Like any other drugs, once improperly used, meth addiction could result to harmful effects towards the user’s body. Upon entering the brain, meth triggers the rapid release of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine which control feelings of pleasure. It is highly active in mesolimbic reward pathways of the brain which causes intense euphoria.
Methamphetamine has a stimulating outcome on sex, mood, and energy. It can cause weight loss and appetite suppression. It also has positive effects on the body, like providing you to be alert and having the ability to concentrate. Like most drugs, tolerance develops overtime with continuous use of meth. Meth exhausts the brain’s store of dopamine and destroys the wiring of dopamine receptors. The pleasurable effect of the drug is not eternal. As the user takes in an increasing amount of the drug due to tolerance, negative effects to the body begin to take place. Users usually elicit poor judgment and harmful behaviors such as committing petty and violent crimes. Maintining pleasant effect of the drug makes the user to likely increase doses which in turn results to the damage of body organs, mental disorders, and even death. Long-time users of this drug have been known to develop symptoms of psychosis, like paranoia, aggression, hallucinations, and delusions. Furthermor, physical effects of meth addiction are diarrhea, palpitations, and dizziness, jaw clenching and facial ticks. Meth can also lead to heart failure since it increases heart rate. costs include bronchial dilation, dilation of the blood vessels to the skeletal muscles, dilation of pupils and the emptying of the bladder and intestine.
In the United States, methamphetamine addiction is quite common. There are 1.4 million meth users in America, and it does not stop there. With the number of meth users increasing, the government is quite helpless. Meth is readily available and cheap. Meth’s main object is the youth most especially those problematic ones; ravaged by broken homes, neglect and little parental influence. The National Association of Countries report that users are both high school and college students and white and blue collar-workers as well as people in their 20s and 30s who are unemployed.
What pushes people to using meth? Meth is easy to use, cheap, and could work as an energy booster. The immediate but temporary benefits of using meth is the once that greatly attract people to use this drug.
Meth addiction destroys the life of a person. Once addicted to it, the symptoms could lead to undesirable and unhealthy behaviors. Moreover, depriving the body from taking in meth would lead to depression, aggression, anxiety, fatigue, paranoia, and intense craving for the drug.
Getting away from this kind of addiction is quite a daunting task. You get the similar feeling from pulling your hair on your head one by one until nothing is left. Imagine the pain. It is not a one-time thing. Most of all, it wouldn’t work if it is a forced thing. Meth addicts should be first of all, be very eager and determined to fight the addiction and get rid of it for good. The inspiration should not come from the people around the meth users. The motivation should come from the self. After accepting one’s problem, the desire to do something about it should come next. There have been a number of meth-specific programs that have been developed. The aim of treatment is to train the addict new skills that will help cope with the user’s drug cravings and prevent relapses. Meth treatment therapies involve individual and small group approaches. Treatment allows the patient to see beyond the immediate positive effects of drug use and lead them to see the negative effects that inevitably follow. Moreover, recovered addicts are taught to manage their lives more successfully, increase their confidence and self-esteem, and set positive personal goals.
One easily gets addicted to something, yet it is so difficult to become “un-addicted” if there is such a word. Addiction is like letting go of a loved one, we know that letting it go is the correct thing to do, but we find it hard to do it because we know it would hurt so bad. The determination to do should start within one’s self.
