What are the Emotional Effects of Drug Addiction?
What are the Emotional Effects of Drug Addiction?
Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are severe and in fact, a brutal problem for a lot of individuals. Addiction is a real factor in this country, and one of which causes intense and harsh crisis problems in the lives of over one hundred million Americans. The emotional effects of drug addiction can truly be devastating for the user as well as their family. Studies show that substance abuse has risen to a point where there are now more than twenty-three million Americans who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. Furthermore, there are more than one hundred million Americans who are in some way very closely connected to those twenty-three million addicted.
There is no question about the fact that substance abuse is a deadly problem for all who are affected by it. When most people think of drug and alcohol addiction, they usually think of the physical, physiological, and chemical aspects of substance abuse that go into drug and alcohol addiction. They do not often think of the mental, psychological, personal, spiritual, and emotional effects of drug addiction on a person and those around them who have to be exposed to them regularly.
Truthfully though, the emotional effects of drug addiction run a lot deeper and have much longer lasting consequences than the physical ones do. It is just that people tend to think of the physical effects of drug and alcohol addiction more readily because the physical effects of drug and alcohol abuse are what can kill a person, and the mental effects cannot. However, the mental and psychological and emotional effects of drug addiction can cripple a person for life, yet that is not focused on nearly as much.
Oxycodone
Let’s take a look at perhaps the most common drug addiction of them all, Oxycodone. Oxycodone has skyrocketed in popularity in this country as a favored drug of choice. This substance has gained appreciation by heroin addicts, other pill addicts, and for people who have never even been addicted to substances before. In fact, this drug is now one of the favored drugs for marijuana addicts. Perhaps even more saddening, this drug is now causing addictions in people who have never even been addicted to a drug before and who are merely prescribed the drug for a pain issue.
Drugs like Oxycodone, Vicodin, Percocet, Opana, Dilaudid, Xanax, Ritalin, and countless others are now causing more problems in this country than others have in the past, making for what is sure to be the worst drug addiction epidemic that this nation has ever seen.
Emotional Effects of Drug Addiction
Drugs like the above tend to have the most severe impact on a person’s mental and emotional state.
Let’s take a look at some of the psychological effects of such drug abuse:
- A decline in positive, forward momentum emotions. When a person abuses drugs and alcohol, their whole outlook changes to one that is entirely bereft of positive and happy thoughts. When a person abuses drugs and alcohol, they adopt a very stale, unfulfilling sensation for life in general. They feel very negative towards life, and this feeling only increases.
- Low self-esteem. Drug addiction and alcohol addiction obliterates self-esteem because it proves to the addict how little control they have over their habit.
- Emotional trauma. Drug abuse can cause emotional trauma, which can haunt a person for decades, even after they beat addiction. Emotional trauma is something that sometimes never goes away and just has to be addressed as best as one can.
If you or someone you know suffers from the emotional effects of drug addiction, call A Forever Recovery today.