Long-Term Effects of Drug Abuse
Like any other relapsing disease, addiction only gets worse over time. In fact, addiction causes a multitude of physical and psychological effects. The longer you use drugs, the more destructive these effects are for your body and mind unless you use healthy methods of recovery and relapse prevention to maintain long-term wellness. Through recovery with the help of a licensed detox and rehab program, you can give your body and brain what they need to return to a healthier state. Still, many people have permanent problems resulting from their substance abuse.
There are two primary ways that addiction changes the body. First, using drugs or alcohol in excess for a long time does damage to the bodily systems. Second, the lifestyle that addicts tend to adopt also does damage. For example, a habitual drug user may not get adequate nutrition and could make risky life choices like sharing needles.
How marijuana or alcohol affects the body differs from how cocaine or methamphetamine changes it. The same is true for the effects caused by heroin or prescription opioids. Each drug has its own chemical profile and long-term effects on your physical being. Once you suffer from physical addiction, you are always at risk for relapse regardless of the drug you used.
Similarly, your brain suffers the effects of drug abuse. In the short term, your dopamine levels increase, synapse activity decreases, and brain connections are rewired. But some drugs can kill neurons in the brain that never regenerate. Connections between the neurons take weeks, months, or even years to return to normal. These mental effects can also change your behavior, leading to unhealthy habits that will require therapy to correct.
The longer you abuse drugs, the more lasting their effects. But no matter how long you have suffered from addiction, your body and brain may be able to miraculously recover for a better future.
Who Drug Abuse Affects
When you think of the lasting effects of drug abuse, you may not consider all the people addiction harms and how these effects differ from one group to another.
Teens
Teenagers suffer educational damage that leaves many stuck in a cycle of undereducation, poor job prospects, and poverty. Because their brains are still developing, many teens suffer lasting brain changes if they become addicted at a young age. They also more easily suffer dependence on their abused substances.
Adults
Adults suffer cognitive, memory, and attention problems. Drugs affect their work, socialization, and relationships. They experience behavioral changes affecting many aspects of their daily stability.
Parents
Parents abusing drugs often perpetrate child abuse and neglect along with problems related to chaotic and stressful lifestyles. This affects child development, leading many kids of drug-using parents to also suffer addiction in their lifetimes. Children of addicts are more likely to suffer trauma than children who did not grow up with parents with a substance use disorder.
Babies
Babies whose mothers abuse drugs during pregnancy can become addicted even before birth by receiving addictive substances through the placenta. Once they are born, they can have withdrawal symptoms. This condition is called neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Many are born too early and suffer low birth weights along with other effects of prematurity, such as learning disabilities, behavioral problems, and social difficulties. Of course, neonatal exposure to drug abuse also sets these children up for future substance abuse and addictions of their own.
Psychological Effects of Drug Abuse
Drug abuse commonly coincides with mental health problems as part of a dual diagnosis, also known as co-occurring disorders, because addiction and mental illness have common risk factors. These include stress, trauma, and genetics. Approximately 17 million American adults were reported to have co-occurring mental illness and substance use disorder in the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Of these, 5.7 million had a serious mental illness as well as an SUD. It’s often not known whether mental illness or substance abuse came first.
Abusing drugs causes great psychological distress. This distress differs from person to person and can range in severity. These mental effects of substance abuse include a number of issues.
Anxiety
Anxiety stems from the innate human flight-or-fight response. But when using drugs, this anxiety occurs when no real danger is present.
As a result of co-occurring anxiety and substance abuse, you can experience a multitude of multitude of symptoms, such as:
- Fast heart rate
- Excessive worry
- Sweating
- Feelings of doom
- Stress
- Mood swings
- Insomnia
- Restlessness
- Agitation
Depression
Like anxiety, depression is a common condition that occurs along with a substance use disorder. Symptoms of depression with substance abuse include:
- Sleep changes
- Appetite changes
- Poor concentration
- Low energy
- Lost interest in favorite activities
- Hopelessness
- Guilty feelings
- Slow movement
- Agitation
- Generalized physical pain
- Suicidal thoughts
Paranoia
Marijuana use, especially if it is frequent or in high doses, can cause paranoia. Along with paranoia, some individuals experience hallucinations and delusional thoughts. For many, these effects are long-lasting and can lead to schizophrenia. Others experience temporary psychosis that goes away after the drug abuse ends.
Behavioral Changes from Drug Abuse
Just as you can suffer the psychological effects of substance abuse, your behavior can also change. Many of these behavioral changes come from the repetitive cycles of addiction.
Behavioral changes characteristic of drug abuse include:
- Desire to use your drug regularly
- Intense cravings and urges that dominate your thoughts
- Needing more of the drug over time for its original effects
- Using the drug longer and in greater amounts than you intended
- Compulsive drug seeking and “stashing” your supply
- Spending money on drugs that you do not have to spare
- Failing to fulfill your daily responsibilities
- Continuing your substance abuse despite knowing it is wrecking your life
- Engaging in risky or criminal behaviors for your drug
- Spending a lot of time seeking your drugs, using them, or recovering from your high
- Feeling the negative effects of withdrawal when you try to stop using your drugs
- Lying
- Financial problems
- Secrecy and suspicious actions
- Friend group changes
- Legal problems
Physical Effects of Abusing Drugs
There are several types of physical effects related to drug abuse. They include short-term and long-term health problems. Withdrawal is one collection of short-term effects experienced when you try to quit using your substances.
