What are the Physical Signs of Drug Abuse

If you’ve ever noticed your loved one’s health changing in ways that leave you feeling concerned, you’re not alone. The impact of drug abuse can be difficult to understand, especially when it affects someone you care about deeply. Any drug has the potential to cause significant physical changes to the body. Furthermore, abusing any substance for prolonged periods of time increases the risk and amplifies the symptoms. As a leading Boynton Beach rehab, Bright Futures Treatment Center believes that the best way to stop addiction is to be informed about the physical signs of drug abuse. That is why this article will provide you with all the information you might need!

Physical Changes Induced By Drug Abuse

Abuse of drugs, especially prescription drugs, for any period of time can result in a variety of health issues. Some of the most debilitating issues include:

• Cancer
• HIV/AIDS
• Disease contraction
• Stroke

Of course, the exact nature of physical changes largely depends on the drug used. However, all drugs have the potential to bring permanent changes to the body after a long period of abuse. The main issue is that many commonly abused drugs can be easily acquired through prescription.

While prescription drugs may not be dangerous if you are following the doctor’s instructions, many people start abusing them after some time and end up in an addiction treatment center in Florida. Another issue is that people develop drug tolerance over time. This makes them take an ever-increasing drug amount that may lead to significant bodily changes and can even be fatal.

Drugs have the potential to interfere with most of the systems in our body, as well as influence certain organs. Here are some of the most important systems and organs that might be changed through drug abuse:

• Respiratory system
• Cardiovascular system
• Liver
• Kidneys
• Gastrointestinal system
• Brain

Do note that your overall health has everything to do with the frequency and intensity of the changes. A healthier person might experience slower and less frequent changes, while someone with a chronic condition will have an entirely different experience. Regardless of your physical health, however, it is never safe to abuse drugs.

How Do Drugs Affect The Respiratory System?

Any drug that requires you to smoke (marijuana, tobacco, opium, meth, crack cocaine, etc.) will inevitably bring negative changes to your respiratory system. Some of the most notable conditions that you may develop through drug abuse include:

• Emphysema
• Lung cancer
• Chronic bronchitis

Furthermore, some drugs will also affect your central nervous system in a way that will cause respiratory depression. This can even be fatal in some cases. The prime example of a drug that does exactly this is methamphetamine, also known as simply “meth”. Meth has the potential to cause pneumonia, constrict your blood vessels, and even cause acute respiratory failure.

This is why it is critical to undergo a meth rehab Florida program as soon as you realize that you are addicted to the substance. Otherwise, the drug can bring about permanent changes that will stay with you for the rest of your life.

The greatest danger, benzo addiction treatment centers warn, comes from combining several drugs that can affect the respiratory system (alcohol, sedatives, benzodiazepines, etc.). Aside from producing the common physical signs of drug abuse, these drugs can cause a number of other issues as well, such as injury to the upper airway and even a collapsed lung.

If you abuse drugs that need to be injected, you will also be in danger of fatal asthma attacks, pulmonary edema, septic embolism, lung inflammation, and interstitial lung disease, to name a few.

Effects of Long-term Drug Use on Your Heart Health

Practically every single drug has an effect on the cardiovascular system. Drug abuse in any shape or form can lead to heart attacks, vascular inflammation, collapsed veins, endocarditis, bacterial infections, myocardial infarction, strokes, etc.

The reason why drugs have such a profound effect on your cardiovascular system is the fact that they “mess” with your blood pressure, alter your heart rate, and create abnormal heart rhythms. That being said, some drugs are far more dangerous than others.

Cocaine and amphetamines, for example, are known to be “the perfect heart attack drugs”. However, alcohol can create pretty much the same effect if abused for a long time. In fact, many people have practically been forced into alcohol rehab due to heart failure of some sort.

The issue with the changes in the cardiovascular system is that you simply cannot realize that they are happening. Once you start feeling the symptoms, the damage has already been done. Furthermore, people who abuse drugs tend to overlook the initial physical symptoms of drug abuse and simply go about their ways without having the proper concern for their overall health. This is what, ultimately, leads to the worst outcomes.

How Drugs Can Permanently Damage Your Liver

As almost every person with an alcohol abuse issue already knows, consuming large quantities of alcohol is very detrimental to your liver. However, due to the fact that most drugs actually pass through the liver during the metabolization process, all of them have the potential to bring negative changes.

While most people understand the danger of alcohol, many are completely unaware of what acetaminophen (found in many opiates) can do to the liver. A certain NIM study showed that abusing drugs that contain acetaminophen is highly likely to cause acute liver failure. Again, the issue with long-term effects of drug addiction to the liver is that they are invisible until serious symptoms start to show.

