Meth is a highly addictive drug. Similar to most drugs, once improperly used, meth addiction could result to detrimental effects towards the user’s body. Upon entering the brain, methamphetamine triggers the rapid release of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine which regulate feelings of pleasure. It is highly active in mesolimbic reward pathways of the brain which causes extreme euphoria.
Methamphetamine has a stimulating outcome on sex, mood, and energy. Meth can cause weight loss and appetite suppression. Also, it provides our body with alertness and the ability to concentrate. Like most drugs, overusing meth develops tolerance. It exhausts the brain’s store of dopamine and destroys the wiring of dopamine receptors. The pleasurable effect of the drug is not eternal. Negative effects on the body takes place once the user of meth takes increasing amount due to tolerance. Users usually elicit poor judgment and dangerous behaviors such as committing petty and violent crimes. To maintain the pleasurable effect of the drug, the user is likely to take in increasing doses which in turn results to the destruction 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. In addition, physical effects of meth addiction are diarrhea, palpitations, and dizziness, jaw clenching and facial ticks. It also increases the heart rate that it could lead to sudden heart failure. Some consequences include bronchial dilation, dilation of the blood vessels to the skeletal muscles, dilation of pupils and the emptying of the bladder and intestine.
Meth addiction is prevalent in the United States. Statistics show that there are about 1.4 million users of methamphetamine in America and the number is increasing. 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 is the driving force that makes people to get addictive to 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.
Methamphetamine addiction greatly damages a person’s life. Once addicted to it, the symptoms could lead to undesirable and unhealthy behaviors. Moreover, depriving the body from taking in methamphetamine 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 everything is gone. It’s that painful. It is not an overnight process. Most of all, things work if it is a forced thing. The person addicted to meth should be first of all, be very willing and determined to battle the addiction and get rid of it for good. The motivation should not come from the people around the meth users. The motivation should come from the self. One should first accept the problem before doing something about it. There have been a number of meth-specific programs that have been developed. The objective 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 exact thing to do, but we find it hard to do it because we know it would hurt so bad. The first step should always start with the self.
