addictions and change in brain chemistry?

theodoric · Newbie Joined: 04 Oct 2003 Posts: 7

Hi, I have been using drugs since I was eighteen. I have been trying to get off the drugs for a long time and now I have finally succeeded. I am not an addict for three months. The thing that I have never thought about before and that bothers me now is the damage I have done to my health. I am mostly interested in the change in the brain chemistry that the drugs have caused. Are these changes permanent or they can be corrected? I am now twenty eight years old.

blisse · Newbie Joined: 25 Sep 2006 Posts: 7

Hi, all types of addiction endanger your health. Because drugs mostly interact with brain structures this organ is very much affected with the drug abuse. The drugs usually imitate the activity of neurotransmitters. When you use drugs regularly the brain gets signals that there is enough of the imitated transmitter and that it should stop producing it. In time the brain adopts that it should create smaller quantities of neurotransmitter. When you stop using the drug the brain doesn't increase production of the neurotransmitter and this causes anxiety, mood swings and depression. These changes in brain chemistry are difficult to repair, but it is much better for a person to stop using drugs because than the brain has greater chance for recovery.

addictions and change in brain chemistry?

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