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many people have drug addiction. Lots more people are being introduced to hardcore drugs

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Preventing and Treating Drug Abuse

Drug abuse can be a painful experience-for the person who has the problem, and for family and friends who may feel helpless in the face of the disease. But there are things you can do if you know or suspect that someone close to you has a drug problem.

Certain drugs can change the structure and inner workings of the brain. With repeated use, they affect a person's self-control and interfere with the ability to resist the urge to take the drug. Not being able to stop taking a drug even though you know it's harmful is the hallmark of addiction.

A drug doesn't have to be illegal to cause this effect. People can become addicted to alcohol, nicotine, or even prescription drugs when they use them in ways other than prescribed or use someone else's prescription.

People are particularly vulnerable to using drugs when going through major life transitions. For adults, this might mean during a divorce or after losing a job. For children and teens, this can mean changing schools or other major upheavals in their lives.

But kids may experiment with drug use for many different reasons. "It could be a greater availability of drugs in a school with older students, or it could be that social activities are changing, or that they are trying to deal with stress," says Dr. Bethany Deeds, an NIH expert on drug abuse prevention. Parents may need to pay more attention to their children during these periods.

The teenage years are a critical time to prevent drug use. Trying drugs as a teenager increases your chance of developing substance use disorders. The earlier the age of first use, the higher the risk of later addiction. But addiction also happens to adults. Adults are at increased risk of addiction when they encounter prescription pain-relieving drugs after a surgery or because of a chronic pain problem. People with a history of addiction should be particularly careful with opioid pain relievers and make sure to tell their doctors about past drug use.

There are many signs that may indicate a loved one is having a problem with drugs. They might lose interest in things that they used to enjoy or start to isolate themselves. Teens' grades may drop. They may start skipping classes.

"They may violate curfew or appear irritable, sedated, or disheveled," says child psychiatrist Dr. Geetha Subramaniam, an NIH expert on substance use. Parents may also come across drug paraphernalia, such as water pipes or needles, or notice a strange smell.

"Once drug use progresses, it becomes less of a social thing and more of a compulsive thing-which means the person spends a lot of time using drugs," Subramaniam says.

If a loved one is using drugs, encourage them to talk to their primary care doctor. It can be easier to have this conversation with a doctor than a family member. Not all drug treatment requires long stays in residential treatment centers. For someone in the early stages of a substance use problem, a conversation with a doctor or another professional may be enough to get them the help they need. Doctors can help the person think about their drug use, understand the risk for addiction, and come up with a plan for change.

Substance use disorder can often be treated on an outpatient basis. But that doesn't mean it's easy to treat. Substance use disorder is a complicated disease. Drugs can cause changes in the brain that make it extremely difficult to quit without medical help.

For certain substances, it can be dangerous to stop the drug without medical intervention. Some people may need to be in a hospital for a short time for detoxification, when the drug leaves their body. This can help keep them as safe and comfortable as possible. Patients should talk with their doctors about medications that treat addiction to alcohol or opioids, such as heroin and prescription pain relievers.

Recovering from a substance use disorder requires retraining the brain. A person who's been addicted to drugs will have to relearn all sorts of things, from what to do when they're bored to who to hang out with. NIH has developed a customizable wallet card to help people identify and learn to avoid their triggers, the things that make them feel like using drugs. You can order the card for free at drugpubs.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brain-wallet-card.

"You have to learn ways to deal with triggers, learn about negative peers, learn about relapse, [and] learn coping skills," Subramaniam says.

NIH-funded scientists are studying ways to stop addiction long before it starts-in childhood. Dr. Daniel Shaw at the University of Pittsburgh is looking at whether teaching healthy caregiving strategies to parents can help promote self-regulation skills in children and prevent substance abuse later on.

Starting when children are two years old, Shaw's study enrolls families at risk of substance use problems in a program called the Family Check-Up. It's one of several parenting programs that have been studied by NIH-funded researchers.

During the program, a parenting consultant visits the home to observe the parents' relationship with their child. Parents complete several questionnaires about their own and their family's well-being. This includes any behavior problems they are experiencing with their child. Parents learn which of their children's problem behaviors might lead to more serious issues, such as substance abuse, down the road. The consultant also talks with the parents about possible ways to change how they interact with their child. Many parents then meet with the consultants for follow-up sessions about how to improve their parenting skills.

Children whose parents are in the program have fewer behavioral problems and do better when they get to school. Shaw and his colleagues are now following these children through their teenage years to see how the program affects their chances of developing a substance abuse problem. You can find video clips explaining different ways parents can respond to their teens on the NIH Family Checkup website at www.drugabuse.gov/family-checkup.

Even if their teen has already started using drugs, parents can still step in. They can keep closer tabs on who their children's friends are and what they're doing. Parents can also help by finding new activities that will introduce their children to new friends and fill up the after-school hours-prime time for getting into trouble. "They don't like it at first," Shaw says. But finding other teens with similar interests can help teens form new habits and put them on a healthier path.

