Savannah, at the age of ten started using drugs because of the influence of both her parents. She lived her life depending on drugs, she took numerous types of drugs: Pills, heroin,meth and ecstacy. She also smoked weeds and is alcoholic as a teenager. She was a typical teenage addict and nobody could stop her not even her family. She began suffering from the horrors of depression, lost appetite, tried to kill herself, played with relationships and used numerous drugs to ease her emotional pain. She definitely lost her way & nobody guided her because her family was also trapped in the perils of addiction.

We've heard numerous stories of teenagers experimenting with drugs and how it ruined their lives drastically.

Staying clean might be a difficult thing to do for kids like Savannah because her family is also involved with drug dependency. Peer pressure,curiosity and an attempt to escape from reality or to seek for pleasure are all the usual reasons people & teenagers resorted to drug abuse. Young people often become involved with drugs because of all the reasons I have stated above or just a justification to shape up one's identity. Where then does drug abuse end & begin?

Distorting Consciousness & Perceptions | An Introduction To Drug Addiction

Here in our country,the government is doing it's utmost best to eliminate illegal drugs in the country's system. This menace could destroy lives and creates a lot of broken families. Doing this is a very long process since the use of illegal drugs is still rampant in the community. Drugs are being sold everywhere and the world could be a supermarket of drugs that have psychological effects like stimulation or distortion of common perceptions which is called psychoactive substances.

Psychoactive substances are kind of drugs that can change moods thus impairing consciousness and is highly associated with doing careless and daredevilish acts.

Some of the drugs that are being used can be both legal and illegal. People used it for medicinal or for pleasure purposes. Whatever reasons they have,we should always be mindful to take precautions in involving ourselves with these kind of substances. Teenagers are usually associated with using drugs because of their curiosity and their search for happiness & establishing a place in a group or crowd.

Psychoactive drugs alter consciousness by disrupting the neurotransmitters and the synapses in the Central Nervous System or the CNS. These drugs operate in different states. Like for example some psychoactive drugs imitates the functions of neurotransmitters,some disrupts the normal action of a neurotransmitter and others just obstruct the using up of neurotransmitters at the synapses.

There are 4 kinds of psychoactive drugs: Depressants,Opioids,Stimulants & Hallucinogenics.

For todays article we will be talking about Depressants & Opioids and how it could destroy your body and your psychological well-being.

Depressants | Examples & Effects To Your Health

ALCOHOL

Whenever we feel down or whenever we feel like escaping the pain caused by our personal problems. We often resort in drinking alcohol and often engross ourselves with drinking alcoholic beverages like vodka,whisky or beer. Alcohol the most common type of depressant is definitely a household name. As long as it could make us temporarily forget about everything then alcohol can be a temporary solution too. We consider alcohol as an all purpose medicine, a medicine that we could buy immediately without asking for a doctor's advice. It does not only count for being the star of celebrations,birthdays or parties but alcohol yields a lot of benefits and that includes solace to our never-ending issues with life,our search to break free from our anxieties,depression or emptiness.

Alcohol's effects varies on how it is consumed and how often one consumes these kinds of depressants.

Low alcohol intake is still arousing since alcohol stretches blood vessels. While higher doses have a relaxing effect thats why alcohol is categorized as depressants. But we shouldn't neglect the fact that alcohol can impair our mental and cognitive functioning. It alters consciousness in a way that it could result in difficulty in speaking correctly and hinder coordination,which is why when we are drunk we often cannot walk straight. When we are drunk we forget how the consequences of our actions could greatly influence our life and our relationship with others. We even do things that we think are very impossible to do when we are sober. According to WHO (World Health Organization) on its website Alcohol Use- Statistics & Facts states that deaths due to alcohol consumption estimates to have reached 3.3 million worldwide as of 2015.

Barbiturates

Another type of depressants are Barbiturates or commonly known as sedative-hypnotics. These kind of drugs could decrease the negative effects of anxiety, manages seizures and could increase an individuals chances to doze off. Barbiturates are abused mainly because people experiences a state of calmness,drowsiness, liberation and euphoric effects. Which is why more people are drawn into overdosing theirselves with it neglecting it's terrible effects to the mind and body.

Just like usual depressants, Barbiturates restricts brain functions and processes thus weakens the ability to be rational. People who abuse this kind of drug also experiences mood swings,irritability and might even fall into depressive & suicidal tendencies.

Despite these harmful effects people still overdose themselves with barbiturates and even combine it with CNS depressants like alcohol. By doing so, it could increase the chances of being in an absolute euphoric state & eliminates anxiety. Barbiturate addiction on the other hand comprises overdosing with or without prescription of the substance. According to the website on Drug Abuse particularly on Barbiturate overdose, 1% of the population in U.S. or an estimate of 2,700,000 people in 2014 used Barbiturates without prescription from doctors. 10% of overdose in this antidepressant could be really fatal that it could result in death.

The Detrimental Effects of Opioids & it's Difference From Opiates

Opiates & Opioids

To give a clear distinction between Opiates from Opioids, we will first focus on the latter. Opioids might be similiar to Opiates because both share the same chemical structures but Opioids are manufactured and made from laboratories. There are several types of opioids: These are Demerol,Methadone, Duragic and others. Opioids are considered as synthethic drugs and same with opiates it could also relief pain. Opiates on the other hand is also a powerful drug inducing anesthesia or a numbing drug. Some examples of Opiates include : Morphine,Demerol,Heroin and others. Opiates are drugs prescribed by medical professionals mainly to numb from pain.

Heroin the most common and widely used illegal opiate drug which is a reformed version of morphine is still available in the market despte of it's harmful and addictive effects.

Overdosing and abusing heroin could be deadly not only to our body but it could also impair our mental processes and it could destroy our personal relationships with others. Heroin can be used in variety of ways. It can be injected,smoked or snorted and it's effects to the body can be felt right away. These effects though short term in nature could result in an immense feeling of pleasure that is very satisfying to it's user. The immediate effect of heroin could result in the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of happiness or euphoria.

If the user continuously seeks for the feelings of pleasure to repeat then addiction to the drug could kick in. The longer an individual uses heroin, the lesser chances of than person to be high. Tolerance to the drug could manifest and increasing amounts of heroin that is used would eventually result to a drug overdose. According to the National Institue on Drug Abuse, cases of drug overdose increased from 2010-2013 & many people have died from this kind of drug.

It is not surprising that these kind of drugs are very harmful towards our body and to our mental state. To users who are addicted to these types of drugs, it is not too late to turn your life around.

On my next blog, I will be talking about the destructive effects of Stimulants & Hallucinogenics as drugs that could also alter our consciousness. Till my next post guys! I'll see you around 😊

References:
1. Savannah,A True Story of Addiction, Treatment & Recovery
2. Altering Consciousness with Psychoactive Drugs
3. Depressant Drug Abuse & Side Effects
4. Alcohol Use- Statistics & Facts
5. Barbiturate Overdose
6. Difference Between Opiates & Opioids
7. The Effects of Heroin Use

Images:
1.,2.,3.,4.,5.

Love,
@sakura1012

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