Drug Abuse: Insight to Change

Drug abuse has been a problem in our country for many, many years.  It became a problem in the U.S during the 19^th century, with the importation of drugs such as opium and cocaine.  Artist and notables of the period were recreational users to begin with and so also were educators, and with the onset of pharmaceuticals conceived from such products such as cocaine, opium, marijuana and mescaline so blossomed the use of these and other drugs by the populace.  Having been a drug abuser in my lifetime I grew to understand that I was never regaled as a human being, only more or less a foolish man without any real education or growth of mind, I lived to get “high”.  With the new laws passing for the legalization of marijuana I can only sit in my space after 10 plus years of sobriety and being free from street drugs, and wonder what to feel about missing out on being free to use without constraint.  I wrote some time ago about my diagnoses, and how I deeply felt that drugs led me into a corner with schizophrenia and bi-polar illness, I had not realized I had lost my freedom nor did I not explore the avenues of which drug abuse takes you, the anxiety, stress, and depression occurring as you are withdrawing; nor did I think of the physical symptoms of health such as shaking, headaches, diarrhea and poor vision not to mention tooth decay.  There are a few other psychological problems which can exist during withdrawal, yet with psychological dependence, people who often crave a drug will go to any extreme to acquire it, to fulfill their need.  The avenues of criminality create stress and stress creates anxiety, and then trauma may result; the circle of psychological problems begin to revolve when you begin to believe you have a right to use a substance you feel will “do you justice.”  Some substances which cause dependence usually enact on the brain and leave effects such as changes in the mood, reduced anxiety (resulting in self medication), feelings of superiority and corruption to the senses, sight, taste and hearing of the human body. 

There are different treatments for drug abuse involving counseling which may help those who are addicted to drugs understand their problem(s) and help them conceive coping skills.  I know after having made my first three attempts of participating in certain recovery programs and relapsing each time that these relapses were my trial and errors in recovery, temporary setbacks which were actually stages of growing and overcoming the triggers which kept me using drugs and drinking.  Recovery can be a long process of overcoming an addiction; but the knowledge is there to become a new person. 

Written by Donald S.