Throughout our lives, we hear that using drugs is harmful and very dangerous. But do we understand why? Why are we strongly advised against ever using drugs? Why do people even take drugs in the first place?

People begin drug use for numerous reasons simply out of rebelliousness, depression, anxiety, curiosity, peer pressure, and many more. In many cases, addiction starts with prescribed drugs from doctors like painkillers which leads to addiction to other kinds of drugs. Whatever the reason may be, thousands of people across the country struggle with drug abuse and their addiction. 

There are many different types of drugs and many different ways that they can affect your body and your mind. Physically the effects are harmful to your organs and systems in your body like your stomach, throat, heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, brain, and nervous system. It can cause cancer, diseases, harm to your baby if you are pregnant, and many other awful dangers.

Now we talk about the physical side a lot but what about the mental. Drugs can hit your mental health hard whether you had a mental illness before or not. “All drugs can affect your mental health. They can change your mood and behavior. For some people, taking drugs can lead to long-term mental health problems.” 

There are four major groups of illicit or illegal drugs: stimulants, depressants, narcotics, and hallucinogens. Stimulants are a type of drug used to improve physical or mental functioning. It makes people have more energy or up their mood. There is a list of short-term and long-term side effects when taking any stimulant drugs. Short-term effects include increased heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature. It also causes nausea, cravings, muscle spasms, weight loss, hyperactivity, heart attacks, or complete heart failure. There are even more long-term side effects which include addiction, dental problems such as teeth loss or gum disease, delusions, visual and auditory hallucinations, anorexia, problems thinking, aggression, paranoia, and psychosis. All of these effects are long term and more than one side effect can happen even all of the side effects can occur to one who takes stimulants.

Depressants or otherwise known as downers can be used to help with mental illness or some are used as sleeping pills. The short-term effects of this drug are very long so some of them include slow brain function, confusion, slurred speech, visual disturbances, addiction, and depression. When using depressants it’s easy to quickly get a tolerance to it which makes people want to up the dosage to feel what it makes them feel which can result in a coma or death from an overdose. Long-term use of depressants can induce depression, chronic fatigue, sleep problems, cravings, anxiety, or panic. 

Narcotics are a type of pain medication and if they are not used correctly have serious side effects. People are often prescribed an opioid or narcotic to help with the pain. Using these drugs and having an addiction to them can cause diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, anxiety, and irritability. 

The last major illicit drug is hallucinogens which are a diverse group of drugs that alter a person’s awareness of their surroundings as well as their thoughts and feelings. These drugs can affect the user’s mental state, and interfere with their pain perception, response to the environment, emotion, learning, and memory. The many short-term side effects include increased blood pressure, breathing rate, or body temperature loss of appetite dry mouth sleep problems spiritual experiences feelings of relaxation uncoordinated movements excessive sweating panic paranoia—extreme and unreasonable distrust of others psychosis—disordered thinking detached from reality bizarre behaviors. The long-term effects cause many psychosis symptoms. Psychosis as described in the Oxford languages “is a severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality”.

These drugs affect people mentally the most and cause the most dangers to mental health. Drug abuse and addiction are very serious and our society should be more aware of the potential harms and travesties they can cause once they are used. Most drugs are highly addictive and once you are addicted it is a very hard uphill climb to be clean and a fast downward slope when you use and become addicted and bound by the uncertainty of your health. Protect yourself and your loved ones by staying away, no illicit drug is with your life, your health, or your mind.

If you or a loved one struggles with substance abuse and mental health call the number below for help.

SAMHSA National Helpline

1-800-662-4357