Drug Addiction Causes

Drug Addiction Causes:

What causes Substance Use Disorder (SUD)?

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) or addiction is a brain disease characterized by the inability of the individual to stop using a substance. When choice is no longer an option we are dealing with a SUD. The best drug rehab program is a custom program developed for specific needs of the patient. But what are drug addiction causes?

Drug Addiction Causes

Addiction a hungry tiger
Imagine a tiger lying in a thick patch of grass waiting for an unsuspecting animal to wander by, the tiger waits for the prey to walk past then quickly and skillfully attacks from the rear. Smaller animals die instantaneously, as the tiger’s jaws latch on the back of their neck, snapping it. Other larger animals put up a fight, but soon succumb to the tiger’s power and dominant clench. SUD or addiction is much like that. Drug addiction causes everyone to loose their identity and become someone no one knows nor likes.

Some people are introduced to a substance and a brain receptor immediately fires. The brain instantaneously welcomes the experience and desires to repeat the pleasure. Others may have a completely different, if not ambivalent experience.

One person becomes addicted, while the other retains the ability to choose not to use that drug. But repeated use can lead to the person’s will breaking down over time, just like the larger animal cannot fight off the tiger forever. Recreational drug users always think they can quit anytime they like, but recreational use can over time turn into obsessive use as the user’s ability to choose is diminished.

All Brains Are Not Created Equal

The receptors in the brain react to the drug. The reaction may be dramatic or nominal. So drug addiction is caused by a pre-existing condition made known only when the drug is introduced to the receptors in the brain.

Long before the drug is ever tried, the person is either going to be an addict or they aren’t. That seems unfair, but statistically you can offer a prediction that one in nine people that drink alcohol will develop an SUD, or that one in four users will become “hooked” on heroin. Drug addiction causes are still not known but the stats of who gets addicted are.

Here are some of the problems that Drug Addiction Causes:

- Unhappiness - Crime - Divorce - Major illness - Even death

What are underlying Drug Addiction Causes?

When we take drugs, either for medical purposes or recreation, there is a benefit or reward that we are trying to achieve. For example pain medication is intended to bring relief to an injured or stressed area of our body. The beginning stages of drug addiction causes us to crave more and to use more.

The unintended consequences of that is our need to take more and more of the drug to get the same result. Drug addiction causes the pathways inside the brain to be altered. Physical changes in the nerve cells are brought on by the drug. These cells (neurons) communicate with each other releasing neurotransmitters into the gaps or synapses between the nerve cells. This makes some drugs more addictive than others.


How Drugs Work

To gain some insight into what causes drug addiction, we turn to two major areas of examination to formulate a working understanding. The main target of the drugs is our central nervous system, so we look there first, followed by the individual actions of the drugs themselves.

The Nervous System

There are two types of cells that comprises the nervous system—glial cells (often called glia) and nerve cells (often called neurons). There are some 10 to 50 times more glia cells than neuron cells in the system. One important distinction between glia and neurons is that glia are not communicators. Neurons are the cells that communicate with other cells.

But the glia are important because they help to provide fitness and structure to the brain, distribute nutrients to the system and they eliminate waste. The glia also make up the blood-brain barrier, which separates the blood from the fluid that surrounds the neurons. This is important because the barrier allows some chemicals to pass through, but not all. This is likely to be drug addiction causes, but we still don't know for sure.

This protects the brain from potentially toxic chemicals carried by the bloodstream. A psychoactive drug is capable of passing through this barrier, while others are blocked. Stated another way, the blood-brain barrier’s job is to separate harmful toxins from beneficial chemicals.

Much of what we experience is about neurons.

Neurons are designed to analyze and transmit information. This is important because everything we experience and understand as behavior is a result of the function of neurons. We have over 100 billion neurons in our nervous system, all communicating and having an effect on other neurons.

Neurons come in many shapes and sizes, but each neuron has four areas. The first area is the cell body that houses the nucleus and substances that sustain it. The second area is the dendrites, which extend from the cell body and kind of look like trees. The within the dendrites’ membranes are receptors, special structures that recognize and respond to chemical signals. Next we have the axon, which is long and thin and its job is to conduct electrical signals. Finally, the pre-synaptic terminals at the end of the axon, look like bulbs, and that’s where chemical messengers are stores.

So what does all this neuron discussion have to do with drug addiction?

Neurotransmitters carry information which allows us to experience pain, pleasure, etc. When a doctor administers an anesthetic, that drug blocks the pain by blocking the perception of pain. In a sense, we are fooled into thinking something doesn’t hurt because the vehicle for delivering that information is blocked.

