Long-term drug or alcohol addiction has a devastating effect on the user’s physical and mental health. The permanent effects of these substances can slowly destroy a healthy person’s vital body functions and systems, resulting in disability or death.
The Brain
Although each type of drug affects the body differently, they all change the brain’s chemistry. The chemicals in the drugs alter the signals your brain sends to your body, interfering with how the neurotransmitters send, receive, and process neurons. The changes can cause you to think, feel, act, and react differently than you would normally.
Long-term substance addiction can cause:
- Changes to the brain’s white matter, which affects the bundles of axons in your brain and spinal cord. White matter conducts, sends, and processes nerve signals up and down the spinal cord. Changes to normal white matter tracts lead to aggression, violence, and antisocial behavior.
- Volume loss in the brain’s amygdala, which results in impaired information processing. The amygdala is the part of the brain that integrates emotions, motivation, and emotional behavior.
- Disruption or changes in the functional interconnectivity between brain areas. When the functional interconnectivity in the brain is disrupted, the individual has difficulty with cognitive processing. Cognitive processing includes all mental functions, such as learning, memory, reasoning, decision-making, problem-solving, and intelligence.
Long-term drug or alcohol addiction can lead to permanent brain damage. The damage can result in neurological disorders such as paranoia, hypochondria, hallucinations, and delusions.
The Cardiovascular System
Addiction creates numerous long-term health issues for the cardiovascular system. Prolonged drug or alcohol use puts the heart under tremendous strain. Using drugs causes an increase in heart rate and blood pressure and is often the cause of dangerously irregular heart rhythms. Injecting drugs may cause veins to collapse and lead to infections in the heart valves and blood vessels. Heart attacks and strokes may occur. Long-term heart failure and heart disease can result from long-term stimulant abuse.
The Respiratory System
Prolonged drug or alcohol use causes long-term damage to the respiratory system. When a drug is smoked, it can cause emphysema, chronic bronchitis, lung cancer, or pneumonia. If a person has asthma, using drugs makes their illness worse as it impairs their breathing. Drugs such as crack cocaine and opioids cause severe respiratory problems and lung damage. These drugs, and some others, cause the user’s breathing to slow and block the air from the lungs, reducing the body’s oxygen supply.
Kidney Damage
Every drug you take passes through your kidneys. Alcohol, heroin, morphine, methamphetamine, and cocaine are the drugs most commonly associated with renal toxicity and renal failure. Kidney failure can lead to serious long-term health complications or death. It occurs when the kidneys cannot effectively process and remove the body’s waste from the bloodstream. Kidney damage occurs from dehydration, increased body temperature, and muscle tissue failure.
Liver Damage
Addiction to drugs or alcohol damages liver function. When the liver is constantly working to metabolize and detoxify substances, it becomes depleted.
Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) includes:
- Toxic hepatitis
- Cirrhosis of the liver
- Liver cancer
- Viral infections: Hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C
- Alcoholic hepatitis
- Alcoholic fatty liver disease
Liver damage caused by drugs can be fatal.
Gastrointestinal Damage
The gastrointestinal system is made up of the mouth, salivary glands, throat, esophagus, gallbladder, stomach, pancreas, small and large intestines, and rectum. Substance addiction can cause damage to many areas of the gastrointestinal system. For example:
- Cocaine impairs and damages bowel tissue and causes abdominal pain.
- Alcohol makes it difficult for the body to absorb necessary nutrients and can result in anemia. Excessive alcohol use may lead to rectal or colon cancer.
- Opioids often cause acid reflux, constipation, and abdominal pain.
Mental Health
Numerous mental health issues are associated with substance use disorders. Many times addiction to drugs or alcohol is a co-occurring disorder with another mental health issue. Several of the most common long-term co-occurring mental health issues are:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Paranoia
- Bipolar disorder
- Personality disorders (antisocial personality disorder and borderline personality disorder)
- Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Do Not Struggle Alone
Drug and alcohol addiction changes how your brain functions. It is a chronic brain disease and can affect anyone. If you or a loved one needs help with a substance use disorder, we are here to help. Call English Mountain Recovery, located in the serene mountains of Eastern Tennessee. Our professionals are ready to help you take back control of your life and overcome your addiction. Call us today.
