Drug Abuse Addiction: A Misunderstood Problem

Too often people don’t truly comprehend the real reason why a person develops a drug abuse addiction or how drugs can alter their brain to stimulate compulsive drug abuse and addiction. They wrongly perceive this problem as something that is surely a social problem only and may discriminate those who abuse drugs as morally powerless. A persistent and general belief is that addicted individuals should be fully capable of just quitting drugs as long as they are willing to alter their attitude and behaviour. Again and again, what people often simply and underestimate is the complication of drug addiction. It is a serious disease that impacts the very brain itself and as a result, ceasing drug abuse and drug addiction is not plainly a matter of an individuals’ willpower. Through current scientific advances we are now able to understand much more in regards to how precisely drugs affect the brain. Furthermore, we now know that drug abuse addiction can be successfully treated to assist individuals’ in stopping the abuse of drugs and carry on their normal lives.

Drug abuse and addiction can be a huge burden on society. There have been approximate estimates of the overall costs of this issue in the USA alone, which includes health costs as well as losses in productivity, to surpass 500 billion dollars annually. As distressing as these figures are, they don’t adequately and fully convey the breadth of detrimental public health and safety implications, which involve domestic violence, school failure, family disruption, loss of employment, child abuse, and many other types of deviant crimes.

To truly understand what drug abuse and drug addiction is, we need to know that it is a continuous, relapsing brain disease that induces uncontrollable drug seeking and use and abuse in spite of harmful and damaging consequences to the abuser who is addicted and to all those who are close to them. Drug abuse and addiction is defined as a brain disease for the reason that this problem advances changes in the function and also the structure of the brain. Even though it is undeniable that for most addicts the initial decision to take drugs is purely voluntary, over the course of time the alterations in the brain, as a result of abusing drugs over and over again, can greatly affect an individual’s self control and capability to make logical decisions, while at the exact same moment send extreme impulses to take more the addictive substance.

It is these very extreme changes in the brain that makes it so difficult for an individual who is addicted to absolutely cease from abusing drugs. Fortunately, there are existing treatments that assist people to neutralize drug addiction’s strong damaging effects so that the individual can recapture some semblance of self control. Studies have shown that incorporating drug abuse addiction treatment medications along with behavioural therapy is one of the most successful ways for majority of patients. When a treatment method is customized to each patient’s patterns along with psychiatric aid can lead to long term continuous recovery and a life without the need for further intervention.

Very much like other chronic or relapsing diseases such as heart disease or diabetes, drug abuse addiction can be managed quite successfully. Additional, it’s not unusual for a drug abuse and addiction person to backslide and start abusing drugs again. We must be clear that relapse does not indicate failure, rather, it demonstrates that proper drug abuse and drug addiction treatment should be reintroduced, modified, or that other forms of drug abuse addiction treatment is required to help the individual retake self control and recover.

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Prevent Teen Drug Abuse Using Drug Testing Kits at Home

Teen drug abuse became a serious health problem in United States. It is hurting the healthcare system, burdening the economy, and causing millions of deaths every year. Of the many causes that promote drug abuse among teens, lack of parental supervision is a major one. Teens should be guarded properly by their parents as they are still immature.

Since, early intervention leads to effective prevention of this unhealthy habit, parents should identify drug abusing habits in teens and take preventive measures. Parents can take help of home drug testing kits which are effective and easy to use.

In this article, we will discuss about teens and their vulnerability to drug abuse; how to identify teen drug abuse and how important are drug testing programs at home to prevent teen drug abuse.

Teens – vulnerable to drugs abuse: Many scientific studies have already proved that teenagers are more prone to risk taking and are vulnerable to drug abuse when compared to adults. This typical behavior of teens during adolescence is because of the major changes in parts of the brain that are responsible for functions such as self-control, judgment, planning, organization, and emotions. Since teen brains are not yet fully developed, they cannot take proper decisions and fall victims to unhealthy habits like drug and alcohol abuse.

Signs and symptoms of drug abuse: The primary step towards prevention of drug abuse in teens is to identify their unhealthy habits. Prominent changes, both in their behavior and in physical appearance can be noticed even at the early stages of abuse. Following are the warning signs:

Physical and emotional changes:
• Red eyes
• Finding difficulty to speak
• Sudden fall or rise in weight
• Lack of hygiene and showing less interest in personal grooming
• Aggression and arrogance
• Depression and irritation

Social and behavioral changes:
• Dissociation from old friends and acquiring new social group
• Sudden anger or depression
• Poor attendance and academics at school
• Spending time lonely
• Abnormal odor in breath or clothing
• Pipes, needles and other suspicious substances in their room

Importance of home drug test kits: The moment you see the signs that indicate drug abuse in your teen, it is the time to confirm drug abusing habits using reliable methods. They are useful devices for the parents to confirm these unhealthy habits in teens. They are simple, easy to use, provide instant and accurate results, cost-effective and above all ensure privacy. Some multi-panel drug testing kits can detect multiple drugs of abuse at a shot.

Best drug test methods to implement: When it comes to home drug testing, urine and saliva tests are considered to be the best methods. There are two other methods – blood and hair tests also, but they need special devices and expert supervision, hence are not recommended for home testing.

Urine test can detect the drugs in your teen’s system up to three days after use. If you believe that your teen has taken drugs during the last few days, then this method is effective in offering accurate results. However, it is necessary to check that your teen is not providing fake urine sample which can lead to false results.

Saliva drug testing is an ideal drug test if you suspect that your teen abused drugs on that particular day. These kits can detect drug use up to 48 hours.

Need for random drug testing: If you are conducting drug tests on your teens at regular intervals, following a regular pattern, your teen may notice the pattern and either try to manipulate the sample before the test or stop abusing drugs few days before the test. Hence, practicing random drug tests is always an ideal way to identify the drug use which effectively helps in detecting the drug abuse among your teens. Random testing makes teens say ‘NO’ to drugs as they know that you can conduct drug testing any time at home.

Home drug testing kits can be considered as effective solutions in controlling and preventing drug abuse in your teens. So, make sure that you have some of them at home to test your teen to help him stay away from drugs.

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