Substance Abuse And Addiction Essay

Substance abuse and addiction has been around for many years and it is very harmful to people’s overall health. Substance addiction is a disorder that involves an uncontrollable use of a substance. It is important that people know about this so that they can decrease their chances of developing an addiction and acknowledge the harmful effects. It is also important for people to know about the treatments so they can help themselves, their family members, or friends who might be dealing with substance abuse and addiction. We will look into some risk factors of substance abuse and addiction, the effects it has on a person’s physical and mental well being, and some available treatments. How addiction is developed is different for everyone and

According to nida.nih.gov (July 2020), depending on how someone takes a drug, it increases their chance of getting certain diseases such as HIV if they use injections or dental problems and if they smoke. Additionally, some drugs can also damage or destroy a person’s nerve cells in the brain or outside the brain. These are some of the physical effects substance abuse can cause. All these can increase risk of death and organ damage. Substance abuse doesn’t only affect someone physically but it can also affect someone mentally too. As stated by nida.nih.gov (July 2020), substance abuse may cause a person to develop a mental illness or worsen an already existing one. Mental illness such as anxiety and depression that exist before a person develops a substance addiction may worsen as addiction alters how the brain works which can interfere with how they function. Addiction may also cause a person to develop a mental illness like depression if the person tries to stop using a substance but is unable to. In general, substance abuse can be very detrimental to a person’s health in many ways both physically and

According to americanaddictioncenters.org (Oct 21, 2022), the levels and types of treatments are detoxification where it helps patients stabilize and overcome symptoms of withdrawal, inpatient/residential rehab where patients will receive supervised treatments and structured care plans to help them overcome their addiction, and outpatient rehab where patients go to their treatments and therapy on their own and at their own time without supervision. Treatment can be a very long process and it is important that it goes step by step to ensure that a patient doesn’t relapse. Relapses can be very dangerous and common but with effective treatment they should be less likely to happen. In brief, there are numerous treatments to help people dealing with substance