Drugs That Can Lead to Dependency
When people think about drug abuse and addiction, they often use strict black-and-white terms, suggesting that someone becomes an addict quite suddenly. At first, there is no addiction issue whatsoever, and then just a few moments later, an addiction is present and it has the capacity to ruin the person’s life. In reality, addictions tend to develop rather slowly, following a series of predictable steps. Dependency, or a chemical reliance on a substance of abuse, is often considered one of the first steps on the road to a drug addiction. This article will outline common drugs that can lead to dependency, as well as information about why dependency can be so very dangerous.
- Failed attempts to stop using
- Spending money on drugs, even when the person can’t afford the drugs
- Needing drugs to deal with everyday problems
- Stealing, driving under the influence or making other poor decisions while under the influence of drugs
- Focusing increasing time and energy on getting and using drugs
Addictions like this can develop in response to a variety of factors. For example, research conducted by the University of Cambridge found that traumatic childhood experiences can lead to impulsivity, and this personality trait has been linked to an increased risk of addiction. It’s clear that outside influences really can raise the risk of addiction, making minor problems into major issues that can allow an addiction to settle in.
Dependency, however, can make the progress to addiction all the more likely, as someone who is dependent on a drug feels a chemical need to keep using that drug. It’s a natural bodily response to the presence of drugs, and it is nearly impossible to overwrite that impulse. The process works like this: As a person takes in drugs, the body begins to rewrite its chemical impulses in response to those drugs. As a result, the person needs to take higher levels of drugs in order to bring about the same result. Without those drugs, the body doesn’t function normally and a person feels a significant amount of pain and misery until the body adjusts to life without drugs. Not all drugs cause dependence like this, but those that have are often associated with addiction.
Opiates and Opioids
Opiates like heroin have long been associated with physical dependence, as people who abuse these drugs often report taking staggering amounts of the drugs they’re addicted to on a regular basis, and they may not feel any effects from these drugs at all. Opioid medications, including prescription painkillers, can be just as habit-forming and abuse of these medications is increasing. The Institute of Addiction Medicine reports that the misuse of these drugs increased by 140 percent between 1992 and 2003, proving just how threatening these drugs might truly be.
Opiates and opioids have their own specific receptors scattered throughout the body, and when a person takes in these drugs and they attach to these receptors, a variety of pleasurable signals flood the brain. This pleasure pathway is very sensitive, however, and the body quickly adjusts by reducing the amount of signals it will release in the presence of drugs and the ability the body will have to respond to pleasurable signals. In time, people may find that they can only feel pleasure when they are taking drugs, and their feelings of contentment and peace are exclusively married to their use of drugs. People who stop taking opiates and opioids might feel quite low and sad without the drugs, due to their physical dependence, but they might also experience muscle spasms and gastrointestinal difficulties as the body adjusts to life without drugs.
Marijuana
Marijuana also has receptors scattered throughout the body, and this drug also produces a specific set of symptoms in people who use and abuse the drug. In time, people who use marijuana may become immune to the drug’s effects at very low levels, and they may need to escalate their use in order to feel the same effect, either by obtaining stronger concentrations of marijuana or by taking doses of the drug at more frequent intervals. In the past, people often claimed that marijuana wasn’t addictive, even though it was well known that people could become immune to the effects of the drug when they’d been taking it for a long period of time. Now, research suggests that people who take marijuana can and do experience symptoms of dependency due to their drug use.
In one study, published in the journal Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, researchers found symptoms of withdrawal in marijuana users, including anxiety, irritability, tension and reduced appetite. These symptoms did seem to dissipate within 10 days, but they did make some users feel quite uncomfortable in the interim. A similar study in the journal Addiction found that 57 percent of marijuana users had experienced six symptoms of withdrawal when they tried to stop taking the drug, and 47 percent reported that four of their symptoms were severe. Studies like this seem to indicate that people who abuse marijuana are placing themselves in grave danger of developing dependency, and they may experience withdrawal symptoms when they try to stop using the drug.
