Aspects that Influence Drug Addiction and Abuse

For those who want to understand the complex issue of why individuals abuse drugs, an area such as substance abusers outreach and education may be helpful to look into. No single factor can predict why a person becomes addicted to drugs. It is not a simple factor of controlling a person’s will power for drug abuse to stop. People unknowingly right off those who abuse drugs as being morally wrong and lacking the will power to cease from their harmful behavior. However, looking at the biological, environmental, and developmental aspects of drug abuse may provide helpful answers:

Drug Abuse Influences

- Biological aspects-Environmental influences coupled with the genes that a person is born with may account for about half of their addiction problems. Additionally, ethnicity, the presence of mental disorders, and gender may also influence the risk of drug addiction and abuse.
- Environmental aspects- Many influences in a person’s environment may increase their risk of drug addictions. A person’s friends, family’s socioeconomic status, and their overall quality of life may contribute to the risk of drug abuse. Additionally, a history of sexual and physical abuse and mental abuse, peer pressure and lack of parental involvement may play a major role in greatly influencing the path of drug addition and abuse in a person’s life.
- Developmental aspects-Environmental and genetic factors intermingle with essential developmental stages in a person’s life to shape addiction vulnerability. With this, adolescents go through a two-fold challenge. Even though taking drugs early in life can head in the direction of addiction, the earlier a person takes drugs the more likely the abuse will develop into a more serious level of abuse. Given the fact that an adolescent’s brain is still developing in areas that include judgment, self-control, and decision-making, they are particularly vulnerable to risk taking behaviors such as abusing drugs.

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The Characteristics of Drug Abuse/Addiction

Understanding drug addiction may be a complicated matter because there are many variables to take into account. For one, influences such as a person’s family, friends, and economic status may contribute to addictions. There are also developmental and environmental aspects of a person’s life that have and effect of why they delve in this harmful behavior. Many people can get a clearer understanding through substance abusers outreach and education programs that seek to give people an understanding of what exactly is drug abuse, some helpful treatment programs, and what contributes to drug addiction. The following information explains what drug abuse is:

What Characterizes Drug Addiction?

Drug addiction causes compulsive drug use and seeking even though harmful consequences to the individual addicted to the drugs and the people around them result. This is a chronic, oftentimes relapsing brain disease. It is a brain disease because this abuse leads to alterations in the function and structure of the brain. In the beginning, drug taking is voluntary but after a time leads to changes in the brain that are caused by repeated drug use and may affect a person willingness to cease from taking the drugs and make sound decisions. Additionally, with constant drug use the brain sends powerful impulses to take drugs.

These changes in the brain make it very difficult for those who have drug addictions to stop abusing. The great news is there are treatments in place that help people thwart addiction’s intense harmful effects whereby they can gain control of their lives. Research indicates that combining behavioral therapy and addiction treatment medication, when applicable, is the greatest way to add to a patient’s success. Treatment methods that are modified to a patient’s drug abuse patterns and any psychiatric, social, and co-occurring problems may lead to continual recovery and a live absent of drug use.

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Xanax Abuse Partially Caused by Ineffective US Healthcare System

Xanax (photograph)
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When prescribed by a conscientious physician, the use of Xanax and other benzodiazepines are an effective way to manage short-term stress. Appropriate uses might include helping a patient deal with the loss of a loved one, struggling through stressful situations at work, or facing phobias. Xanax and similar drugs, however, have a high rate of abuse, especially when prescribed by doctors who do not carefully manage their patients’ use of the drugs. Long-term and inappropriate use, therefore, often leads to addiction.

Recent research has shown that ER visits involving the nonmedical use of prescription drugs has increased 111 percent in the past five years. This indicates that many doctors are not monitoring their patients well. Unfortunately, some patients could lack the willpower to resist the allure of frequent Xanax use. After all, when someone faces daily anxiety, it makes sense for him or her to turn to something that can alleviate those negative feelings.

Using some benzodiazepines daily for a week, however, can foster physical and psychological dependency.

Some doctors feel pressured to prescribe medications to their patients even when they know there is a risk of misuse. When a patient complains of anxiety symptoms and sleeplessness, compassionate doctors want to help those people find an effective way to overcome their problems. The only tools available to most general physicians are prescription drugs. They can also suggest exercise, improved diet, and other lifestyle changes, but few doctors have the training needed to address mental health concerns such as severe anxiety.

Xanax abuse, therefore, could stem from an ineffective healthcare system that fails to provide adequate treatment to patients with mental illnesses. A comprehensive system would make it easier for caring, responsible doctors to prescribe Xanax for short-term anxiety management while helping patients get the mental health care that they need to cope with life.

Long-term Xanax use can lead to unwanted conditions such as memory loss and paradoxical anxiety. To make matters even worse, patients frequently experience disastrous results when quitting Xanax “cold turkey.” Stopping Xanax use abruptly can cause seizures, severe anxiety, vomiting, heart palpitations, hallucinations, and fevers.

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Ben Cousins Hospitalization Draws Attention to Drug Use in AFL

Ben Cousins’ recent severe reaction to a prescription sleep aid has attracted much attention to drug use in the Australian Football League (AFL). Cousins, a recovering addict, claims that he did not take any illegal substances. Regardless of whether cousins took illegal or legal drugs, his hospitalization shows that he, like many other soccer players in Australia, subjects himself to a litany of potentially dangerous drugs on a regular basis.

Two of the most commonly abused drugs in the AFL are caffeine and sleeping pills. Athletes use caffeine to amp up their bodies before a performance. This allows them to perform intensely for a short period of time. Many teams even include coffee drinking as a part of their pre-game rituals. Drinking coffee isn’t necessarily a terrible thing, but many of the athletes combine the caffeinated drink with caffeine pills and other so-called natural stimulants.

Given all of the caffeine that the players ingest, it’s not surprising that they have a hard time calming down after games. Many of them, therefore, rely on sleeping pills to help them relax and get a good night’s rest. Again, using sleeping pills on occasion isn’t a terrible thing. They are very helpful for certain individuals going through periods of stress or disturbed sleep. When used habitually, though, the body can start to rely on drugs for sleep. To make matters worse, many of the players combine the sleeping pills with alcoholic beverages.

Caffeine and sleeping pills might sound rather tame to some people, but they can have an incredibly negative effect on the body’s cardiovascular system. These substances cause the heart and lungs to perform strenuously for a period of stimulant-induced play and then crash quickly when sleep aids are taken after the game.

AFL players also take a variety of other drugs that are not intended for daily use. Anti-inflammatory drugs and pain killers, for instance, are a staple amongst players who need to perform despite injuries and inflamed joints. Relying on these substances regularly can lead to substance abuse and addiction.

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