Substance Addiction Analysis - Essay Example

"Substance Addiction Analysis" is a perfect example of a paper on addiction. Substance addiction is the result of a patient using a drug too many times that can occur on two fronts. A physiological addiction will result in a biochemical change in the physiological equilibrium in which the person requires more of the drug in order to achieve the same desired effect. Psychological addiction occurs when drug use is associated with a behavioral stimulus through behavioral theories such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Addiction is what leads to abuse because patients will no longer be able to function without the drug. In some cases, this leads to a combination of multiple drugs where the interaction effects are unknown.

            I think that I had a good idea of what substance abuse was in relation to the physiological conditions associated with it, but I had never thought about the psychological conditions, such as impulsivity and behavioral theory in the role they could play. This is also best explained by the role of impulsivity and the role that conditions can play in our behavior that we may not be aware of due to the automatic thinking that we do throughout the course of a normal day.

            I learned a great deal about the pharmacology of drugs and the mechanisms by which a drug learns. Because there are so many different types of drugs, there are multiple ways in which a drug cannot only enter the body, but also the ways in which they bind to receptors to produce the analgesic effect.  In particular, I learned how one might turn to drugs due to behavioral and environmental conditions as a coping mechanism for dealing with psychological conditions such as depression and low self-esteem. I also learned about the interaction effects that multiple drugs can have and that even the most experienced doctors and pharmacologists can no longer predict exactly what the combination of drugs will do when more than two drugs are present in a person’s system.

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