Category: United States

Depending on the quantity and frequency of alcohol and drugs used by an individual, a host of undesirable effects are known to have long term consequences.

It is well known that prolonged alcohol intake can lead to liver cirrhosis. Liver Cirrhosis is a condition in which the liver cells are replaced by dead cells. An indication of this is the  yellowing of the skin, also called Jaundice. Some symptoms of jaundice include fatigue, decreased production of clotting factors due to the diseased state of the liver and easy bruising.

Long Term Effects Of Alcohol And Drug Use

Whereas, prolonged drug use can lead to addiction and dependence, feelings of worthlessness, depression, suicidal and criminal thoughts. Prolonged alcohol intake can cause:

• Headaches
• Unconsciousness
• Decreased perception and co-ordination
• Black outs
• Coma
• Alcohol poisoning
• High blood pressure
• Stroke
• Broken relationships
• Loss of productivity
• Financial bankruptcy
• Liver disease
• Ulcer
• Gastritis
• Malnutrition

Long term effects of drug use include:

• Addiction
• Increased criminal record
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Paranoia (A psychological disorder characterized by delusions of persecution- feelings of being hunted or grandeur)
• Altered neural activity
• Irritability

Other long term effects of alcohol and drug abuse on the body are as follows:

Alcohol And Drug Use Effects on the Kidney

Habitual drug and alcohol use put the kidneys at a very high risk of being damaged. Alcohol and some drugs when abused cause an increase in the blood pressure and body temperature. This can put a strain on the kidneys and eventually lead to substantial damage of such a delicately important organ of the body. Kidney failure is therefore common among individuals who use Ketamine, Heroin and Ecstasy (MDMA).

Alcohol And Drug Use Effects on the heart

Drugs and Alcohol abuse can cause a host of cardiovascular problems, ranging from, but not limited to: High blood pressure, Cardiac arrhythmia’s, Myocardial infarction (otherwise known as ‘heart attack’)

Alcohol And Drug Use Effects on the lungs

Serious complications can result from inhalation drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and heroin, as well as a host of other drugs of abuse. Complications in the respiratory system can be fatal.

Tolerance to Alcohol And Drug Use

Heavy alcohol intake and drug use can cause tolerance to the drug or alcohol. Therefore the amount of drug or alcohol taken will be increased over time in order to produce the same effect it used to produce at lower doses.

Also, behavioural changes associated with prolonged drug use include:

• Increased criminal activity
• Financial bankruptcy
• Living a secretive and deceptive lifestyle
• Lying to friends and family members
• Violence against people who advise against the adopted alcohol and drug use lifestyle

In conclusion, while the short term effects of alcohol and drug abuse vary from one individual to the other, the long term effects are quite similar. Involving multiple organ failures, depression, anxiety, financial instability, loss of self worth, broken relationships, increased criminal activity and most importantly, addiction. Therefore, alcohol and drug use should be curbed at its early stages to prevent the occurrence of the long-term effects.

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The psychological effect of drug and alcohol abuse vary from one individual to the other. Depending on the quantity of such substance abused, the frequency of abuse and the length of time of abuse. While the psychological effect is more pronounced in users who have abused alcohol and drugs at a very large number of times. It is usually less pronounced in users who have not been as abusive. Chief among the psychological effects of alcohol and drug use are ‘tolerance’ and ‘addiction’.

Psychological Effect Of Drug And Alcohol Abuse – Tolerance

Tolerance refers to a condition where a user requires a continually increased dose of a drug or a larger amount of alcohol intake to produce the ‘ecstatic state’ experienced in previous drinking and drug abuse episodes. A major problem associated with this is when the dose of such drugs of abuse increases. The tendency of it being poisonous to the user increases.

Psychological Effect Of Drug And Alcohol Abuse – Addiction

Addiction refers to a condition where a user depends on abusing either alcohol or drugs for their well-being. Being deprived of alcohol or drugs could be equated to a death sentence for such individuals. Addicted individuals are said to be ‘hooked’ in their habit of drinking and drug misuse. Therefore they can feel nervous, anxious or sick without taking these substances.

Other psychological effects include: Anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, feelings of worthlessness, loss of self esteem, hallucinations and schizophrenia amongst others.

How certain drugs affect you psychologically

• Cocaine: Cocaine abuse can cause irritability, panic, depression, anxiety, paranoia or cocaine psychosis. A situation in which some users have a feeling of being detached from friends, families and reality
• MDMA: Otherwise known as ecstasy. MDMA decreases serotonin levels, thereby bringing about confusion and depression alongside impaired cognition, emotional and motor dysfunction, disruption of the working memory and attention span.
• Marijuana: Pot disrupts messages from the brain to visual receptors. Thereby impairing proper vision, hearing co-ordination and emotional soundness. It also negatively impacts the capacity of the short term memory. Marijuana users find it difficult to complete tasks that require concentration.
• Opioids: Opiods can cause insomnia, restlessness, hypoxia (a long term psychological effect which can cause brain damage).
• Ketamine: A strong dependence on this drug can cause binge usage. Undesirable psychological effects include: Amnesia, hallucinations, loss of touch with reality, disorientation, unpredictable behaviour, among others.
• Hallucinogens: This group of drugs can cause a user to see and feel things which are not present physically, a condition referred to as ‘hallucination’. Drugs in this group include: Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), Psylocybin, Peyote and so on. A prolonged use of hallucinogens can result in a permanent state of psychosis, also referred to as Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD), which causes the user to experience flash backs.

In conclusion, care should be sought for in adequate medical quarters to ensure that the psychological effects of drug and alcohol use is kept in check.

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Support Groups Work Regardless of the Type of Group. Many people in the world of addiction and recovery will espouse one support group or another. There are those who feel strongly enough about this to make the case that we can only get sober with one particular support group. I know form my experience and from watching countless others go through rehab and recovery, that some kind of support system is essential. But does it really matter which one we choose?

My first contact with the recovery community was through 12 step. I am not here to disparage or encourage 12 step. I simply want to point out that I encountered a number of people in 12 step who made the case that I had to embrace the 12 step sober community or I would surely fail in my recovery. That turned out to be not true.

While it is only natural that people will grasp onto the sober community they first make contact with. It should not prevent anyone from searching around to find other support groups. There are many. What matters is that you find a sober support network. It is a fact that recovery does depend in part on the support of others. In turn, your recovery depends on offering support. It turns out that some amount of giving is necessary for getting.

An important study by the University of California tracked hundreds of people as they entered into rehab and recovery. They were particularly interested in those who attempted to stay sober on their own versus those who made use of a sober support group. Included in these support groups were 12 step programs, SMART Recovery, and Life Ring, to name just a few.  They followed them at 6 and 12 month intervals. What they found was that those who availed themselves of a support group stayed sober longer, and with more people remaining sober for over a year, than those who went it alone.

There are two features which stand out in this. First, a sober support group simply makes for a more effective and far-reaching recovery. It is simple. Those who work with a support group make it. Those who go it alone tend to return to substance abuse. Second, contrary to the opinions of those few who claim one group is superior over another, this study shows that it really does not matter what group you work with. What matters is that you use a support group.

Addiction is isolating enough. We should not expect to get better on our own. It just goes against common sense. It is one thing to get behind recovery in the early days when we clearly remember how bad life is while we are using. And it is more difficult to hang onto the immediacy of those feelings six months down the road. The further we get from the suffering, the more likely we will stumble. Having a group of people who are engaged in the same struggles, who have been through similar things, and who may need us will only help as we spend our lives drug and alcohol free.

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The Question of the Future of Recovery. Just about anyone who is new to recovery wonders how they will ever be able to go the rest of their lives without indulging in some kind of substance. I could not imagine how I was going to spend the rest of my life without drinking at some point. In my early experiences in 12 step meetings (something I am do not do anymore) I heard people talk about deceased “old-timers” and how he or she died sober. I thought that sounded like the most dismal thought I could think of.

The Idea Of Forever

The first thing I had to do was dispense with this idea of “forever”. We cannot even conceive of what this means in the first place. The rest of my life is completely abstract and unknowable. In my earliest days and weeks in recovery I focused on the smallest form of the present tense I could conjure. If that meant breaking life into one hour increments, then that was the way it had to be.

One Day At A Time

I know this sounds like the AA slogan of “one day at a time”. But it was really a coping mechanism. It is something I learned from working with mindfulness meditation ideas, and this I learned from another person who had been sober much longer than I. I found that the need to manage, or attempt to manage, things that were beyond me was something that drove my desire to drink and use drugs. As I learned to let go of this micro-managing of the unknown, I became calmer more generally.

Little by little I stopped thinking about not drinking for the rest of my life. In fact, I got to a point where I told myself that the day may come when I do drink. It just will not be today. I was sure of that much. And in the earliest days of recovery I knew I could promise myself I would not drink in the next two hours.

Illusion of Control

Letting go of the illusion of control is a central feature of mindfulness and it has been a crucial practice in staying sober. Mindfulness training teaches us to allow thoughts and feelings to come to us without assigning judgment to these thoughts and feelings. This necessarily means releasing the notion that I can control things that have not even happened yet. I could certainly point to a lot of bad outcomes form my past. But I had no real knowledge of my future.

Future of Recovery

Taking on ideas which involve managing long-term prospects over which I have little to no control is defeating. This is actually defeating to anyone. It is lethal to someone with a substance abuse problem. With several years of sobriety behind me now. I have learned to dismiss these notions of “forever” and “the rest of my life”. I do not know what those things even mean. Again, I am confident that I will not drink or use drugs today. This allows me to just seem myself as a recovering person rather than someone who needs to fight off the desire to drink every day.

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