Medicine Abuse

Medicine Abuse

Although drug abuse begins with a conscious decision to experiment with a substance, research has found that drugs interfere with normal brain functioning and can cause long term effects on brain metabolism and activity.

Drug addiction is an uncontrollable craving that needs treatment to overcome. Drug addiction usually consists of physical dependency and psychological dependency. Physical dependency means the body has become accustomed to the drug and withdrawal symptoms will be felt without it. Common withdrawal symptoms include sweating, tremors, insomnia, vomiting and headaches. Psychological dependency means the mind relies on the effects of the drug and its absence will initiate cravings.

Addiction can affect anyone and both legal and illegal drugs can be addictive. Quite often individuals experimenting with drugs are unaware of the full effects of that particular drug and the problems it can cause. How addictive various drugs are differs between substances and also between individuals. Drugs are often categorized by the effect they produce as stimulants, depressants and hallucinogens.

The type of treatment depends on the individual and the drugs involved and no single treatment is appropriate for all individuals – as in ‘one size fits all’. Counseling and psychological support, medication and substance-abuse rehabilitation centers are common pre-treatment methods.

Hypnotherapy can be extremely useful during the post withdrawal phase of treatment. The hardest part of recovery is often staying off of the drugs after the initial treatment period and hypnotherapy can be used to reinforce positive changes to break the addiction. Hypnotherapy can also help an individual to learn new behavioral responses to live without the addiction.