brain’s natural chemical messages or 2) over-stimulates the “reward circuit” of the brain.

Some drugs, like marijuana and heroin, have a structure similar to that of certain chemical messengers called neurotransmitters, the brain produces naturally. Because of this similarity, these types of drugs can “fool” the brain’s receptors and activate nerve cells to send messages abnormal.

Other drugs, like cocaine or methamphetamine, can cause nerve cells to release huge amounts of natural neurotransmitters or can block the normal recycling of these brain chemicals, which is necessary to cut off the signal between neurons. This results in a greatly amplified message that in turn hinders normal communication patterns

Nearly all drugs, directly or indirectly, attack the brain’s reward system flooding it with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation and pleasurable sensations. Typically, this system responds to natural behaviors related to survival (eating, spending time with loved ones, etc..), But when it is overstimulated by the drug produces feelings of euphoria. This reaction starts a pattern that “teaches” people to repeat the behavior of drug abuse.

When a person continues to abuse drugs, the brain adapts to the overwhelming surges in dopamine by producing less dopamine or by reducing the number of dopamine receptors in the reward circuit. As a result, the impact of dopamine on the reward circuit is decreased, thus limiting the pleasure that the user is able to derive not only drugs but also of things that previously caused him pleasure. This decrease compels those addicted to drugs to keep abusing drugs in an attempt to get the dopamine function back to normal. But now you may need to consume a larger quantity of drugs to elevate the role of dopamine to normal levels early. This effect is called tolerance.

The long-term abuse causes changes in other chemical systems and circuits in the brain. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter that influences the reward circuit and the ability to learn. When drug abuse alters the optimal concentration of glutamate, the brain attempts to compensate, which can impair cognitive function. Drugs of abuse facilitate subconscious learning (conditioned), which makes the user feel like uncontrollable drug use when they see a place or a person associated with them, even though the drug itself is not available. The brain imaging studies of drug addicts show changes in brain areas essential for trial, decision making, learning, memory and behavior control. Taken together, these changes can cause the addict to become addicted to drugs, ie the look and compulsive use despite adverse consequences
Why do some people become addicted to drugs and not others?

No single factor can predict whether or not someone becomes addicted to drugs. The risk for addiction is affected by the biological makeup of the individual, social environment and age or stage of development where you are. The more risk factors you have, the greater the likelihood of drug abuse becomes addiction. For example:

* Biology: The genes you are born, in combination with environmental influences are responsible for about half of the susceptibility to addiction. Gender, ethnicity and the presence of other mental disorders may influence the risk for drug abuse and addiction.

* Environment or the Environment: The environment of each person includes many factors, from family and friends to socioeconomic status and quality of life in general. Certain factors such as pressure from friends or colleagues, physical or sexual abuse, stress and the role parents can have a huge influence on the course of drug abuse and addiction in a person’s life.

* Stage of development: genetic and environmental factors interact with critical stages of human development affecting susceptibility to addiction, adolescence being a stage facing a double challenge. While drug use at any age can lead to addiction, the earlier you start using drugs, the greater the likelihood of progressing to more serious abuse. This is because the brain areas that govern the decision-making, trial and self-control are still developing during adolescence, making teens are especially prone to risky behaviors, including experimentation with drugs of abuse.

The key is prevention

Drug addiction is a preventable disease. The results of the NIDA-sponsored research has shown that prevention programs that involve family, school, community and media are effective in reducing drug abuse. While there are many events and cultural factors that affect drug abuse trends, when youths perceive drug abuse as harmful, they reduce it. Therefore, we need to help young people and the general public to understand the risks of substance abuse and promoting, through teachers, parents and professionals in health care, the message that drug addiction can be prevented if the person fails to start abusing drugs in the first instance