The Negative Effects Of Addiction

Many addictive substances are consumed widely, with little regulation, meaning they affect millions or even billions of people. Not to mention the destructive effects of substance addiction for individuals. People can lose their relationships, their jobs, and their freedom to an addiction. Addictions often lead to death. Understanding addiction, how it happens, and how it can be treated can save people’s lives. Unlike many other addictive substances, alcohol is relatively inexpensive, with some beers costing about as much as soft drinks. (In comparison, in 2012, the average price of cocaine per gram in 2012 was $185.) Alcohol is also the most widely used psychoactive drug after caffeine, even by people who wouldn’t call themselves drug users

Sensitization involves dopamine, which produces feelings of pleasure and craving. Dopamine is is a key part of the reward system, the brain’s way of encouraging actions vital to one’s survival. When you do something pleasurable, like drinking, your brain releases dopamine, and remembers that it did so, so that the next opportunity you have to repeat the action, your brain will encourage you to so, causing you to crave it. Tolerance is when one requires higher amounts of a drug to produce the same feeling they used to get with a lower amount. A heavy drinker may need four glasses of wine to reproduce the feeling they used to get with just two. This happens because the body increases the production of enzymes that break down ethanol, and decreases the amount of active neurotransmitter receptors in an effort to maintain homeostasis. Once the body has learned to rely on alcohol, the effects of suddenly stopping drinking can be unpleasant and/or life threatening. The body goes through withdrawal, which comes with symptoms bad enough that a person may choose to keep drinking not out of a desire to feel good, but to avoid feeling bad. But most addictions are a combination of physical and psychological factors. People are influenced by their environment, and their environment may determine whether or not they become a drug addict. If a person’s parents, siblings, or friends

In the brain, alcohol can shrink your brain mass, damaging your ability to form memories, concentrate on tasks, and regulate your mood. It also affects your physical coordination. Drinking weakens your heart, causing it to droop and stretch, and leaves it unable to contract properly. This is a condition known as alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Your chances of having a heart attack or stroke also increase. The liver is where toxins and substances like alcohol are broken down. But it can only do so much, and breaking down alcohol can create even more dangerous compounds. Heavy drinking, even for just a few days, can cause build-up of fat in the liver, which makes the liver less functional and increases the chance of alcoholic hepatitis, a disease characterized by fever, nausea, appetite loss, abdominal pain, and mental confusion. About 20% of heavy drinkers will develop alcoholic hepatitis. The pancreas is responsible for releasing insulin and glucagon, which regulates blood sugar levels. Drinking can cause pancreatitis, a swelling of the pancreas that causes abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever, sweating, rapid heart rate, and