Drugs and Addiction Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist once said: “Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism. ” I agree with what he said. It’s true; addiction is not only bad, it can be dangerous! Do you know how many people who take drugs die each year? According to WHO (World Health Organization), 2,000 Americans die each year from using heroin, in England, 5,000. 2,500 Americans die each year from using cocaine.
Alcohol kills 80,000 Americans every year. And tobacco? Every year, tobacco kills 440,000 Americans, 1. 2 million Chinese, 900,000 Indians, 450,000 Germans, and 90,000 Britons! An addiction means being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something. Some common addictions may be: coffee, drugs, gambling, stealing, food/eating, shopping, working, social media, video games, internet, etc. And how do drugs work? Drugs are chemicals or substances that change the way our bodies work.
When you take drugs, they find their way into your bloodstream and are eventually sent to parts of your body, your brain for example. The effects of drugs can change depending on the kind of drug you take, how much is taken, how often you use it, how quickly it gets to your brain, and what other drugs, or food, are taken at the same time. Effects can also change based on the differences in body size, and weight. They can do a lot of harm to your body and brain.
Drinking alcohol, smoking tobacco, and taking illegal drugs, can all cause serious damage to the human body. Drugs may numb your senses, or severely hurt your ability to make healthy choices and decisions. Perhaps you have heard of Judy Garland. At the age of 17, a year after she played Dorothy in the “Wizard of Oz”, Judy Garland was prescribed drugs to control her appetite. Soon she was under the "care" of psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Hacker, and her prescribed drugs that produced even more anxiety for the troubled actress.
In 1949 she was given electroshock and after that, hypnosis. In the fifties she suffered a dangerously swollen liver and spleen due to her drug intake, but in the sixties she was put on even more drugs. She ended up taking 40 Ritalin a day before she died of a drug overdose in 1969; she was only 47 years old. None of the dozen psychiatrists she'd seen had ever really helped her. So be aware! Say no to drugs! It all starts with just one!
