30% of Russia’s top university students take drugs. Addiction is one of the main reasons for dropping out, Yevgeny Bryun, top substance abuse official at the Ministry of Healthcare and Social Development of the Russian Federation, said in a RIA Novosti interview.
Experts regard substance abuse as belonging to the group of addiction diseases. Alongside alcoholism and some other dependencies on chemical substances, drug addiction is qualified as a chemical dependency.
We can distinguish two forms of dependency: psychological dependency on drugs, typical of all kinds of drug addiction, and physical dependency, which can be more or less pronounced, and occasionally be completely absent.
Physical dependency is the human body’s physiological demand for narcotics (any psychologically active substances able to change human consciousness, mood and behavior). As addiction develops, the addict’s biochemistry shifts to another regimen. When the body stops receiving narcotics, the addict goes through an agonizing state of abstinence, or the withdrawal syndrome, also known by the slang term of “cold turkey,” when the body demands substances that are lacking and necessary for survival.
The need for drugs and the withdrawal syndrome in their absence do not in the slightest depend on the patient’s subjective willpower, friends and personal relationships or personality. To see the reason for this, we should understand the workings of the human body.
The living body, including the human body, is a sophisticated system working as an integral whole. This system functions at many interacting levels: cells make tissues, which, in turn, are organized into organs. These latter are parts of the organism. The nervous system makes possible the interconnection and interaction of this sophisticated system.
The nervous system and its most complex part, the brain, control every manifestation of personality. The nervous system is extremely complex: it consists of neurons, or nervous cells, whose extensions make nerves (nerve trunks), which connect the entire systems and elements of the body to make a single integrated whole.
The human nervous system possesses more than 10 billion neurons. More than half of them are in the brain and the marrow, i.e., the central nervous system (CNS). Neurons are interlinked by synapses. A synapse transmits impulses with the help of special substances (neuromediators, or neurotransmitters) released by end-feet and exuded into the synaptic cleft. There are many kinds of such substances.
Of special importance to the workings of drug addictions are neurotransmitters known as endorphins, whose effect closely resembles that of morphine derivatives. Like morphine, they have an anesthetic effect.
A certain amount of endorphins is necessary for normal functioning of the nervous system and for emotional wellbeing. Lack of endorphins disturbs the state of mind and reduces activity to produce discomfort and anxiety. There are many reasons for endorphin shortage, for instance, certain conditions that inhibit endorphin synthesis. Persons with a congenital shortage of endorphins are especially liable to chemical dependency. Many of them never feel normal until they taste alcohol or a narcotic because any narcotic substance directly or indirectly normalizes endorphin concentration.
The person who is capable of accepting this way of improving his or her life quickly becomes an alcoholic or a drug addict.
Chemically dependent persons may possess other congenital metabolic conditions. For instance, the liver may deviate from the norm in substance disintegration and removal, which accounts for a slightly abnormal assimilation of alcohol. The ability to consume a great deal of alcohol without becoming drunk is among the attributes of congenital alcoholism.
Mood-changers cause euphoria through an endorphin rush in the blood. The brain adapts to it by increasing the number of endorphin receptors. More than that, all organs gradually get accustomed to working properly only in the presence of this substance.
As it receives a huge amount of morphine derivatives from outside, as with heroin, or adapts to permanent powerful stimulation, as with cocaine and alcohol, the brain eventually stops producing its own endorphins.
The whole body receives a huge shock when it stops receiving the substance. The organs cannot function normally any longer while empty receptors require a new dose. As the body does not produce its own endorphins, the patient experiences agonizing pain, weakness, depression, the sense that life is empty and meaningless, etc. The body resumes production of endorphins eventually when drug taking stops. However, the dependency mechanism has taken shape, and even the first new dose causes an irreversible response.
All psychoactive substances have similar effect. So a chemically dependent person cannot take any chemical drugs without becoming addicted.
Apart from a physical dependency on drugs, the patient develops a psychological dependency, that is, a psychological demand for the repetition of narcotic intoxication.
It is another manifestation of the disease. It differs greatly from ordinary bad habits, which can be stopped by an effort of will. A dependent person cannot have positive emotions, communicate and cope with problems without the drug. Psychological dependence is much harder to overcome than physical withdrawal.
As any disease, drug addiction has its causes and effects. It depends on personal views and convictions, whether one becomes an addict or not. Certain psychological prerequisites for addiction are graphically manifested: for instance, negative self-image or, in contrast to it, bloated self-esteem; communication problems, inability to control one’s feelings, inner tension or love of risk.
The reference has been prepared based on open source materials
