Effects On Addicts Neighbors
Neighbors of an addict often have a heightened sense of awareness because they never know what the addict is going to do to get more money for their habit. Many have to spend money to invest in security systems because they dont want the addict to be able to get into their house when they are asleep or away.
Neighbors also feel afraid to spend too much time outside because they dont want to risk coming into contact with the addict because they feel uncomfortable trying to have a conversation with the person.
How Do You Know If Your Heart Is Weak
Symptoms associated with a weakened heart include: Coughing while lying down. Abdominal bloating due to a buildup of fluid in the abdomen. Shortness of breath upon exertion or while at rest. Inflammation in the lower extremities, including the feet and the ankles. A lack of energy. Lightheadedness/Dizziness. Fainting.
Sheryl Abrams Amft/cadc Ii
Program Director
Sheryl is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Addiction Treatment Counselor with the California Consortium of Addiction Programs and Professionals, CCAPP. She began working as a Substance Use Abuse Counselor at Pasadena Recovery Center in 2012 after overcoming her own struggle with addiction and quickly realized that she wanted to dedicate her life to helping others find the same happiness she found through recovery. This motivated Sheryl to enter graduate school where she earned her masters degree in Clinical Psychology with a specialty in Addiction from Antioch University in 2020. Sheryl began working at Friendly House as a Substance Use Abuse Counselor in 2018 and has since taken on the role of Program Director. She is passionate about helping woman and their families overcome the disease of addiction and puts her heart and soul into accomplishing this goal.
Read Also: How To Help Someone Addicted To Heroin
Brain Therapies For Addiction
When someone battling addiction enters a facility, they receive medication and have access to innovative treatments. A common treatment to stabilize and soothe the brain after addiction is biofeedback therapy. This allows a professional to monitor the brain. They can figure out how to improve brain activity, reducing the effects of addiction and unhealthy impulses.
Biofeedback uses electroencephalograms . EEGs are typically used to help individuals who have suffered traumatic brain injuries and can be helpful to individuals with obsessive compulsive disorder and other brain disorders. Biofeedback reduces stress and reduces involuntary functions. This therapy can also include meditation, guided imagery, and muscle relaxation.
When this is combined with therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy or dialectical behavioral therapy , biofeedback improves the individuals involuntary functions, like heartbeat, blood pressure, and muscle contraction. Neurofeedback, or EEQ therapy, is a type of biofeedback. This therapy is a brain-training treatment. In the case of addiction, this therapy monitors the brains activity. It helps patients to reduce stress and anxiety and can treat compulsions. The end result of both therapies is the administrator rewarding the brain to recover how it functions.
What Do Drugs Really Do Your Body
Every time you drink a beer, you smoke a joint, you pop a pill, you take a hit you make a choice. You make an active choice to put substances in your body because, in the heat of the moment, it seems like the right thing to do. It will make you feel better, it will get you high, it will be fun. This is what you tell yourself. But did you know that it is also putting your health in danger?
We know youve heard it before. Your parents told you that drugs are bad. Your friends told you to stop drinking so much. Maybe a doctor has even said that your drug use has taken a toll. Not to mention, you know hangovers and come-downs quite well. Unfortunately, drug addiction is a persistent thing. It is your brain relentlessly telling you that its okay to take drugs, despite the physical consequences and the terrible aching your body experiences soon after. And it makes you wonder, what do drugs do to your body, exactly? Why do you feel this way, and why cant you stop? What are the risks if you keep using?
Read Also: Can Drug Addiction Be Treated
Social And Emotional Isolation
The physical, professional, and financial losses to a persons quality of life all feed the biggest loss of all. The destruction of a persons social and emotional well-being due to an addiction disorder is devastating.
A sense of connectedness and community is vital to good physical and mental health. But addiction holds power to isolate and separate those who are living with it from those who are not. As a persons substance abuse disorder takes hold and grows, their ability to stay connected to friends and loved ones diminishes.
Someone living in addiction may isolate themselves on purpose, out of a sense of guilt or shame for their behaviors. Or they may be forced into a sense of isolation when their issues cause other people to withdraw from them. And research is becoming very clear. Feelings of being isolated and alone are dangerous to a persons emotional well-being.
Those who find themselves disconnected from their community are at significant risk of depression, medical problems, and a shortened lifespan. And when addiction disorders are at the root of their isolation, people are in even greater danger.
Overcoming Addiction Is Possible
If you are addicted to drugs, you need to get help to overcome your addiction long term. An addiction to drugs is often more than just a physical addiction. You need to get help for your mental addiction too in order to be as healthy as you can possibly be once you stop using. People who dont get help for their mental addiction are far more likely to give in to temptation and use again in the future.