A substance use problem is a chronic disease that requires lifestyle adjustments and long-term treatment, like diabetes or high blood pressure. Even relapse can be a normal part of the process-not a sign of failure, but a sign that the treatment needs to be adjusted. With good care, people who have substance use disorders can live healthy, productive lives.

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Preventing and Treating Drug Abuse Drug abuse can be a painful experience-for the person who has the problem, and for family and friends who may feel helpless in the face of the disease. But there are things you can do if you know or suspect that someone close to you has a drug problem.

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Addiction is a disease that affects your brain and behavior. When you’re addicted to drugs, you can’t resist the urge to use them, no matter how much harm the drugs may cause.

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Learn how addiction affects your brain and behavior.

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Drug abuse has been called the single biggest public health issue in America. I feel like Indiana should be higher up on the on pole. We are ranked number 7 in the US for drug abuse. I feel like drugs have rocketed recently.

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Drug abuse has been called the single biggest public health issue in America. However, to solve the problem of addiction requires a closer look at the communities where substance abuse reigns supreme.

Whether due to a thriving prescription painkiller black market or abject poverty, getting to the heart of the problem in cities and towns across America is the first step to solving it. Focusing on American cities with the highest addiction rates give us a clearer picture of the voids people try to fill with drugs.

Addiction Rates Across America

In 2018, a new study by the online research group, WalletHub listed the highest drug use by state. The site ranked each state based on three criteria: drug use and addiction, law enforcement and drug health issues and rehab, and then each state was also given a total overall score. The group rankings and overall score were then used to rank the states, 1-51, based on the impact drug abuse is having there.

The study listed the following top 10 states as having the biggest problem with drug abuse:

The study went on to detail specific problems in specific states. Some of the findings included:

Teen Drug Users+

Adult Drug Users+

Opioid Prescriptions+

Overdose Deaths+

Interestingly enough, the states that showed the highest rates of teen drug abuse are not necessarily those with largest metropolitan areas. Alaska, Maine and Oregon are more rural, whereas the area with the highest adult drug use is Washington D.C., a place with a large inner-city population. And the states with the most overdose deaths each year are not those, other than Washington D.C., with the the types of metropolitan areas most come to expect as the centers of the drug culture.

Addiction in American Cities

When it comes to understanding the impact drug addiction has on society, one of the easiest places to look is at the current opioid crisis. A recent ABC News article revealed some sobering statistics about the crisis that has reached epidemic proportions.

A survey done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control found a 54 percent increase in opioid overdose deaths in major metropolitan areas in 16 states from July 2016 to September 2017. The survey focused on America's heartland and included federal CDC centers in Chicago, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. ²

"We're currently seeing the highest drug overdose death rates ever recorded in the United States," said Anne Schuchat, the CDC's acting director. Schuchat went to say that part of what's fueling the problem is a change in drug toxicity. Urban heroin dealers, in an effort to boost their bottom line, routinely cut drugs with fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 25 to 50 times more powerful than other opioids. The CDC suspects that lethal combination is why the city of Columbus averaged one fatal overdose each day in the first 6 months of the year.

According to Daniel Raymond, deputy director of the Harm Reduction Coalition based in New York City, the opioid crises that was originally fueled by prescription painkillers has taken a different turn. "The recent rises are mostly driven by heroin, and particularly fentanyl, and the latter seems particularly prevalent in urban drug markets like Ohio and Philadelphia, which are seeing a lot of fentanyl-involved overdose deaths.

That doesn't mean the problems have waned in smaller cities and rural areas, which are also seeing fentanyl, but we are seeing increasing vulnerability in major urban centers."

Chicago and the Mexican Drug Cartels

One of the biggest influences on drug addiction in America continues to be the Mexican Drug Cartels. The Mexican government, with the help of the United States, has been in the middle of a war with drug suppliers since 2006. But as Hispanic communities grow in areas like Little Village just west of Chicago, the influence of Mexican drug cartels increases.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Little Village is home to the American branch of the Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel. And its members are selling record amounts of heroin and methamphetamine from the heart of Little Village, according to a Washington Post report. The drugs move from there to neighborhoods in south and west Chicago. ³

Addiction in Montana

In Montana, a state where less than 10 percent of the people needing treatment for drug and alcohol addiction get it, the substance abuse problem is well past epidemic proportions. According to Jennifer Owen, Executive Director of the Billings Head Start program, "Substance abuse is reaching catastrophic levels in Billings. Many of the three- and four-year-olds we serve in Billings deal with substance abuse in their daily lives." ⁴

While parents struggle with their addiction, children wonder where their next meal is coming from. And the trauma associated with watching parents spiral out of control sets children up for a lifetime of emotional struggles including PTSD and a higher-than-average risk of developing addiction as adults.

Organizations like Alternatives Inc., are working hard to change the culture of addiction in Billings and throughout Montana. Through incarceration alternatives and other rehabilitative services, Alternatives is making a difference. Dave Armstrong, executive director of Alternatives Inc. said, "More than four out of five probationers and parolees Alternatives serves are addicted to alcohol or other drugs.

