Drug Use and Addiction - Curafile

Also called: Drug abuse, Substance Use

Drugs are chemical substances that can change how your body and mind work. They include prescription medicines, over-the-counter medicines, alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs.

Drug use, or misuse, includes:

Using illegal substances, such as:
- Anabolic steroids
- Club drugs
- Cocaine
- Heroin
- Inhalants
- Marijuana
- Methamphetamines
Misusing prescription medicines, including opioids. This means taking the medicines in a different way than your health care provider prescribed. This includes
- Taking a medicine that was prescribed for someone else.
- Taking a larger dose than you are supposed to.
- Using the medicine in a different way than you are supposed to. For example, instead of swallowing your tablets, you might crush and then snort or inject them.
- Using the medicine for another purpose, such as getting high.
Misusing over-the-counter medicines, including using them for another purpose or in a different way than you are supposed to.

Drug use is dangerous. It can harm your brain and body, sometimes permanently. It can hurt the people around you, including friends, families, and kids. If you are pregnant, it can harm your fetus. Drug use can also lead to mild, moderate, or severe substance use disorders. Substance use disorders are sometimes called addiction.

What is drug addiction?
Does everyone who takes

drugs become addicted?
Who is at risk for drug addiction?
What are the signs that

someone has a drug problem?
What are the treatments

for drug addiction?
Prevention

Drug addiction is a chronic brain disease. It causes a person to take drugs repeatedly, despite the harm they cause. Repeated drug use can change the brain and lead to addiction.

The brain changes from addiction can be lasting, so drug addiction is considered a “relapsing” disease. This means that people in recovery are at risk for taking drugs again, even after years of not taking them.

Not everyone who uses drugs becomes addicted. Everyone’s bodies and brains are different, so their reactions to drugs can also be different. Some people may become addicted quickly, or it may happen over time. Other people never become addicted. Whether or not someone becomes addicted depends on many factors. They include genetic, environmental, and developmental factors.

Various risk factors can make you more likely to become addicted to drugs, including:

Your biology. People can react to drugs differently. Some people like the feeling the first time they try a drug and want more. Others hate how it feels and never try it again.
Mental health problems. People who have untreated mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to become addicted. This can happen because drug use and mental health problems affect the same parts of the brain. Also, people with these problems may use drugs to try to feel better.
Trouble at home. If your home is an unhappy place or was when you were growing up, you might be more likely to have a drug problem.
Trouble in school, at work, or with making friends. You might use drugs to get your mind off these problems.
Hanging around other people who use drugs. They might encourage you to try drugs.
Starting drug use when you’re young. When kids use drugs, it affects how their bodies and brains finish growing. This increases your chances of becoming addicted when you’re an adult.

Signs that someone has a drug problem include:

Changing friends a lot
Spending a lot of time alone
Losing interest in favorite things
Not taking care of themselves – for example, not taking showers, changing clothes, or brushing their teeth
Being very energetic, talking fast, or saying things that don’t make sense
Quickly changing between feeling bad and feeling good
Having different eating or sleeping habits
Missing important appointments
Having problems at work or at school
Having problems in personal or family relationships

Treatments for drug addiction include counseling, medicines, or both. Research shows that combining medicines with counseling gives most people the best chance of success.

The counseling may be individual, family, and/or group therapy. It can help you:

Understand why the drug addiction began
See how drugs changed your behavior
Learn how to manage personal problems
Learn to avoid places, people, and situations where drugs are accessible

If you stop or cut back on drugs you’ve used for a while, you may display different symptoms for different drugs. This is called withdrawal. Medicines can help with the symptoms of withdrawal. For addiction to certain drugs, there are also medicines that can help you re-establish normal brain function and decrease your cravings.

If you have a mental disorder along with an addiction, it is known as a dual diagnosis. It is important to treat both problems. This will increase your chance of success.

If you have a severe addiction, you may need hospital-based or residential treatment. Residential treatment programs combine housing and treatment services.

Drug use and addiction are preventable. Prevention programs involving families, schools, communities, and the media may prevent or reduce drug use and addiction. These programs include education and outreach to help people understand the risks of drug use.

References

Drug Use and Addiction, MedlinePlus, Available at: https://medlineplus.gov/druguseandaddiction.html

Related Topics

Excessive Alcohol Consumption

Overuse Of Painkillers

Ignoring Health Symptoms

Book your appointment TODAY!

Search on the closest Doctor to your location and book based on specialty. EARN 10 POINTS more with CuraPOINT.

Edit Template

© 2026 Part of DENAMICA. All rights reserved.

► Necessary Cookies Standard

Necessary cookies enable essential site features like secure log-ins and consent preference adjustments. They do not store personal data.

None

► Functional Cookies Remark

Functional cookies support features like content sharing on social media, collecting feedback, and enabling third-party tools.

None

► Analytical Cookies Remark

Analytical cookies track visitor interactions, providing insights on metrics like visitor count, bounce rate, and traffic sources.

None

► Advertisement Cookies Remark

Advertisement cookies deliver personalized ads based on your previous visits and analyze the effectiveness of ad campaigns.

None