Seek help at a professional treatment facility. The staff is trained to help you battle the withdrawal symptoms that come when you stop using drugs through medicinal treatment. There are also counselors on hand who can walk you through the hard task of battling your mental or emotional addiction to the drugs.
When you finish a treatment program, you will have the tools necessary to be able to stick with your sobriety and be the person people in your life want to be around and can be proud of because you will no longer be putting them or yourself in harms way on a regular basis.
Talk to Someone Whos Been There. Talk to Someone Who Can Help. Scottsdale Recovery Center holds the highest accreditation and is Arizonas premier rehab facility since 2007. Call
Also Check: How Do You Know When Someone Is Addicted To Drugs
Allegra Comas Acsw Ma
Primary Therapist
Allegra is an Associate Clinical Social Worker. She earned her masters in social work at Smith College in 2019, and her first masters degree in women and gender studies from San Francisco State University in 2008. Allegra worked as a high school literacy specialist in the Bay Area for six years prior to becoming a clinical social worker/psychotherapist. She is a Los Angeles native, and has dedicated her professional life to community and family services. She is psychodynamically trained, trauma informed and emphasizes the intersection of culture, gender, and sexuality in her clinical practice.
Treatment Programs For Veterans With Co
Veterans deal with additional challenges when it comes to co-occurring disorders. The pressures of deployment or combat can exacerbate underlying mental disorders, and substance abuse is a common way of coping with the unpleasant feelings or memories associated with PTSD in military veterans.
Often, these problems take a while to show up after a vet returns home, and may be initially mistaken for readjustment. Untreated co-occurring disorders can lead to major problems at home and work and in your daily life, so its important to seek help.
Also Check: What To Do When Your Spouse Is An Addict
How Can Drugs Affect Your Life Choices
At some point, drugs become the factor that determines the choices you make. Instead of looking out for your best interests or the best interests of others, you begin to see drugs as the defining factor in your life. You arent concerned with taking care of your own needs or safety anymore, aside from your need to get more drugs. This is a slippery slope, quickly bringing you closer to losing everything. How can drugs affect your life? They can take away everything that you love and leave you empty, alone, and hopeless as your life choices move you farther and farther away from a happy life.
It Puts A Stigma On You In Society
We are all social beings, and we can not live alone. However, unfortunately, when you go through an addiction issue, you tend to demonstrate not likely behaviour, which triggers your neighbours to doubt you.
Hence, you are stigmatized in a particular way in society when you go through addiction issues. If you come to know about this, it will increase your risk of relapse even higher.
This is why individuals with addiction issues tend to isolate themselves from everyone so that they dont need to hear what others are saying about them.
Recommended Reading: How To Get Rid Of Weed Addiction
The Six Family Roles In Addiction
When a person struggles with addiction, each family member develops their way of handling the problem. Clinicians notice five distinct roles that family members may take on to cope with their loved ones substance use. Some families have a person for each role, others have members who adopt multiple roles, and others may not have certain roles in their family.
The six family roles in addiction are a simple way to observe how family members of addicts deal with their loved ones. None of these roles are healthy ways of working through the difficulty, but each makes sense given the circumstances and effects of addiction.
Methamphetamines Damage To The Brain
Methamphetamines do a very similar job in destroying the brains dopamine neurotransmitters, and repeated exposure to the drug will make it impossible for a user to experience pleasure from any other source. Given time and treatment, the dopamine receptors can heal, but damage to an addicts cognitive centers could be lifelong. Research suggests that damage to motor coordination through chronic meth use is similar to what individuals suffering from Parkinsons disease go through.
The loss of motor coordination is one effect on the body, but the changes in brain chemistry can also lead to violent and unpredictable behavior that takes a gruesome toll on the users physical self. In addition to causing a massive dopamine overload, methamphetamines also force an increase in adrenaline production, which makes users feel anxious and high-strung all the time, depriving them of sleep and rest. Users act in a hyperactive manner, fixating on a particular object or task, then rapidly finding another target for their obsession, and so on. Severe meth consumption can lead to hallucinations that compel users to damage their own bodies they feel like they have insects crawling under their skin, leading them to pick and scratch until they bleed, a condition known as formication.
Recommended Reading: How To Quit Cough Syrup Addiction
Help Is Available For The Families Of Addicts
Its difficult to cope when a loved one struggles with addiction. You may feel like youve tried everything to get them the help they need. When your attempts are unsuccessful, though, its painful and disheartening, to say the least. Even if your loved one chooses to continue using substances, finding help for yourself may be one of the best choices.
Help isnt only available for people who live in active addiction its also available for addicts families. If you feel the effects of your loved ones substance use, seeking help for yourself is a great way to begin your journey to healing.
