Prepared by the researcher : Malek Ahmed Mostafa – Political researcher Interested in social sciences
Democratic Arabic Center
Abstract
Addiction can take many forms, but it is defined as an uncontrollable desire to use a substance such as drugs or alcohol or to engage in an activity such as gambling or sexual intercourse. Addiction can occur with a variety of other things, including food, shopping, and using the internet; the term “addiction” does not only refer to harmful substances or habits. To justify themselves or themselves, the addict continually makes up justifications for doing drugs or tells lies. The drug user may temporarily stop using drugs because they believe it will not be difficult to break their habit.
Introduction:
Addiction has to do with how your body needs a substance or habit, especially if it leads to an obsessional or compulsive desire for the reward and a lack of regard for the repercussions. By time addiction can start affecting your life, ruining your mental health and even the basic decisions you need to make you will find it hard, you are only thinking about how you will get your drug and how, this will cause a big failure in your studies, friends and most important your family. Addictions can significantly disrupt your daily life, People experiencing addiction will experience depression and will probably increase by time. Addiction can come in the form of any substance or behavior like nicotine, THC, cocaine, alcohol or excessive use of pain reliefers (medicine). Some things are not considered as addictions like sexual intercourse or work. Some habits or social behaviors resemble addiction. However, in the case of an addiction, a person will typically react negatively when they do not receive their reward. For example, a coffee addict may experience physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms such as severe headaches and irritability. Addiction in its simplest meaning is an inability to stop using a substance or engaging in a behavior even though it is causing psychological and physical harm. Addiction may not be noticeable by the person him/her self, its probably noticed by the people surrounded by you. The people around you may see things your own mind is hiding it from you, it can be noticed by your reactions and actions.
Body:
Addiction may be resulted from many causes; it may be personal or environmental causes. Addiction comes from using a substance excessively and for long period of time, and there is substances you can use it only for one time and suddenly you become addicted to it. For young children as an example they cant leave their mobile phones and cant stop playing video games, their whole childhood is based on online games and this will affect their personal life when they grow up, their only friends will be based on their fantasy friends and they may become introverts. For teens in this generation, their current environment makes anything available and the manners are shifting downwards. They may use drugs just to show their group of friends that they are cool and impress girls. Social media also increases the damage of their minds, and they are taking all their ideas from the western world, which is not suitable for our traditions and religion. Addiction is defined as any bad habit that negatively impacts an individual’s well-being, from the smallest things like chocolate addiction, coffee addiction, shopping addiction all the way to drug addiction and alcohol addiction or even gambling addiction. Addiction not only has physical consequences, but it also has a negative impact on the addict’s mental health. Its curable but the curing process is not easy at all, it requires professional help and a huge support and most importantly the addict’s mindset is willing to be ready to change not forced to change.
