One thing that you would acknowledge is that the drug addiction crosscuts the prescription and non-prescription medicines. In fact, abuse or addiction to prescription medicines makes for the most prevalent these days. This may actually be as a result of their ease of availability as well as the low costs in which they come at. Irrespective of the fact that most of these substances fall under the ‘controlled’ category, they are not only available from medical practitioners but also from pharmacies as well as illegal outlets and streets.

Whether one is addicted to non-prescription or prescription drugs, the abuse is always characterized by the defiance of a qualified medical practitioner’s prescriptions. One would actually be taking the items for reasons other than those for which the medicine was prescribed or against the prescriptions of a qualified medical practitioner.

Substance abuse starts with development of psychic or even physical dependency to a particular drug. Now it would be important to understand that every drug whether non-prescription or prescription will always produce physical dependency. This is a situation where the individual starts craving for it and would not feel normal if he or she does not take it or stays off it for too long. It would be important to acknowledge that physical dependency would not necessarily imply that the individual has become dependent or is abusing it. All that it implies is that the normal functioning of the body systems and especially the brain and the central nervous system have become dependent on the presence of the substance.

If the individual continues taking the drug, there is the possibility of development of tolerance (chemical tolerance). This results from the deposits of residue building up in the body. With these, the individual would realize that the drug becomes ineffective especially as far as bringing about the initial effects is concerned. These could be the euphoric feelings, pain relieving, suppression of coughs, relieving fever or any other reason for which it was consumed. To bring about these effects, the individual would need to take more of whatever substance they had already consumed. One thing that you need to acknowledge is that as much as chemical tolerance and physical dependency do not indicate that the individual has become addicted or is abusing the drug, it definitely could lead to addiction if the individual continues increasing the amounts consumed. This is because chemical tolerance progressively builds up meaning the individual would need to continually increase the amounts. Eventually, the individual may end up overdosing because of this.

In most cases, it is quite difficult to determine the cause and effect of addiction. Actually, you may never determine what caused the other; for example, did depression result in substance abuse or did the addiction cause the depression initially? However, one thing that you would acknowledge is that, the effects of substance abuse crosscuts every aspect of an individual’s life be it behavior, psychology, mental capacity, family life and even health. Actually, health and mental aspects happen to be the most affected.

There are varied effects of the addiction mainly depending on the amounts taken, the type taken, time over which the drug is taken as well as the health of the individual. You will acknowledge that the effects are worse or more severe when an individual has been abusing several substances together.

Looking at the physiological effects, the drug may induce severe effects to the individual’s entire body system. Initially, addiction would induce such physiological effects like blood pressure, irregular breathing, sudden loss of weight or gain and increased heart rate. In the long term, the effects actually happen to be more serious. The most common long term effects of addiction include heart disease, brain damage, lung diseases and arthritis. In cases where individuals share syringes used for injecting, there are possibilities of contracting HIV/AIDS.

On social and psychological effects of drug addiction, you will acknowledge that the individual has no control over the substance. In such scenarios, if an individual does not consume the amount needed, he or she would be restless, anxious and depressed therefore increasing the craving for it. Given the high cost of some of these drugs, the individual may find it hard to keep up with the price and therefore resort to stealing and other unethical behaviors like prostitution. Actually, this addition has been touted as one of the prime causes of high crime rates. Having in mind that the individual will be focusing all efforts on attaining the substance, he or she would be hard pressed fulfilling their obligations either at work or in the family. In most cases, the addicts prefer keeping to themselves and may have behavioral changes such as extreme irritability, mood swings and irritability. Given the adherence of these drugs to the normal functioning of the brain and the central nervous system, the individual may have reduced mental as well as physical capacity.