The Effects of Substance Abuse

We've heard so much about Cocaine, especially from high profile famous Stars and Athletes that have had serious problems with them, even to the point of death. Cocaine can cause such long-term effects like tremors and seizures, psychosis and heart failure. How sad that a big Star can do so well in their career and yet let a drug be their downfall.

Impure substitutes for many drugs in high doses can cause immediate life threatening problems like heart attack and respiratory failure, even coma. Combining drugs is just too dangerous. Most people know that but when you are addicted and that drug has a hold on you, the level of reasoning is gone.That person may not even believe they have a problem at all.

Take painkillers for example. A person with chronic pain may believe they are not addicted but when they have to take the pills day after day and it's all they can think about, they may have an addiction and sooner or later may question if they can get treatment for addiction.

Barbiturates, tranquilizers and others in this category are really being over abused today. They are prescribed by doctors but they can cause nausea, seizures and even coma. Some people again get to the point they don't realize how much they are taking and if they use them with alcohol, it could be deadly.

LSD was famous in the 60's but it hasn't gone away. Kids and even adults can still get it and it can still cause rapid heart beat, depression and disorientation. It's claimed to have long term effects like paranoia and psychosis.

Heroin is just an awful drug of the devil (those are my words) I've seen so many young lives destroyed because of this drug, and the overdoses have usually been proven fatal. Respiratory and circulatory effects along with seizures and death are just the tip of the iceberg.

Amphetamines have been proven to be terrible for anyone to take. High heart rate, high blood pressure, headache, blurred vision, dizziness, impotence, skin disorders, tremors, seizures and that's just a few of the issues with these stimulants.

Studies are showing that this generation of baby boomers is going to overpopulate the health care system. Substance abuse and alcohol abuse will be atrocious according to some statistics.

Abuse of legal medications by the elderly 60 years of age and older is being considered one of the fastest growing concerns in our nation. Atkinson & Kofoed, Schonfeld & Dupree and CSAT (these are studies I believe) are saying these problems are underestimated, underidentified and undertreated. It is a real but smaller problem of the effects of substance abuse. It comes down to the fact that no matter what age, young or old, there is a serious addiction problem in our society today. Sad but true.