Use of heroin, opioids, methamphetamine, spice and other drugs is growing." Alternatives Inc. hopes that by providing options for reintroducing inmates and other minor offenders into the community through structured programs, they're helping end culture of addiction for many families.

Baltimore: An Appetite for Heroin

Some people blame hard economic times, a similar situation found in Baltimore, Maryland. More than 2000 miles away from Billings, a generation of urban problems have led to a thriving drug market in low income neighborhoods that became the basis of renowned television shows like Homicide: Life on the Street and The Wire.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Baltimore is home to the highest number of heroin addicts and heroin-related incidents of crime in the country. In 2013, there were more than 300 deaths related to heroin overdoses in Baltimore. Both The Fix and ABC News call the city "the heroin capital" of the United States. ⁵

One in 10 of Baltimore's residents (60,000 people out of a population of 645,000) is addicted to heroin.

It's a hot commodity in a region plagued with crime, systematic disgruntlement, and drug smugglers who use Baltimore's key placement in the middle of the East Coast as a stopping point as they ship heroin up and down the coast. Baltimore dealers and users get first call on the unadulterated heroin, getting a purer (and therefore deadlier) form of the drug compared to the finished product that is eventually distributed throughout the United States.

Vermont's Drug Crisis

In idyllic Vermont towns people are dying from heroin addiction. In 2016 the state saw more than 100 people die from fatal opiate overdoses. From Brattleboro and Burlington, to Barre and Duxbury, death came to veterans and young mothers, chemists and truck drivers. ⁶

People from Vermont, like those in other rural areas often have a deep-seated mistrust of law enforcement which has lead efforts to keep heroin abuse quiet along with other kinds of illegal drug trading like the thriving black-market alcohol distilling industry found in low-income areas.

While there may be a quaint, old world and intrinsically American quality to running a modern-day moonshine operation (with the permission of state governments and the interests of Big Whiskey), there's nothing charming about the full-blown heroin crisis that is plaguing the state.

And the culture of drug use is even more widespread since Vermont has one of the highest rates of marijuana consumption in the country.

Every week, said Governor Shumlin, more than $2 million in heroin and other illegal opioids are trafficked into Vermont. The result is that from 2000 to 2012, the state has seen an increase of more than 770 percent in treatment for opioid addictions, and nearly 80 percent of inmates are jailed because of drug-related crimes.

Vermont has recently made it legal for adults over 21 to possess small amounts of marijuana within its borders. But even before the law went into effect the state had one of the highest rates of marijuana consumption in the country, further demonstrating the depth of the drug culture within its borders. ⁷

Finding Help for Drug and Alcohol Addiction

No matter what city or state you live in, addiction knows no boundaries. But with the right treatment and support it is possible to live a life free from substance abuse. If you or a loved one struggle with drug or alcohol addiction, we are here for you.

Call our toll-free helpline, 877-345-3357, 24 hours a day to speak to an admissions coordinator about available treatment options. You are not alone.
Sources
³ Horwitz, Sari. " U.S. cities become hubs of Mexican drug cartels." The Washington Post, November 3, 2012.

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American Cities with the Highest Addiction Rates | Dual Diagnosis

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Drug abuse has been called the single biggest public health issue in America. However, to solve the problem of addiction requires a closer look at the communities where substance abuse reigns supreme. Whether due to a thriving prescription painkiller black market or abject poverty, getting to the heart of the problem in cities and towns ...

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Many states have had more drug problems. The death toll from just drug

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UPDATE The first governmental account of nationwide drug deaths shows roughly 64,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2016.

AKRON, Ohio - Drug overdose deaths in 2016 most likely exceeded 59,000, the largest annual jump ever recorded in the United States, according to preliminary data compiled by The New York Times.

The death count is the latest consequence of an escalating public health crisis: opioid addiction, now made more deadly by an influx of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and similar drugs. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under 50.

Although the data is preliminary, the Times's best estimate is that deaths rose 19 percent over the 52,404 recorded in 2015. And all evidence suggests the problem has continued to worsen in 2017.

Because drug deaths take a long time to certify, the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention will not be able to calculate final numbers until December. The Times compiled estimates for 2016 from hundreds of state health departments and county coroners and medical examiners. Together they represent data from states and counties that accounted for 76 percent of overdose deaths in 2015. They are a first look at the extent of the drug overdose epidemic last year, a detailed accounting of a modern plague.

The initial data points to large increases in drug overdose deaths in states along the East Coast, particularly Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and Maine. In Ohio, which filed a lawsuit last week accusing five drug companies of abetting the opioid epidemic, we estimate overdose deaths increased by more than 25 percent in 2016.

