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Recent studies show that about 24 million of USA population are abusing illegal drugs. 18 millions of people in USA abuse alcohol and alone in 2012, about 22114 people died of over-doze. According to the reported statistics, about 10 percent of USA population abuse drug and alcohol and people around them in family, workplace and society are affected directly by them. 60 million dollars is spent each year to get the needed alcohol and drugs.

People who have been grown up in foster care, child abused situation, people with sexual assault and prison sentences, are at higher risk of abusing drugs and consequently being addicted to it. After addiction, individuals are mentally disordered and these disorders affects not only the patient or addicted one but also the family around them. Behavioral disorders resulted from addiction, influences the family and makes problems for them.

How does drug abuse affects family?

The more a person is approached to an addicted one, the more problem he/she will encounter. Families who have at least one drug addicted member in themselves know the above mentioned problem. These families are dealing with different kinds of problems and conditions in them. Some of these inter-family problems can be named as: high level of tensions, negativisms’, instability and co-dependent relationship. Co-dependent relationship is something vivid in families dealing with addiction.

75 percent of people grown up in foster placement, are suffering from alcohol abusing and 80 percent of people who have been grown up with child abuse experiment, suffer from drug abusing. The problems resulted from drug and family is something more critical with families in which the abuse heroin. Child in these families stays with family till 5 years old and after that he/she leaves the family and usually suffer from child abusing and child labor hood. Unfortunately, child who grow up in families dealing with addiction, are at risk of addiction, 8 times more than other families.

How does drug abuse effects on workplace?

According to the conducted study in 2006, about 19 millions of people abuse alcohol at work, whether while working or after work hours. You may have seen many people who abuse alcohol at work and if they have no access to alcohol they will be lazy, wine-headed and short-tempered. The first thing such workers are exhibited is being fired by their employers. Employees who are dealing with these conflicts of alcohol addiction must take more responsibilities to have better performance. Reduction of performance and productivity affects their job and may result in being fired and losing their job. At the other hand they may lost their personality and identity after being known as an addicted person at work and you know that identity and personality is not something easily accessible again. Such alcohol addicted or drug addicted employers rarely are added to the promotion list of manager and maybe even move upside-down and their degree is decreased.

How does addiction affects society?

Drug addiction is a complex and have to be recognized the sooner possible, if so, the patient will be freed from it and will return healthy and happily to the society. Another affecting aspect of drug addiction is its influence upon society. Addicted persons who have problems in family and society, have problems in society as well. These problems are resulted from mental and behavioral disorders.  the more the degree of addiction is, the more the problems of one will be. Some of the effects of addiction on society are listed below:

• Increase in child custody losses
• Increase in child abuse and child neglecting
• Increase in the risk of addiction for child’s born from addicted person
• Increase in poverty
• Increase in homelessness
• Increase in street quarrels
• Increase in taxes
• Increase in violence
• Increase in co-worker’s difficulties and problems
• Increase in revenues
• Increase in mental disorders
• Increase in child abuse
• Increase in rate of leaving school by students

We can still add to this list. For example, we can add unemployment by many of companies, because they don’t trust in people who previously have had addiction. We can also add rejection form people in the society. Addiction is not something effecting on family and the person him/herself, but also at the same time it is destructing the social and professional aspect of the addicted one.

We can summarize the types of drug addiction into the following list:

1. Alcohol
2. Amphetamines
3. Nicotine
4. Steroids
5. Cocaine
6. Hallucinogens
7. Narcotics
8. Over the counter medications

People can be addicted to a wide variety of drug types, from drugs to the illegal one like heroin. According to the conducted study by national institution of mental health services and drug abuse, about drug abuse and people’s healthiness, it exhibited that about 23 millions of people over 12 years old, are suffering from different kinds of addiction. If you   or anyone you love much is one of the above mentioned population, read the following short article because it will be useful to know the types of drugs which are addictive if it’s abused.

