Drugs: What leads to addiction

By: Jason Park

Overdose of addictive drugs are big social issues in America. Though there has been many efforts to save people from drug abuses, still half of people 12 and older have used illicit drugs at least once, according to NCDAS. Now deaths by drug overdose in US since 2000 are near a million people. Then, why so many people are addicted to drugs? It is because drugs affect our body's central nervous system, which affects how a person thinks and behaves. And those changes appear to be positive, in person's mind, because drugs can also manipulate one's sentiment, and destroy person's body to death, depending on the types of drugs.

There are 7 major types of drugs, depressants, psychedelics, stimulants, empathogens, opioids, cannabinoids, and dissociatives. Depressants slow down the message signalings between brain and body, causing relaxation and drowsiness. Alcohol is in this category. Psychedelics, also known as hallucinogens, affect major sensory organs, which can cause hallucination by altering a person's sense of time and emotions. Psychedelics include LSD. Stimulants speed up the massage between brain and body, making person more awake and alert. Stimulants include cocaine. Empathogens increase a person's feeling of empathy towards others, and evoke feelings of socially accepted. MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, is an example of empathogens. Opioids include any drug that acts on opioid receptors in the brain, and slow heart rate and breathing, providing pleasure and pain relief. Morphine, heroin, fentanyl are all opioids. Cannabinoids are chemical compounds found in cannabis plant, which evokes psychoactive affects like happiness, anxiety or paranoid. All cannabis products are in this category. Dissociatives, also known as dissociative anaesthetics, cause person to be separated from reality, causing hallucinations. PCP and ketamine are dissociatives.

Once people are exposed and addicted to any kind of those drugs and feel their effect-usually good in the first dosages- show common behavior that potentially leads to severe health problem, is dependence. Dependence can be shown both physically and psychologically. Whenever addict attempts to quit the drug, if the person is too late, he starts to get anxiety and depression which pulls his hand to drug again. In serious cases, symptoms like muscle weakness, nausea, and vomiting appear. Then what can a person do to stop drug addiction? It is extremely hard to bear the temptation of drug and quit it by oneself. The best way is getting a help from healthcare providers. Many detox programs and rehabilitation facilities exist to support addicts to rebuild and keep healthy living. Also, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7.

In conclusion, drug addiction can make devastating result in one's life, and even fully recovering from it requires a long term, painful process. Thus, preventing drug addiction is the ideal solution. In order to achieve the goal, strict law and social consciousness about the danger of drug addiction must be set among society.