"Heroin is the devil's drug, man. It is," Cliff Parker said, sitting on a bench in Grace Park in Akron. Mr. Parker, 24, graduated from high school not too far from here, in nearby Copley, where he was a multisport athlete. In his senior year, he was a varsity wrestler and earned a scholarship to the University of Akron. Like his friends and teammates, he started using prescription painkillers at parties. It was fun, he said. By the time it stopped being fun, it was too late. Pills soon turned to heroin, and his life began slipping away from him.

Mr. Parker's story is familiar in the Akron area. From a distance, it would be easy to paint Akron - "Rubber Capital of the World" - as a stereotypical example of Rust Belt decay. But that's far from a complete picture. While manufacturing jobs have declined and the recovery from the 2008 recession has been slow, unemployment in Summit County, where Akron sits, is roughly in line with the United States as a whole. The Goodyear factories have been retooled into technology centers for research and polymer science. The city has begun to rebuild. But deaths from drug overdose here have skyrocketed.

In 2016, Summit County had 312 drug deaths, according to Gary Guenther, the county medical examiner's chief investigator - a 46 percent increase from 2015 and more than triple the 99 cases that went through the medical examiner's office just two years before. There were so many last year, Mr. Guenther said, that on three separate occasions the county had to request refrigerated trailers to store the bodies because they'd run out of space in the morgue.

It's not unique to Akron. Coroners' offices throughout the state are being overwhelmed.

Source: Butler County Coroner's Office; Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office; Hamilton County Coroner; Montgomery County Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Service; Montgomery County Sheriff's Office; Summit County Department of the Medical Examiner

In some Ohio counties, deaths from heroin have virtually disappeared. Instead, the culprit is fentanyl or one of its many analogues. In Montgomery County, home to Dayton, of the 100 drug overdose deaths recorded in January and February, only three people tested positive for heroin; 99 tested positive for fentanyl or an analogue.

Fentanyl isn't new. But over the past three years, it has been popping up in drug seizures across the country.

Drug seizures containing fentanyl

Source: D.E.A. National Forensic Laboratory Information System

Most of the time, it's sold on the street as heroin, or drug traffickers use it to make cheap counterfeit prescription opioids. Fentanyls are showing up in cocaine as well, contributing to an increase in cocaine-related overdoses.

The most deadly of the fentanyl analogues is carfentanil, an elephant tranquilizer 5,000 times stronger than heroin. An amount smaller than a few grains of salt can be a lethal dose.

"July 5th, 2016 - that's the day carfentanil hit the streets of Akron," said Capt. Michael Shearer, the commander of the Narcotics Unit for the Akron Police Department. On that day, 17 people overdosed and one person died in a span of nine hours. Over the next six months, the county medical examiner recorded 140 overdose deaths of people testing positive for carfentanil. Just three years earlier, there were fewer than a hundred drug overdose deaths of any kind for the entire year.

This exponential growth in overdose deaths in 2016 didn't extend to all parts of the country. In some states in the western half of the U.S., our data suggests deaths may have leveled off or even declined. According to Dr. Dan Ciccarone, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and an expert in heroin use in the United States, this geographic variation may reflect a historical divide in the nation's heroin market between the powdered heroin generally found east of the Mississippi River and the Mexican black tar heroin found to the west.

This divide may have kept deaths down in the West for now, but according to Dr. Ciccarone, there is little evidence of differences in the severity of opioid addiction or heroin use. If drug traffickers begin to shift production and distribution in the West from black tar to powdered heroin in large quantities, fentanyl will most likely come along with it, and deaths will rise.

First responders are finding that, with fentanyl and carfentanil, the overdoses can be so severe that multiple doses of naloxone - the anti-overdose medication that often goes by the brand name Narcan - are needed to pull people out. In Warren County in Ohio, Doyle Burke, the chief investigator at the county coroner's office, has been watching the number of drug deaths rise as the effectiveness of Narcan falls. "E.M.S. crews are hitting them with 12, 13, 14 hits of Narcan with no effect," said Mr. Burke, likening a shot of Narcan to "a squirt gun in a house fire."

Early data from 2017 suggests that drug overdose deaths will continue to rise this year. It's the only aspect of American health, said Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the C.D.C., that is getting significantly worse. Over two million Americans are estimated to be dependent on opioids, and an additional 95 million used prescription painkillers in the past year - more than used tobacco. "This epidemic, it's got no face," said Chris Eisele, the president of the Warren County Fire Chiefs' Association and fire chief of Deerfield Township. The Narcotics Anonymous meetings here are populated by lawyers, accountants, young adults and teenagers who described comfortable middle-class upbringings.

Back in Akron, Mr. Parker has been clean for seven months, though he is still living on the streets. The ground of the park is littered with discarded needles, and many among the homeless here are current or former heroin users. Like most recovering from addiction, Mr. Parker needed several tries to get clean - six, by his count. The severity of opioid withdrawal means users rarely get clean unless they are determined and have treatment readily available. "No one wants their family to find them face down with a needle in their arm," Mr. Parker said. "But no one stops until they're ready."

About the data

Our count of drug overdoses for 2016 is an estimate. A precise number of drug overdose deaths will not be available until December.

As the chief of the Mortality Statistics Branch of the National Center for Health Statistics at the C.D.C., Robert Anderson oversees the collection and codification of the nation's mortality data. He noted that toxicology results, which are necessary to assign a cause of death, can take three to six months or longer. "It's frustrating, because we really do want to track this stuff," he said, describing how timely data on cause of death would let public health workers allocate resources in the right places.

To come up with our count, we contacted state health departments in all 50 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, asking for their statistics on drug overdose deaths among residents. In states that didn't have numbers available, we turned to county medical examiners and coroners' offices. In some cases, partial results were extrapolated through the end of the year to get estimates for 2016.

While noting the difficulty of making predictions, Mr. Anderson reviewed The Times's estimates and said they seemed reasonable. The overdose death rate reported by the N.C.H.S. provisional estimates for the first half of 2016 would imply a total of 59,779 overdose deaths, if the death rate remains flat through the second half of the year. Based on our reporting, we believe this rate increased.

While the process in each state varies slightly, death certificates are usually first filled out by a coroner, medical examiner or attending physician. These death certificates are then collected by state health departments and sent to the N.C.H.S., which assigns what's called an ICD-10 code to each death. This code specifies the underlying cause of death, and it's what determines whether a death is classified as a drug overdose.

Sometimes, the cases are straightforward; other times, it's not so easy. The people in charge of coding each death - called nosologists - have to differentiate between deaths due to drug overdose and those due to the long-term effects of drug abuse, which get a different code. (There were 2,573 such deaths in 2015.) When alcohol and drugs are both present, they must specify which of the two was the underlying cause. If it's alcohol, it's not a "drug overdose" under the commonly used definition. Ideally, every medical examiner, coroner and attending physician would fill out death certificates with perfect consistency, but there are often variations from jurisdiction to jurisdiction that can introduce inconsistencies to the data.

These inconsistencies are part of the reason there is a delay in drug death reporting, and among the reasons we can still only estimate the number of drug overdoses in 2016. Since we compiled our data from state health departments and county coroners and medical examiners directly, the deaths have not yet been assigned ICD-10 codes by the N.C.H.S. - that is, the official underlying cause of death has not yet been categorized. In addition, the mortality data in official statistics focuses on deaths among residents. But county coroners typically count up whichever deaths come through their office, regardless of residency. When there were large discrepancies between the 2015 counts from the C.D.C. and the state or county, we used the percent change from 2015 to calculate our 2016 estimate.

We can say with confidence that drug deaths rose a great deal in 2016, but it is hard to say precisely how many died or in which places drug deaths rose most steeply. Because of the delay associated with toxicology reports and inconsistencies in the reported data, our exact estimate - 62,497 total drug overdose deaths - could vary from the true number by several thousand.

In all cases, "cause of death" refers to what the National Center for Health Statistics classifies as the underlying, rather than the immediate, cause of death. Example: For a person who dies from an infection because of H.I.V., while the infection might be the immediate cause of the person's death, the underlying cause would be H.I.V.

Deaths from car crashes include all deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents according to the N.C.H.S. Deaths from guns include homicides, suicides and accidental deaths from firearms, in addition to firearm deaths of undetermined intent. It excludes firearm deaths caused by legal intervention. Deaths from drug overdoses excludes deaths caused by substance use disorder or withdrawal, which accounted for an additional 2,573 deaths in 2015.

Definitions for causes of death can change slightly with each revision of the International Classification of Diseases. Where applicable, deaths counted under earlier editions of the I.C.D. were adjusted to correct for this.

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Drug Deaths in America Are Rising Faster Than Ever

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New data compiled from hundreds of health agencies reveals the extent of the drug overdose epidemic last year. Our estimates show deaths rising faster than ever - up about 19 percent in 2016, and all evidence suggests they will rise again in 2017.

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Portugal’s radical drugs policy is working. Why hasn’t the world copied it?

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The long read: Since it decriminalised all drugs in 2001, Portugal has seen dramatic drops in overdoses, HIV infection and drug-related crime

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My thoughts
This article states facts about drug addiction and drug abuse. They are both different but are very dangerous. Drug abuse turns into drug addiction. Drug abuse starts when someone experiments drugs and becomes addicted to them. When the person starts using it more often and thinks they need it to live, thats drug addiction.

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Drug addiction and drug abuse are often used as interchangeable terms, but the fact is that they are two very different things. Drug abuse occurs when a person abuses illegal substances or prescription drugs; the person may enjoy the effect provided by the use of the substance and use it regularly, but unless the drug abuse is accompanied by certain symptoms or issues and a physical dependence on the drug, it is not drug addiction.

Drug addiction, on the other hand, is a medical disease, one in which the person exhibits compulsive drug-seeking behaviors, physical and/or psychological withdrawal symptoms when without the drug, and the continuation of use of their drug of choice in spite of negative consequences.

Both issues are exceedingly dangerous; neither should be ignored. Drug abuse turns into drug addiction, and both problems are deadly in their own right. If your loved one is struggling with drug abuse or addiction - no matter what their drug of choice - contact us at Axis today to learn more about how we can provide the healing options that will change their life for the better.

How Addiction Starts

Drug addiction starts with drug use. Experimental use, recreational use, social use, occasional use, medical use - any use of an addictive substance for any purpose can and often does lead to a dependence upon that drug. While any and all drug use has the potential for harm, the most dangerous type of drug use in terms of the likelihood that it will lead to addiction, is the type that stems from a desire to numb pain or negative feelings or to cope with problems in one's life.

Stress, anger, frustration, self-esteem issues, depression, anxiety, trauma - all of these and more can be overwhelming to a person, driving them to seek relief of any kind from any source. Without positive coping skills to help handle issues, many turn to drugs and alcohol and, with repeated use, they spiral out of control into psychological and physical dependence.

Over time, the patient often comes to believe that the drug betters them as a person and feels incapable of contemplating life without it. In short order, however, use of the drug will begin to cause problems for the user and to remove the good things in their life. All of the perceived "good" effects of using the drug will wear away, but the person will still continue to use, often becoming obsessed with the drug and doing anything they have to do to obtain the substance of choice.

As a person's drug abuse turns into addiction, they will develop an increased tolerance to the drug, requiring larger doses of it in order to achieve the desired "high." If addiction is left untreated, the end result is always devastation and loss on every level; the further along in the disease of addiction a person gets, the harder it will be for them to recover. Thus, treating drug addiction as soon as possible is always the best option.

The Most Common Drugs of Addiction

While there are all kinds of drugs in the world, including new "synthetic" or "designer" drugs, there are some drugs that people become addicted to more often than others. Surprisingly to some, alcohol and nicotine are defined as drugs and, as such, are some of the world's most commonly abused substances.

Other commonly abused drugs that often lead to addiction include:

The Most Addictive Drugs

All drug use is bad and harmful to the user, but there are some drugs that are particularly potent because of how quickly users can become addicted to them. A few drugs that are considered to be highly addictive and should be avoided at all costs are:

Spotting Addiction

So, how can you know if someone you love is abusing drugs and has developed or will soon develop an addiction? Everyone is different and the signs of use of certain drugs will vary based on the effects of that substance, but some signs that can indicate that your loved one is in need of treatment include:

Keep in mind that the signs of drug addiction can vary from person to person - some people are just better at hiding their addictions than others - and from one drug to the next. Eventually, however, there are undeniable consequences that even the addict will be unable to ignore.

Don't wait until those consequences occur; if you suspect there is a drug problem present in your loved one, talk to them and/or seek professional help if you deem that it is needed. Never let the addict downplay the seriousness of their addiction or convince you that they can change without help. Drug addiction is a disease and recovering from it is rarely as simple as just putting down the drug and being done with it for good, no matter what promises the addict in your life may make to you or how earnestly they may make those promises.

The Need for Addiction Treatment

Addiction affects not just the addict but also everyone that person comes into contact with. The addict will likely suffer physical consequences, social consequences, emotional consequences, financial consequences, and perhaps even legal consequences as a result of their drug use. As the drug addict's personal life falls apart, their work and health will likely suffer as well. Drug addicts are more likely to have domestic violence problems, to lose their jobs, and to be arrested than those who are not addicts, proving that addiction, if left untreated, can negatively impact every facet of a person's life.

Don't allow your loved one's life to be destroyed beyond repair by a drug addiction. Contact us at Axis now and get the information you need to help them get into treatment.

A strong foundation for sustainable sobriety

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Drug addiction can take a tremendous toll on the family unit. In fact, the ramifications of drug addiction treatment can span all aspects of family living - including physical and mental health, finances, social development, marital well-being and peace in the home.

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According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services "Illicit drug use costs the United States approximately $181 billion annually. Excessive alcohol use costs the country approximately $235 billion annually."

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Substance abuse is a major issue in the United States. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 40.3 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder (SUD) in 2020-with 28.3 million struggling with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 18.4 million dealing with an illicit drug use disorder (DUD). 1

Substance misuse and SUDs greatly impact the nation economically, with an estimated yearly price tag of $249 billion for alcohol misuse and $193 billion for illicit drug use. 2 It's not surprising that the economic effects of substance abuse are high when you consider the health, legal, criminal, and personal issues that often coincide.

In 2020, 59.3 million people aged 12 and older used an illicit drug in the past year-21.4% of the population. 1 Although many states have legalized marijuana for both recreational and medical purposes, it remains illegal at the federal level, and marijuana is still the most frequently used illicit drug, with 49.6 million Americans identified as current users in 2020. 1 As for alcohol, in 2020 there were 138.5 million current alcohol drinkers aged 12 and older-50.0% of the population. ¹

Prescription Drug Abuse

While street drugs are known to be dangerous, such as heroin and crystal meth, prescription drugs are often viewed in a more favorable light, since they are prescribed by a physician. Though many believe these drugs are safer, they can be as addictive as heroin.

Prescription drugs are often misused in the United States. About 18 million people aged 12 or older abused these medications at least once in 2017. ³

Opioids-including morphine, OxyContin (oxycodone), and Vicodin (hydrocodone)-killed almost 50,000 Americans as a result of an overdose in 2019. ⁴

Short- and Long-Term Effects

Drugs work by stimulating various parts of the human body, including certain areas of the brain. The many different types and classifications of drugs produce a variety of short-term effects, but the most common may include increased heart rate, high blood pressure, dizziness, tremors, mood changes and paranoia. In high dosages, the risk for more dangerous effects increases, and the potential for heart attack, stroke, respiratory failure, and coma increase.

In the long-term, substance abuse may lead to mental and physical effects that will require addiction treatment to resolve. These effects may include paranoia, psychosis, immune deficiencies, and organ damage.

Tolerance, Dependence, and Addiction

While substance abuse comes with many side effects, ranging from mild physical side effects like nausea and dehydration to work-related consequences such as reduced productivity, some of the greater risks of substance use include tolerance, dependence, and addiction.

When an individual continues to take a drug, they can reach a point where they no longer respond to the drug as they did previously, and so they need to increase the dosage of the drug to experience the same effect as they did before-this is known as tolerance. 5,6

When a person experiences withdrawal symptoms when they stop using a drug, this is identified as dependence. 5,7 Withdrawal symptoms can be mild, or sometimes life-threatening. 5,7 To avoid discomfort from withdrawal, users need to stop using the drug gradually. It is important to note that just because a person is dependent on a drug does not necessarily mean they are addicted. 5

Even when the effects of drugs are damaging to a person's health and harms their relationships with friends, family members and coworkers, the constant need for a substance may overcome any rational thinking-this is known as addiction. 8 Addiction is a chronic disease identified by compulsive drug seeking despite harmful consequences. 8,9

Per the National Institute of Drug Abuse, addiction is a persisting disease that requires ongoing management. Individuals are never "cured" of addictions; instead, they learn how to manage their disease so they can lead healthy, balanced lives. ⁹

What Is a Drug or Alcohol Overdose?

If the body receives a level of drugs that it cannot tolerate, this can lead to an overdose. While some overdoses occur after continuous use, they can also happen after one single use of a drug.

Symptoms of a drug overdose may include: 10,11

Agitation.

Seizures.

Hallucinations.

Difficulty breathing.

Nausea and vomiting.

Unsteady gait.

Violent or aggressive behavior.

Coma.

If any of these signs are present, or if you believe a person might be experiencing an overdose, seek life-saving medical attention immediately.

Working Toward a Life of Sobriety

The decision to seek out a sober, drug-free lifestyle is one of the most important steps in the recovery process. Anyone seeking help will be able to find numerous options for treatment.

These treatment options are designed to help individuals begin their journey of sobriety.

How an Intervention Works

Deciding to stop using drugs may be a difficult decision for a person to make. Even if drugs are causing a disruption in a person's life, the compulsion to abuse substances habitually often overcomes any desire to quit. In some cases, the family and friends of an addict may consider holding an intervention.

The use of confrontational and forcible interventions, like what you see on TV, is not supported by any evidence as an effective strategy for making a lasting impact. There are, however, supportive interventional approaches that have been shown to be more effective in guiding a resistant loved one into acknowledging the validity and need of treatment. These approaches are typically done in concert with certified mental health professionals. ¹²

Drug Detoxification and Withdrawal Management

Before someone can begin a rehabilitation program, full withdrawal or detoxification may be necessary. During this process, the body adjusts to its drug-free state and rids itself of the remainder of the drug. Medically supervised withdrawal management programs may use controlled amounts of medication to help a person through this process.

Rehab and Treatment Options

A doctor, addiction specialist, or counselor can help people find the right rehabilitation or treatment option. A variety of types of substance abuse treatment programs is available. The setting is determined by individual needs, so some may benefit from inpatient treatment while others may thrive in an outpatient program. At the core, the goal is to help a former substance misuser assimilate into a drug-free life as easily as possible.

Patients recovering from opioid use or alcohol disorders may benefit from medication-assisted treatment (MAT), a combined approach that utilizes medication in concert with counseling and behavioral therapies to treat addiction. ¹³

Types of Behavioral Therapy

There are various types of behavioral therapy available to help patients treat and manage their drug or alcohol addiction. One strategy is structured cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). CBT has been shown in some studies to be an effective aspect in the treatment of SUDs. ¹⁴ CBT focuses on awareness of your thoughts, actions, and the consequences of both. By learning about drug abuse prevention and how to avoid situations that may cause compulsions or cravings, a person has an opportunity to retain control and make the decision to not seek out or use drugs.

Other forms of behavioral therapy that may be included in your treatment plan include:

Contingency management. This type of therapy involves incentives and rewards to help motivate people to abstain from substance use.

