SUBSTANCE ABUSE; Types, Causes, Treatment, Prevention

What is Substance Abuse

Substance abuse refers to the harmful or hazardous use of psychoactive substances such as alcohol, drugs for mood alternating purposes.

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Types of substance abuse:-

They are mainly 2 types of Substance abuse

1. Alcohol use disorder

2. Drug use disorder

Alcohol use disorder:-

Alcohol is the most commonly abused Substance and if people drink it a lot they lose control over many things such as how much they consume alcohol. If you’re a man and you drink more than 4 drinks a day and if you’re a woman and drink more than 3 drinks a day it is harmful to health and may arise problems such as liver, heart. As a drink is equal to 12 ounces of regular beer and 5 ounces of wine.

Indications of drug use disorder are:-

• Extreme mood
• Drinking alone in secrecy
• Finding ways to drink
• Neglecting responsibility towards family, friends and work
• Anxiety, aggressive mood

Drug use disorder:-

illegal and legal use of drugs can lead to drug addiction. Drugs such as heroin, nicotine, caffeine, methamphetamine, benzodiazepines, steroids are such highly addictive substances. These substances may give relief to you but are not good for your health and when you get addicted to it. It arises a lot of problems mentally and physically to your health.

Indications of drugs use disorder:-

• Drastic changes may occur in behaviour
• Feels difficulty in speaking
• Lack of energy and motivation
• Poor hygiene and appearance
• Neglecting responsibility towards family, friends and work

Now let’s just talk about how you feel when you have drugs

Heroin:-

It is a natural version of man-made prescription opined. The drug heroin gives you a good feeling in the start but when you get addicted to it everything slows down and you may have nausea, nervousness. As you are an addictive of it you may feel of consuming it more and more and when you don’t get your dose you become aggressive.

Cocaine:-

When you use cocaine you may feel good and be able to do your work fast and think faster. You may also feel happy and energetic but after it’s some amount of use you may feel or experience anger. You start doing things which don’t make sense and you start craving more and more for the drug.

Marijuana:-

Marijuana is a dried mix of cannabis plant of flowers, seeds, stems, leaves. It makes you feel silly and you may laugh for no reason. You may not be able to remember things that just happened. You may feel sleepy and sleep at odd hours.

Methamphetamine:-

Methamphetamine can be snorted, injected, smoked. It can produce long term wakefulness. It may also increase your heartbeat, body temperature, blood pressure. If used for a long time it can lead to insomnia, mood swings, anxiety.

 

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Causes of Substance use disorder:-

There are many risk factors of Substance abuse and depends and varies from person to person sometimes. Taking highly addictive drugs and developing Substance abuse in their teenage and be continued to adulthood also. Physical addiction occurs when a person repeatedly uses drugs and which causes physical changes to some nerve cells in your brain.

Risk factors:-

Family history of addiction:-

if your parent or sibling is having Substance abuse then it may be genetic and you may also have substance abuse

Mental health disorder:-

if you are a depression patient or suffering from hyperactivity disorder then you may get addicted to drugs or alcohol for coping up with your pain or problem.

Lack of family or friends:-

Lack of bonding with parents or siblings may increase the risk of addiction as there may be no parental guidance.

 

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Treatment:-

It’s not really easy for people to get out of Substance abuse but through some ways, it can be possible. Most patients need long term treatment. There are many options such as-

● Medications

● Behavioural counselling from a therapist

● Motivational enhancement therapy (MET)

 

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Prevention:-

As we say “Prevention is better than cure” Let’s see how can we prevent ourselves from Substance abuse.

1. Reducing the use of illegal drugs or alcohol

2. Family-based Prevention program

3. Making awareness of addiction