Putting facts straight- Addiction is when you can’t stop, not when it starts to affect your health and body. “Not all of us are addicted to it, we just do it sometimes, and we know when to stop”- is a phrase quite often used so lightly by substance users that it ends up in addiction before they know it.
If I were to put it philosophically, addiction is a vicious cycle which when we fall into, we are unable to come out of. It takes immense will power to do so. Usually, the first time for every individual is due to their peers. When they are around people where the majority are accustomed to smoking or drinking, they develop normalcy in their minds, hence making it not a big deal to indulge in. Either that or they become accustomed to it when they are going through depression or at a low point in their life- failure, heartbreak, the death of someone or just isolation. The reasons for it are innumerable, and diving into it would open an entirely different social issue. So, coming back, why is the consumption of alcohol, smoking or drug abuse not highlighted as a significant social issue? And why is the adolescence period the most vulnerable age for such abuse? You would have observed 95% of college students smoking indefinitely outside your campus on a daily basis or chugging alcohol in clubs or bars just for fun. Is this what having fun has come to? Alcohol and Substance Abuse? That too mostly by the literate sections of the society. Why aren’t we as a community taking responsibility to create awareness and stop the people in our surroundings from doing it rather than encouraging them? Why aren’t we as individuals taking responsibility for our own life and our own health?
There are several effects from long term usage of the substances mentioned above. For example, it can cause changes in our normal brain functioning by affecting our:
Judgment
Decision making
Memory
Ability to learn, and so on
Together, these brain changes can drive you to seek out and take drugs in ways that are beyond our control. Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to the development of chronic diseases and other severe problems including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, liver disease, digestive problems, cancer of the breast, mouth, throat, esophagus, liver, and colon. Likewise, the effects of drug addiction may include:
A weakened immune system, increasing the risk of illness and infection.
Heart conditions ranging from abnormal heart rates to heart attacks and collapsed veins and blood vessel infections from injected drugs
Nausea and abdominal pain, which can also lead to changes in appetite and weight loss
Increased strain on the liver, which puts the person at risk of significant liver damage or liver failure
Seizures, stroke, and brain damage
Lung diseases
Apart from health issues, substance abuse and addiction to alcohol also cause our surroundings to get affected by our behavioral changes. People who care for us and are always worried about our well-being see our downfall and want us to abstain from it, to showcase our capabilities truly. Sometimes after consumption, post effects lead to domestic violence in some homes, abusing women, or wreaking havoc in the house and breach of the fundamental human rights of another person. Marital rape, which is often neglected as a serious issue is also several times the result of heavy intake of alcohol. Not just married people, even young students that party or heavily booze frequently aren’t in their senses to react to their surroundings or aware of what’s happening with them. In many such cases, people- known and unknown, take advantage of the situation and forget the concept of consent. Whether you are physically involved with a person or not, when they are sleeping or passed out, you do not have the right to be intimate with that person. Not unless they have agreed to it at that moment.
Similarly, when you are on drugs, you lose your presence of mind as well as the ability to differentiate between what is wrong and right. Your hallucinations and cravings dominate your conscience, so you tend to commit some of the most immoral and heinous crimes like stealing, sometimes from your own parents. In worst-case scenarios, as we have all seen on the news, drug addicts even murder people or commit suicide. If situations go out of hand, such people must be admitted to rehabilitation centers as soon as possible for immediate response.
To summarize, yes, a lot of issues are intertwined with Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, as it is an erroneous thing to do. So, stop if you are doing it right now because a little change on your side will influence millions from the next generation
Comments