7 Severe Health Consequences Of Addiction

Written By Lizzie Howard / Reviewed By Ray Spotts

If you or a loved one is suffering from drug or alcohol addiction, it's important to realize just how bad it can affect your health. Not only can addiction damage your physical health, but it can cause serious harm to your mental and emotional health as well.

Here are seven ways that addiction to drugs and/or alcohol can cause severe harm to your physical and mental wellbeing:

1. Mental Health Issues

If you abuse drugs and/or alcohol, you're setting yourself up for potential mental health problems in the future, and there are several reasons for this. One is the fact that drugs and alcohol are often used by individuals suffering from mental health issues as a maladaptive coping mechanism.

Not only can drug abuse contribute to depression and anxiety, but it can also lead to the development of more serious mental health problems for some users. For instance, the abuse of stimulants and hallucinogens can lead to drug-induced psychosis.

Here are a few signs and symptoms that may occur if an individual is having a drug-induced psychotic episode:

• Extreme depression
• Insomnia and manic symptoms
• Racing thoughts
• Auditory and/or visual hallucinations
• Paranoid delusions and/or delusions of grandeur
• Continuing drug use

2. Damage to Vital Organs

If you abuse drugs and/or alcohol, you could suffer serious damage to your heart, liver, kidneys, and other vital organs. Not only could this lead to serious health problems, but it could even shorten your life expectancy considerably in some cases.

While some drugs are much more physically toxic than others, it's important to realize that almost any substance can cause serious physical harm if misused.

3. Damage to Teeth

If you abuse certain drugs, you may suffer severe damage to your teeth, which can permanently impact your appearance. Luckily, there are ways that you can recover from some forms of this damage caused by drugs. However, this is not always the case in its entirety, and the abuse of certain substances can indirectly lead to the loss of teeth.

These are a few examples of substances that are known to lead to damage to your mouth and teeth:

• Methamphetamine
• Amphetamines
• Severe alcohol abuse

4. Damage to the Skin

The damage to your physical health that drugs can cause may impact the appearance of your skin and hair. Not only can drug abuse damage your teeth, but it can also be harmful to your skin.

5. Damage to the Eyes

If you abuse certain substances, you could cause serious damage to your eyes. While it's rare, substances that cause pupil dilation can cause severe eye damage and blindness due to acute angle closure. An example of such a drug is cocaine. Here's what you need to know about how drug abuse can affect your eyes:

• Acute angle closures are rare, but milder forms of eye damage are more common among individuals who abuse certain pupil-dilating drugs.
• Heavy abuse of psychedelics can cause lingering pseudo-hallucinations, which can impair an individual's ability to drive at night and perform other ordinary tasks.
• Some drugs can cause blurred vision, dizziness, and other symptoms similar to extreme drunkenness.

6. Hearing Damage

If you abuse certain types of opiates, you could potentially suffer damage to your hearing. That's because these drugs are known to be ototoxic, which means that they're harmful to the ears. As a result, you could find that you're unable to hear sounds that you used to be able to hear very easily.

Here's how hearing damage caused by opiates can impact your life:

• Hearing damage caused by opiate abuse can impact your career
• The damage can result in harm to your interpersonal relationships
• Opiate-induced hearing damage can cause a great deal of stress

7. Reduced Life Expectancy

In many cases, the abuse of drugs and alcohol can lead to a reduced life expectancy, and there are several reasons why this is the case. First, the abuse of substances can cause physiological damage to the body's vital organs.

Furthermore, alcohol and drug abuse can have a ripple effect on other areas of an individual's life, which often can lead to problems with nutrition, lack of exercise, and other behaviors that are associated with chronic health problems. Luckily, visiting California addiction treatment centers can help you to avoid these complications in most cases.

If You're Struggling, Get Help Today!

If you are struggling with an addiction to alcohol and/or drugs, your life depends on getting help as soon as possible. Luckily, the right treatment from a rehab facility can make it possible to avoid the ravages of addiction. So, time is of the essence.

Subscribe to our Trusted Health Club newsletter for more information about natural living tips, natural health, oral health and skincare. If you are looking for more health resources check out the Trusted Health Resources list.  

Written By:
Lizzie Howard is a Colorado native who after graduating from the University of Colorado spends her time as a freelance writer. When Lizzie isn’t writing, she enjoys going on hikes, baking for her friends and family, and spending time with her beloved yellow lab, Sparky.

Reviewed By:    

Founder Ray Spotts has a passion for all things natural and has made a life study of nature as it relates to health and well-being. Ray became a forerunner bringing products to market that are extraordinarily effective and free from potentially harmful chemicals and additives. For this reason Ray formed Trusted Health Products, a company you can trust for clean, effective, and healthy products. Ray is an organic gardener, likes fishing, hiking, and teaching and mentoring people to start new businesses. You can get his book for free, “How To Succeed In Business Based On God’s Word,” at www.rayspotts.com.

Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels