Anthony
Drug Abuse Research
Health

Drug Abuse and Addiction
Drug addiction is a chronic disease that causes drug seeking behavior and drug use regardless of the fact of the negative consequences to the user and those around them. Even though the first decision to use drugs is intentional, the changes in the brain caused by repeated drug abuse can affect a person's self-control and capability to make the correct decisions when faced with choices. There are many reasons for a person to abuse drugs and getting high isn’t always their number 1 priority.
Drug abuse is a very preventable disease. Not all the drugs abused are illegal; some are used for practical purposes in the categories’ of barbiturates, hallucinogens, narcotics, stimulants, and depressants. Though most of these various forms of drugs have specific purposes they can all be abused if not used as directed or if the user of the drugs is not the one prescribed the drug. Though one would think that drugs would mostly be in poor sections of the city in fact drugs are often easily accessible in suburban shopping malls, rural schools, well-to-do private schools, on the job, and business offices.
A teen’s childhood years often play a big role on how the teen views drugs. Sometimes parents with good intentions may give their child a taste of alcohol in order to discourage them from it because of its bad taste. But the child’s first taste of the alcohol can make them feel good. Also when the child has parents that drink alcohol to celebrate or to help them relax after arguing may encourage the use of alcohol in the child’s adult life. For example, when the now adult child is depressed or happy he may now may turn to alcohol as a result of their parent’s actions to escape or to celebrate life.
There are many reasons that people may turn to drugs. Among them are the need to feel accepted by the person’s piers, friends and co-workers. Teens with low self-esteem are easily influenced by their peers. Sometimes the use of alcohol or other drugs can help them feel more comfortable around others. Some people don’t ever have the intention of abusing drugs but when prescribed a drug that benefits them, they may start to increase their dosage without a doctor’s recommendation in order to get a greater effect from the drug. This is considered unintentional drug abuse but as this goes on the dependency on the drug increases, physically and mentally. Repeated drug abuse can lead to an addiction. Addiction is considered a brain disease because it changes the user’s brain structure and how it works. Physically, when someone is addicted to a drug the pathways inside the brain are altered. Some drugs damage the brain more than others making them more addictive. There are many factors that can determine a person’s susceptibility to having a problem with drugs. Addiction seems to generally run in families, so chances are if you have parents that struggle with addiction so will you. Though this is not always the case. Personality has a lot to do with this too; curious people may experiment with drugs which can ultimately lead to an addiction. A stubborn person may just want to rebel against their parents also leading to addiction. Also a very depressed and hurting person may turn to drugs to numb the pain of their life, the drug can only be used as a short term fix because when the high is over their problems will still be present. Although some may think that some races of people are more prone to drug abuse this is not the case, all ethnicities of the world are affected by this problem. There are very few short term positive effects of drug abuse. For one the user can forget about real life and feel a temporary relief from any type of pain the user may be feeling, including relationship issues, depression and low