How Do Drugs Affect The Brain

To understand addiction further, it is important to look at how drugs have neurological effects in a human body. Drugs can be ingested in various ways; while some are taken orally, some are smoked (cannabis) while others are injected directly into the blood stream (Heroin). Once in the body, they mainly affect the reward pathway in the brain, known as the dopaminergic pathway, which in turn gives pleasure. Even though all drugs affect the reward and motivation pathways in the brain, their speed depends on the way the drug has been consumed. Over constant use of drugs, the cognitive functions are impaired as the effects become more prominent in learning, memory

Substance use disorder is not a brain disease, and it will be proven in this paper. Drugs are addicting, and habit forming. Does this make it a brain disease? There can be many different brain diseases, including infections, seizures, trauma, tumors, etc. People could become dependent on a drug the first time they use it, or after chronic use. It really depends on their tolerance to that particular drug. The fact-based accounts from recovered addicts commonly point to the role of monetary and family apprehensions, that is, possibilities other than those directly connected to obtaining and taking drugs, as being main features in their termination of drug exploitation. They basically have an alternative choice that changes from abuse of a drug

Drugs some use them to escape pain, others use them for pleasure, and some use them to just fit in. Either way drugs are a harmful substance that may seriously affect the body. Drugs mess with the brain in ways that we couldn’t even imagine. From destroying brain cells that help with critical thinking to destroying cells that give us the ability to feel pleasure. Drugs take the place of our natural body functions of the body. They fool receptors of the body and make it to where our bodies produce less of what we need. Over a period of time this may produce very severe consequences on the body. With all the risks involved with drugs it’s a wonder why some people use them.

An alcoholic beverage is a drink that contains a psychoactive drug ethanol, a depressant which in low doses causes euphoria, reduced anxiety, sociability which in higher doses could be caused by unconsciousness, lack of critical mental function and intoxication. Drinking alcoholic beverages is not a current event, the production, transportation and the distribution of alcohol were banned in the 1920s under the presidency of President Woodrow Wilson by the Eighteenth Amendment. This paper talks about the effects of excessive drinking of alcohol termed as alcohol dependence on the volume or size of the hippocampus of humans. The hippocampus is a small organ located in the temporal lobe. The hippocampus is an important part of the limbic system. The hippocampus is mainly associated with memory, mainly long-term memory which is important in the learning process.

Addiction of cocaine has proven to be a lifetime addiction and there is always a possibility for relapse even after years of curtailment. These drugs have the ability to alter the physical makeup of the brain.

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

Methamphetamine is a highly addictive stimulant that can be taken in a number of ways. Many of the chemicals that are commonly used in making meth are things like brake cleaner, engine starter, rubbing alcohol, batteries, and fertilizer. When using meth, the person's brain releases high amounts of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which deals with the brain's reward and pleasure areas of the brain. The use of the drug is able to alter the chemicals of the brain fairly quickly, which makes the drug so addictive and allows people to feel a sort of rush when using the drug. Due to how fast the drug works, many users are often chasing after the same rush they got when it was first taken.

In today’s session, group members received education on how alcohol and drug abuse affects the brain chemistry. Group members learned how different categories of substances and how they act in the mind and body.

Drug addiction is a very complicated illness. People have a compulsive and uncontrollable urge to keep using the substance. Addiction affects many circuits in the brain, including the ones that are involved in memory, learning and reward.

The issue that is being addressed is drug addiction. There are two different sides to it. Some people will say that it is a choice and some people will say that it is a disease. “Addiction is a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry (American Society of Addiction Medicine). Addiction affects the brain in many ways. It affects the neurotransmission and interactions within the brain.

Ecstasy is both a hallucinogenic, causing hallucination, and a stimulant drug. Ecstasy is the name given to methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). It was first synthesized in 1912 by Merck chemist Anton Köllisch. Ecstasy appears to disturb the body 's ability to regulate its temperature and this can lead to serious problems with overheating of the body. Ecstasy can be swallowed as a pill or tablet or snorted like a powder. Users of ecstasy can experience a rush of good feelings, a high, and makes someone 's feelings much more intense, whether they 're good or bad feelings. Ecstasy’s effects usually last up to 6 hours.

For drugs to have an effect on someone, it must enter the person’s body and bloodstream so it can interact with the person’s brain. Drugs that enter the bloodstream faster tend to have more of an intense effect. Drugs affect a persons feeling, and behavior because it disrupts the communication between the brain cells. Some drugs mimic neurotransmitters; for example, heroin, and oxycontin. They change the brains opioids, so it will stimulate their receptors. Some drugs alter the neurotransmitter, by interacting with the components that sends and receives information. Also, some drugs alter the neurotransmitter by increasing and decreasing receptors.

Many psychiatric and psychoactive drugs that are available on the market, pharmaceutically or illegally, closely resemble neurotransmitters and are actually able to mimic it to the extent that it fools the receptors. Basically, these drugs hijack the neurotransmitters. Once these drugs are ingested, it enters into the brain, gets into the synapse and binds itself to the receptor. This then causes the inappropriate release of neurotransmitters and alter the breakdown and recycling of neurotransmitters or can be used to destroy particular neurotransmitters completely (Sapolsky, 2005, p. 14).

Many people don't understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. They may mistakenly think that those who use drugs lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop their drug use simply by choosing to. In reality, drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will. Drugs change the brain in ways that make quitting hard, even for those who want to. Fortunately, researchers know more than ever about how drugs affect the brain and have found treatments that can help people recover from drug addiction and lead productive lives.

Drugs are used in many ways. There are good types of drugs and very harmful, illegal types of drugs. Too many of any type of drug is bad for you but, illegal drugs can cause the worst type of damage to the human body. Drugs can affect your mental and physical health. Drugs that are psychoactive, such as cannabis, alcohol, ecstasy and heroin have the ability to affect your mood. They can cause certain emotions to spike or cause others to go down. Drugs interfere with the chemicals in your brain. People use drugs to get the short term effect but the long term effect is what matters most. Different drugs enter the body in different ways. The way they enter impacts how the drugs affect that person. For example, injection takes the drug directly into the blood stream providing more immediate effects, while ingestion requires the drug to pass through the digestive system, delaying the effects. Most drugs target the brain by flooding it with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, cognition, motivation, and feelings of pleasure. These types of drugs alter the way the brain works. This is what causes addiction. Once people begin it's hard for them to stop because of this. A lot of people who smoke marijuana say that there's nothing wrong with it but what happens when that isn't strong enough anymore. They go on to stronger things such as heroin or cocaine. Marijuana is sometimes considered good for