The Illness Called Drug Addiction
The Illness Called Drug Addiction
Drug addiction has been an issue that has been sweeping the nation for decades. The use of drugs became popular in the 1960s, and the use has been increasing since. According to a survey taken in 2007 by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, 19.9 million Americans ages 12 or older have used illegal drugs in the month prior to the survey. There has always been the question of what causes someone to take a path of destruction with drug abuse. The causes of drug addiction are biological, caused by the structure and function of everyone’s brain.
Abusing drugs such as cocaine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and marijuana can act as depressants. These are psychoactive drugs, as it can affect the mood and perception by acting on the central nervous system. A depressant is a substance that slows down or inhibits the functions of the central nervous system. In other words, depressants are the drugs that produce a depressant effect on the central nervous system, and they do this either by inhibiting the brain's ability to produce stimulating chemicals, or by imitating the chemicals that produce a sedative effect. Each person’s addiction is different. According to AHMC the biological model in the article states, “each person's unique physiology and genetics causes addiction” (Horvath, Misra, Epner, Cooper). Someone may not receive the same reaction to a substance as someone else may. AHMC stated in an article that, “Some people may enjoy a substance or activity so much that it becomes very tempting and difficult to resist” (Horvath, Misra, Epner, Cooper).
Addiction is not something you can control, it’s a brain disease. In the AHMC article it states that, “once exposure to these substances or activities occurs” (Horvath, Misra, Epner, Cooper). Once the person experiences the pleasure they receive from substance abuse, being able to stop becomes almost impossible. Substance abuse is also caused by psychological issues, in an AHMC article it says, “addiction and other mental health disorders commonly occur together (called co-morbidity)” (Horvath, Misra, Epner, Cooper). Roughly, half of the people seeking addiction treatment will also have another significant mental disorder (Miller, Forchimes & Zweben, 2011).
These mental disorders can develop from plenty of things. A person could have been engaged in harmful behavior