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Drug Addiction: Changes In The Brain

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Drug addiction is a form of a chronic disease, relapsing of the brain causes compulsive behaviors to seek drug use. Despite the harmful consequences that are a result of a drug addiction, millions of people still abuse drugs. The addiction is a disease of the brain because of the abuse of drugs, which causes a change in the structures, and functions of the brain. Drugs are chemicals that tap into the brain's communication system and change the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information. Even though it is true that most people initially make the decision to take drugs is a voluntary action and is not forced upon you. Over time the changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse change a person's self-control. This changes …show more content…

Research has shown that prevention programs can involve family, schools, communities and the media. They are extremely effective in reducing drug abuse. When young adults are aware of how harmful drug abuse is, they become more aware and it reduces their chances of drug use. It is necessary to help young adults understand the risks of drug abuse and for teachers, parents, and health care professionals to keep sending messages that drug addiction can be prevented if a person never abuses drugs, illegally (“Drug Abuse, Addiction, and the Brain”). Most times, people attempt to quit their nasty happen and end up quitting for a short period of time. Randomly though, they start using or abusing drugs again, no matter how hard they try. The return to their drugs again is called relapse. The people who are in recovering from a bad drug addiction often have at least one or more relapses along the way. Recovering from an addiction has to have a life-long effort. Withdrawal is never comfortable, but sometimes it can actually be dangerous (“What is a Relapse?”). Alcohol after long-term use, the withdrawal from alcohol can kill you. Alcohol withdrawal syndrome can take on mild, moderate, or severe forms. This withdrawal can cause a person to develop a fever, nausea, diarrhea, or delirium tremens. Opiates usually opiates are not deadly, but in this case they are. Methadone, a long-acting opiate often prescribed as a replacement for heroin can cause death during withdrawal if it's consumed in high enough doses for a long enough period

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Hi everyone, I have decided to write my paper on an article called "The Likely Causes of Addiction Has Been Discovered, and It Is Not What You Think. " This article was in the Huffington Post and is written by Johann Hari, the author of "Chasing The Scream: The First And Last Days of The War on Drugs." In this article Johann Hari talks about how addiction is caused be a chemical dependency, or so everyone has thought this for all these years. Chemical dependency is caused by a chemically in-balance in the brain, where when one experiences pleasure, serotonin 's are released into the brain which is more like a natural high. Now when a person takes a drug, the drug then replaces those serotonin 's and the brain no longer can produce

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Around 270 million people had used psychoactive drugs in the past year and about 35 million are estimated to be affected by drug abuse disorders. Drug addiction is a chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite consequences. It is very common for a person to relapse even after treatment. As a person uses drugs, their brain becomes more adapted to the drug, increasing the tolerance of the person. Long term effects could cause a change in chemical systems and circuits of the brain.

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When one abuses drugs, their brain is altered and affected in a way that causes them to continue to use drugs. In “Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction”, published by the NIDA, drugs are able to influence and alter the brain in many ways that may lead to addiction. The article states, “Most drugs of abuse directly or indirectly target the brain’s reward system by flooding the circuit with dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter present in regions of the brain that regulate movement, emotion, motivation, and feelings of pleasure [...] Overstimulating the system with drugs, however, produces euphoric effects, which strongly reinforce the behavior of drug use—teaching the user to repeat it” (“Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction”).

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