Heroin Negative Effects

Heroin, a powerful narcotic, acts upon the brain as a painkiller, increasing physical addiction and ongoing emotional dependence (Schaffer Library of…). Heroin has many challenging and highly risky effects on the user, all the more hazardous if overdosing is present. This extremely dangerous drug, heroin, will never cease being used, but may cease the existence of an individual.

Becoming a Heroin addict after being proscribed pain medication is more common than people know. Working in the medical field has been a major revelation for me when it comes to understanding a person that has an addiction. For most people that start using heroin as their priority drug, is due to no longer having access to proscription opiate medications. A lot of people become

Heroin provides a rush feeling in the brain which is can be accompanied by the following symptoms; a warm flushing of the skin, a dry mouth, and a heavy feeling in the extremities. The following side effects often present themselves nausea, vomiting and severe itching. After the initial effects of heroin have faded, abusers will be drowsy for several hours. With heroin the individual's mental function is often clouded because of the drugs effect on the central nervous system. Long term abuse of the drug can result in respiratory and cardiac functions slowing this are often the cause of death in heroin

Heroin has been a quiet crisis on the rise over the last few decades, wreaking havoc on communities and families. Hesitance to talk about the heroin crisis makes it difficult to fight the growing trend of abuse. According to the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, the increase of heroin abuse has risen 80 percent since 2002 (Jones). The medical effects of addicts abusing their bodies and neglecting their health are a variety of medical conditions. A short term abuser may experience depressed respiration, distorted mental functioning, nausea and vomiting (Volkow). The long term effects of heroin abuse can be addiction, infectious disease as in HIV, hepatitis B and C, collapsed veins, bacterial infections, abscesses and infection of the heart

As a result, when someone tries to stop or decrease their opioid use, they may experience the symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The risk of experiencing opioid withdrawal symptoms is higher for someone who has been using these drugs at high doses for a few weeks or more. The reason why is simple. Many bodily systems are impacted and altered when you take large amounts of opioids for an extended period of time. When someone stops taking opioids, their body has to adjust to no longer having opioids in it, and withdrawal symptoms

“Heroin use results in a massive amplification of dopamine activity (Sherman, 2007)”, which produces intense pleasure. It mimic's the brain’s naturally occurring opioid endorphin neurotransmitter. The chances that heroin use will lead to addiction is associated the speed in which heroin promotes dopamine, the intensity of dopamine effects and the reliability that dopamine effects will occur. It has high activity on opioid receptors, which means that there is a very high intensity of pleasure. It also has near perfect reliability for producing pleasure (Sherman, 2007).

Heroin is extremely addictive and is notorious for being one of the hardest drugs to stop using. Most who try to quit cold turkey are unsuccessful due to the severe withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms are both physical and psychological. To avoid these symptoms,

In a short term perspective the user talks about a “rush” of pleasure. Depending on the the intensity of the rush show how fast the drug enters the brain and binds to the MORs. With heroin, the rush can be associated with flush and warm skin, heavy sensation of extremities, reduced feeling of pain, and drowsiness. Sometimes these effects can also come with vomiting, itching and dry mouth. After several hours of the initial effects the user body slows. This includes the heart, mind and breathing, which can be life threatening. (What Effects) If slowed enough the user could fall into a coma causing severe brain damage.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse educates society by saying, “People who inject drugs such as heroin are at high risk of contracting the HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) virus.” Users can receive these diseases if they use the same needles with other people. Reused needles could have blood or other fluids still on them from the previous user, which can carry out onto the next person and cause them to get infected with a disease. Another cause of heroin addiction is the tolerance of one’s body. It does not take much for an individual’s body to adjust to heroin. NIDA states that, “Heroin also produces profound degrees of tolerance and physical dependence.” Eventually when the user intakes heroin, their body slowly adapts and learns to tolerate the substance. Soon enough, the normal dose does not satisfy the user, so to receive the rush and euphoric effect, individuals would have start increasing the doses they take. Increasing the doses that they take can begin to lead them to using too much and the individual may unintentionally overdose.

Psychological effects are very pronounced. To a heroin addict there is only two groups of people, the user and everyone else. The addict will often surround himself with other users. This ensures a continued supply of the drug as well as someone who will keep their dirty secret. This is also dangerous on two other related front. Since HIV and hepatitis can be transmitted with a shared needle they append other health related issues. The effect continues when the addiction causes a person to withdraw from their family, careers are ruined, debt increases and illegal activities is perpetrated. For most addicts there is only three consequences. They are incarceration, mental hospital or death.

Withdrawal symptoms can include muscle and bone pain, sleep problems, diarrhea and vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps, uncontrollable leg movements, severe heroin cravings (“Heroin”).

Heroin is bad. That should not come as a surprise. What might come as a surprise, on the other hand, is that America is currently going through a heroin epidemic. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “Heroin use more than doubled among young adults aged 18-25 in the past decade.” However, heroin addictions do not arise ex nihilo. The silent perpetrators are pharmaceutical companies and their weapons are prescription painkillers.

Permanent use of opiates can change the way the nerve cells inside our brains work. They wrap up getting used to the occurrence of the opiates, and they commence to need it in order to work as normally as possible. In case you decrease your intake or suddenly stop your dependent nerve cells from getting their usual medication dosage, they become overactive. These causes various withdrawal symptoms such as fever, sweating, aching, extreme craving for the drug, shaking and chills, and other far worse. It is usually strong during the first 6 to fifteen hours, intensifies in the next 2 to 4 days and nights, and little by little declines in two or three days. But the good news is that your nerve cells will normally work again, and you could get your opiate-addiction free life

Heroin is a highly addictive, illegal opiate drug that could result in death by overdose. Moreover, heroin users tend to be addicted to other opiate prescription drugs,

Withdrawal can set in as soon as 8 hours after previous heroin use, and can include any of the following symptoms: drug craving, restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea and vomiting, kicking movements, goose bumps, and depression (3).