Addiction And Drug Abuse

Addiction to substances represents one of the most insidious diseases known to mankind. Given the serious nature and sensitivity that surrounds addiction, the only viable path to recovery from this disease tends to be through spending time in a reputable drug and alcohol rehab treatment center. Any efforts to try to classify all addicts into one group represents nothing more than an exercise in futility.

Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disorder which produces compulsive drug seeking and use. The abuse of drugs leads to changes in the function and structure of the brain. Consuming chemical substances to achieve pleasure or euphoria The most commonly abused classes of prescription drugs according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse include opioids used for chronic pain; central nervous system (CNS) depressants used in anxiety and sleep disorder treatments; and stimulants, such as amphetamine among others, utilized to treat attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy.[4]

Addiction is something that most of my family and many others in the world face today. Addiction can look like many things: drug abuse, the lust of money, or even having an extreme obsession. What defines addiction is whether if a person is deprived of something and then goes through physical or mental withdraws. My parents happen to go through many of these withdraws when deprived of the drug methamphetamine.

The term addiction holds many different meanings in today’s society, but in the past it has been referred to as a sort of devotion to something. Over time, a more modern definition of the term has developed that links addiction to harmful involvement with drugs that eventually has potential of produce withdrawal or tolerance in an individual (Alexander & Schweighofer, 1988). Although the word addiction holds a more general meaning in a modern context it pertains to any kind of compulsive use. Current psychological authorities refer to drug addictions as substance abuse rather than simply an addiction for many reasons; the two conditions can be differentiated by the specificity of the substance being

Society as a whole is impacted greatly by substance abuse and addiction. Not only does it hurt the abuser directly, but it also becomes an enormous financial and social burden on society. Addiction wrecks families, and also highly correlates with poverty because the drug abuser ends up giving everything that they have to keep their addiction going. It also places extraordinarily high demands on the education, criminal justice, and social service systems. Children and babies both are dangerously impacted by the addiction of their parents and the same addiction is likely to even show up in their own lives later on. Drug babies are being born every day already addicted to the same substances their mothers have abused; they are the ones who truly suffer the greatest consequences of the effects of addiction. Teenagers are peer pressured by the alcohol and beer industries to drink; many alcoholics in our society are a result from binge drinking while in college and even in high school. People bound by these addictions who never get the help they truly need or lose their family and feel alone often commit suicide because they feel they are unimportant to society and that ending their own lives is their only means of escape.

School Counselors support all students so that they can succeed in the school setting, including those that have addictions or addictive behaviors. This is a challenging area, and school counselors must be able to understand causes and recognize signs of addictions, and provide services to support the needs of these students. Therefore, this paper discusses and evaluates the causes of addictions and addictive behaviors, analyzes possible sings of substance abuse and addiction in students, and designs and evaluates prevention, intervention, and treatment strategies for students with commonly found addictions. Further, this paper presents a hypothetical case study and applies effective counseling skills and strategies for helping a student with a substance use issue.

Addiction is a chronic and relapsing disorder that can have devastating affects on physical, mental and emotional health of the addict and also has drastic affects on the family members of addicts. There are wide variety of things one can be addicted to including, drugs, gambling, sex, overeating and videogames. For the purpose of this paper, addiction to drugs and alcohol will be examined and discussed. More specifically, the aspects that will be investigated are etiology, affects on the brain, treatment options and further research directions for this debilitating disorder.

Substance abuse and drug addiction affects people from all walks of life. Drugs are available to those who want to consume them. Even though there vast amounts of literature and other informative and preventive data, people still choose to abuse drugs. Unfortunately, most of them become addicts and find it very difficult to escape their addiction for the reason that underlying issues may be causing them to seek and use drugs. There exists a number of special populations that are identified and may use drugs to cope certain stress factors in their life.

And some substances are more addictive than others: Drugs like crack or heroin are so addictive that they might only be used once or twice before the user loses control.

Substance abuse and the addiction to these substances that can result takes a terrible toll on families and friends of an addict. The problem becomes even larger when we look at all the millions of addicts in society when we consider drugs, alcohol, smoking and all the other substances that people can become addicted to. These are addictions that have a powerful physiological effect on people but then there are behavioral addictions such as gambling. It has been commonplace over the past couple decades to regard those who face addiction as having a disease, but there are increasing numbers of experts who say this view is wrong.

My mother met my father in high school, and fell in love. They got married straight out of high school, everyone was telling my mother that it was a bad idea to marry him but she was just in love with him. They had a good marriage for the first few months, then he started drinking and doing drugs and it all went down from there. They were married for around 4 years, my mom said they were the worst years of her life. During this terrible time, my mom was physically and mentally abused by the man who she thought loved her.

It is important to define fine lines among the terms mainly considered as synonyms with substance use. The substance use describes the occasional usage of the illicit drug or consuming alcohol, which has the potential to get converted into drug addiction if the person starts using illegal drugs/substances regularly (8). So it is relatively easy to link substance use with the substance abuse that further lead to addiction, some time described as substance dependency (9). From psychological and sociocultural perspectives the substance use is the mother of further issue associated improper use of drugs and other products harming people lives.

General studies have proven the fact that substances have an adverse effect on the brain and how it functions. Studies are showing a number of links between drugs and brain disorders. Medication aiding in the treatment of addiction has proven to have frequent positive results.

They speed up the action of the brain. They make people feel more alert, more confident and less tired.

Drug addiction is one of society 's biggest problems and it is rampant among teenagers and young adults and one of the most abused drugs is marijuana. Cannabis sativa or marijuana usually grows throughout tropical and temperate climates and then plant 's stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds are then dried. What attracts to most users is the mind altering effect these parts produce which is addictive to some extent. It is usually smoked as cigarette, or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, in which cigars will be emptied of tobacco and refill with marijuana or sometimes it is combined with another drug. It can also be brewed as tea or mixed in food. Hashis is a more concentrated, resinous form which is sticky black liquid, hash oil. The