What Drug Abuse Can Do to Your Kidneys

Every drug will, ultimately, pass through your kidneys at some point. As your kidneys are being tasked with processing the ever-increasing drug amounts, they start to change in a negative way. Furthermore, abusing drugs can also harm kidneys through dehydration, high body temperatures, and through rhabdomyolysis (muscle breakdown). Alcohol has a particular impact on the kidneys, as do cocaine and heroin. These drugs can create a wide array of dangerous conditions such as acute glomerulonephritis, interstitial nephritis, and nephrotic syndrome.

The physical signs of drug abuse usually manifest themselves through fatigue, severe edemas, and elevated urinary proteins. While most people will hurry to ask the question “does insurance cover alcohol rehab” once they experience edemas, many will not consider fatigue to be a cause for concern. This fact makes it extremely difficult to get the treatment you need before you experience kidney failure due to drug abuse.

Do Drugs Damage the Gastrointestinal System?

Many drugs can induce acute and chronic vomiting, diarrhea, nausea, and constipation. In fact, these side effects are very common among people who tend to abuse drugs. Some drugs, such as opioids, can create even more pronounced side effects such as acid reflux, while cocaine has been known to cause abdominal pain, bowel tissue decay, and mesenteric ischemia.

Alcohol abuse, on the other hand, can increase the risk of numerous negative gastrointestinal conditions such as esophagitis, duodenal ulcers, gastrointestinal bleeding, and esophageal varices. Furthermore, people who tend to both smoke and abuse alcohol are at an increased risk of esophageal cancer. Luckily, this risk goes down considerably if you stop smoking, drinking, or preferably both. 

The Effects of Drug Abuse on the Brain

Aside from how drugs affect your body, they have a huge impact on our brains. The most frightening prospect is that drug abuse has the potential to permanently change our brains in a negative way. For example, abusing marijuana in adolescence has a significant potential to cause neurophysiological decline that cannot be reversed later in life.

Furthermore, abusing substances will change the way in which your brain responds to rewards. Over time, the brain will start to think that any other activity other than substance abuse will not feel adequately rewarding. This is extremely dangerous due to the fact that our body builds natural tolerance to drugs over time. To get the same level of “reward”, you will need to take an ever-increasing amount of drugs to feel the same pleasure as before.

At one point, the drug dosage that is required to achieve this pleasure will inevitably be fatal. Some drugs, such as crack cocaine are especially dangerous in this regard. A person who does not seek crack cocaine rehab for their addiction can soon find themselves unable to lead a normal life. The longer the drug abuse continues, the more pronounced the changes get.

Specific Physical Signs of Drug Abuse

First and foremost, a person who develops a substance use disorder will usually start neglecting their hygiene. In addition, you will be able to recognize significant changes in appearance and behavior. Do note, however, that many of the physical signs of drug abuse can occur due to other factors, as well.  With this in mind, here are some of the most common physical signs of drug abuse:

• Persistent itching
• Sudden weight loss/gain
• Slurred speech
• Bloodshot eyes
• Unusual body odor
• Poor physical coordination
• Enlarged pupils

Drug withdrawal symptoms are even more pronounced. They include:

• Seizures
• Loss of appetite
• Fatigue and insomnia
• Shakiness, jumpiness, and trembling
• Nausea and/or vomiting

Aside from the physical changes, a person with a substance use disorder will have their psychological state changed as well. Many people who suffer from addiction have a tendency to develop psychological symptoms as well, like anxiety, a lack of motivation, sudden mood swings, unexplained paranoia, changes in attitude and personality, etc.

If you’re noticing these changes in someone you care about and it resonates with your experience, please know that you don’t have to face this alone. At Bright Futures Boynton Beach, we are here to help. Luckily, it is possible to recover from most physical and mental changes of drug abuse. Our drug rehab Florida programs take all these changes into account and are able to provide dual-diagnosis treatment that can help with substance abuse and mental health issues at the same time.

Why Seeking Help for Drug Abuse is Crucial

As you can clearly see, drug abuse can be extremely dangerous. Therefore, it is also extremely important that you are able to stop abusing drugs as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this can oftentimes be all but impossible on your own. Luckily, there are treatment options readily available. During the course of your treatment, you will have access to numerous therapy options such as counseling, support groups, and medication-assisted treatment. Realizing the physical signs of drug abuse is the first step toward seeking treatment. If you or a loved one notice these signs, the next step is to reach out to a treatment center. Don’t wait – contact us today, and let’s begin this journey together.