Drug Addiction On Human Service Profession

It is believed that certain individuals are predisposed or vulnerable to addiction based on biological, psychological and social influences. The euphoric high produced by many addictive substances is the result of overstimulation of the “pleasure center” of the brain. This is the same area that controls emotions, fear, self-control and overall feelings of wellness. The presence of these foreign chemicals creates a response that the brain will crave as soon as it fades. The brain’s chemistry works against its own health, as it rewires its decision making faculties around the primary goal of finding and taking more of the drug” (1). Many people mistakenly believe that psychological addiction is somehow less serious or real than physical addiction. The psychological aspects of addiction are much more challenging to repair and recover from than the physical addiction. Psychological addiction can last for years or even a lifetime.

The definition provided above is accessible and easy to understand; however, it initiates false beliefs among individuals because it fails to acknowledge that drug addiction is a mental health problem. Moreover, when words such as, “dependence”, “control” and “craving” are used to define drug addiction, it leaves an impression to the reader that addicts are indeed “people who cannot control their impulses.” Consequently, when we fail to recognize that drug addiction is a mental health problem, our focus is diverted towards the physical aspect of drug addiction. This could cause the belief among individuals that drugs alone cause the addiction. It is essential to acknowledge that there are chemical hooks in drugs; however, individuals need to understand that drugs alone do not cause the addiction. We need to identify and distinguish the “root cause” of addiction and ask ourselves: what caused the individual to take the drug in the first place?

According to Drugabuse.gov, Drug addiction is defined as a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences. Addiction is viewed as brain disease due to the changes that are going on in the brain due to the usage of the drugs, so it alters the structure and how it regularly functions. However, after reading Maia Szalavitz book, “Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary new way of understanding addiction (2016)”, she has a unique view of what brain addiction is and her experience with addiction. In her novel, she views addiction as a learning disorder, like in her case it started early on in her as a child learning to be addicted to other things that develop habits of pleasure, reaction that makes up their addiction. Her memoir is her personal experience with addiction with using reputable journals and study to convey her point on what her rollercoaster with addictions has been starting early on in early childhood.

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According to the biological perspective, drug use may start off as casual, but through continued use, it produces changes in the brain that influences the onset and maintenance of drug addiction. (Horvath et al., 2013). Drugs have their most prominent effects on the function of neurotransmitters. Almost all major drugs of abuse activate the reward system and cause a flood in the levels of dopamine which is a neurotransmitter that is involved in pleasure. As a result, not only do people learn to associate drug use with pleasure, but the brain also starts to reduce its own natural dopamine production in adjustment to the levels of dopamine produced by the drugs. This is called tolerance, and the consequences of tolerance are highly influential

Basic neurobiological research has improved our understanding of the biological and genetic causes of addiction. These findings have helped establish addiction as a biological brain disease that is chronic and relapsing in nature (Leshner, 1997). As the central nervous system is considered to be the communication pathway to the entire body with the brain being its control mechanism. The brain processes sensory information from throughout the body, guides muscle movement and locomotion, regulates a multitude of bodily functions, forms thoughts and feelings, modulates perception and moods, and essentially controls all behavior (Leshner, 1997). The body and brain then become defendant on this stimuli, as the body and brain adjust to the rewards of receiving this type of sensation. This is where the substance abuse and addiction problems

Drug addiction is a brain disease because drugs change the brain’s structure and how they work. Over a period of time drugs start to affect the brain by challenging an addicted person’s self-control and interfere with their ability to resist intense urges to take drugs. “Most drugs affect the brain's reward circuit by flooding it with the chemical messenger dopamine. This overstimulation of the reward circuit causes the intensely pleasurable "high" that leads people to take a drug again and again. Over time, the brain adjusts to the excess dopamine, which reduces the high that the person feels compared to the high they felt when first taking the drug—an effect known as tolerance. They might take more of the drug, trying to achieve the same dopamine high.”, States National Institute on Drug Abuse. After long term use of drugs it affects functions such as learning, judgment, decision-making, stress, memory, and behavior. Even though an addict knows this, they still use

Addiction treatment is a complex and paradoxical issue. Despite the fact that most of the medical and academic institutions define addiction as a chronic brain disease, it is too often treated on an acute basis. Chronic conditions are defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as requiring ongoing management over a period of years or decades and cover a wide range of health problems. The goals of chronic care are not to cure, but to enhance functional status, minimize distressing symptoms, prolong life through secondary prevention and enhance quality of life.

