




Facts
As youth abuse alcohol and illicit drugs, they may establish a continuing pattern of behavior that damages their legal record, educational options, psychological stability, and social development. Drug use (particularly inhalants and solvents) may lead to cognitive deficits and perhaps irreversible brain damage. Adolescents who use drugs are likely to interact primarily with peers who use drugs, so relationships with friends, including relationships with the opposite sex, may be unhealthy, and the adolescent may develop a limited repertoire of social skills. Since World War II, the peak years for illicit drug use were in the late 1970s, when approximately 25 million persons used a proscribed substance in any thirty-day period. Overall illicit drug use has been declining since 1985. The yearly National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, which is the most influential source of epidemiology data, reported that in 1997 marijuana was used by 11.1 million persons or 80 percent of illicit drug users (Office of Applied Studies 1999). Sixty percent only used marijuana but 20 percent used it along with another illicit substance. During the 1990s, the rate of marijuana initiation among youths aged twelve to seventeen reached a new high, of approximately 2.5 million per year. The level of current use of this age group (9.4 percent) is substantially less than the rate in 1979 (14.2 percent). Twenty percent of illicit drug users in 1997, ingested a substance other than marijuana in the month preceding the interviews. Some 1.5 million Americans, down from 5.7 million in 1985, used cocaine in the same period; the number of crack users, approximately 600,000, has remained nearly constant for the last ten years. At least 408,000 individuals used heroin in 1997, with the estimated number of new users at the highest level in thirty years. She never mentions the incident to him or anybody else. If anyone else mentions it, she denies there is a problem. She lies for him, covers up for his mistakes, and protects him from the world. As the problems increase and his drinking gets worse, she takes on responsibilites that were once his. She may get a job or work extra hours to pay the bills. And if he gets in trouble with the law, she will move heaven and earth to come up with his bail. Are inhalants dangerous only after long-time use? No. Some damage done by inhalants occurs after many uses over a period of time. But time is not a factor in a syndrome called sudden sniffing death. An otherwise healthy, first-time abuser is as vulnerable as a longtime user to this fatal effect. Victims of sudden sniffing death die within several minutes after inhaling, usually too quickly to reach a hospital. Inhalants make the heart extra sensitive to adrenaline, a hormone secreted in reaction to stresses. Adrenaline can trigger an irregular heartbeat, which disrupts the body's ability to ship oxygen-rich blood to the brain. Lastly, if an abuser is startled or sent into a fight-or-flight reaction, the body will release extra adrenaline. The extra-sensitivity can disturb the heart rhythm to the point of fatal cardiac arrest. |
Drug Side Effects
Drug addiction and abuse comes with a heavy price. There are drastic drug side effects associated with drug misuse and abuse. Drug side effects from legal and illegal drugs can range from mild itching to comas and death. In addition to the physical drug side effects mentioned, there are many psychological drug side effects of drug abuse; the most serious being drug addiction and overdose.
Relapse
Relapse is a term used to describe when an individual who has quit using drugs starts using once again. A relapse can mean just a one time use, a long term continues period of using or anything in between after a period of sobriety has taken place. An individual begins to experience a psychological relapse long before their first use after
quitting. Some things that can lead to relapse both physically or psychologically include: 1. Being in the presence of drugs or alcohol, drug or alcohol users, or places where you used or bought chemicals. 2. Feelings we perceive as negative, particularly anger; also sadness, loneliness, guilt, fear, and anxiety. 3. Positive feelings that make you want to celebrate by using. 4. Listening to others past drug use stories and just dwelling on getting high. 5. Believing that you no longer have to worry (complacent). That is, that you are no longer stimulated to crave drugs/alcohol by any of the above situations or by anything else – and therefore maybe it’s safe for you to use occasionally.
Drug Abuse
Drug abuse is defined as the chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance to alter states of body or mind for other than medically warranted purposes. Drug abuse is a problem which has an effect on people of all income levels,
ages, and stations in life. Quite often the last person to see that there is a
problem is the drug abuser them self. Every year, more and more people become
drug addicts in their pursuit to get "high".
Abstinence
Abstinence is the act or practice of refraining from indulging a desire. The type of abstinence we are referring to here is abstinence from drugs and alcohol. This term has two connotations when it comes to abstaining from drugs. The first refers to drug or alcohol treatment programs that aim to help an individual stop using drugs or alcohol for the rest of their lives. The time abstinence is also used in drug education and prevention. It refers to trying to stop children from ever using drugs.
Dependence
Dependence is the compulsive use of a substance despite negative consequences which can be severe; drug dependence is simply excessive use of a drug or use of a drug for purposes for which it was not medically intended. Physical dependence on a substance (needing a drug to function) is not necessary or sufficient to define addiction. There are some substances that don't cause addiction but do cause physical dependence (for example, some blood pressure medications) and substances that cause addiction but not classic physical dependence (cocaine withdrawal, for example, it does not have symptoms like vomiting and chills; it is mainly characterized by depression).
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