Anyone who has easy access to one of the above mentioned type of drug, he/she is really at risk of addiction and it is not something deniable, specifically for those who have someone addicted among themselves or previously have been addicted to one of the mentioned drugs. Imagine that someone who live in a society with high rate of addiction in it or is living in a family with an addicted member, he/she will be at a higher risk of drug abuse. Sometimes addiction is not recognizable. The patient may have abused the drug and show a normal situation at home, in society or at work, but It is not something durable and shows itself when one is in need of the drug and has not abused it during the day, then you can watch the symptoms physically and mentally. However, there are types of addiction and here we go to name and describe each one according to the list mentioned above.

1. Alcohol

According to the declarations of national center of preventing chronic disease, alcohol is one the widest reported addiction. About 50% of high school students abuse alcohol to feel intoxication each year. Warning signals of alcohol addiction are:

• Being at late for school and work
• Not doing the homework
• Not enjoying things, he/she enjoyed previously
• Daily habit of drinking
• Feeling guilty after drinking
• Lying about drinking habit
• Sharp tendency toward drinking
• Turning the lights off while drinking
• Inability of stop drinking or ceasing drinking habits
• Drinking more than before

2. Amphetamines

Amphetamines increases the speed of central nervous system. You can find these addictive drugs widely. Its street names are “speed” “failure” and Methamphetamines. In the united states of America, these types of drugs are not expensive and they are easily accessible. Maybe that’s why Amphetamines are one the most common and mostly reported types of addiction in USA. Amphetamines cause higher blood pressure, reducing appetite, headache, laziness, anxiety, dizziness, hallucination, convulsion and heart failure.

3. Nicotine

National institution of drug abuse, declares that 90 percent of all lung cancer has root in cigarette. Tobacco products are banned for under eighteen years old in USA as well as many of countries all over the world. Although this law is conducting all over the world as well as USA, but easy access and being expensive, has made tobacco products available even for under eighteen people. Each time one lights a cigarette, its addiction is added up. Smoking and abusing tobacco products can result in cancer, heart failure and heart stroke.

4. Steroids

May be its surprising for you to know that even steroids are addictive drugs, but it’s true and Steroids are considered as Addictive drug among some of body builders and athletes. People who are involved in body building and go gym for many years, sometimes want to increase the mass of their muscle in an abnormal way. So, they will be addicted to the steroids they use to achieve the goal mentioned and cannot the mental feeling they are addicted to after using and reusing steroids. This type of addiction is the satisfactionary feeling they have about their perfect body and massy muscles after using steroids, while the real feeling comes from the addiction of them to the steroid abusing. Symptoms of addiction to the steroid is listed below:

• Continuing the abuse of steroids although they know the destructive consequences
• Looking for higher doze
• Inability to withdraw steroid abusing
• Abnormal growth of muscles.

Nowadays there are effective treatment available for addiction treatment. The first step a patient must take is to recognize the problem he/she has. If he/she continuously denies the problem, then the treatment is postponed consequently and it takes longer time for him/her to know the problem and be ready for treatment. But if they (patients) know about their problem and accept to be addicted to the drug or any related substances, treatment process will be token sooner than before. Banning friend’s and family’s intervention, accelerates the treatment process.

You can ask help from a professional to be sure that if someone around you is addicted to any drug or substance. It doesn’t matter that disorders are in basic levels or in a critical degree, treatment will be available always. But addicted one is always denying the problem in him/her and get away from treatment, although he/she knows the advantages of the treatment and destructive consequences of his/her habit.

Addiction affects life in different aspects, then it needs different combination of treatment. A combination of medication and group-individual treatment can be effective in the best way possible for most of the patents. Medications are sometimes necessary to control the patient’s tendency to abuse drug and at the same time to relieve the intense pain of withdrawal. This treatment can improve the patients to know and control the motivations and behaviors of them, improve the self-stem, help them to deal with stress and also it addresses the other mental disease in them. Treatment process can include the following items:

• hospitalization
• Therapeutic communities
• Outpatient programs

Treatment period

Generally, the treatment periods differ from each other and they depend on different factors. But be sure that each drug the patient is addicted to, will be treatable if he/she stay in treatment period and not leave it before the declared deadline. Treatment period does not consist of medication alone, but it also has peer to peer and group counseling treatments and programs. Most of patient have mental disease too and this mental disease causes their behavioral disorders. so the patient’s mental disease must be treated just like addiction of them.

