Substance abuse is the medical term that signifies a pattern or practice of using various harmful substances like drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes that leads to cause distress, disorders, and devastation. It is the form of drug abuse and substance misuse disorders, that primarily refers to the use of illegal drugs that are detrimental, possess dangerous side effects, and high risk of abuse. Multiple definitions of drug abuse are used in public health, criminal justice, and medical context. It is recognized as a medical brain disorder that refers to the abuse of illegal substances such as marijuana, heroin, cocaine, hallucinogens, opiates, and methamphetamine, wherein alcohol is the most common legal drug of abuse. It is a complex problem that is influenced by several factors wherein genes, the presence of other mental health conditions, developmental factors, and environmental influences play a significant role.
Substance abuse poses both individual and societal risks. For individuals, it can lead to health problems, mental health issues, risky behaviors, and social ordeals. For societies, substance abuse can increase the cost associated with health problems and lost sense of productivity, unconsciousness, ineffective communication, and physiological imbalance, also contributing to social crimes like criminality and criticality. Cultural and societal factors are the determinants for acceptable forms of drugs abuse or alcohol use. Substance Abuse and dependence are caused by multiple factors including environmental stressors, social pressures, individual personality characteristics, psychiatric problems, emotional distress, individual gene, and social anxiety. A multitude of people who develop substance use has post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder, anxiety, depression, or other medical problem or mental illness.
The disorders of substance abuse occur when a person's use of alcohol or another drug substance leads to health issues or problems at the workplace or at home. Symptoms and Behaviours of drug use may include worry, tension, confusion, irritability, negligence, hostility, opposition, forgetfulness, and apprehension. Public health practitioners and mental health consultants have attempted to analyze substance abuse from bigger pictures and broader perspectives than the individual or community, emphasizing the role of society, culture, and existence. The health professionals adopted a public health model of psychoactive substances that, uses the challenges that are simplistic black and white construction of the binary use or abuse.
This research model explicitly recognizes a spectrum of drug use, ranging from beneficial use to chronic dependence. Social attitude, political interpretation, and legal responses to the consumption of alcohol and illicit drugs make substance abuse one of the most complex public health issues. If you or any one of your loved ones are suffering from substance abuse, then it is crucial to not treat them as a criminal, rather opt for a patient persona for the person. In many countries where drugs are legalized for medicinal reasons, a person suffering from addiction should be taken to rehab and helped.
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