Drug Profile

In this paper will be talking about the psychology and physiology of addiction, then will identify drug substances. Will cover the following categories: stimulants, depressants, narcotics, hallucinogens, and cannabis. Will discuss the addiction potential of various abused substances, what effects they have and withdrawal symptoms. Will also discuss how prescription drugs can be abused and lead to addiction.

The psychology and the physiology side of addiction is something that is interesting there are many things that you need to take into account when looking at why a person does have an addiction. "Certain physiological factors such as weight and gender must be taken into account to predict particular drug effects" (Levinthal, F. Charles, 2012). When it comes to a person's body and the brain it can become addicted to whatever the drug that they are doing if done regularly. The brain can be affected if a person is addicted it cause a person to lose any sense that they know of what is right and what is wrong, and it can even seriously mess with their will power to be able to stop. When a person has an addiction the drug of their choice will take over their life and it will kill their body and then the person will be dependent on that drug to help keep their body going. Then you will need to take into account of what specific substances that affect people as well.

There are many drugs that are out there and they each one have their own affect on people, and they all have their own category. There are stimulants that will make your brain activity increase, then you have the drugs that are depressants and they tend to make you on the sleepy side. Then you have pain pills or better known as narcotics they are everything above, when taking these kinds of drugs they can have the same effect of symptoms that go with depressants. Then you have the hallucinogens drug it has a big effect on a person's central nervous system and of course true to its name it gives you hallucinations. Of course then there is cannabis or better known as weed.

There are so many drugs out there that are classed as legal drugs two good examples are nicotine and caffeine, and then there are the drugs that are illegal. Regardless these kinds of things are considered to have an addictive quality, take coffee for example. Coffee has caffeine in it and that is something that is used by almost everyone in the world, along with soda and even tea. There are so many people that drink these drinks and then you have nicotine that is used worldwide by people. Smoking is a very addictive and it can be a very hard thing to quit, and another way to get nicotine is by dipping tobacco.

Then you have depressants that is a widely used drug, example is alcohol. Drinking alcohol is a depressant that is used by a lot of people, it can be a social thing or it can be used in an addicting kind of way. A lot of time people who have an alcohol don't know that they have a drinking problem until it is too late and they have lost everything. People who drink or use depressants it can cause downiness, and even though drinking alcohol is a very legal thing people sometimes tends to abuse it and become addicted to it.

When a person is taking narcotics it can be mostly for helping them mange their pain levels. It can cause a person to be put into a place where they feel good and be in like some kind of whatever happy place they want to be in. When you are on any type of narcotics it can be a dangerous thing it can make your blood pressure go up and it can so easily get you addicted to taking them. A person will take them when they really don't need to but their brain is telling them that they need it. "Approximately 1% of the adult population in the United States abuses narcotics" (Larson M.D., Karen, 2011).

With hallucinogens this is a psychoactive drug that is worked with the brain's neurotransmitters and if not careful it can send the wrong signals and even miss-fire