Drug addiction is one of the social menaces and in most people, what starts off as a result of peer pressure and trying to be cool ends up affecting lives significantly. It is not just social, but also affects financial, physical, emotional, and social well-being. The small periods of happiness given by the drug is followed by months and years of torment.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has identified that drug addiction causes chemical and structural changes in the brain, leading to dangerous and self-destructive behaviours. The brain s response to stimulus like pleasure, joy, happiness, and pain are altered with constant drug abuse. For instance, the neurotransmitter called dopamine, which makes one feel good, is usually produced by the brain in small amounts. However, drugs increase this level to 2 to 10 times more, making the person feel extremely high and happy. Since the body is unable to reach the highest level of happiness on its own, the dependency on these drugs to feel good increases.

Repeated use of the drugs leads to increased dependency, wherein the brain refuses to feel good without reaching those high levels of dopamine. The issue is mostly seen in teenagers and young adults but can be seen in any age group.

October 2 is recognised as National Anti-Drug Addiction Day and nationwide campaigns and drives are done to help people overcome addiction. One of the main reasons a drive this size is required is because of the social stigma attached to the problem. Most families shun away from recognising it as a problem that can be easily treated, and so the affected person is sucked deeper into the problem.

Overcoming addiction: One of the main success factors for treating addiction is for the affected person to recognise that he or she is addicted and needs to get rid of the problem.

    There are national toll-free helplines that are set up, which can guide through the whole program. This way, if required, anonymity is maintained and support for overcoming addiction is increased.
    It involves a group effort involving the affected person, family and friends, medical and clinical personnel, and counsellors in some cases.
    Cognitive behavioural therapy: The person is made conscious of the change in behaviour and the way drugs affect it. Healthier patterns to be happy and joyful are discussed.
    In most cases, the underlying reason for reaching out to drugs needs to be addressed also to prevent relapse.
    Group therapies where the person makes friends who have faced similar issues and overcome the problem. This increases their accountability and commitment to getting rid of the problem.

Drug abuse is a national social menace and needs more free admittance and management.

National Anti-Drug Addiction Day - Overcoming Addiction

You might be feeling that spending time on any social media network is a simple way to pass time and is a common habit. But a recent study by University of Chicago Booth School of Business says that social networking sites can be more addictive, than alcohol. The desire to consume alcohol can be controlled and turned down, but the desire to check Facebook is simply uncontrollable for most people, and it s a serious addiction.

About the study
The ground breaking study was done on 250 people in and around Germany aged between 18 and 85 years of age. They were sent messages at specific intervals to report their desires and cravings. It is found that most people had the desire to sleep and have sex during the day that they were able to control. But the desire for checking Facebook was much higher.

Reasons for Facebook addiction

One of the major reasons is that availability of Facebook is much easier and higher than alcohol availability.
Also, it is thought that the cost of checking Facebook is much less than consuming some amount of alcohol on a regular basis.
Even if a man wants to resist his desire, but due to easy availability and lesser cost, he is prone to use it again and again.
Alcohol consumption is prohibited in public and during office hours in many countries. But checking Facebook updates have no restrictions. People can check it whenever they feel the desire.
The most shocking part is the urges drove the people to such an extent, that they couldn t even resist themselves even if they wanted to do so.
Effects of Facebook addiction

Drainage of time: No matter how good we feel while checking Facebook updates, can you deny that it s simply a waste of time?
Self esteem reduced: When you see your peers enjoying their life with flying colors, no wonder you will feel depressed. But we are reluctant to believe this fact, that nobody shows his tragic part of life on Facebook. So, whom you think is the happiest person in the world, may be the saddest and is drowned in his own miseries.
Remedy of this so called addiction
The study says that when we are much worn out, we are unable to control our desire and our will power is depleted.

So, if you find yourself posting your status on Facebook at the midnight instead of sleeping, then it is high time you should try to come out of this addiction and give yourself a better life and health.

Facebook Vs Alcohol - Which Is More Addictive?

If you are a heavy drinker or consume alcohol regularly or frequently, you should know about the harmful effects of alcohol or how it affects your body negatively. When you drink, alcohol gets absorbed into your blood and gets distributed all over your body. Alcohol consumption may cause several physical and emotional changes, which can cause great harm to the body. There are many long-term effects of alcohol abuse, which put your health at great risk.

