Substance abuse is also known as drug abuse. It is the excessive use of chemical substance to gain a specific effect. The substances can be "street" or "illicit", or drugs obtained with prescription to get pleasure rather than for medical reasons. Different drugs have different effects on you. Cocaine or methamphetamine gives you the feeling of boundless energy. Drugs like heroin, benzodiazepines or oxycontin produce feelings of relaxation and calmness. The common thing in all drugs is over-stimulation of the pleasure centre of the brain.
Despite the varying effects of drug abuse, the central pattern stays the same. For any addict, getting the drug, and using it, the most important matter of his life. Consequences of this addiction are awful in the sense that it prevents you from functioning normally, and impairs judgment power to a dangerous extent. The symptoms of drug addiction are as follows:
Physical signs of abuse and addiction:
Drugs affect not just the brain, but also your body. It contributes towards increase in blood pressure and heart rate, such as cocaine and methamphetamine, when you use them they will not only increase your blood pressure and metabolism, but also make you suffer from sleeplessness. In contrast, there are drugs like opiates and barbiturates that decrease your blood pressure, and affect your breathing and alertness similarly. Listed below are some physical symptoms that result from substance addiction.
By using stimulants, you feel restlessness, increased energy and inability to sleep. By using opiates, benzodiazepines and barbiturates, your speech and reaction time becomes slow and you feel confusion and disorientation. You might observe a certain weight gain or weight loss. By using certain drugs, the cycles of sleep increase. The drug addicts usually wear long sleeved shirts to hide scars at injection sites. Smoke drugs cause cough or bronchitis, which can lead to excessive mucus or blood. Methamphetamine addicts can be seen with progressive severe dental problems.
Signs on mental and emotional levels for substance addiction
Substance abuse can give you pleasure only for the specified time, and after that the addict become impatient. You will be able to see clearly the mood and emotional swings between the condition of satisfaction and temptation. Some mental and emotional symptoms of substance addiction are as follows.
You will find addicts very talkative, "high" and cheerful with lot of energy in them. You will find in them increased irritability, agitation and anger. Some clear signs are; unresponsiveness, apathy, unusual calmness, depression, hallucinations, paranoia, temporary psychosis, delusions and lower threshold for violence etc.
A large population of substance addicts happen to be teenagers. This addiction, if not cured in due course of time, could worsen to a chronic one. Oversleeping is a trend in teenagers, so it is not very easy for parents to detect any kind of signs. Then there is the matter of them needing space, and privacy along with being argumentative, and furious. In order to find out signs of substance addiction in a teen, one should closely observe any changes in his/her attitude, and behaviour along with his/her health, and appearance.
The phenomenon of substance addiction is not a rare one in the world. To cure this, a number of rehabilitation centres are in the world helping people to remove the stigma of social evil. Not just his/her family, an addict has effects on his/her friends, colleagues, and sometimes even on the community. As, members of the society, it is our responsibility to help these addicts. Our support will give them courage that will make them strong enough to fight against powerful drug temptations.
You can get rid of drug additions by taking a professional's help and get complete checkup at drug addiction treatment.
