How Does Drug Addiction Affect the Brain and Body?

Drug use is never anything to take lightly. Every drug you consume can leave a significant impact on your body for years. By learning about how drugs can affect each part of the body, you will know how important it is to seek help from a center for alcohol and drug treatment.

Your brain is responsible for how you think, breath, speak, move, and feel. Think of the brain as your “mission control,” constantly working, with different jobs given to specific parts of the brain. When drugs enter the body, they affect the communication system and change how nerve cells send, receive, and process information. 

Drugs like marijuana send abnormal messages to the brain. Not only is communication strained between nerve cells, but the reward circuit of the brain becomes overstimulated. Drugs like cocaine can release too much dopamine or prevent the cycling of it. Instead of messages coming to different brain centers in a whisper, they are being shouted. 

Your lungs are the reason oxygen runs through your bloodstream and the brain. It only takes eight seconds for the lungs to absorb whatever enters the body. This means that anything dangerous you put into your system gets easily absorbed as well. 

Marijuana’s effects on the lungs can lead to chronic bronchitis. Crack cocaine can lead to respiratory damage. Opioids can slow down your breathing and block air from entering the lungs. Morphine, heroin, and other depressants can increase lung conditions like pneumonia. Additionally, drugs can stop your lungs from providing you with the air you breathe.

Your heart is responsible for pumping blood throughout your body. However, drugs can cause bacterial infections of blood vessels, heart valves, and collapsed veins. Heroin and opioids can cause circulatory depression, while cocaine use can lead to higher blood pressure, stiff arteries, and thick heart muscle walls that can lead to heart attacks. 

The effects of cocaine on the heart may not be immediately apparent, which can mean you consume too much cocaine before feeling something wrong. Blood could be pumping much faster than normal, leading to chest pain and shortness of breath. Your heart has to work harder than ever before as blood pressure levels rise. 

The liver works to filter out any toxins that enter the body. The liver clears out alcohol, drugs, and chemicals from your blood. The unwanted parts get flushed out through your bile or urine. However, your liver cannot do its job of filtering if there is too much alcohol to filter. 

Too much alcohol can overwhelm the liver and cause several conditions that threaten your entire body, like cirrhosis, fatty liver disease, and hepatitis. Once you get them, these diseases cannot be reversed through abstinence, making liver damage permanent, or you may live with specific symptoms existing for the rest of your life.

The digestive system makes sure that the body has the proper nutrients it needs to be healthy. Nutrients are the energy the body needs to repair and heal itself. Through chewing, mixing, and squeezing, digestive organs break down nutrients into smaller components. Drugs can ruin all of that work by causing nausea or vomiting. Consuming too much alcohol can make it hard to ingest essential nutrients and lead to anemia or colon or rectal cancer. Cocaine can ruin tissue in the bowels, causing abdominal pain. Opioids lead to constipation and acid reflux issues. Luckily, damage to the digestive system can be reversed through periods of abstinence. 

The endocrine system creates 20 hormones and scatters them throughout the body. These components include the pituitary gland, important for puberty, the adrenal glands that regulate stress responses, the pancreas that produces insulin, and more. 

Alcohol can interrupt the workings of the endocrine system. For example, alcohol can lead to a rise in blood sugar, making the pancreas release more of it and cause hyperglycemia. If you have diabetes, it can lead to complications if you try to lower your blood sugar levels. Alcohol can also disrupt how the body absorbs calcium and increases the risk of osteoporosis in some people. Opioids can cause a loss of libido and irregular menstrual cycles. Marijuana can increase adrenaline levels.

Your immune system is constantly fighting your body off from infections. However, there is only so much fighting this system can take on if the pathogens are aggressive or new to the body. A weakened immune system can make it easy for cancers and other diseases to become stronger. 

For example, prolonged alcoholism can cause the body to attack its own tissues. Alcohol can also affect the white blood vessels in the body, which are responsible for getting rid of life-threatening diseases like cancer. Heroin can cause you to neglect sleep and eating, which leads to a weakened immune system. 

An inpatient treatment center like Hawaii Island Recovery can provide you with all the tools you need to prevent your drug use from destroying your body. After all, you only have one body, so only you can be the one to take care of it. Treatment is critical for a healthy body and a healthy you.

Any drug you put into your system can affect any or all parts of the body. Every system in the body that makes sure that your body is in working order can be interrupted by these substances. If you are not aware of the effects drugs have on you or are in denial, this can lead to irreversible consequences. Instead of waiting for the worst to happen to motivate you to seek treatment, seek help now. At Hawaii Island Recovery, one of the leading rehab centers in Hawaii, we understand the dangerous impact drugs can have on a person, and we are here to help you. Located in Kailua, Hawaii, we are confident that we have all the tools you need for a successful recovery. We can provide you with medically supervised detox, individualized treatment, group therapy, holistic therapy, and more. Call Hawaii Island Recovery at (866) 390-5070 to learn more.