Have your teachers or bosses talked to you about drinking, drugs, tobacco, or gambling? Physical health How has using alcohol, drugs, or tobacco affected your physical body health? Have you ever had an overdose? Have you been hurt such as an injury or fight when drinking or using drugs? Has a doctor told you to stop drinking or using drugs?
Have you been sick and had to stay home because you were drinking or using drugs? Have you ever injected drugs used drugs with a needle? Emotional and mental health How has drinking alcohol or using drugs affected your emotional and mental health? Have you ever felt guilty or embarrassed about drinking, using drugs, using tobacco, or gambling? Are you depressed about your life? Do your moods change quickly?
Do you hide how much you're drinking, using drugs, or gambling from family or friends? Do you feel like nothing has turned out right for you? Do you drink or use drugs just to feel normal? Have you ever tried to hurt yourself such as slashing, burning, or carving your skin? Spiritual health How has using drugs or drinking alcohol affected your spirituality? How has using drugs or drinking affected your sense of peace and how it feels to be you? Do you feel less supported and less connected to others than you used to?
This area of the brain affects instinct and mood. Drugs target this system, which causes large amounts of dopamine—a brain chemical that helps regulate emotions and feelings of pleasure—to flood the brain.
Although initial drug use may be voluntary, drugs can alter brain chemistry. It can lead to intense cravings and compulsive drug use. Over time, this behavior can turn into a substance dependency or drug and alcohol addiction.
These can influence mood, behavior and other cognitive function. Brain damage may also occur through alcohol-induced nutrition deficiencies, alcohol-induced seizures and liver disease.
In pregnant women, alcohol exposure can impact the brains of unborn babies, resulting in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. It is reported that alcohol-induced brain problems can often be corrected with proper treatment.
Abstinence from alcohol for months or years can help partially repair thinking abilities, like memory skills. Substance use disorders can lead to multiple behavioral problems, both in the short- and long-term, which can include:. These effects of drug abuse have serious consequences, like missed work, punishable offenses, accidents and injuries.
In fact, alcohol and drugs are partly to blame in an estimated 80 percent of offenses leading to jail time in the U. These incidents include domestic violence, driving while intoxicated and offenses related to damaged property.
Legal and illegal drugs excluding alcohol are involved in about 16 percent of motor vehicle crashes. In the past year, almost 12 million people drove under the influence of illicit drugs, and almost 4, fatally injured drivers tested positive for drug involvement. Your friends and family will probably find it hard to understand why you just cannot stop using drugs when it is causing so much harm.
It is difficult for them to understand the pull that the drugs have over you. This can lead to strained relationships. Addiction is often referred to as a family illness because every member of the family will be affected in some way or another. If you are funding an illegal drug addiction, you will know that your financial situation is negatively impacted. The cost of buying illegal drugs and the fact that your consumption levels will continue to increase can leave you and your family in difficulty.
You may even begin to use money that is needed for other things, or start borrowing from family members, friends, and lending institutes in a bid to get your hands on the drug you crave. Even if you are addicted to prescription medication, you could find that your financial situation is affected. Just because you are getting your medication from the NHS does not mean you will not suffer financially. After a while, your doctor might decide that your prescription should not continue and that you should stop taking your medication as you no longer need it, unaware that you have developed an addiction.
Out of desperation, you could find yourself buying medication online or turning to street drugs to get your fix. Finances are also affected by an inability to work, caused by the effects of the substance being abused. The longer the abuse of this substance continues, the worse the effects will become. Poor performance or continued absenteeism can often lead to unemployment. When thinking about how drug addiction affects your life, you may begin wondering if there is anything you can do to improve your current situation.
The good news is that you do not have to continue living with addiction hanging over your head. Although there is no cure for addiction, it can be treated with a programme of detox and rehabilitation.
There are some individuals who cannot imagine a life where drugs do not play a role; these people fail to get the help they need to get better. Nevertheless, recovery is possible for everyone — even those with a severe drug addiction. Recovery Lighthouse has helped many people to overcome their addictions to various drugs.
Even those who believed that a sober life was out of their reach have managed to go on to live productive lives with their loved ones. They completed a programme of detoxification to break their physical addiction and then went through a series of therapeutic treatments with support from a team of dedicated and fully trained professionals.
Here they learned new positive coping strategies that they then took with them on their return to independent, sober living. Some drugs can create addiction or dependence much quicker than others. Some people may be more vulnerable to experiencing addiction than others. Whatever the addiction, there are lots of ways you can seek help. Talk to your GP for advice. You can also contact an organisation that helps people with addiction.
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