1. Substance Abuse Wrecks Your Physical and Mental Health
Regardless of what type of drugs you may be using, they’re taking a physical and emotional toll. You may not realize this because taking them generally feels good, but over the long term, substance use disorder is very damaging to both your mind and body. It can cause many medical problems, including:- Memory loss and cognitive decline
- Heart, liver, lung, and kidney damage or failure
- High blood pressure, erratic heartbeat, heart disease
- Hallucinations, anxiety, paranoia, aggression
- Depression, suicidal thoughts
- Seizure, coma, death
2. Substance Abuse Destroys Your Relationships
Other dangers of substance abuse include how it affects the people around you. When you’re focused on the drug, you neglect or alienate the people who love you. Substance use disorder breeds anger — your spouse becomes angry because you’re unavailable to them emotionally. This, in turn, makes you angry because you feel they’re unreasonable. Your friends may become angry because you keep canceling dates with them or because you’re never available when they need you. Your children become angry because their home is always in a state of chaos, and they can’t have friends over. Addiction may also encourage you to make bad decisions, such as engaging in unprotected sex or in sex with a risky partner. Even if you find a partner who’s loving and attentive, your addiction may alienate them to the point where they want to leave the relationship.3. Substance Use Affects the Next Generation
Perhaps one of the biggest dangers of substance abuse is the effect it has on children in the home. Experts estimate that there are over 28 million children of alcoholics in America today. Of those, more than 6 million are under the age of 18. These children will become adults who suffer from a range of problems, including:- Low self-esteem
- Depression
- Feelings of guilt/shame
- Inability to trust others and themselves
- Substance use disorder
