Who Can Become Addicted to Drugs?
Stigma surrounds addiction, the common perception being that it is a condition of weakness and moral corruption that individuals choose to take on. Unfortunately, addiction is a disease that anyone can develop. Prescription medications, cigarettes, alcohol, illicit drugs, and destructive behaviors like bingeing and purging all produce biological and chemical reactions that pose a threat to our health.
Although the initial experience is voluntary, repeated exposure to a drug affects the way in which the nervous system functions, eventually adapting to the drug experience. The onset of addiction occurs when neuroadaptations cause the user to compulsively seek out the drug experience. Changes in brain structure and function that are brought about with excessive use lead to dependence. Persistent use occurs when neuroadaptations are irreversible, resulting in a constant physical and mental discomfort when drug use is discontinued.
People dependent upon a drug or destructive behavioral pattern struggle with overcoming their addiction because their brain is damaged during the process of abuse. The frontal cortex — the part of the brain that controls decision-making and judgment — works inefficiently when exposed to substances over long periods. Thus, addicts have difficulty effectively completing treatment because their capacity to control behaviors is diminished.
Although there is a common perception that drug and alcohol addicts lack motivation and don’t care about their health and safety, research shows that the subsequent biological reactions are to blame for many of their misinterpreted behavioral reactions. Anyone who takes part in repeatedly and continuously using a substance is at risk for biological dependence.
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February 23rd, 2009 at 10:03 am
Even pharmacists can be drug addicts.
Check out the book: Incomprehensible Demoralization- An Addict Pharmacist’s Journey to Recovery by clicking on my name.
Although we go to school for 4 years to learn about these drugs, we’re not immune to becoming addicts. Although you would think that healthcare workers “should know better”, we are just as vulnerable, if not more so. We have the keys to the candy store, so the outcome can be disasterous.