Essay Sample on Drug Addiction, Causes, and Effects

Introduction

Addiction is a chronic condition which is characterized by use and seeking of the drugs. The control of drug addiction is difficult despite its harmful consequences. The decision of consuming drugs at the start is voluntary in most cases, but repeated actions lead to changes in the brain which affect the person's self-control. Addiction tends to change the behavior of a person since they feel weak without using a particular drug. The changes which that occur to the person might become persistent making addiction to be referred to as the relapsing disease. The people who recover from using the various drug are usually at an increased risk of going back to drug use even after stopping for a while. People can be addicted to alcohol, cigars, marijuana, cocaine and other drugs which makes their behavior to deteriorate. Due to the increased risk in drug addiction among society, this paper will focus on the causes and effects which are related to drug addiction.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Causes of Drug Addiction

The environment which the person was brought up into can lead to addiction. Due to frequent arguments in a family, a child feels depressed thus getting to drugs as a way of relieving stress. The continuous usage of drugs by young adults due to an argument in the family leads to addiction. In a family, the parents who fight frequently and later call for a divorce acts as the predisposing factor of their children getting to drugs. It becomes stressful to live in an environment where parents are not in good terms hence making addiction to become a way of numbing the worries and fears that arise from that environment. Also, children might mimic their parents' behavior of consuming alcohol and other drugs leading to addiction (Iwamoto and Andrew 374). The child might start using these drugs for fun since they see their parents doing it and later it tends to affect their lives negatively.

Peer pressure might also lead to drug addiction where the teenagers would like to experience that feeling of being high. The peer pressure comes from the friends whom a person spends most of their time with either in schools or at home. In a relationship, a sober partner might join the addicted partner in using drugs as a way of achieving peace in their relationship. Teenagers or young adults get to drug use without thinking about its consequences as they try to experiment. The poor self-control is linked to peer pressure since a person cannot resist the offer given by their friends of trying a specific drug (Iwamoto and Andrew 376). Peer pressure takes control of a young adults choices since they have developed the desire of wanting to impress their fears. Through friends, getting into drugs is more comfortable since they drive each other to take risky decisions thus ending up to peer pressure.

Addiction is also associated with heredity where it predisposes an individual to the usage of various drugs. People might experiment using some drugs thus becoming difficult to stop their consumption. Also, due to genetic effects, an individual might have a reduced ability to experience the adverse impact of a particular drug making them get used drugs. This decreased ability to the adverse effects leads to addiction, and it becomes difficult to stop using them. The driving motivation for seeking drugs makes the person have a craving for a specific substance. The addictive drugs like the alcohol, cocaine, marijuana induce the alterations in gene expressions and the striatum leading to the formation of a habit of craving and persistence to use drugs after consumption stops (Kreek et al. 3387-3393). For an individual to stop this relapse, therapy and the preventive measures are taken thus becoming vital for dealing with addiction.

Effects of Drug Addiction

Drug addiction damages a persons' immune system thus being susceptible to infections. The immunity of a person is lowered, and the body cannot resist attack from the disease-causing micro-organisms such as the bacteria, virus, and fungi. The body of an addicted person can develop the cardiovascular conditions which lead to collapsing of the blood vessels. Individuals who have cardiovascular conditions end up having heart attacks due to heart failure and high blood pressure. Smoke from the cigars affect the respiratory systems leading to lung infections and mouth cancer. Whenever the respiratory system is damaged the person starts experiencing difficulties in breathing (Compton et al. 350-353). Also, continuous consumption of alcohol leads to liver cirrhosis which affects the health of those experiencing addiction. Therefore, minimizing drug abuse in society will lead to an improvement of the body's immunity to the affected individual.

Addiction among the students affects their performance in schools since they spend much of their time in drugs. Peer influence among the students is high, and they end up not attending lectures which affect their academic level. The addiction facilitates failure in most schools since the thinking and reasoning ability among the students is affected. The widespread damage caused by addiction interferes with the memory of students making them not to recall what they have learned (Ersche et al.601-604). The students cannot make obsolete decisions regarding their academic thus not improving in their academics.

