Drug addiction can take different forms as well as involve a wide range of drugs. Drug addiction has for long been a transboundary issue impacting negatively on the lives of innumerable drug addicts. Drug addiction may range from the utilization of stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and opium-related painkillers, among many other drugs. The effects that consequentially fall on the victim’s physical and mental standing resulting from the drug side effects are in most cases devastating. Some of these effects can be life-lasting. On top of this, drug addiction has long-lasting psycho-social impacts on the addicts. This write-up aims at construing the effects associated with drug addiction on individuals as well as society.
Drug addiction results in extensive and often irreversible damage to the body. Drug addiction has been established to cause extensive damage to the physiological and anatomical functioning of the human body. Drug addiction is known to cause or create the precursor conditions that create an enabling environment for various diseases and conditions. Nevertheless, drug addiction has been directly associated with various types of cancer, lung issues, tuberculosis, and mental disorders. Heart conditions for instance are worsened or brought about ass a direct result of the use of drugs. This ranges from abnormal heart rates as well as heart attacks as well as collapsed veins resulting from the injections and infections to the blood vessels. Additionally, drug addiction can expose the individuals to nausea and persistent abdominal pain among other effects. However, the effects that the drugs hold the result from long-time use or overdoses. For instance, the injection use and sharing in heroin and cocaine expose the addicts to risks of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases. The damage that the drugs incept in the individuals’ bodies has far-reaching effects, death being one of the most prevalent issues since the addicts are oblivious to the danger they are in from the conditions.
In addition to this, drug addiction negatively impacts the mental health of individuals. Drug addiction interrupts the mental pathways that are responsible for communication and information processing. This is normally blurred by the need to acquire the drugs. The addicts face confusion resulting from poor decision-making because the drugs create an overall decline in decision-making ability. “The negative impact of drug use can cause problems with attention, memory, and problem-solving that can last all the way through adulthood” (“Drugs and the Teen Brain”). This is attributed to the urgency of attaining the drugs and the satisfaction that normally stems from the addiction, overriding the need for self-care. The addicts consequentially suffer from depression, apathy, as well as indifference to their health. In specific interest to this, it has been reliably established that they are credited to causing extensive effects on the human neuropsychological front. In addition to this, drug addiction breeds the feeling of low self-worthiness and mental helplessness. The bid to escape this cycle throws most addicts to attaining anger, physical pain, guilt, and hopelessness. This has consequently led to suicides and acts of self-harm to the individuals. The disruption of the cognitive ability of the addicts also impacts the poor decision-making experienced by the drug addicts.
Nevertheless, drug addicts risk losing their loved ones, families, as well as friends. Drug addiction binds the victims to confines that shut the normal social life away from their reach. The mental and emotional effects that drug addicts impose on their close associates are immense. “Substance abuse touches all aspects of family life. This includes parents who are feeling that the family is being torn apart (Choate 462). To aid the victims in living a drug-free life, conflicts and disagreements may result among the families and the victims of drug addiction. The indulgent likelihood to be mentally affected does not rest on the addicts alone, but rather the effects of stress and psychological torture rest on the families. The systematic disruption that comes with drug addiction blunts the ability of individuals to regard families and friends. This eventually creates a divide and withdrawal from the families. In addition to this, friends and lovers consequently face mental exhaustion from the stigma associated with the addicts and questioning their role in the predicament. Blame grafted into such relationships from drug addiction disables and decapitates the essence of self-love and lowers their self-esteem. Issues like this lead the families, friends, and loved ones to exit the life of the addict.
Drug addiction holds innumerable disadvantages on the addicts as well as society as a whole. The effects of drug abuse are extensive, encompassing the mental, sociological and physical effects. The severity of such effects has been established to sever inter and intra-personal relations. In addition to this, drug addiction makes the victims prone to mental issues. The totality of drug addiction, as discussed above, encompasses an array of effects that affect all aspects of society.
Works Cited
Choate, Peter W. “Adolescent Alcoholism and Drug Addiction: The Experience of Parents.” Behavioral Sciences (2076-328X), vol. 5, no. 4, Dec. 2015, pp. 461–476. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3390/bs5040461.
“Drugs and the Teen Brain.” Scholastic Scope, vol. 67, no. 4, Dec. 2018, pp. 30–34. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=132996959&authtype=shib&site=ehost-live.
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