People experiment with drugs for many different reasons. Many first try drugs out of curiosity, to have a good time, because friends are doing it, or in an effort to improve athletic performance or ease another problem, such as stress, anxiety, or depression. Use doesn’t automatically lead to abuse, and there is no specific level at which drug use moves from casual to problematic. It varies by individual. Drug abuse and addiction is less about the amount of substance consumed or the frequency, and more to do with the consequences of drug use. No matter how often or how little you’re consuming, if your drug use is causing problems in your life—at work, school, home, or in your relationships—you likely have a drug abuse or addiction problem(NCADD). Addiction is a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her. Although the initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people, the brain changes that occur over time challenge an addicted person’s self-control and hamper his or her ability to resist intense impulses to take drugs. (NCADD)
When scientists look for “addiction genes,” what they are really looking for are biological differences that may make someone more or less vulnerable to addiction. It may be harder for people with certain genes to quit once they start. Or they may experience more severe withdrawal symptoms if they try to quit.
Factors that make it harder to become addicted also may be genetic. For example, someone may feel sick from a drug that makes other people feel good. But someone’s genetic makeup will never doom them to inevitably become an addict. Remember, environment makes up a large part of addiction risk (Hanson). Because addiction has an inherited component, it often runs in families. That is, it can be passed down from parent to child by way of genes. Researchers often study large families to learn which genes may be making them susceptible to addiction. They begin by comparing DNA sequences of family members who are affected by addiction with those who are not, and they look for pieces of DNA that are shared among affected individuals and less common in the unaffected (Hanson).
Roughly 10% of all people who experiment with drugs become addicted. A combination of environmental and genetic factors influence the likelihood of addiction. Environmental risk factors are characteristics in a person’s surroundings that increase their likelihood of becoming addicted to drugs. A person may have many environments, or domains, of influence such as the community, family, school, and friends. Their risk of addiction can develop in any of these domains. An individual’s connection with the community in which they live plays a big part in their liklihood of abusing drugs. Statistics show that if a person’s community has favorable attitudes toward drug use, firearms and crime, their risk is increased. Family conflict and home management problems are contributing factors in drug abuse risk. Also, if parents have favorable attitudes towards drug use or use drugs themselves, often their children will be more likely to abuse drugs (Lindenberg).
Research methods that scientists have often used include animal models, especially mice. Many genes in mice function the same way they do in people, so they are almost perfect for research. When researchers discover a gene that plays a role in addiction in a model organism, they can identify the counterpart gene in humans by looking for similar DNA sequences. Genes like DRD2, Mpdz, Cnr1, Htr1b, and many others play a role in addiction and are identified in animals and humans. The main goal of genetic research is to find new treatments to help addicts get cured (Hansen).
Many people don’t understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. They may mistakenly think that those who use drugs lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop their drug use simply by choosing to. In reality, drug addiction is a complex disease, and quitting usually takes more than good intentions or a strong will. Drugs change the brain in ways that make quitting hard, even for those who want to. Fortunately, researchers know more than ever about how drugs affect the brain and have found treatments that can help people recover from drug addiction and lead productive lives (NIDA). If you’re worried about your own or a friend or family member’s drug use, it’s important to know that help is available. Learning about the nature of drug abuse and addiction—how it develops, what it looks like, and why it can have such a powerful hold—will give you a better understanding of the problem and how to best deal with it (NCADD). It is important to understand drug addiction because we don’t go through it, as much as it makes us mad at a person with the “disease”, we have to understand before judging.
To someone who has never experienced it before it can be difficult to understand how all-consuming a drug addiction or alcoholism can be. But while other diseases attack specific parts of the body or brain, addiction attacks nearly every aspect of human physiology and psychology all at once. The consequences of this condition are severe and include potentially fatal respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, precipitation of mental illness and a state of complete emotional disarray. Understanding this comprehensive nature of addiction and alcoholism is critical to developing a holistic treatment plan that addresses addiction on physiological, mental and emotional levels simultaneously.
Because substance abuse and drug addiction affects everyone differently, it can be difficult to say whether the physical, mental or emotional effects of addiction are observable in any particular order. However, it’s clear that the physiological aspects of addiction are not only the most dangerous but the most readily noticeable to the addict. This is important because in many cases the nature of the disease of addiction does not permit enough clarity of mind or emotion for the drug user to notice changes in either of these critical human attributes. Therefore, the physical signs of drug abuse are generally the first to be noticed by the addict, although this might not necessarily be the case for the people who interact with the user on a daily basis – they may see the emotional signs before the physical (Recovery First).
I chose this topic to research because I have been around drug addiction my whole life. I’ve seen various stages of it and I have processed it differently as I’ve gotten older. I have always had sympathy for my mom growing up, I would always stand up for her in many situations when I was too young to understand. Now that I’m older, the sympathy changed, I don’t feel sorry for her anymore. People say that addiction is a disease but it my opinion it’s a choice, everything that ive seen my mom do is a choice, she could have prevented it. Drug addicts make the choice to put their self back in the situation where they have the opportunity to do drugs. I believe environment is the biggest impact on people who abuse drugs. If they’re around the people who do drugs or in areas where they have easy access, they’re going to do it. The research helped me understand more about why addicts chose drugs over almost anything and that was my goal for this paper, I hope my paper could help you understand too.