Impact of Social Drugs on Your Mental Health

The perspective with which one feels healthy in their mental state of being will vary from one person to another. If for one, it is all about being content, for some it could be about having control on what happens around them. Whatever be your definition of having a good mental health, there are factors that causes the same to alter to the worse like the drugs that you take.

How long will be the impact?

Drugs can have both longer and shorter impacts on your body and your mental state. Short term effects are those that last only till the drug is in your system and will leave you once the same leaves your blood stream. The longer effects continue to affect you even after the drug has been ejected out from the body. It is important that you are aware on the possible impacts a drug can cause to your body before taking them.

Effects of drugs on your body

• Anxiety disorders: This is a very common disorder that one might feel when they continue to take psychoactive drugs like cannabis or heroin. The effect will resemble a panic attack where the person will feel claustrophobic and deeply stressed. The patient will have shortness in breathing, sweating and feel that their environment is surreal. As the drug leaves the system, the disorder will also cease to exist.
• Hallucinations: Another short term impact you will incur when you take psychoactive drugs where you start imagining objects or voices and start being delusional.
• Mood swings: Another short term disorder where the patient feels extremely sad or irritated and experience a level of depression. Persons who take amphetamines, cocaine, etc. will be quite impulsive and are more prone to this impact.
• Depression: This is very common when you take recreational drugs or illegal ones like the Ecstasy. This will initially increase the level of serotonin in your body to give you a contented and joyful feeling. However over a period of time, the serotonin level will slowly drop down and come back to the normal state it was before taking the drug. The sudden drop in the serotonin levels often lead to depression. While this effect could be for a shorter period, continuous usage of these drugs means that you can fall into a pit of depression.
• Schizophrenia: The most common drug that can cause you to become schizophrenic is cannabis. The studies indicate that usage of this drug will lead you to believe that everyone is trying to control you and you will start fearing everyone and everything around you. If your mental state is already affected for various other reasons, consuming drugs like cannabis, which has THC, will lead you to be schizophrenic.

A very common problem that is persistent in the younger generation of today is drug misuse and drug abuse. When coupled with a pre-existing medical condition, these can be quite harmful to your mental state of being. Drugs tend to simulate the bad feelings, exposing your vulnerabilities and hence it is better to stay away from them.