Here are some ways in which alcohol affects the different parts of your body:

Excretory system: Excessive consumption of alcohol may cause the pancreas to produce toxic substances that interfere with its functioning. As a result, pancreatitis or inflammation of the pancreas is likely. This is a serious problem, capable of destroying the pancreas. Alcohol affects the liver severely. Excessive intake of alcohol may cause alcoholic hepatitis and lead to jaundice development. Chronic liver inflammation may cause severe scarring or cirrhosis. The formation of scar tissue may destroy your liver. When the liver and pancreas do not work properly, there is a risk of hypoglycemia. The damaged pancreas may cause unbalanced blood sugar levels, which is a serious concern.
Central nervous system: Change in behaviour is one of the primary signs of alcohol being in your system. Alcohol travels through the body and quickly reaches your brain and other parts of the central nervous system or CNS. This may lead to slurred speech and it becomes harder for you to talk. Your overall body coordination is affected along with your balance and the ability to walk properly. Over drinking negatively affects your ability to think clearly, impulse control and your ability to form memories. Long term drinking shrinks the frontal lobes of the brain. Damage to the nervous system because of alcohol may cause pain, abnormal sensations in your limbs, and numbness.
Digestive system: Alcohol also affects your digestive system in several ways. Alcohol can affect the entire digestive system starting from the mouth to the colon and a single incident of excessive drinking can wreck parts of the digestive tract.
Organ damage: Alcohol abuse damages your salivary glands, which cause irritation in the tongue and month. This may result in gum disease, tooth disease or tooth decay. Ulcers in the oesophagus or food pipe, acid reflux and heartburn are other impacts. Excessive drinking may also lead to stomach ulcers and inflammation of the stomach lining.
Inflammation of the pancreas disrupts its ability to help the process of digestion and regulate effective metabolism. Damage to the digestive system from alcohol abuse can also cause diarrhoea, gas, abdominal fullness.

Alcohol - How it Affects Your Body?

Nowadays, drug abuse is a universally condemned action such that selling certain drugs are illegal. Children are not allowed to take drugs until they reach a certain age such as 21 for most states in India. Lots of problems start occurring when you are addicted to a certain drug. It is also nearly impossible to stop since the nerve cells change the way they function due to drugs. 

These nerve cells overstimulate the 'reward circuit' of the brain. This means that your brain constantly needs to be 'rewarded' and this reward comes in the form of drugs. There are many reasons why people become addicts and here are some of them.

People want to get high: This is perhaps the most common reason why people become drug addicts. The moment they take in one drug, they love the feeling they get so much that they keep wanting to go back to it.
People want to fit in: This is also a very common reason. When all your friends and perhaps even your bosses and other superiors are taking drugs, you do not want to feel left out or ostracized by your friend group. This is why many people start taking drugs.
Unintentionally taking drugs due to injuries or medical conditions: Sometimes a doctor prescribes a medicine for a certain time period but it does not work or works too well and so you keep taking the drug so that you will feel better. This happens more often than you think.
People take drugs to relieve stress: This is another very common reason why people take drugs. You may easily rationalize with them thinking that taking drugs is a good way to relax from work and family pressures. However, the long term effects of taking drugs are much worse than the stress.
Boredom from daily life: In young teens and adolescents especially, life can be so boring that they want to try something new and thus resort to drug abuse.

5 Reasons Why People Get Addicted To Drugs

In this fast-moving world, there is no room for self. Growth of IT firms and other long-hour demanding work has led to compromises in your lifestyle - long hours in front of computer, sleeplessness, late-night sleeping, quick bites, leaving us with emotions of anger, anxiety, stress and so on. This is a major reason why people today are hypertensive.

Diseases due to Hypertension: Tension and stress are the building blocks of numerous serious ailments like cardiovascular diseases, asthma, spondylitis (back pain) and grey hair. You may also suffer from gastritis leading to ulcer.

Natural ways to treat Hypertension : Ideally, tension and stress are not diseases. If you can control these, you can control the conditions that take root because of them. Naturopathic (or alternative medicine) treatments for tension and stress are most ideal.

Here are some natural ways to treat hypertension.



Sleep well: An adult should sleep for a minimum of 7-8 hours daily. Your body cells rejuvenate while you are in a relaxed state. Many jobs demand late-night work or night shift work. However, your body is meant to sleep early at night. Instead of working late night, you can start your work early.
Eat right: Stress leads to elevated levels of sugar in your body. Try to avoid sugary content food. Your body needs balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates, less of fats, and more of vitamins and minerals. For proteins, eat fish, eggs or white meat. For vegetarians, you can have soy, cereals and protein drinks. Diet must include milk products like yoghurt, milk, vegetables rich in minerals and vitamins and roughage (salads).
Destressing exercises: Nowadays, most of the jobs demand sitting for long hours. Physical activity is one of the ways to de-stress your body. A 45-minute walk would also help. Alternatively, yoga or tai-chi type martial art helps to de-stress. Breathing techniques involved in meditation also play a vital role.
Anger management: Develop patience. That would automatically lead to anger management at your workplace as well as at home. Be a good listener. Laughter therapy also helps as it releases many happy hormones in the body.
Supplement for stress: This has to be the last tip when you do not perform the first four. Multivitamins containing vitamin B and minerals such as magnesium are recommended. You can count on certain herbs such as Ashwaganda, Ginseng, Rhodiola and St. John's Wort.
Despite following these tips, you may still face problems because every human is different and reaction to every remedy could be different. In such cases, approach for expert advice.