Ideas about addiction have mainly been developed from neurobiological evidence and data from studies of learning behavior and memory mechanisms. They overlap in some aspects and are not mutually exclusive. None of them can explain all aspects of addiction. Generally, addictive drugs can act as positive reinforcers or as negative ones. Environmental stimuli associated with drug use itself can also induce a conditioned response in the absence of the drug.

Addiction has a significant influence when the individual consumes a substance and employs in an activity that can be gratifying and the extended utilization becomes compelling and disrupts with the activities of daily living, obligations, comparatively, performance in the job, relationships, or health. Individuals who utilize various medications used in substance abuse may not be apprehensive of their demeanor; they may not be cognizant that their actions are disorderly and precipitating complications for themselves and the people around them Psychology Today (2015). A lot of drugs are addicting. Addiction is a lingering, recurring condition indicated by besetting drug pursuing and utilized in defiance of negative ramifications and by resilient distortion in the brain. Individuals who are addicted have robust yearning for the drug, making it laborious to cease usage. Medications used in substance abuse heightens the danger to injury or fatality from narcotized driving or defiling conditions such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome and Hepatitis from perilous sexual habits or

Addiction is like all behaviours “the business of the brain”. Addictions are compulsive physical and psychological needs from habit-forming sustenances like nicotine, alcohol, and drugs. Being occupied with or involved in such activities, leads a person who uses them again and again to become tolerant and dependent eventually experiencing withdrawal. (Molintas, 2006).

Continuous use of a certain drug results in the need to consume higher doses in order to achieve the same effect and by negative and painfully felt effects of sudden withdrawal of the drug. "The drug not only acts as a reinforcer, but sets the stage for the development of the motivation to obtain the drug." (Timmons & Hamilton). When this motivation develops, it becomes "...the major focus of a person's life to the exclusion of other activities"... and begins "...to harm the individual or others physically, mentally, or socially..."(Engs). This stage of drug abuse is known as addiction. Addicts become obsessed of the object, seeking it they get engaged in harmful behavior, which draws them away from family, friends, and studying. Substance abuse compromises psychological and social development and corrupts the processes of formation of a strong self-identity, emotional and intellectual growth, pursuing a career, and development of positive interpersonal

Addictions are strongholds and bondages that are more often than not difficult to overcome. The addiction holds a person’s well-being captive which result in unusual behavioral patterns. According to Gabor Maté and Arold Langeveld “addiction means be to a slave” relatively speaking when a person is addicted in reality they are a slave to the stimuli. Furthermore the outcome of addiction will result in behavioral patterns that will satisfy the addiction.

Many substances can be abused such as, marijuana, prescription drugs, meth, cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. Substance abuse is the inability to stop using a substance despite the negative consequences. Death is the main leading cause of using any substance along with jail time, injuring the individual, others, or damaging the brain cells in the body. There are many different ways or reasons that contribute to an individual’s reason to begin substance abuse, such as, peer pressure in social gatherings, family problems, or the environment they are in as well as their own mental state.

Addiction is a disease that sadly, far too many people suffer from. Addiction actually involves changes in the structure and function of the brain, this chance can in turn create compulsive substance use. Studies have recently found that the changes that happen to the brain during addiction, are very similar to the changes that happen to the brain with compulsive behaviors like gambling, bulimia, and compulsive eating. The reason for this is that humans feel pleasure when basic needs are met, the brain releases certain chemicals leaving feelings of pleasure. In the case of an addiction, substances cause the brain to release high levels of that chemical, and over time the continued use can cause a person to become dependent on the substance to feel normal (Gateway foundation). The changes in the brain can be brought on by