Four Reasons Why Drugs are the Real Enemy & How to Defeat It

At present, drug use is one of the severe issues around the world. Exploitative drug use is not only hazardous for health but triggers several socio-economic crises. Drug-related consequences are not only long-lasting and life-threatening but multidimensional.

Thus global efforts are trying to contain and prevent dangers of illicit, overuse, and non-prescribed drug uses.

It is important to note that even disease-specific drugs are not recommended until the immune system requires external assistance to boost the immune response against diseases. Similarly, drug abuse also causes ranging healthcare complications.

Even if individuals consume minor doses, they’ll end up taking heavy doses to conceive the same results. Prolonged consumption of illicit drugs will ultimately lead to drug dependency.

In the end, addicts start experiencing gradual and varying deterioration in their psychic and physical health. It is because drugs mainly influence the master system that controls all other functions.

The following paragraphs explore and discuss the damaging consequences of drug use and how to deal with them.

1. Table of Contents

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   Causes and complicates psychic ailments

Drug exploitation interferes with various psychic functions and causes ranging problems. Usually, addictive drugs share similar side effects, such as sleep disturbance, behavioral changes, euphoric sensations, and insensitivity to pain.

Repetitive and overdoses contribute to various psychic problems. For instance, extreme and lasting complications of ecstasy drug consumption include memory loss, brain hemorrhage, damage to nerve terminals, and other parts of the brain. It also leads to severe mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, and psychosis.

Hence, drug use disorder is a life-threatening condition and necessitates medical assistance. Reaching out to experts and starting a withdrawal therapy is the most fundamental step.

It is advisable to seek drug-specific assistance from professional rehabilitation centers like Serenity to help facilitate substance and drug abuse cases through detoxification, rehabilitation, and withdrawal services.

It deals with several substances use and exploitations, such as sedatives, stimulants, alcohol, heroin, opioids, cocaine, barbiturates, and marijuana.

Nonetheless, catering to symptoms and seeking medical intervention at early stages can prevent drug addiction and other psychic challenges. Otherwise, chronic drug dependence also involves and impairs physical organs.

It is why drug abuse is one of the contributors to cardiovascular ailments, kidney failures, infertility, and respiratory problems.

2. Impairs normal functions of the brain

Illicit use and drug abuse primarily affect various regions of the brain. Specifically, frequent drug consumption impairs the basal ganglia, prefrontal cortex, and extended amygdala parts of the brain.

These parts carry out various essential functions. As such, the basal ganglia portion of the brain is responsible for compensation and pleasure. The prefrontal cortex facilitates planning, behavior, and decision-making. Extended amygdala deals with emotional processing.

Hence, impairment in their functions contributes to several short-term and long-term psychological problems. For instance, marijuana consumption damages the brain’s storage capacity, attentiveness, and coordination over short-term use. Drug consumption also causes hallucinations and leads to paranoia, illogical and persistent fear from surroundings.

Hence, avoiding drug abuse is the only way to prevent falling into addiction and secondary complications. If the drug has already developed persistency, seek professional intervention. As such, counseling, cognitive behavioral therapy, and contingency management practices can help manage damaging consequences.

It is also possible to abandon drug use altogether via a comprehensive therapy program.

3. Facilitates the onset of infectious diseases

Drug abuse is among the potential causes of severe infections, such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis. These conditions not only affect the immune system and liver, respectively, but impede several other functions.

Sharing intravenous needles with fellow addicts while injecting drugs is the most common reason for contracting these infections. Negligent healthcare practices can also increase the chances of contracting these infections.

As such, untested blood infusion and nonsterile medical tools can infect individuals with HIV and hepatitis infections. Unsafe intimidation with an infected partner is another most common cause of HIV contraction globally, even hepatitis in some cases.

Irrespective of the root causes, unmanaged and untreated HIV ultimately complicates to AIDS condition. Similarly, overuse and injected drug use may instantly cause liver inflammation and increases chances for hepatitis into intense versions, such as hepatitis C.

Even after rigorous medical intervention and research efforts, HIV and AIDS have no permanent and absolute cure. Hepatitis C virus can also re-emerge after complete treatment and therapy. Thus preventing these severe complications requires enriching awareness on illicit drug use, unsafe healthcare practices, and seeking timely medical intervention.

It is also essential to minimize the contact-based spread of these infections via responsible and well-informed conduct.

4. Burdens the healthcare, social and economic sectors

Drug overuse, addiction, and related complications stem multifaceted challenges for the healthcare, social, and financial sectors. For instance, addiction and drug abuse deteriorate interpersonal, marital, and professional relationships.

Drug abuse hinders performance in the workplace, academic, and domestic spheres. It is one of the potential causes of global crimes, such as drug trafficking, domestic violence, sex offense, homicide, suicide, and other law enforcement violations.

In addition, global studies on drug-related damages estimate that illicit drug consumption alone leads to approximately 750,000 deaths around the world annually. As a consequence, the death toll contributes to social and economic disturbance and expenditures.

Epidemiological research studies estimate that approximately 1% of the global population involved in drug overuse directly burdens the healthcare, economic, and social sectors.

On the other hand, limited access to healthcare services, social stigma, and judgmental attitudes towards addicts are other aspects of drug use worsening global challenges. The complexity and intertwined nature of these crises require collaborative efforts to fight drug exploitation and its consequences.

Mere criminalization cannot prevent drug abuse and related damages. It is crucial to take onboard a coordinated partnership and execute a comprehensive framework that addresses root causes.

Concluding remarks

Drug abuse is not only devastating for the well-being of consumers but contributes to several other challenges. Most of the time, the outcomes of such challenges are grave, devastating, and irrecoverable from individualistic and social perspectives.

Thus it is essential to control, administer, and prevent illegal drug access for exploitative purposes. It is equally vital to augment existing policies related to inclusive healthcare services and public awareness.