Physical and Health Effects of Addiction - Essay Example

Addiction In order to explore the causes and effects of addiction it is first necessary to define what we mean by an addiction. Addictions are not only use and abuse of substances, but also behavioral. Allemani (2007) gives a comprehensive definition of addiction when he says, “Addiction, in its broad definition, includes not only the medical and psychiatric definition of the use and misuse of a broad range of substances (illicit and licit drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, caffeinated beverages, etc.) and addictive behaviors (gambling, sexual hyperactivity, obsessive buying and excessive working, among others) but also the concept of risk. It is not easy to understand what causes addictions or how an addiction develops in a person. Although one can be addicted to almost anything (including pleasant and harmless things), being addicted to harmful substances, particularly alcohol and illegal drugs, is more than a social problem. As the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains, “One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior. What people often underestimate is the complexity of drug addiction—that it is a disease that impacts the brain and because of that, stopping drug abuse is not simply a matter of willpower”. The causes and components of addiction are very complex and although many studies have been done throughout the years, there is still not a clear answer to the causes of addiction. It has always been thought that any of the following could contribute to addiction– lack of will power, poverty, moral weakness, mental illness, genetics, family socialization, anti-social personalities and societal problems. It was also believed that addiction is a disease; but again there has not been enough evidence to confirm that. Causes of addiction can be classified as either mental or physical. The physical causes may be genetic and the mental causes include such things as personality and thinking characteristics, emotional defenses and social influences. According to Wojtowicz et al (2007), some of the causes of addiction to be studied have included social and environmental factors; interactions between biological, psychological and social factors, misuse of prescription medication; and it may be a brain disease. Some of the social factors that may be responsible for addictions are antisocial behavior, crime patterns and criminal choices, intolerance of boredom, family history of drug use, social interactions and peer influence and co-occurring disorders, (e.g. mental illness). Yet others believe that psychological factors constitute the necessary preconditions for addiction problems as Hopson (1993) reports. Underlying psychological problems such as management of affect, aggression, primitive forms of guilt and shame have been cited as part of the development of an addiction. Scaraccione (1994) looked at addiction from the juvenile point of view. She believes that “drug addiction usually begins during adolescence. It is often intertwined with typical youth behavior patterns and involves home and social environment conditions”. She believes that one of the reasons that the juvenile drug addict uses drugs is in order to socialize with his peers. Whatever the underlying pull to drug use, there is a physical change in the body that leads to addiction. There is an overwhelming craving; the person is unable to control the amount of drugs that they use and the body becomes immune to the dose, and therefore more and more are needed to create the sensation of satisfaction. It is thought that the increased use alters certain pathways in the brain. Brain cells (neurons) change how they transmit messages across the synapses (gaps) between nerve cells. Drug addiction can therefore be described as a brain disease. Over time the changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can affect a person’s self control and ability to make sound decisions, and at the same time send intense impulses to take drugs. These cravings then cause addictions. It is because of the changes in the brain that it is so difficult for someone to overcome an addiction. Because addictions have various forms and causes, their effects vary depending on the circumstances and the type of addiction. One can say that there are personal and individual consequences and effects of an addiction (for example a food addiction or a particular behavior pattern), or the effects could extend to the family and even the community. The effects of addiction to substances (illicit and licit drugs) can be seen as physical or physiological and also behavioral. These substances do damage to the brain and this in turn can impair the person’s judgment, decision-making and as a consequence one’s relationships with people around and behavior in the community. Drugs can either imitate the natural chemical messengers in the nervous system and cause the brain to send abnormal messages, or they can cause the nerve cells to release abnormally large amounts of these transmitters and disrupt the normal communication patterns. In nearly all cases, the drugs flood the system with dopamine which is the substance that controls movement, emotion, motivation and feelings of pleasure. The continued abuse of substances changes other brain chemical systems and circuits. Images of a drug-addicted brain show changes that are important in judgment, decision-making, learning, behavior and memory. In addition to the effects on the brain, addiction can affect other organs and physical processes, especially the heart. Physical effects of cocaine use include constricted blood vessels, dilated pupils, and increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure. Binging on cocaine has also been shown to cause increased irritability, restlessness and paranoia and even full-blown paranoid psychosis, losing touch with reality and experiencing hallucinations. A number of deaths have been attributed to this. Other complications associated with cocaine use include disturbances in heart rhythm and heart attacks, chest pain and respiratory failure, strokes, seizures and headaches, and gastrointestinal complications such as abdominal pain and nausea. Because cocaine has a tendency to decrease appetite, many chronic users can become malnourished. Another example is the effect of nicotine on pregnant women who run the risk of having premature or stillborn children. The lungs is another organ that has been greatly affected in addictions, such as daily cough and phlegm production, more frequent acute chest illness, a heightened risk of lung infections, and a greater tendency to obstructed airways. Some of which is also believed to lead to cancer. Other general health effects are becoming more likely to participate in other unsafe behaviors, such as sharing needles or having unprotected sex, which can increase the chances of contracting HIV or hepatitis. Mertens et al (2003) reported a study that compared the prevalence of medical and psychiatric conditions among 747 substance abuse patients and 3,690 demographically matched controls from the same health maintenance organization. The results showed that approximately one third of the conditions examined were more common among substance abuse patients and that pain-related diagnoses, including arthritis, headache, and lower back pain, were more prevalent among such patients. Apart from the physical and health related effects of addiction, there are also the social effects. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that,” Depression, anxiety, and personality disturbances have been associated with chronic marijuana use. Because marijuana compromises the ability to learn and remember information, the more a person uses marijuana the more he or she is likely to fall behind in accumulating intellectual, job, or social skills. Moreover, research has shown that marijuana’s adverse impact on memory and learning can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off”. In general addictions can create disruptions in life, including the following; behavioral changes can cause marital or family strife, work performance and attendance may decline therefore leading to loss of employment and the consequential effect of that, social life is deeply affected as the addict may lose or alienate friends, academic performance suffers and may lead to expulsion; stealing to support an addiction and this may lead to more serious criminal activities. The financial consequences of addiction are also crucial and complex. Having to spend money to support an addiction takes money away from other needs and has led to serious debt that has wrecked homes, marriages and families. References Allamani, Allaman. (2007). Addiction, Risk and Resources. Substance Use and Misuse. 42 (2-3), 421-439 Hopson, Ronald E. (1993).A thematic analysis of the addictive experience; Implications for psychotherapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training. 30(3), 481-494 Mertens, J.R, Lu, Yun W., Parthasarathy, S., Moore, C. and Weisner, C.M. Medical and Psychiatric Conditions of Alcohol and Drug Treatment Patients in an HMO. Archives of Internal Medicine, 163(20), pp. 2511-2517, 2003. National Institute on Drug Abuse (2008) Understanding Drug Abuse and Addiction. http://www.nida.nih.gov/Infofacts/understand.html Scaraccione, Gilda. (1994) Drug addiction and juvenile justice. Journal of Drug Issues 24(4), 687-696 Wojtowicz, James P., Liu, Tongyin, & Hedgpeth, G.W. (2007). Factors of addiction. Crime and Delinquency 53(3), 471-501. Read More