Family therapy. This type of counseling involves the patient's family members and focuses on issues that have arisen because of drug misuse.

Motivational interviewing. This technique involves the assessment of an individual's willingness to begin treatment and make positive life changes.

Aftercare, Relapse Prevention, and Recovery Tools

Utilizing support groups as aftercare options may also reduce the potential for relapse. 15 Having support from nonprofessional, nonclinical participants may aid in the patients finding additional motivation, support, and success in overcoming the SUDs. 15 There are various support groups, therapies, and 12-Step programs-both religiously based and alternative -that may provide support in the recovery of substance misuse.

At times, a SUD can seem like a personal struggle that no one around you understands. For this reason, SUD support groups can help recovering patients find comfort in their peers. Depending on where an individual resides, there may be a single support group for anyone recovering from an addiction, or there may be groups tailored to those recovering from a specific drug.

In addition to providing support as a group, these organizations often pair up new members with existing members who have maintained sobriety for an extended amount of time. The guidance of an experienced peer can be invaluably helpful to someone going through the initial steps of sobriety.

How to Find Help for Substance Abuse

While many people across the country are struggling with alcohol and drug abuse, substance misuse and abuse can still feel very isolating to those who are experiencing it. Know that you are not alone and that we are here to help you. Call for free at to speak with an admissions navigator who is there to support you as you begin your journey toward recovery. There are also free drug abuse hotline numbers you can contact.

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Get the Facts on Substance Abuse | Drugabuse.com

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Substance abuse is a major issue in the United States. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, approximately 40.3 million people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder (SUD) in 2020-with 28.3 million struggling with an alcohol use disorder (AUD) and 18.4 million dealing with an illicit drug use disorder (DUD).

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Find Recovery LP | Principles Recovery Center

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GENERAL DISCLAIMER: PrinciplesRecoveryCenter.com is designed for educational purposes only and is not engaged in rendering medical advice. The information provided through principlesrecoverycenter.com should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease. It is not a substitute for professional care.

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Has Addiction Stolen a Loved One From You? Call (877) 640-1943 for help getting them back.

While it's practically impossible to prevent anyone and everyone from using drugs, there are things we can all do to avoid drug and/or alcohol abuse. By sharing this knowledge with those closest to you, you yourself may be able to prevent them from doing drugs, too. Here are the top five ways to help prevent drug abuse:

1. Effectively deal with peer pressure. The biggest reason teens start using drugs is because their friends utilize peer pressure. No one likes to be left out, and teens (and yes, some adults, too) find themselves doing things they normally wouldn't do, just to fit in. In these cases, you need to either find a better group of friends that won't pressure you into doing harmful things, or you need to find a good way to say no. Teens should prepare a good excuse or plan ahead of time, to keep from giving into tempting situations.

2. Deal with life pressure. People today are overworked and overwhelmed, and often feel like a good break or a reward is deserved. But in the end, drugs only make life more stressful - and many of us all too often fail to recognize this in the moment. To prevent using drugs as a reward, find other ways to handle stress and unwind. Take up exercising, read a good book, volunteer with the needy, create something. Anything positive and relaxing helps take the mind off using drugs to relieve stress.

3. Seek help for mental illness. Mental illness and substance abuse often go hand-in-hand. Those with a mental illness may turn to drugs as a way to ease the pain. Those suffering from some form of mental illness, such as anxiety, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder should seek the help of a trained professional for treatment before it leads to substance abuse.

4. Examine the risk factors. If you're aware of the biological, environmental and physical risk factors you possess, you're more likely to overcome them. A history of substance abuse in the family, living in a social setting that glorifies drug abuse and/or family life that models drug abuse can be risk factors.

5. Keep a well-balanced life. People take up drugs when something in their life is not working, or when they're unhappy about their lives or where their lives are going. Look at life's big picture, and have priorities in order.

Sources:
Addiction: "Drugs, Brains, and Behavior"

Has Addiction Stolen a Loved One From You? Call for help getting them back. 877-640-1943

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This article was written by Bethany Winkel
Joining the TSN online family in 2008, Bethany has used her skills as a writer to reach many people through her blog. Always eager to be a help to others, she is pleased to see her writing become a source of information, encouragement, and hope for those impacted by substance abuse. Bethany is happy to be involved with an organization that is making a difference in the lives of others. Bethany has also held the position of development coordinator for a nonprofit youth center for the past 6 years. With her expertise in grant writing, Bethany has raised over $1 million for programming that benefits at-risk youth. The happy mother of 4 young children, Bethany juggles her writing from home with spending time with her family. If her hours of research for her TSN blog articles have taught her one thing, it is to be an involved parent who takes time to listen to her kids.

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Top 5 Ways to Prevent Substance Abuse - Treatment Solutions

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While it's practically impossible to prevent anyone and everyone from using drugs, there are things we can all do to avoid drug and/or alcohol abuse. By sharing this knowledge with those closest to you, you yourself may be able to prevent them from doing drugs, too.

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