Short-Term Physical Effects
When abusing drugs, you become unhealthy and experience an increased likelihood of contracting short-term health problems. These short-term physical effects include:
- Malnutrition
- Sleep problems
- Poor hygiene
- Frequent colds, flu, and viruses
- Ongoing cough
- Appetite changes
- Constipation
- Diarrhea
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Weight loss
- Breathing problems
- Heart rate changes
- Vision, hearing, and tastes sensory changes
- Red eyes
- Dry mouth
- Poor coordination
- Yellowed or darkened fingertips
- High blood pressure
- Lost muscle control
- Dizziness
- Involuntary eye movements
- Falls and accidents
- Increased alertness or sleepiness
- Pupil size changes
- Nasal congestion
- Mouth sores
- Dental decay
- Tremors and shakiness
- Seizures
- Overdose
- Coma
Withdrawal Symptoms of Addiction
If you are addicted to a drug, you will feel the negative effects of withdrawal when you try to stop using it. These withdrawal symptoms often include:
- Insomnia
- Irritability
- Mood changes
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Aches and pains
- Cravings
- Fatigue
- Nausea
- Hallucinations
- Sweating or chills
- Goose pimples
- Runny nose
- Paranoia
- Confusion
- Tremors
- Disorientation
Withdrawal symptoms vary from one drug to the next. Some of these symptoms are more dangerous than others. To get through withdrawal and start working on recovery, you need help from a licensed detox facility. Detox professionals can help you stay comfortable and healthy during your transition into sobriety and away from addiction.
Long-Term Physical Effects
Substance abuse can cause multiple long-term physical effects. The longer you use your substances and suffer addiction, the more likely you are to suffer ongoing physical health concerns as a result. Although recovery can help you heal some of these problems, others cause permanent health damage.
Some of these problems include:
- Lung disease
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Cancer
- Dental problems
- Kidney failure or kidney disease
- Nerve cell damage or nerve cell death in the brain or peripheral nervous system
- Overdose
- Death
- Contraction of HIV/AIDS
- Hepatitis B or C contraction
- Endocarditis, infection of the heart and its valves
- Cellulitis, a skin infection
- Pregnancy problems, breastfeeding problems, and birth defects
- Increased risk of injuries or death from motor vehicle accidents
Of course, abusing drugs can also exacerbate any pre-existing physical conditions.
How to Avoid Lasting Effects of Drug Abuse
If you or someone you love are suffering early, recoverable or lasting effects of drug abuse, it is critical that you seek the right treatment. It is possible to regain personal wellness and live a healthier, more fulfilling life through recovery and relapse prevention.
Rehab Continuum of Care
The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) refers to a continuum of care as important for helping individuals end their addictions. This continuum is customized according to each person’s unique needs. It starts with an addiction assessment by a qualified professional. Then, to clear the drugs and alcohol from your system, you must start with detoxification. Once early sobriety is achieved after going through withdrawal, you are ready for rehab treatment and associated therapies, where true recovery begins.
This continuum of care includes:
- Detoxification in a licensed detox facility
- Inpatient rehab
- Residential rehab
- Intensive outpatient (IOP) program
- Partial hospitalization (PHP)
- Outpatient (OP) program
Every individual does not go through all of these levels of treatment. Instead, your specific pathway to recovery from addiction starts with detox and includes the levels you need for your best chance of sustainable and long-term recovery.
Important Therapies in Rehab Treatment
Therapy is one of the most important facets of rehab treatment. But there is no single one-size-fits-all approach to addiction recovery. Just as you and your treatment professionals develop a tailored approach through multiple levels of care, you also need an array of therapies suited to your specific needs.
Common therapies used for addiction recovery include:
- Individual counseling
- Psychotherapy
- Behavioral therapies, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical BehaviorTherapy (DBT)
- Medication management
- Group therapy
- Family or couples therapy
- Addiction education
These therapies and others combine to help you build a strong recovery and avoid relapse. In these sessions, you learn to deal with stress, particularly sudden life stress that threatens your sobriety. You also learn how to cope with triggers and environmental cues that once led you to use your drugs. Therapy helps you repair damaged relationships, build healthy networks that support your recovery, and avoid toxic friendships that threaten your sobriety.
4 Stages of Treatment
When you seek recovery through treatment, such as in an outpatient or other rehab program and the therapies explored above, you proceed through four stages. These stages start when you are admitted to a program and continue throughout the rest of your life in recovery.
The four stages of treatment described by the American Society of Addiction Medicine include:
- Treatment engagement – You decide to enter treatment and find a suitable detox or rehab program, with which you engage
- Early recovery – You achieve sobriety after going through detox and start learning about relapse prevention and other aspects of recovery
- Maintenance – You have learned the tools and coping skills you need for a better life and use them to maintain your progress
- Community support – You develop a network of supportive individuals and groups in your community and build those relationships to strengthen and maintain your ongoing wellness
To avoid the long-term effects of drug abuse, it is critical that you pursue effective detox, rehab treatment, and community support. By doing so, you give yourself your best chance of a healthier future and the more fulfilling life you truly deserve.