Addiction is a complex situation and shows itself with compulsory abusing of different drugs although the addicted person is aware of destructive consequences of abusing them. People who are addicted to each type of drug are always focusing on the drug they abuse and are addicted to that, such substance can be alcohol or drug or maybe it’s unbelievable for you but it can also be chemical products like soap. The intensity of such desire is so that it can shade on whole the life aspects of addicted one. These people still continue their abusing although they know the consequences of that (both mental and behavioral consequences in their future life). However, nowadays there are effective treatment for these drug addicted individuals to be free from addiction and return to a healthy successful life. Yes, such a productive, healthy and successful life is at reach.

People may be addicted to different type of drugs like:

• Alcohol
• Marijuana
• Hallucinogens
• Inhalants
• medicines for anxiety such as tranquilizers
• cocaine
• heroin
• pain killers

people who have disorders in their substance abusing, are suffering from mental and thinking disorders. changes occurred in their brain performance causes a sharp tendency to abuse drugs and it’s so hard for them to withdraw substances and drug abusing at once. A study has been conducted about this problem and according to the images captured from an addicted person brain, it showed changes in different parts of brain which are related to different functions like judgement, decision making, learning, memory and behavioral control. Pictures captured from a healthy person’s brain didn’t show any changes mentioned above.

 These addictive substances can change the brain functions a lot and these changes will last for a long time after the first time that one abuses the drug – the same intoxication or the feeling of high pleasure and enjoyment after the first abusing of drug. Intoxication is an intense pleasure or high awareness resulted from drug abusing and take in mind that each drug has its own different specification.

Individual tolerance changes during the time and each time he/she needs more amount of substance to achieve the needed intoxication or pleasure and this is the starting point of addiction. Each time the abused amount increases and each time the degree of addiction and abusing is higher than before. The addicted one is in need of the pleasure and condition which is created in him/her and he /she is really addicted to this or these feeling and consequently addiction is seen in them.

National institution of drug abusing, has declared in its studies that people abuse drugs for different reasons. The most common reasons are:

• to feel good – pleasure feeling
• to feel better – relieving stress
• to do better – better performance
• curiosity and peer pressure

people who are dealing with these behavioral disorders, can cease these habits even though they want to do it. They have problems and can withdraw these drugs and substances easily. Addiction have had its different effect on their healthiness, well and decision making power. Addiction is a complex that has influenced on their family members and these effects are vividly seen in their personal and professional life. Premature death plus different kinds of disease are seen in addicted individuals. Symptoms of disorders resulted from drug abusing are categorized into four items:

• defected control system: intensified tendency and desire toward abusing drugs and substances that results in failure in decreasing the abuse amount.
• Social problems: the fail in completing their workplace task or school homework and cease being at public and enjoying there among people.
• Abusing in risky situations: sometimes the addicted one abuses its drug or any substance in a crowd and risky situation.
• Substance effects: Tolerance (each time, one abuses more amount of drugs to achieve the needed intoxication). Each drug has its own separate and different intoxication.

There are lots of people who suffer from both mental disease and addiction. Mental disease may be resulted from addiction but sometime addiction may result in mental disease. However, addiction is just like other chronic disease and it is not an untreatable disease. Nowadays there are different kind of treatments available for addiction and the person who is addicted to each type of drugs can be treated and cleaned up from that drug. Be aware that the treatment depends on different components like type of drug, age of person, the amount of abusing and the degree of addiction.

Basics and Principles of an Effective Treatment on Drug Addiction

1. Addiction is a complex but a treatable one that has impacts on the performance and behavioral aspects of brain. Drug abuse changes the structure and performance of brain so that it results in a situation that lasts for a long time, even after ceasing it. Maybe it’s for the same reason that addicted individuals have a sharp tendency toward re-using the drugs even after ceasing drugs and although they are aware of the destructive consequences of drug abusing.

