Drugs interact with chemicals in the brain and body to make you feel a certain way. While drugs can be helpful in regulating moods, helping you sleep, and managing pain, they can also have serious complications when misused. Taking higher-than-recommended doses or taking drugs when you don’t need them for medical purposes can cause mind-altering effects. Not only can they make you high, but they can also cause you to act in ways you normally wouldn’t act. They increase the odds that you will get hurt or make bad decisions that can have lasting consequences.
Substance Abuse is Everywhere
Drug use can have serious medical complications. According to the CDC, Nearly 841,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. In 2019, 70,630 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by over 4% from 2018 (20.7 per 100,000) to 2019 (21.6 per 100,000). Regular and repeated drug use can also damage internal organs, lead to the onset of several serious diseases and complications, cause poor mental health, and increase the odds of addiction. Drug addiction can significantly and negatively impact every part of your life, creating social and family relationship issues, problems with work production and finances, criminal and legal complications, and a poor medical and mental health state. Ultimately, drug use can have severe consequences in both the short and long term.
Reversible Consequences Of Drug Use
Abusing drugs can make you feel invincible, excited, and euphoric. You may behave in a way that is not normal for you, causing you to become hostile, paranoid, or even violent. Although the effects of these drugs are not permanently damaging to you, these behaviors can be erratic or unpredictable, which could result in getting yourself into a situation that can have real consequences. While it might make you feel good temporarily, drugs can also lower your inhibitions and make you more likely to take bigger risks that can lead to injuries or possibly even legal or criminal consequences.
- Some of the reversible consequences include:
- Cardiomyopathy
- Cognitive impairment
- Reproductive function in females
- Sexual dysfunction in males
- Effect of alcohol on the gastrointestinal system
- Psychosis
Irreversible Consequences Of Drug Abuse
When you use drugs over and over again on a regular basis, they can impact your entire bodily system. Drugs interact with the way your brain sends chemical messages throughout the central nervous system, which tells your body how to react. Brain chemistry is disrupted through drug use, and repeated use changes the way your brain works. Long-term drug use interferes with normal brain functioning. Some of the impacts of drug use on the brain may be reversible, but some of them may not. Long-term drug use can also have serious medical and mental health complications. Chronic drug use can cause these major issues:
- Cancer
- Lung disease
- Heart disease
- Mental illness
- Infectious diseases
- Addiction
Irreversible medical conditions in alcoholics and drug users are indicative of health consequences that are long-lasting and permanent. They can even continue after a person has stopped taking the substance. drugs have the potency enough to change how the brain works and interfere with a person’s decision-making abilities, leading to intense cravings and compulsive drug use. People suffering from drug and alcohol addiction lose control over cognitive functions and have a higher risk of unintentional injuries, accidents, and incidents related to domestic violence. A few of the undesired effects of persistent alcohol/substance abuse include liver disease, heart diseases, oesophageal cancer, and cancers relating to the stomach and other parts of the body. These are unfortunately irreversible and, in most cases, prove fatal.
Treatment for Substance Abuse
Evoke Wellness at Cohasset provides men, women, and families with comprehensive, integrated care, geared toward setting a solid and lasting foundation for lifelong recovery from substance use disorders. Our facilities are staffed by experienced and compassionate professionals, including licensed therapists and psychiatrists, addiction specialists, and highly qualified support staff. Our team members are extremely understanding and treat each individual client with an unmatched level of respect. Evoke Wellness at Cohasset is fully accredited by the Joint Commission, which shows our dedication to offering the highest quality of addiction care for each person that steps through our doors.
