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Your Brain on Drugs

Your Brain on Drugs

You’ve seen the old commercials, and you’ve heard the saying that never really gets old… “This is your brain on drugs.” While the line is clever and even a tad funny, the message is extremely serious. What happens to your brain while you are taking certain drugs is something that should make you want to quit doing drugs or drinking alcohol for good.

People have stated before that drugs turn your brain to mush — that is not too much of an exaggeration. The Pennsylvania addiction treatment center at Silver Pines Treatment center is here to help you with your addiction. So if you are suffering from drug or alcohol dependency, call us today. Below, we discuss how your brain reacts to certain drugs. If you have any further questions, we are here to help.

woman ponders information from a your brain on drugs course

How Drugs Really Do Affect Your Brain

While each drug is different, they all have a negative impact on your brain in one way or the other. Even the least harmful drugs can impact your brain in ways you never thought of. This is especially true if you go from being a casual user to forming a dependency on the drug.

Drugs: The Brain’s Ultimate Reward

It’s mind-blowing what our brains get attached to. We can fixate on clothes, money, TV shows, relationships, our jobs, even phobias. But why do we fixate on these things? Because once we have developed a pattern, then our brain is conditioning to not just attaching to something, but also getting it.

In the case of drugs, the brain gets attached to dopamine, a neurotransmitter that stimulates feelings of excitement, pleasure, happiness, or even the feeling of having a good time. When a drug triggers that feeling over and again, the brain becomes accustomed to the feeling. Pretty soon, the brain wants to feel that stimulation weekly, then daily, then hourly, and so on. Eventually, the brain starts to depend on that feeling to function. That is how we got the term dependency.

Different drugs affect the brain in different ways. Marijuana, nicotine, opioids, cocaine, mushrooms, and heroin have a wide range of effects on the brain, including:

  • Impaired thinking
  • Memory loss
  • Impaired dopamine release
  • Mood alteration
  • Loss of motor skills or auto functions
  • Reduced gray matter and personality alteration

Treatment for Drug Addiction

Once you seek treatment for your dependency, you start to notice how your brain starts returning to normal. At first, this return to normalcy can be quite intense and even medically severe. It is known as withdrawal. As your brain starts to pull away from the addiction, the dependency grows less, and the brain function begins to improve partially or all the way.

Silver Pines provides a wide range of treatments that help you to graduate away from drug addiction and return to sobriety slowly. Some of these services include:

You Don’t Have to Live with Your Brain on Drugs

Is your brain on drugs? Are you ready to get off drugs for good? Silver Pines Treatment Center can help. Our Pennsylvania rehab facility offers comprehensive treatment and therapy for drug and alcohol addiction. We can empower you to get back on your feet and live a life free of addiction. To find out more, call us at 267.719.8689.

Related Resources

Overcome your addiction today with the help of one of the best addiction rehab centers in the U.S. We are in-network with most major insurance companies.

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