Free Essay Sample on Drug Addiction

A majority of people consider drug addiction a moral flaw. Addicts get seen as people who have lost their way in life and are criticized by the society. Contrary to what people think, addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disorder. Its characteristics include the compulsive seeking of drugs and use. It affects the brain and changes the brain circuits that are involved in stress and self-control. These changes do not fade away after the individual has stopped using the drugs. They can last up to years depending on the drug. Drug addiction disease is a disease just like other diseases. Just like the heart disease, addiction affects the standard healthy functions of a body organ and has adverse effects if left untreated. They are both treatable and preventable and can both last a lifetime and cause death if left untreated.

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Drug use changes the functions of the brain. It may decrease or increase speed central nervous system and other features essential for living like the heart rate blood pressure and body temperatures. Drug abuse affects the brain's neurotransmitters including;

Dopamine - This brain chemical is responsible for regulating the moods, enhancing pleasure, reward and reinforcing behaviors, attention, and motivation.

Serotonin - it is responsible for regulating emotions and stabilizing moods

Norepinephrine - also known as the stress hormone. Its function is to speed up the central nervous system in response to "fight or flight." It is where attention and focus are found, and it is responsible for increasing energy levels.

GABA (Gamma-aminobutyric acid) - acts as a natural tranquilizer. It brings down the levels of anxiety and slows down the central nervous system functions.

Methamphetamine is a synthetic recreational drug that stimulates the central nervous system. Its street name is crystal meth and is highly addictive. Its main ingredient is pseudoephedrine. Meth is either smoked or snorted. When an addict takes meth, his brain gets flooded with dopamine, and he experiences an intense high feeling. This high does not last long, and as it diminishes, the addict is left feeling hungry irritable fatigued, depressed, and with intense cravings. In the interview on youtube, Doctor Sanjay Gupta says that when an addict takes a drug, they get a high level of euphoria that diminishes and so they have the urge to retake the drug in search of the feeling. Crystal meth is highly addictive as it has a significant impact on the dopamine levels and the limbic reward system.

The continuous use of methamphetamine can lead to a decrease in the neurons found in the CNS. The neurons that are affected by meth abuse are in areas like the hippocampus, which helps in learning new information and memory, the striatum responsible for movement and some aspects of directed attention (Abadinsky, 2017). It kills neurons in the frontal and prefrontal cortex. These areas of the brain are vital to human cognition especially reasoning, problem-solving and complex attention.

Crystal meth diminishes the level of dopamine and serotonin transporters. The primary function of these transporters is to clear the dopamine and serotonin released from the neurons to the synaptic cleft bringing them back to the cell for repackaging for later use. A decrease in this transporters leads to depletion of dopamine and serotonin, and this could lead to initial extreme euphoria and extreme periods of depression and apathy (Alburges, 2015).

References

Abadinsky, H. (2017). Drug Use and Abuse. Cengage Learning.

Alburges, M. (2015, June 11). NCBI. Retrieved from Effect of low doses of methamphetamine on rat limbic-related neurotensin systems: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4481183/