   

2. There’s not a single treatment for individuals. Kinds of treatments differ, depending on the type of drug and the personality aspects of patient. Treatment environment, interventions and the provided services have to be matched to the patient and his/her complex. If the mentioned conditions be matched well to the patient, he or she can have a successful return to the family and society as well as his/her workplace.
3. Treatment have to be available. No one who is addictive to a drug abuse refers to a treatment service provider at a specific and recognizable time and you cannot tell exactly that when does an individual refers to the department to be treated, so the treatment must be available to them to take advantage of the services. Just like the other chronic disease, addiction is a chronic one as well and the sooner it is recognized and treated, the more successful it will be and will have positive output as well.

   

4. An effective treatment attends to the needs of patient as well as the drug type. In order to provide an effective treatment, it have to consider the drug abused as well as ant problem related to patient, such as legal, social, mental and medication problems. Also the treatment process must be attentive to the gender, age, ethnicity and the culture of patient.
5. The necessity of not leaving the process. Treatment period for each patient is different and depends to the type and degree of him/her. According to the studies conducted on the treatment period, each person dealing with addiction needs a 3 months’ period to reduce the drug abusing habit. Consequently, the more a period lasts, the more and the better output it will have. Just like the other chronic disease. If the treated person returned to drug abusing, he/she must be returned to the treat process. We see that addicted persons who are at treatment, have a tendency to leave the process sooner than the real date, so the treatment programs must be adjusted and have strategic planning by which they sustain the patients in them.

   

6. Behavioral treatment – including individual or family and group counseling – are one of the most common methods used for drug abusing treatment. Behavioral treatment differs from each other in their focus point and may address different items to focus on them, such as: changing patient motivation, motivating him/her to cease drug abusing, creating skills to have resistance on drug abusing, replacing abusing activities with rewarding and productive activities, improving problem solving skills and facilitating the relationship skills. Participating in group treatments or peer to peer counseling, while treatment period or even after the treatment is ended, can help the patient to have stronger will and see better outputs.
7. Medications are considered as one of the most important element for most of patients, specifically when combined with counselling and other treatment.as an example methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone helps someone addicted to heroin to stabilize his/her life and reduce the amount of daily abusing. Acamprosate, Disulfiram and Naltrexone are medicines that cure alcoholic dependencies and its performance is approved. A replacement product can be an effective component in treatment period for anyone who is addicted to nicotine. This replacement product can be a part of treatment program. Nicotine replacement product can be prescript and used in different ways like patches, gum, lozenges, or nasal spray). Be aware that prescribing each of these replacement products depends on the addiction and drug type and the only one who can recognize if the patient needs it or not, is the doctor and professional.
8. The treatment program and services must be continuously assessed in order to be changed if needed. Changes must be according to the continuing changes of the patient. In his/her improving period, a patient may need a different and changing treatment combinations and components. Besides counseling and mental treatment, a patient may need new medications, family treatment, work rehabilitation or social and legal services. Continuing care results in the best treatment, but at the same time it must be matched to the patient needs.
9. Most of drug addicted individuals, have mental disorders at the same time. Drug abusing and addiction, both are considered to be some kinds of mental disorders and occurs at the same time with other mental disease. Patients who have one of them must be examined for the other. If both the addiction and mental disorder occurred at the same time, the treatment process must consider both of them and settle a separate treatment program for each of them.
10. Medically assisted detoxification is just the first level of treatment and does a little to treat long-term drug abuse. Although Medically assisted detoxification Can safely manage the physical symptoms and charges of withdrawal and at the same time pave the way to the long-term withdrawal but alone. It’s not enough for long-term withdrawal. So the patient must be encouraged to continue the treatment after detoxification. Incentive strategies can improve the patients’ participation in treatment process.

    

11. In order to have an effective treatment, there’s no need to be volunteer. Sanctions and enticement form family, can be effective in some situations, even if the patient be delivered to the treatment service provider department through justice system. This increases the treatment rate as well as participation rate. A family can recognize his/her child as an addicted individual while the patient is denying his/her problem and this denial from the patient delays the treatment and worsen the situation. The patient is suffering from addiction and mental disorders and is unaware of it or at least is denying it, but the family knows that and decides to deliver the patient to a place providing drug addiction treatment.