Naturopathic Treatment For Tension And Stress!

Many people enjoy having alcohol on the weekends after long working hours and hectic weekdays. There are many people who consume alcohol to deal with stress or simply because they enjoy it. But consuming alcohol very often, especially every day can lead to many health issues. Medical experts call alcohol a toxin that affects each and every organ of the consumer s body and disturb its processing. The individual s body has to go through the recovery process every time after its consumption. Giving up alcohol is not easy, especially for the people who tend to consume it every day. Almost everyone is aware of how alcohol affects our mind and body but not everyone is aware of what happens when they give it up only if for a month or even lessen their consumption.

What Happens to Body When You Stop Drinking Alcohol?

One might not believe how fast his/ her system improves when he/ she stops drinking. They can actually see and feel the changes in their life pattern.

Quitting alcohol helps in losing weight as the body can now focus on burning other extra calories.

Drinking hinders one s sleeping pattern. Alcohol drops the production of melatonin hormone, responsible for controlling the sleep pattern, which affects the quality of one s sleep and escalates the production of adenosine in the body. This disturbance in the chemical production within the body affects the sleeping pattern. The alcohol consumer may suddenly wake up in the night or feel sleepy at work. Giving up alcohol helps one get better sleep making their days more productive and restful.

The liver is responsible to clean the toxins out of the body, including alcohol. Drinking alcohol affects the liver severely over time. It can cause many liver issues such as fatty liver disease, liver inflammation, cirrhosis, and liver failure. Intake of alcohol can disturb the digestive system as well by overproducing the gastric acid and damaging the gastrointestinal tract. Giving up on alcohol can improve digestion and organ functions.

Alcohol leads to diuresis (increased urine production). Consumption of alcohol drop the level of Antidiuretic Hormone (ADH) that leads to the increased urine production and less water holding capacity in the body. This can eventually lead to kidney ailments, even its failure. This causes dehydration. When a person quits or decreases the amount of alcohol, his/her body restores the level of ADH to its natural level and the kidneys resume to function in its natural state. This helps the body retain hydration that improves the overall health, including the proper pumping of blood and better kidney function.

Drinking alcohol on a regular basis affects the immune system, making the body more prone to diseases. It can also cause inflammation in the body that can lead to many other health problems. Quitting alcohol can decrease and reverse inflammation and thus improves and strengthens the complete immune system. How One Can Quit Drinking Alcohol? It is not easy for an individual to quit drinking alcohol but a sincere effort is highly desirable.

The very first step towards quitting alcohol is to know that it is unhealthy and can lead to various health issues and even death.

One should then know the benefits of quitting alcohol consumption.

Next step requires determination to reduce the alcohol consumption in unusual quantity, reducing the days of drinking, avoiding parties, and gathering that includes alcohol and to follow upon these processes sincerely.

Another important step is to reduce and avoid interaction with friends and people who consume alcohol, at least till one has not taken a commendable control over his/her drinking habit.

One should not feel ashamed of taking the decision of quitting alcohol and should not hide the fact from his/her friends and family so that they could not force him/her for a drink.

One can go to the rehabilitation centers if it is difficult for him/her to control his/her drinking habits.
Takeaway

Alcohol might help people deal with stress but it also makes them feel more fatigued and affects their overall health. Quitting alcohol is not easy for someone who is habitual of consuming it every other day. However, stopping its consumption even for a small time period can have visible health improvements. One can quit alcohol by reducing its intake over a week or month but if he/she finds it difficult to have control over their desire for consuming alcohol. He/She can also take help from doctors and medical experts who work in the areas of helping people trying to quit alcohol. One should not assume that once he/she gets the taste and habit of alcohol, it is impossible to quit. It is nothing but all about their will power and effort in the desired direction.

Giving Up Alcohol For Just A Month Has Amazing benefits!

Don't wait any longer, manage your Alcohol Addiction online with a Lybrate doctor today

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