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I treat drug addicts in a residential setting in Batangas and have
been into the drug scene since the early nineteen-seventies. Times
have changed since then. Today we know more about the damage drug
abuse does to the brain. We have new imaging techniques that can
“look” into the brain and tell us what is happening when addicts
flood the mind with drugs. And what scientists have discovered is
truly disturbing.
Studies have found that drug addiction can do
severe damage that possibly might be irrepable. “Through all the
research done about drug addiction and its effects on the brain,”
says one expert, “one can see how drug addiction is considered a
brain disease. Drug addiction is a disabling disease and can ruin a
person’s life. By taking drugs, a person’s brain becomes
‘rewired’ to tolerate high amounts of dopamine
neurotransmitters, but once those high amounts of dopamine cease to
exist the person experiences withdrawal symptoms:
The brain needs to protect itself and proceeds
to shut down some of those neurotransmitters that give off dopamine.
Dopamine is the natural “feel good” chemical that is release by
the brain.
There are drugs, like shabu, that mimic dopamine
and flood the brain with synthetic chemicals causing havoc with the
natural responses. The result is damage to the brain and its
functions.
We know for example that heavy use of ecstasy
causes memory loss. I know a young man who used an excessive amount
of ecstasy and was told by a specialist that his brain suffered
irrepable damage. He has a terrible time remembering things.
In a recent report, the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, a US government research center, says that “compared
to nonusers, heavy ecstasy users had significant impairments in
visual and verbal memory. As had been found in the brain imaging
study, ecstasy’s harmful effects were dose-related and the more
ecstasy people used the greater difficulty they had in recalling
what they had seen and heard during testing.”
Though this research is still in its emerging
stage, it makes one wonder what other damaging effects will
eventually be discovered.
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If you have problems about drugs, alcohol and
behavior/attitude call my office at 8206107 or 8251771 or e-mail me
at gvcbuenca@vasia.com or write me at P.O. Box 2099 MCPO, Makati
City.
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