Effects of Substance Abuse – Reconnect with Reality
Those struggling to overcome addiction have always turned to promising rehab programs such as the 12-Step or other faith-based methods. While you might find it comforting to reinvigorate your spiritual side, there are different, more scientific, approaches that you should also consider. It’s essential for you to understand there is never a “magic pill” that can cure restore your brain chemistry overnight. Beyond physical conditions, every addict suffers in a unique way as they battle emotional scars from ruined relationships and financial burdens, often homeless and outcast by society. Recovering from the effects of substance abuse involves restoring your whole being – mind, body, and spirit. Most chronic abusers of drugs and alcohol need long-term treatment that provides individualized care in medication, a diet plan, coping skills, and aftercare to prevent relapse.
We need to face reality – addiction is a crippling, complex disease. Drug addicts appear to drastically change their behavior and personality due to altered chemical reactions in their nervous system, not because they’ve just always had a weak willpower or self-confidence.
Despite urgently requiring a medical detox and residential treatment, addicts struggle to approach any care center. They may have financial concern and lack insurance. They might even have a healthy skepticism of a facilities credentials and success rate. Professional treatment is indeed something you should consider carefully and discuss with your doctor and loved ones before committing to the admission process.
However, avoiding quality treatment too long can be fatal as your condition worsens! Substance abuse is not forgiving. It leaves us empty. Life appears meaningless as the drug’s dark cravings occupy your thoughts constantly.
It’s never too late to turn back! It might appear shameful and depressing to open up to other. It might hurt your pride to admit you’re not in control. Wake up! That’s not you speaking – the drugs have poisoned your thinking and clouded your judgment! You’re never alone in the fight. There are thousands of people just like you already on their path to a new life. You can win! A quality rehab center is a safe and confidential place, without judgment. Wherehab will work with you to find you the best type of care for your circumstances through our massive online review listing.
There’s a sad reality surrounding substance abuse that too many people are afraid to face: drugs and alcohol affect every part of someone’s life, and no one is immune.
Here are 6 ways in which substance abuse can destroy someone’s life:
1 – Addiction May Lead to Job Loss
When you’re addicted to any form of drugs or alcohol, you tend to spend most of your time looking to get the next high. You lose your sense of reason and track of time when the drugs are literally all you can think about each day. You won’t get normal sleep and could easily miss work. You might delay submitting tasks and forget others entirely. Such a strained relationship will likely end in termination. Not to mention, you could report to work still high or drunk. You might find yourself panicking and finding irrational ways to avoid a random drug test.
Unfortunately, many users find they can profit much more money by dealing drugs illegally on the streets than holding a real job. By associating with gangs and other addicts, you are setting yourself up to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
2 – Your Marriage and Other Relationships Are at Risk
As you become more and more controlled by drugs, you’ll slowly detach and become isolated from loved ones. Abuse of many drugs, like opioid-based benzos, will cause drowsiness and nausea, meaning you won’t have the energy or desire to engage in recreational activities with loved ones. Most drugs work by overloading your brain with dopamine, the chemical reaction responsibility for pleasure. Over time, the body will become dependent on the drug for the pleasure sensations and stop producing dopamine naturally. By then, you’ll feel almost nothing from dating and sex.
Drugs will also impair your judgment, which may result in you acting stupidly and thus ending a relationship. In continually getting drunk or high, you’ll act a fool of yourself and embarrass yourself around your significant other. You might even take extreme steps to hide your habit, such as lying, concealing prescription bottles, and sneaking out randomly. Keeping secrets from your spouse is never a smart thing to do. When the cat’s out the bag, you might be out of the house!
Hallucinogens, narcotics, and other drugs can spur violent tendencies in addicts. You might rage into fits of physical abuse and harm your loved ones in a way you could never imagine beforehand.
Your family likely wants to help you. For many though, it’s a desperate situation that can seem difficult to navigate without professional counseling.
