The Washington DC area is a place where drugs can easily be seen out in the open. Even at Metro stops young teens and older people alike are noticed smoking marajuanna or attempting hide their drug sales in advertising the sales of aromatic oils. Yet when no one is looking a drug deal is going on right behind the back's of the police and nearby their sub stations, which are plentifully equipped throughout the neighborhood. Problems with a community absorbed in drug addiction not addressed is the link of other mental illnesses. Statistically it is known that substance abuse can lead to other mental illnesses.
In the Distict of Columbia in 2007 according to a HHS publication, there were 2,000 persons receiveing community services fro a mental health disorder. While in the United States that year 2,962,000 persons were being treated for a mental illness in a community service provider. The overall number of persons who had mental health diagnosis and received treatment for sunstance abuse at a community clinic in the United States was 13,962,680. In the District of Columbia 79,674 persons were treated for substance abuse who also had a diagnosis in 2007.
Education about addiction related information is the goal of SAMHSA, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Explaining that drug abuse begins with its users seeking a form of pleausurable experiences that has consequencial results and devstating effects on a person's health is helpful. The brain is the center for sending messages and relating our chemical existance. The name " Chemically Dependant" is a term which explains that drug addiction is a physical excertion that its users may not understand as the culture and acceptance of being a user becomes an known lifestyle. Then again no one grew up saying I want to be a drug addict.
Major chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin,myelin conduct the nueron transmitters of the brain. It is this form of chemical in the brain that communicates the stimulation of using an illegal drug. The altered mind forms from what substances it is given. In Heads Up, real News about Drugs and Your Body, it is explained to its readers that "Drug abuse is linked to the top US medical problems including heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and mental illness. What we know from research is that long lasting changes in the brain caused by chronic drug buse may lead to depression, agression, paranoia, and hallucinations."
Some of the most commonly abused drugs are nicotine, alcohal, inhalents, marajuanna, cocaine, methamphedamines, opiods, and haalucinigines. A gateway drug to continue life long drug addiction is as simple as lighting a cigarett. More serious dug use can begin to form after the user feels he has a certain sense of pleasure from smoking. Smoking is the fastest way to absorb a chemical sustance into the blood stream. Syudying the effects of physiological changes occurring in the body has lead to more knowledge about a user's health.
Another source from Heads Up Real News about drugs and your body claims this," the researchers discovered that nicotine;s effects on glutamte and GABA cause the pleasurable effects of nicotine to last longer. Nicotine causes glutamate to speed up dopamine release. Nicotine prevents GABA from slowing down dopomine release. The result is a high level of dopemine that lasts more than an hour." Also," Serotonin travels through the healthy brain by jumping from cell to cell along with the fibers of nuerons ( brain cells). But ectasy use damages the terminals ( ends) of nueron fibers. Chemical messages relating to mood, sleep, memory, and more are disrupted." Each drug has it's own effects onto the brain and as a result users experience various feeling and relate in an altered state of mind.
Making the right decesions to be drug free can be one not easy to make on your own. Around DC are many organizations linking medical research available to the public as well as educational agencies to speak to the public. "Above the Influence", which has a public ad located on a wall of a Ward 8 building is just one gaining attention in a high crime rate area. The NIH,( National Institute of Health) located in Bethesda, MD is one reputated throughout the country. Being able to get informed to quit or to get help for others to never begin any form of drug abuse is he ideal goal of "findtreatment.samsha.gov". Either visit these websites or call: 1-800-662-HELP.
Sources sited for this article are:
" A life in the community for everyone" HHS ( Health and Human Services) Pub No. (SMA) 10-4590. 2010. Print.
"Heads Up Real News about Drugs and Your body 2002- 2003 Student Editions" Scholastic and the Scientists of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, US Department of Health and Human Services. Bailey, Cate " Close-Up: Inhalants" p. 11. and " Close-Up Ecstasy" D'Angelo, Laura P.7
"Mental Health United States". NIH Publication No. HUR No.7-05SC. Aug. 2007. 2008. Print.:
p.180 Table 11.25 Number and Percentage of encounters and Paitents receiving Mental Helath Srvices, Community Health Centers: United States, 2007.
Table 11.4 Number and Percentage of Youth Aged 12-17 Who Receive Mental Health Treatment, by Type of Treatment" United States and each State, Annual Averadge, 2005-2007
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