Drug Profile

Drug Profile

Addiction is a serious illness that ruins people lives. The body and mind crave the altercation substances bring and control is lost. The psychology of addiction is in the mind, and the physiology is in the body. Both mind and body can become addicted to substances causing altercations in the brain and painful effects on the body with withdrawal. The most abused substances are often legal. The following will examine different types of illegal and legal substances and the effects they have on the mind and body.

The Psychology and Physiology of Addiction

Introduction of a substance into the body on a regular basis can cause an addiction. The mind and body become used to the substance introduced causing the addiction. Over time, the mind and body crave the substance and without the substance, withdrawal becomes an issue. The mind and body then needs the substance or the systems in the body will fail.

Psychology of Addiction

Behavioral traits within a person can make him or her susceptible to drug addiction. The feeling of helplessness or no control over his or her life could lead to person to drug addiction as a way to escape those negative feelings. People abuse drugs for many reasons. Knowing the root of a person's addiction can help a person stop the continuing cycle of drug abuse. People assume he or she is immune to drug addiction and think they casually can use drugs without becoming addicted.

Physiology of Addiction

The transition of drug abuse from casual to addiction begins in the brain. Addiction incorporates ideas that the drug changes the brain and causes psychological damage (Robinson & Berridge, 2003). Drugs give people a pleasant feeling and without the drug people go through a process of withdrawal within the body and brain. To avoid a withdrawal people continue drug use leading straight to drug addiction.

Drug Substances

Drug substances are prevalent in the United States and around the world. In 2005, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reported an estimated 19.7 million people in the United States aged 12 and older were using drugs (Alder, 2008). Among the most widely used drugs were marijuana, psychotherapeutics, and hallucinogenic drugs. The following section will discuss the most widely used drugs and what effects they have on the body and brain.

Marijuana

Marijuana is one of the most widely used drugs in the world because it is grown practically everywhere. Smoking marijuana in a rolled cigarette or a pipe is the usual form of inducing the drug. However, some people use the drug by ingested it through brewed teas. The effects of smoking or ingested marijuana take only minutes. The high usually lasts for two to three hours. People who smoke or ingest marijuana report an euphoric feeling and confidence. The potential for becoming addicted to marijuana is high because people do not want to lose the feeling marijuana gives them and therefore continue to smoke or ingest the drug. Chronic use of marijuana does not have a physical effect of tolerance, only a psychological need for the drug (Levinthal, 2012). When the person becomes addicted to marijuana and does not smoke or ingest the drug the person will experience psychological pain and seek other drugs to alleviate those pains.

Psychotherapeutics

The second most widely used drugs in the report done by the NSDUH in 2005 were psychotherapeutics (Alder, 2008). Prescription pain relievers, tranquilizers, and stimulants, such as methamphetamine are among the drugs classified as psychotherapeutic drugs. Methamphetamine use in the United States has become an epidemic with sometimes violent and deadly consequences. The potential for addiction to methamphetamine is enormous after only one use. Users of