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Drug abuse also affects the body and overall health, causing potentially lasting issues like heart disease, lung cancer, kidney failure, and liver damage. Some of these long-term effects may be permanent, but many can be reversed by quitting and getting treatment. Drugs interact with chemicals in your brain and body to make you feel a certain way. Illegal drugs typically have no medical benefits and damage your health. Some prescription drugs help regulate moods, sleep, and manage pain, but they can also have serious complications when misused.
Maintaining sobriety can be difficult after transitioning from a controlled environment to the real world, so it’s important to surround yourself with people who understand. Attend one-on-one sessions with a therapist who specializes in addiction https://www.healthworkscollective.com/how-choose-sober-house-tips-to-focus-on/ or attend group meetings to stay on top of your recovery journey even after leaving rehab. Smoking certain drugs like methamphetamine or crack cocaine can ]cause lung infections and diseases like pneumonia, tuberculosis, and lung cancer.
Personal Problems in All Areas of Your Life
This condition can make it hard to concentrate, have a calm body, and focus on tasks. Stimulant medications can help improve academic and occupational performance by regulating brain chemistry. Everyone who enrolls in long-term treatment is encouraged to continue working on their recovery after the program ends.
Healthcare providers may recommend cognitive and behavioral therapies alone or in combination with medications. According to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), a person must have at least two signs in the symptoms section over 12 months to be diagnosed with substance use disorder. Seeking medical care as soon as you have signs of substance use disorder is essential. People can use substances occasionally without developing SUD, but even a few episodes of taking certain substances can lead to tolerance and dependence. Tobacco, heroin, cocaine, alcohol, cannabis and benzodiazepines are all substances that you can develop tolerance and dependence to.
What are drugs?
(Stigma Alert) A person who exhibits impaired control over engaging in alcohol use despite suffering severe harms caused by such activity. The brain changes discussed below do not represent an exhaustive list of all changes that may occur as a result of using these drugs. The complications of sober house substance use disorder are broad and may depend on the type of substance use. People who are in recovery have a higher chance of using substances again. Recurrence can happen even years after you last took the substance. Substances send massive surges of dopamine through your brain, too.