The communication between neurons is key to understanding how we react to a drug. The effect the drug has on us is what triggers addiction. When we go from enjoying something, to craving it and losing control over our reasoning and our actions, that is drug addiction causes.

Let’s start with any person who is not using any drugs. All of the neuro function of the brain is normal and there is no foreign substance in the bloodstream to interfere or influence this function. Now we introduce cocaine and the drug circulates in the bloodstream.

The user experiences euphoria, a very pleasurable experience. Human nature will cause a person to want more. They like the feeling and want to repeat the experience. Remember that blood-brain barrier? It allows the cocaine to filter through and the neurons gather and transmit the information. Let’s fast forward now as our person repeats this experience over and over. The drug’s unintended consequences now come into play.

Actions of Drugs

The drug is carried to the brain by the bloodstream. It goes everywhere in the brain, but some drugs effect parts of the brain in different ways. Here’s an example: LSD molecules act on the serotonin systems, so anything that depends on serotonin is affected. These are how drug addiction causes are different per drug.

Serotonin plays a role in how much we eat, or the regulation of our weight. Diet drugs block apatite, because they impact serotonin. Low levels of serotonin may explain aggressiveness, or excessive alcohol consumption. People who have committed suicide, as recent studies have indicated, have a serotonin dysfunction role in the taking their own life.

Unintended Consequences

Getting back to the unintended consequences of a drug, as the brain chemistry is altered, the brain is fooled into thinking that “normal” is when the drug is present. Take away the drug and something is wrong.

Highly addictive drugs such as methamphetamine and crack cocaine, have powerful brain altering potential, so much so that the addict actually believes that using the drug is an absolute necessity for life. The neurons and the systems they regulate have been altered.

What Are The Risk Factors?



Drug addiction causes one generation to pass it on to the next.



- People are curious, so that alone can lead a person to try a drug. We experiment and see what happens. - We are looking to relax and have pleasure.

- We all want to feel good, and we’re by nature impatient. Drugs give us an instant gratification that other things do not, so for that moment or hour of for whatever time-frame, we feel good. - We want what we want.




Drug addiction causes negative changes in personality that can lead to an even more destructive behavior.

Peer Pressure/Social


It’s not just teenagers, as peer pressure takes so many different forms. There is social etiquette, for example, to take a drink during a party. “I’m a social drinker.” How many times have you heard that? Some people actually believe that drug addiction causes you to be accepted and part of the 'popular' group.

Easy Access


Race, Ethnicity

We include this heading because we want to stress that there is no data to support ANY claim that one race of people or any particular cultural group is more prone to drug addiction than another. Drug addiction is a human problem and crosses all boundaries. Drug addiction causes do not include race.

Loneliness and Depression




Additional Risk Factors

There are many contributing factors to drug addiction, which may give us some insight into why one person becomes addicted and another person does not. Ask yourself a few questions.

- Are they unhappy or angry, for example, and if they are, is there an external source of irritation or are they just like that naturally?

- Along the same lines, are they “depressed” or to put it another way, do they appear sad?

- Are there factors in their life that may cause them to seek relief, such as financial pressures, problems at work, loss of a loved one or other negative experiences?

- What is their psychological makeup? A person may turn to drugs if they lack self esteem. The drug makes them feel better, because it fills a gap that they are incapable of filling themselves.

Need Drug to feel NORMAL

As the disease progresses, taking the drug to feel better is not enough, they have to take the drug just to feel “normal.” Some people have a personality that is more likely to become drug dependent. For example, they may be curious and want to try new things.

That leads them to try drugs, and might be the beginning of becoming addicted to a certain drug because it meets a desire. People naturally want to relax and have a good time, but people are often impatient and drugs will provide instant gratification. Over time, the drugs become the only way a person can relax, or feel good.

There is a genetic risk factor to drug abuse and drug addiction. Just as you have inherited your parent’s physical characteristics, you have also inherited their chemical characteristics. If mom and dad used drugs, chances are high you will too, and addiction, like any other disease, runs in families.

Most people have an alcohol link in their family tree, so even if the parents did not use, there was an aunt or uncle, etc. The alcohol use is often the first step towards the use of drugs, so one generation might have abused alcohol and their children might abuse illegal drugs.


Teens at HUGE risk because of peer pressure!



Today, drugs are in our schools, in small towns and large urban areas. If you want to get drugs, you won’t have to look far because they are everywhere. High school students can tell you this.


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