How Do Drugs Affect Your Life
Substance use disorder is characterized as a progressive disease that can cause a person to lose control of their lives in ways they never thought possible. The effects of substance misuse and abuse can have a critical impact on several aspects of a persons life. As a complex disorder, it can cause more than health issues. But just how do drugs affect your life?
For anyone dealing with substance use disorder or caring for someone who suffers from it, youll know how invasive the effects can be on everyday life. The impact of substance use can lead to dependence, tolerance, and addiction which can become a catalyst for a host of negative effects that hold the potential to affect all areas of life from relationships to financial stability. This article will explore the changes which can happen in relation to substance misuse, how it impacts life, and how to get the right help to help you focus on getting life back on track.
Read Also: How To Break My Addiction To Food
Ways Addiction Affects Quality Of Life
Anyone who has experienced the power of addiction knows how deeply it impacts every area of life. Addiction destroys the quality of life for everyone within its grasp. From personal relationships to job security to finances and health, substance abuse leaves its mark everywhere.
And the influence of addiction reaches far beyond the person experiencing it. Family members and friends and coworkers also feel the impact in their own lives as a loved one falls further and further into a life of substance abuse.
If you are worried about how addiction affects your quality of life or that of someone you love, reach out to Fair Park Counseling today. Our highly-trained Counselors in Tupelo, MS are here to get you started on the road to recovery. You will be ready to regain your health and move away from a life of substance abuse and into a life of healing.
You Motivate Your Loved Ones To Take Drugs
You may be allowing your liked ones addiction or compound use whether you acknowledge it or not. If this continues, your relationship might be tested as they grow reliant on your help to broaden their use.
Providing money frequently so that the user can retrieve drugs is a common kind of allowing. For example, they might request money for groceries or gas, and even if their liked one believes its for drugs, they still give it to them.
For individuals who enjoy someone fighting addiction, identifying the difference between helping and enabling can be difficult.
Also Check: Lighthouse Addiction Services Lakeland Fl
What Is The Main Causes Of Drug Abuse
Factors such as peer pressure, physical and sexual abuse, early exposure to drugs, stress, and parental guidance can greatly affect a persons likelihood of drug use and addiction. Development. Genetic and environmental factors interact with critical developmental stages in a persons life to affect addiction risk.
Is Your Life Affected By Drug Addiction
The thoughts of how drug addiction affects your life may be something that worries you. Or maybe you have never actually made the connection between your drug use and the problems that you are having. It is common for those with addiction to not see the damage their drug use is causing them.
In fact, the individual may even believe that the use of drugs helps to relieve the problems he or she is experiencing. It is true that some people begin taking drugs in the first place to help block out painful memories or because they are suffering with mental health problems.
Nonetheless, continued regular abuse of drugs can cause health issues, the breakdown of relationships, and money problems. Below we have listed just some of the ways in which life can be affected by addiction.
Read Also: Why Do People Have Addictive Personalities
S To Take For A Relationship That Depends On Drug Addiction
If you, a loved one, or both of you struggle with addiction, there is hope. Even though addiction has devastating effects on a relationship, you can still repair the relationship, rebuild trust and heal as a couple. It takes time to repair the damage caused by lies, anger and hurt feelings. The first step is to realize there is a problem. Next, each member of the relationship must be ready to seek help and work on themselves to be healthy as an individual.
Recovery usually begins when the addicted person joins an addiction treatment program that offers counseling services. The other person in the relationship may benefit from individual counseling as well to help them heal and address codependency issues. Family therapy can help family members rebuild trust and learn healthy and effective ways to support an addicted loved one without engaging in enabling behaviors.
Risk Factors For Drug
The effects of a drug, and how long they last, depend on a number of factors:
- the type and strength of drugs that you use
- how the drug was made — substances manufactured in home labs may contain bacteria, dangerous chemicals and other unsafe substances, and have an unknown strength. Even one dose may cause an overdose that leads to brain damage or death
- your physical characteristics
- the dose that you take
- how often and for how long you have been using drugs
- how you ingest the drug . Compared with swallowing a drug, inhalation and injection are more likely to lead to overdose and dependence. If you are injecting drugs, sharing injecting equipment will increase your risk of contracting serious diseases such as hepatitis and HIV. It will also increase your risk of serious infection
- your mental health, mood and environment can affect the experience you have when taking drugs. If you have a mental health condition, drugs may exacerbate or complicate the symptoms of that condition
- whether you mix drugs, including alcohol. In particular, alcohol use may lead to high risk behaviour which can result in the serious injury or death of yourself or others.
Recommended Reading: How Long Does It Take To Detox From Alcohol Addiction