Lets talk about drug addiction for an example. The amount of responsibilities and pressure on people led them to find a way to ease this pressure, as soon as they try it and find how relieving it is as soon they fall in the trap. They start with small doses until the small doses is not enough for them, so they double the normal dose until their mind stop the normal dose (dopamine) as it come from an external factor heavily. So as soon the effect of the drug ends as soon as they use the drug again and again. This will surely ruin their physical and mental health. The most famous drug use symptoms are Nausea and abdominal pain, which can lead to changes in appetite and weight loss. Increased strain on the liver, putting the person at risk of significant liver damage or liver failure. Seizures, stroke, mental confusion, and brain damage are all possibilities, lung diseases. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, manic depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder, and antisocial personality disorder are some of the most common serious mental disorders associated with chronic drug abuse. The first reason is pure curiosity. Many teenagers have heard about drugs and are eager to try them for themselves. They’ve heard that drugs can be enjoyable or cause people to feel and act strangely. Maybe they’ve seen their friends or family members act strangely while high, and they want to know how it really feels. Every day, we see drugs on TV and in movies. Many young people come across them at school, at home, or in their community. It’s natural to be curious about something you see and hear about all the time, and many people start using drugs because they’re curious about them. Another reason that young people use drugs is to escape reality. Perhaps their family life is not very happy. Perhaps they have a boring job, are failing in school, or are simply unhappy with their life for whatever reason. Many people use drugs to escape their unhappy reality. Addiction is most found in poor countries, where they cant find work or a hope in progression so they escape the reality of their sadness and express it in using drugs which makes them feel happy even if its for ten minutes. On the other sides the rich people also excessively use drugs, because rich people also suffer from depression because they almost have everything on the planet and cant find happiness in what they already have, So they head to drugs and they have the money to buy it so why not?. In this case the addiction hurts them even more than a poor person which barely have the money to buy drugs. The most important feature that need to be clarified about drugs is Death, Yes drugs can get you killed even if you are going to try it for one time. Drugs is made by heartless people and its source is unknown, its is mixed with poison and huge amount of unknown chemicals which confirms that yes it can kill you in few seconds. Drugs can disrupt essential body functions at high doses, leading to overdose. “More than 932,000 people have died since 1999 from a drug overdose. In 2020, 91,799 drug overdose deaths occurred in the United States. The age-adjusted rate of overdose deaths increased by 31% from 2019 (21.6 per 100,000) to 2020 (28.3 per 100,000)”.
Economic or physical drug effects
Material and economic problems constitute a major obstacle for individuals who use drugs, and for the families around them, and even for their work and their homelands as well, as they include effects on money, and other tangible ones, and these effects include:
on the individual, most notably:
- Job loss: The stability of drug users in their work is affected, because of the abnormal behavior resulting from drugs, frequent absenteeism, and the difficulty of performing tasks to the fullest, which will lead to the dismissal of drug users from work.
- Financial crises: Because of the high cost of drugs at times, and the person’s inability to obtain a source of income, the person will suffer from a financial crisis because of the frequent need to buy drugs, sometimes preferring them over the necessities of life.
- Debt: Drug addicts often need to borrow money from people from their surroundings, which makes the accumulation of debts possible, especially since it is difficult to pay them due to the lack of inputs and the high prices of drugs.
on the society
- Destabilizing the national economy: Drug abuse is an encouragement to promoters of illicit gain, which in turn may lead to putting obstacles in front of legitimate and honest projects.
- Inflation: This term means the rise in the cost of providing basic resources for a person’s livelihood, and the increase in the prices of products and services, which leads to a weakening of the purchasing power of each currency unit, i. Illegal sources of drug promotion, which in turn contribute to an economic upheaval, foretells a future of well-defined economic inflation.
- High rates of violence: There is a direct and close relationship between drug abuse rates and crime rates. In 2007 AD, more than 750 thousand crimes were recorded that were related in one way or another to the use of prohibited substances such as drugs and alcohol.
Conclusion:
Addiction is an uncontrollable process. It may not be fair to link an individual’s addictive behavior to his moral standards or character. The brain response to an addict changes in such a way that he continues to live with bad habits and addictions despite knowing the dangers. Aside from therapy and medications, the individual requires a great deal of love, affection, support, and motivation to overcome the addiction. And most importantly the effectiveness of the treatment depends on the use of medicines. Drug addicts respond effectively to psychological treatments, which over time enable young people gain more self-confidence. In order to be prepared and know how to face such situations, parents of young people who are addicted to drugs should be well aware of the withdrawal symptoms. Strict measures need to be implemented in order to regulate and stop the supply and exchange of such dangerous components in order to maintain a young and healthy society. To stop children from getting access to these medications in any way, special precautions must be taken.
References:
https://www.thewisdompost.com/essay/addiction/essay-on-addiction/2411
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/index.html
https://spot.pcc.edu/map/drugs_essay.html
https://www.gatewayfoundation.org/about-gateway-foundation/faqs/effects-of-drug-abuse/
