The Impact of Drug Addiction on Your Body

Drug addiction not only impacts your day-to-day life, but also your body. Over time, drug addiction damages almost every part of your body, lowering your quality of life and life expectancy. Let’s take a look at exactly what parts of your body are impacted.

Impact on the Brain

The brain is arguably the most important organ in the body. Unfortunately, drug addiction wreaks havoc on it. For one, addiction tends to dysregulate the pleasure sensors in the brain. This is what causes addicted people to want more of the drug, as it is the only thing that brings them pleasure. Addiction also affects the danger-sensing part of the brain, making you feel anxious and stressed when not using. All of these effects make it so that you start using drugs just to feel normal, rather than for any high. 

Cardiovascular System

Almost all illegal drugs will cause damage to the cardiovascular system. This can include abnormal heart rate, collapsed veins, and bacterial infections of the blood vessels and heart valves. Longtime drug use is even known to lead to heart attacks in otherwise healthy individuals, which can be fatal. Fortunately, after participating in a detox program, the increased risk of heart attack should go away.

Respiratory System

The impact of addiction on your respiratory system will depend largely on what you are addicted to, with opioids having the worst effect. Opioid addiction is known to suppress breathing and block air from entering the lungs, which can lead to hypoxia and even suffocation. It is also known to make the symptoms of asthma and other respiratory conditions much worse. 

Immune System

Addiction tends to cause dehydration, decreased eating, lack of sleep, and physical exhaustion. All of these things will lead to the weakening of the immune system. A weak immune system is not capable of functioning properly. This leads to an increased risk of infections, poor organ function, and disease.

Digestive System

Addiction often leads to intense feelings of nausea and stomach pain. Especially when one is not using the drug they are addicted to. This can lead to additional drug use just to ease these symptoms. Additionally, heavy addiction can lead to gastritis. This is the inflammation of the stomach lining, which can cause painful ulcers and bleeding 

Muscle and Bone Health

Addiction tends to impair the bone’s ability to grow, repair, and maintain bone tissue and integrity. This is because heavy drug use disrupts the balance of osteoblasts and osteoclasts. These are the cells responsible for bone formation and resorption. The imbalance of these cells weakens bone structure, heightening the risk of musculoskeletal conditions like osteoporosis. Addiction also lowers bone mineral density (BMD), making bones weaker than they should be. This greatly increases the risk of breaking a bone. 

Skin and Appearance

The largest effect on skin and appearance will occur when addicted to intravenous drug use. Such drug use often leads to infections such as abscesses and cellulitis. Injecting drugs also leads to the appearance of trackmarks, the post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation that can occur from repeated use and can lead to permanent scarring. Additionally, some drugs, such as methamphetamine, can cause a sensation that something is crawling on the body or underneath the skin. This leads to picking and scratching of the skin, which leads to scarring.

Kidneys

The kidneys are responsible for filtering the blood of any waste or other substances, including drugs. This means that addiction causes your kidneys to work overtime to filter the drugs from your blood. Your kidneys are not designed to constantly work this hard, meaning that addiction often leads to numerous kidney diseases, including full renal failure. In most cases, this is fatal.

Reproductive System

Drug addiction can cause a large imbalance in the reproductive system. This is mostly due to the hormonal imbalance caused by addiction, which can even cause you to become infertile. Addiction is also known to cause sexual dysfunction and lower sex drive. 

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