3 – Addiction Costs You More Than Treatment Ever Will
As a drug addict, you’ll invest lots of hard earned cash tracking down a way get the next high.
Then, you’ll have to deal with the indirect costs of addiction, including expenses trying to self-medicate your withdrawals, higher health insurance premiums, lost wages from lower work productivity, losing your job, and the legal costs involved in risky behavior. Whether you realize it or not, addiction could rob you of tens of thousands of dollars in just a few short years.
How does this compare to the standard rehab treatment programs? The average price of a residential 30-day treatment might be upwards of $27,000, depending on a range of factors. To many people, especially those without insurance, money is the biggest hindrance in their path to recovery. Many fail to see the big picture: drug abuse will likely ruin your career, savings, retirement, credit score, and any investments you have! The question is, can you afford not to receive treatment? After all, your life is at stake.
4 – Addiction Risk Legal Trouble
Once you lose your sense of control, your actions can place you legal jeopardy. You rub someone up the wrong way while high out of your mind, you could damage someone’s property, drive intoxicated, and so on. Whatever your situation, the law stands against you. Heavy drugs are a plague on society. The government, to protect the public, has every right to incarcerate you possessing and distributing illegal substances. The sentencing of many drug addicts might seem insensitive to the fact the drugs have given them a debilitating disease. Nevertheless, the grave legal consequences of drug abuse can ruin your future. You’ll find it very difficult to find a job or relationship with a felony record.
5 – Addiction has Devastating Physical Effects on The Body
Depending on the form of addiction you’re experiencing, the withdrawal symptoms can range from mild to severe. In a few extreme cases, the symptoms of withdrawal can be life-threatening. Effects common to drugs might include insomnia, constipation, dizziness, lightheadedness, trouble breathing, and heart palpitations. As drugs slow down your body, they may induce a coma that you won’t wake up from again. Other drugs, like cocaine, speed up your body and may cause a fatal heart attack. In extreme cases, as with fentanyl, one single, first-time usage can cause a lethal overdose. Of course, you can also kill yourself by acting irrational on drugs, like drinking and driving or jumping off a ledge.
Chronic users of drugs will face drastic bodily changes. Addicts may experience extreme weight loss, appear aged, lose their hair and teeth, and have shaky and unsteady hands.
Drugs might also cause depression and, in turn, suicidal thoughts and actions.
You don’t want to go down the path in life. Trying to go cold turkey on your own may actually be dangerous. Addiction treatment therapists have structured programs that help you slowly cope with sobriety without endangering your life or risking a relapse. A complete detox sounds frightening to many addicts, maybe because it implies a radical change of lifestyle in diet and exercise under constant medical supervision. However, that’s the reality of what most people need to recover their lives.
6 – Addiction Often Comes With Co-Occurring Psychological Issues
There is a lot that goes on beneath the surface of addiction. Before long, drug use often comes with a trail of mental health issues, such as depression and social anxiety. As ironic as it is, antidepressant drugs may cause depression itself. Many people take prescription medication to treat depression and other psychological issues, and then they become hooked and even more depressed without the drugs. Opioid-based drugs for mental disorders are very potent in the body and you should not take them lightly. You follow your doctor’s instructions very carefully and report any immediate feelings of depression or suicidal thoughts that may be related to the drug.
Addicts of other illegal drugs can feel extreme anxiety and hopelessness after prolonged usage. Under some drugs, they could trip at any point and begin to hallucinate.
It’s normal to feel ashamed after messing up in life. Shame from drug addiction doesn’t have to control you and manipulate your emotions. Often the best way to get through the psychological effects is through professional counseling to develop effective coping strategies. Therapist, psychologist, and spiritual advisors are all typically included as a service in a standard inpatient rehab program.
Wherehab: Helping You Find Reality Again
No matter what you’re going through, you’re never alone. The right treatment never ignores the importance of an active community of support from family, loved ones, and fellow patients. Let Wherehab help you find a quality rehab today – We offer confidence in your search for care.
