Drug Addiction Effects
One of the saddest aspects of the insidious nature of drug addiction is that by the time an addict realizes they have a problem; the drug addiction has already created lots of negative effects on many aspects of their lives. The ways in which drug addiction affects the family is immeasurable but at the same time very subtle. People who use drugs experience a wide array of physical effects other than those expected. The excitement of a cocaine effect, for instance, is followed by a "crash": a period of anxiety, fatigue, depression, and a strong desire to use more cocaine to alleviate the feelings of the crash. Marijuana and alcohol interfere with motor control and are factors in many automobile accidents. Users of marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs may experience flashbacks, unwanted recurrences of the drug's effects weeks or months after use. Abrupt abstinence from certain drugs results in withdrawal symptoms. For example, heroin withdrawal symptoms cause vomiting, muscle cramps, convulsions, and delirium. With the continued use of a physically addictive drug, tolerance develops, and the user constantly increasing amounts of the drug are needed to duplicate the initial effect. Sharing hypodermic needles used to inject some drugs dramatically increases the risk of contracting AIDS and some types of hepatitis because the purity and dosage of illegal drugs such as heroin are uncontrolled, drug overdose is a constant risk. There are over 10,000 deaths directly attributable to drug use in the United States every year; the substances most frequently involved are cocaine, heroin, and morphine, often combined with alcohol or other drugs. Many drug users engage in criminal activity, such as burglary and prostitution, to raise the money to buy drugs, and some drugs, especially alcohol, are associated with violent behavior.
Effects on the Family
The user's preoccupation with the substance, plus its effects on mood and performance, can lead to marital problems and poor work performance or dismissal. Drug addiction affects the entire family. Drug addiction can create destructive patterns of codependency, that is, family members inadvertently enables the user to continue using drugs by covering up, supplying money, or denying there is a problem. The effects of drug addiction on pregnant users, because of the drugs themselves or poor self-care in general, is that these women bear a much higher rate of low birth-weight babies than the average. Many drugs (e.g., crack and heroin) cross the placental barrier, resulting in drug addicted babies who go through withdrawal soon after birth, and fetal alcohol syndrome can affect children of mothers who consume alcohol during pregnancy. Pregnant women who acquire the AIDS virus through intravenous drug use pass the virus to their infant.
Drug addiction not only affects the person, but also his family and friends. Drug addicts have the tendency to turn extremely violent, when they are under the spell of drugs. Family members and friends feel helpless as they are not able to do anything to help their loved ones from not taking drugs. The effect of drug addiction has resulted in the breakdown of many families.
Psychological and Social Effects
Drug addiction creates negative effects on society in many ways. In the workplace drug addiction is costly in terms of lost work time and inefficiency. The effects of drug addiction can also be seen in a person's professional life. When an individual is addicted to drugs, that person is not able to concentrate on the job, and his performance level goes down, costing companies decreases in productivity, which affects their profits. Drug users are more likely to have occupational accidents, endangering themselves and those around them. Over half of the highway deaths in the United States involve alcohol. Drug-related crime can disrupt neighborhoods due to violence among drug dealers, threats to residents, and the crimes of the addicts themselves. In some neighborhoods, younger children are recruited as lookouts and helpers because of the lighter sentences given to juvenile offenders, and guns have become commonplace among children and adolescents. The great majority of homeless people have either a drug or alcohol problem .Once an individual develops a drug addiction, he does not have the power of controlling it. They reach a condition where not using these drugs makes them feel restless, depressed and anxious, increasing their craving for taking more drugs. It has been observed that the effect of drug addiction on society is an increased crime rate. People steal, go into prostitution and even sell everything that is not tied down their family's homes to get money for buying drugs.
Physiological Effects
Drug addiction can have severe effects on the entire body of the person. Physiological effects that are found in the initial stages of drug addiction are irregular breathing and, increase in heart rate and blood pressure. The person may also experience sudden weight gain or weight loss. The long term effects of drug addiction are more serious. Some of the dangerous diseases that are caused due to drug addiction are brain damage, heart disease, arthritis and lung diseases. It is also one of the reasons for a person getting infected with AIDS, due to sharing of syringes to inject drugs.
Drug addiction can be difficult to overcome, but it is possible with the right type of drug treatment and the often tough love approach that may be needed by the addict's family members and friends. Loved ones must not enable the drug addiction by providing money to buy drugs or by making excuses for them in other areas where the individuals are avoiding their responsibilities. If an individual cannot get out of bed in the morning because they have been up using drugs or drinking all night, they should have to experience the natural consequences that go along with this behavior, such as losing their job. In order to have the best chance at recovering from addiction, the addict must realize that he has a problem which is dangerous not only for himself, but also for the people around him. If you or someone you love is suffering from drug addiction, seek out a drug rehab program with a high success rate treating individuals with substance abuse problems.
