Drug Addiction
Composition II
CCI
02/09/2013

An addiction to drugs has become a wide spread epidemic for many years and counting. There can be many reason as to why a person may become addicted to drugs and why they cannot rid themselves from the temptations of being addicted to drugs. Addiction to drugs can be for a variety of reason such as health issues, influence from peers, genetics or just becoming addicted to medication. Every case may be different. Addictions can range from alcohol to prescription drugs and also narcotics. Drug addiction is a hard habit to kick once it has been inhabited. The effects of being addicted to drugs can be heart wrenching and terrifying. When being addicted a person loses there sites on reality, sometime things are made up in there head and they are blind to what is going on in the world around them. A person can lose their families, their jobs, friends and a lot of times even their lives. Some serious effects of being addicted to drugs can be a person’s health, they could have psychological issues, mental issue and a lot of times social issues. Medical issues can include vomiting, brain aneurisms, heart attack, kidney failure and death. Psychological issues can include depression, aggressiveness, hallucinations and even paranoia. Social issues often include detaching themselves from normal daily activities, restlessness and even lack of self-worth. A long term of drug abuse can be the strain that is put on a person’s body. Our bodies can only take so much abuse before it gives up. Our mind also takes a huge toll when dealing with drug addiction, sometimes a person’s brain never recovers from being on a drug trip. Drugs can give a person more health issues then they ever realized, it takes a toll on our bones, heart and brain let alone all those little organs in our body that are trying to fight off the poisons that a person are putting into their bodies. There are a few different ways that a person can battle with the effects of drug abuse. Treatment is the number one option for someone whom is addicted to any type of drug. There are tons of different treatment center in the world that happily take people in and help them kick there unhealthy habits. There is also support groups for addictions if a person didn’t want to go to treatment or they were needing help staying clean after treatment. Sometime they readily give medication for some who are addicted to the harder drugs so there body’s don’t get out of wack trying to kick there habits, these are known as methadone clinics which are more popular in bigger cities and some mental facilities provide this service as well. There is inpatient, outpatient and follow-up care at many places for those who may need it. Not all treatment approaches work for everyone. Some may need a tailored plan to help them with their habits. I have read that sometimes drug addiction is related to a lot of people who have mental disorders and as well as that may be true that may need to be the first step in recovery, getting behavioral issues treated before or at the same time as drug addiction treatments. There are 5 main key steps to addiction recovery
1. Remind yourself of the reasons you want to change.
2. Think about your past attempts at quitting, if any. What worked? What didn’t?
3. Set specific, measurable goals, such as a quit date or limits on your drug use.
4. Remove reminders of your addiction from your home and workplace.
5. Tell friends and family that you’re quitting and ask for their support.
(Melinda Smith, 2013) There are also a lot of ways to cope with the cravings. Below I have added a chart to state some examples.
Coping with drug cravings