Stimulants
Stimulant medications can allow people to feel sped up, awake and ready for almost anything. These drugs, however, also tend to cause spikes in the brain’s reward center, similar to the spikes seen in the brains of people who take in opiate drugs like heroin, and these increases can also lead to a physical dependence on the drugs. Stimulant medications also seem to be quite strong and capable of causing a physical dependence, even when compared to notorious opiate drugs. For example, a study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology found that dependence on cocaine began “early and more explosively,” with 5 to 6 percent of users developing dependence within one year of use. The researchers claim that this statistic means that cocaine can cause dependence quicker than either marijuana or alcohol, which should give people who abuse cocaine a very good reason to get help in order to quit.
Cocaine isn’t the only stimulant that’s been linked to dependence. Prescription stimulant medication, including Ritalin, has also been associated with physical dependence. People who take the drug on the advice of their doctors may develop dependence that never escalates into addiction, but they may need to take larger doses of the drug to counteract the tolerance for the drug that develops naturally over time. People who are addicted, on the other hand, might need to address their tolerance during their rehab programs, slowly tapering off the drug with the help of counselors. The tolerance they have for the drug might make healing without help quite difficult.
Newer designer drugs, including bath salts, are often included in the list of addictive stimulants. According to research published in the New England Journal of Medicine, bath salts tend to cause changes in the pleasure center in the brain, even though they may not cause the intense sensation of euphoria that cocaine and other stimulants can bring about, and those changes can cause people to feel a deep craving for the drug when it is gone, along with other withdrawal symptoms that tend to point to a dependency syndrome. People who sell bath salts and other designer stimulants may claim that the drugs are safe and don’t cause dependence, but the research seems to suggest that this isn’t quite true.
Depressants
This is a large drug category that encompasses many different substances that work on different parts of the brain. All depressant drugs do have one thing in common, however: These drugs suppress the ability of the brain to transmit and respond to excited signals. In time, the brain becomes slow and sluggish, even though portions of the brain might be using increasing amounts of chemicals to break through the drug-induced haze. These chemical changes lie beneath the dependent quality of depressants. If a person who is accustomed to taking depressants attempts to stop using the drugs rapidly, that person can develop seizures, as the large signals put out by the brain are finally reaching through to portions of the brain that are awake.
Depressant drugs include:
Anyone who has been taking these drugs or depressant drugs like them, whether with a prescription or on a recreational basis, should work with a doctor to ensure that sobriety can be achieved without enduring side effects that could put an end to life. With help, people can stop using these drugs, regardless of their dependence level, but they must use caution during treatment.
Making Meaning of Dependence
Someone who is physically dependent on a drug isn’t necessarily addicted to that drug. As mentioned, dependency is just one step people take on the road to a full-blown addiction to drugs. However, physical dependency can make an addiction all the more likely. The dependence can make the drugs seem vital to a healthy existence, and make sobriety seem like an unusual or unpleasant state. Similarly, people who are physically dependent on a drug may experience fear when they attempt to stop taking drugs. Once the drugs are gone and the physical sensations of loss kick in, dependent people may say or do anything to make those symptoms go away. Sometimes, taking a hit of drugs seems like the easiest and most expedient way to make symptoms fade. In time, as the person attempts to quit and finds that quitting is impossible, remaining addicted may seem like a completely reasonable thing to do.
Moving past dependence sometimes means working with a doctor, slowly tapering away from drugs and working toward other solutions the drugs were meant to handle. Sometimes, however, drug dependence is best conquered in a formal detox program. Here, people can get help for the physical symptoms they face when they attempt to stop using drugs, and they may be able to achieve sobriety for the first time in a long time.
If you’d like to know more about how detox could help you to move past a dependence on drugs, please call us here at Axis Residential. We have extensive experience in helping people to overcome their addictions, and we use both supportive care and medical therapies to assist with the pangs of drug withdrawals. We’re happy to discuss our techniques with you, and help you determine if we provide the right setting for your long-term healing. Please call today to find out more.