1. Drug Abuse

2. Hotel California
Many people believe that “Hotel California” by the Eagles is a song about drugs/alcohol addiction.
There are several key phrases in the song which allude to addiction.
Listen to the song, and lets discuss the statements on your handout.

3. Drug Abuse – behaviour or something more?
It is thought that people who abuse drugs lack moral principles or will power.
Thus, if you can change their behaviour they will stop using drugs…. right???
Wrong… problem is this is an oversimplification of those who abuse drugs.
It is now known that drug addiction is a complex problem, one that cannot be oversimplified.

4. The Brain So why is drug abuse such a complicated issue?
We know that drugs affect the brain, the brain is one of the most complicated organs in our body.
Great biologist don’t even know the full potential of the brain, and as such they don’t know how chemicals can affect it.
Not only that, but different people sometimes react differently when chemicals are introduced to the body. (note all the possible side effects when you take medicine, and how some people are affected differently)
Thus, it is almost impossible to predict exactly what will happen when person A or person B uses drugs.

5. Is there hope?
Yes, one of the greatest leaps in science over the past 100 years – some would suggest – is the advancement of understanding the brain.
While there is still a TON to learn about the brain, we have been making significant gains and this has helped us understand what happens when chemicals interact with the brain.
There is hope that we can successfully treat people who are abusing drugs and guide them to have productive lives.

6. Addiction
Drugs contain chemicals that tap into the brain’s communication system and disrupt the way nerve cells normally send, receive, and process information; there are two way that drugs disrupt this process:
1) The drug imitates the brain’s natural chemical messengers and;
2) The drug over stimulates the “reward circuit” of the brain.
As such we get one final result - they become ADDICTED
Once addicted, the brain starts to rely on the drugs as a way to send information through the brain instead of the natural chemicals in our brain.

7. Addiction
Because the body is using less and less of the chemicals in the brain – like dopamine or serotonin – the body starts to produce less and less of it.
Now the brain isn’t working properly, and the neurons are not transmitting information properly, and the body starts to crave the stimulant or the depressant of the drug and the person is now addicted.

8. Addiction
For most people, the initial decision to take drugs is voluntary.
While taking drugs does change the brain over time, everyone who abuses drugs has two common characteristics:
A loss of self control
An inability to resist the intense impulse to take drugs

9. Treatment
Treatment is usually specially designed for each patient – i.e. not one treatment pattern is universal for everyone.
Specialists observe a patient’s drug abuse patterns co-occurring medical, psychiatric, and social problems and prescribe a course of action for the patient.
The prescription is a combination of medicine and behavioral therapy.
If one is committed to the plan of action that is prescribed to them it can lead to a sustained recovery and a life without drug abuse.

10. Relapse
Similar to other chronic, relapsing diseases, such as diabetes, asthma, or heart disease, drug addiction can relapse as well.
Relapse, however, does not signal treatment failure.
Rather, it indicates
That treatment should be reinstated
Adjusted or
An alternative treatment is needed to help the individual regain control and recover.

11. Why do people become addicted
Risk for addiction is influenced by a combination of factors:
Individual biology,
Social environment, and;
Age or stage of development

12. Biology
Biology. The genes that people are born with—in combination with environmental influences—account for about half of their addiction vulnerability.
Other factors that are biological that may influence the risk for drug abuse and addiction are:
gender,
ethnicity, and
the presence of other mental disorders

13. Environment
Environment. A person’s environment includes many different influences, from:
family and friends
socioeconomic status and
quality of life in general.
Factors that greatly influence the occurrence of drug abuse and the escalation to addiction in a person’s life are:
peer pressure,
physical and sexual abuse,
stress, and
quality of parenting

14. Development
Development. Genetic and environmental factors interact with critical developmental stages in a person’s life to affect addiction vulnerability.
Although taking drugs at any age can lead to addiction, the earlier that drug use begins, the more likely it will progress to more serious abuse (i.e. teens and adolescents)
This is because areas in their brains that govern decision making, judgment, and self-control are still developing.

15. Through a Blue Lens
youtube video for “Through a blue lens” -
Youtube video for “Operation X”