Know the Risks of Using Drugs

The NSDUH estimates allow researchers, clinicians, policymakers, and the general public to better understand and improve the nation’s behavioral health. Addressing the nation’s mental health crisis and drug overdose epidemic is a top priority of the Biden-Harris Administration and a core pillar of the Administration’s Unity Agenda. Despite these advances, we still do not fully understand why some people develop an addiction to drugs or how drugs change the brain to foster compulsive drug use. While the terms “drug abuse” and “drug addiction” are often used interchangeably, they’re different. Someone who abuses drugs uses a substance too much, too frequently, or in otherwise unhealthy ways. However, they ultimately have control over their substance use.

HHS, SAMHSA Release 2022 National Survey on Drug Use and Health Data

This class of drugs includes, among others, heroin, morphine, codeine, methadone, fentanyl and oxycodone. Signs and symptoms of inhalant use vary, depending on the substance. Some commonly inhaled substances include glue, paint thinners, correction fluid, felt tip marker fluid, gasoline, cleaning fluids and household aerosol products. Due to the toxic nature of these substances, users may develop brain damage or sudden death.

Health Care Providers

If you have a mental disorder along with an addiction, it is known as a dual diagnosis. Consider how a social drinker can become intoxicated, get behind the wheel of a car, and quickly turn a pleasurable activity into a tragedy that affects many lives. Occasional drug use, such as misusing an opioid to get high, can have similarly disastrous effects, including impaired driving and overdose. People struggling with addiction usually deny they have a problem and hesitate to seek treatment. An intervention presents a loved one with a structured opportunity to make changes before things get even worse and can motivate someone to seek or accept help. Opioids are narcotic, painkilling drugs produced from opium or made synthetically.

When drug use becomes drug abuse or addiction

Prolonged exposure to drugs alters the brain in ways that result in powerful cravings and a compulsion to use. These brain changes make it extremely difficult to quit by sheer force of will. People from all walks of life can experience problems with their drug use, regardless of age, race, background, or the reason they started using drugs in the first place. Some people experiment with recreational drugs out of curiosity, to have a good time, because friends are doing it, or to ease problems such as stress, anxiety, or depression. Explore the warning signs and symptoms and learn how substance abuse problems develop.

• People use cannabis by smoking, eating or inhaling a vaporized form of the drug.
• However, they ultimately have control over their substance use.
• It may be done by family and friends in consultation with a health care provider or mental health professional such as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor, or directed by an intervention professional.
• Recovery may involve medication to help with cravings and withdrawal as well as different forms of therapy.
• With addiction, you may need to use higher doses, but it’s not for pain relief.
• Most drugs truly useful in the treatment of mental illness, however, were unknown to science until the middle of the 20th century.
• Because of this, many people who use heroin continue to use it to avoid feeling sick.

When someone continues to use drugs, their health can deteriorate both psychologically and neurologically. If left untreated drug addiction can lead to serious, life-altering signs of drug use effects on the body. Death rates from illicit drugs are the highest in the United States. This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years.

The Risks are Real

• Drug misuseis when you use legal or illegal substances in ways you shouldn’t.
• Cannabis often precedes or is used along with other substances, such as alcohol or illegal drugs, and is often the first drug tried.
• Still, talk to your doctor if this effect becomes troubling.

What happens to the brain when a person takes drugs?

• Many persons face situations with which, for one reason or another, they cannot cope successfully and in the pressure of which they cannot function effectively.
• Fears about addiction should not prevent you from using narcotics to relieve your pain, but it’s smart to use caution.
• This is largely the result of a steep rise in opioid deaths in recent years.
• Prescription drug misuse occurs when you take a medication that’s not prescribed to you, or you take it for reasons other than those prescribed by your doctor.
• Don’t wait to intervene until the addict has lost everything.

Why do people take drugs?