ADDICTION: It’s Not the Drug Addict’s Fault
Most of us are well aware of the word “addiction”, it’s exhibiting a chronic physiological and most importantly psychological dependence on something that in turn harms you. Rings a bell? Well, we all are, one way or another, addicted to something in our lives. It will not suffice to say that one can only get addicted to Drugs, that is one particular kind of addiction but that’s not it. You can be addicted to anything, let’s reminisce your memories. Shall we? You remember that blanket you couldn’t sleep without when you were small, that one person, a friend you had without whom, you couldn’t imagine spending even a single day at school. That junk food or chocolates that you really liked to eat but your momma kept you from having them every other day, that too was an addiction. Now that we’ve all grown up our priorities have changed, we have electronic devices cell phones, video games, even some outdoor games, and most of the younger generation these days is addicted to them. I’d be lying if I said that I’m not, even the adults these days can’t seem to spend a day without going through their phones at least once a day, which makes it an addiction of course. And in the end, if in some way we weren’t able to get a hold of all of those things, we would get really anxious, angry, and worried. Just imagine that you’re playing a video game and someone, on purpose or by mistake, turns off the screen won’t you be mad, you certainly will.
WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE DEPENDENT ON DRUGS?
Drug dependency is undeniably like any other addiction but it arises from the abuse of the DRUGS. Now just to give you a wee bit of idea of drugs, not all of the drugs are that harmful and when I say drugs I’m referring to each and every single one of them because even the medicine you take for your headache or stomach ache or whatever, is a drug and could be leading to an addiction. A drug is actually a chemical substance that can alter our body’s normal functioning. A drug would be called a medicine if it is known to have more therapeutic effect rather than its toxic effects. There are several medicines that can be addictive if taken regularly. Sedatives you take for a good night’s sleep or antidepressants, anxiolytics(anxiety-relieving drugs), opioids analgesics.
Typically addicts are considered as a harm to those around them, and beyond the shadow of a doubt, they might as well be because, with time as you keep consuming the drugs you tend to lose control over yourself, you start to feel like you can never be normal without taking the drug and with that loss of control you become aggressive. At this point, you cant calm yourself, not on your own at least. You’re dependent on the drug to do that for you.
HOW DRUGS AFFECT US?
If we talk about the effects of a specific drug, let’s say, opioids, they are some really potent pain-killers used during surgical procedures or in severe pain. Opioids are never to be administered on a regular basis because they can root dependency. Most of the drugs that are addictive like heroin, marijuana, morphine, cocaine, basically interfere with your neurotransmission,{ which is a specific term used for the transmission of nerve impulses between neurons (brain cells)}, so does an opioid. They induce sedation, reduce alertness muscle relaxation, elevate your mood and cause euphoria. These are the reasons why a person keeps on administering drugs.
But along with a few of their desired effects, the adverse effects are manifold. It can cause cardiac arrest, stroke, seizures, respiratory arrest, and several fatal diseases. It’s not like the addicts are not aware of these diseases, in spite of that they still don’t bother or can’t withdraw from this habit. Some or might say most of the people have little to no tolerance, they can’t handle or take anything, they get anxious really quick and unfortunately, there are even fewer people who know how to deal with them. Everyone faces ups and downs in his/her life but only some of them are aware of how to deal with the downs especially. Once you fall in the pith of darkness, in depression and that too unnoticed there’s a high chance that you might never recover on your own at that particular stage you’re advised to see a psychiatrist or someone who could help you with the anxiety, it does not always have to be a professional therapist or counselor, even talking to a loved one can be of great help. When people have none of these options like they might be afraid of seeing a psychiatrist or opening up to someone they tend to fall a victim to addictions of any sort, albeit alcohol addiction drug addiction, or even sweet addiction(stress eating/ bulimia nervosa).
HOW TO DEAL WITH DRUG ADDICTION/ DRUG ADDICTS?
Support is just a word but, this single word has the tendency to break or make things. Especially the kind of emotional support you receive throughout your childhood lays a foundation for the person you will become eventually. An individual with good support backing him up can maintain emotional stability in a more convenient way than someone who is all on his own. What I’m trying to get at is, falling a victim to drug addiction is not just the fault of the addict, in my opinion, it’s the fault of an entire community. When a person experiences continuous disappointments from each and every direction, he eventually tends to stick to the last resort that is suicide, if he gives up that option it shows that there is still hope for him somewhere, but now he will look for ways to hurt himself and will prefer anything in that regard. This is where he clings to Drugs, considering it as the last chance of hope for attaining peace and contentment in his life. I’m not implying that it’s entirely the fault of a society or a community but it’s not entirely the fault of a drug addict either.
CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, I would just say that nobody in this world is perfect we’ve categorized people as good and bad based on our own conscience, being polite to only those who you think are good and rude to the ones you consider bad, even if we know them or not. We ought to be kind to everyone around as they say, “you never know the kind of battle they are already fighting in their life”. You might be their last hope to be alive, so be nice. Otherwise holding on to their remnants as souvenirs won’t make any difference.
