Introduction
Drugs abuse today is one of the most serious health and social concerns. In fact, drug abuse is spreading quickly, in young and old and needs to be controlled else the day is not too far when the drug will soon enter our life styles, our families and our societies too, leaving us poor, helpless and destitute. We need to know about and understand the disorder and its causes, preventions and methods of rehabilitations very quickly if we don’t want kill our own race by our own actions (McCrady et al, 52)
Effects Of Drugs On Consciousness
Most drugs are used by abusers to relieve anxiety or unpleasant feeling of any kind, to experience and increase pleasant or have high sensations, to sustain a world of daydreams or an existence beyond the bounds of reality, and to express or repress feelings of joy, love, anger, or hate. At this point in life drugs starts to interfere with the psychological and social functioning of an individual. Among the immediate effects of excessive use of drugs is aggression (Califano, 45).
Users of the drugs at beginning end up being quite aggressive by nature. This lands them into serious problems like brushes with the law or injury in fights. Uncontrolled aggression may cause the endangering of the lives of other people. The other upshot of steroid use is extreme paranoia and irritability. Due to their aggressiveness and the fact that they offend other people, the users may have a deep sense of being targeted that may make them react violently and non-proportionately even to mild provocation (Grucza, et al, 925)
Excessive consumption of drugs over a long period may have damaging effects on the brain damage. Abuser may have mental illness involving brain damage characterized by peripheral neuritis, amnesia, disturbance of attention, and compensatory confabulation ( Brook et al, vol. 116 p. 2).
Delirium tremens is caused by the withdrawal from drug abuse and is characterized by tremors, hallucinations, delusions, and occasionally convulsions; brain damage is often present and death may result. Hallucinosis is a condition in which the person hallucinates while in a clearly conscious state. Regular cocaine users are often nervous, excitable and paranoid, and can be confused because of lack of sleep. They may end up in a state of mind similar to paranoid psychosis, believing that others are plotting against them (Johnson, 121-125)
The abusers may view themselves as highly important people in the society when in essence they are not. This may result in a need to dictate terms to others and exercise leadership in situations they know nothing about (John, et al, 78). They grow a general euphoria about life that is not based on any logic. Most users exhibit a gang-ho approach to any given situation without any sense of consequences. They have a heightened feeling self-worth that is totally blown out of proportion. Some users have been known to try out highly illogical things like contesting for election on the basis of the belief that others respect and will therefore vote them in (Stoff et al, 201).
Excessive users of the drugs are also likely to experience impaired judgment. This may make it difficult for them to drive a vehicle or make proper decisions. Such affected judgment would be directly attributed to their feelings of invincibility due to their strong and big bodies. They may carry their feelings of dominance to the road while driving or walking thus completely misjudging potentially dangerous and accident prone situations. Fights with armed policemen or big gangs may also be a direct outcome of such lopsided judgment (Coffey et al, 152 and Epstein et al, 102-105)
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