Consequently, drug addiction might make the person to be fired from the job hence to increased levels of unemployment in the society. In the workplace, the person cannot work for the stipulated time due to the cravings of the drugs. Due to addiction the person has directs their attention to other areas thus not concentrating on the task given. The company does not achieve its set goals and objective due to incompetent employees. The results at the organization become limited thus forcing the management to change the workforce and bring in competent and focused workers (Compton et al. 350-353). At the workplace, the addicted persons have a poor relationship with other employees hence limiting the teamwork in the organization.

Addiction and dependence on the opiates leads to damaging of the brain because of respiratory depression. Whenever the brain is damaged, it leads to psychological and neurological effects. Also, the drugs cause deterioration of the white matter which is found in the brain as it is responsible for stress response, regulation of particular behavior and in making obsolete decisions. Women who are addicted and abuse the opiates have irregular menses thus making it hard to track their menstrual cycle (Cotto et al.409). The drugs also lead to sexual dysfunctions which later leads to divorce among the many families.

The usage of the intravenous drugs leads to contraction of the viral diseases hence putting the lives under danger. Individual who acquire viral diseases through the intravenous injection is affected by depression which makes them lose hope in life. Some people when they know they have viral infections are reluctant to seek treatment thus weakening their immune system. The drug addicts are so careless since they use the same syringes when injecting themselves. Some of the injections lead to skin problems which might cause infections that lead to wounds. Other diseases which are transmitted through the intravenous injections are the cellulitis, abscesses and the peripheral edema (Iwamoto and Andrew 374). The intranasal drugs lead to nasal bleeding, irritation of the nasal lining and the perforations of the nasal septum. Since some of the effects are not life-threatening, there is a relapse in addicted persons.

Addiction also leads to wastage of money as the addicted persons try to acquire the drugs or alcohol. An addicted person faces challenges in trying to develop since much of their hard earned income goes to addictions. Drugs and alcohol are sold at a higher price thus making them expensive. For a person to cope with the high prices in these drugs, they tend to use all their earning in purchasing these drugs (Compton et al. 350-353). After this individuals lack money to buy these drugs, they end up getting involved in crimes which lead them to jails.

Conclusion

Since drug addiction is a disease, the society and other stakeholders should join hands and eradicate some of the drugs in the community. Policies can be made which control drug and alcohol consumptions among the young adults and other individuals in society. Students should be taught on the effect of peer influence since it happens to be the major issue which leads to addiction among the students. Family issues can be eradicated through visiting the family counselor thereby reducing depression among the children who turn to the usage of drugs. The effects of drug addiction are the loss of the jobs leading to unemployment, increased diseases among the drug addicts, poor performance in schools and wastage of money. Therefore, problems which are caused by drug addiction in the society outweighs its benefits thus being referred to as the enemy of development and health among the drug users.

Works Cited

Compton, Wilson M., et al. "Unemployment and substance outcomes in the United States 2002-2010." Drug and alcohol dependence 142 (2014): 350-353. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25042761

Cotto, Jessica H., et al. "Gender effects on drug use, abuse, and dependence: a special analysis of results from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health." Gender medicine7.5 (2010): 402-413. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235519487_Gender_Differences_in_Prevalence_of_Substance_Use_Disorders_among_Individuals_with_Lifetime_Exposure_to_Substances_Results_from_a_Large_Representative_Sample

Ersche, Karen D., et al. "Abnormal brain structure implicated in stimulant drug addiction." Science 335.6068 (2012): 601-604. Retrieved from http://www2.gsu.edu/~biocjj/6%20Abnormal%20brain%20structure%20implicated%20in%20stimulant%20drug%20addiction.pdf

Iwamoto, Derek K., and Andrew P. Smiler. "Alcohol makes you macho and helps you make friends: The role of masculine norms and peer pressure in adolescent boys' and girls' alcohol use." Substance use & misuse 48.5 (2013): 371-378. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4207627/

Kreek, Mary Jeanne, et al. "Opiate addiction and cocaine addiction: underlying molecular neurobiology and genetics." The Journal of clinical investigation 122.10 (2012): 3387-3393. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3534165/