Author: Emily Oconnor

Narcotic abuse poses numerous health threats to a person’s life including organ damage, such as heart failure, as well as mental illnesses to occur, and due to the analgesic effects of the drugs can lead to a person easily overdosing causing a coma or death to occur.

Narcotic abuse and narcotic addiction typically go hand in hand being that narcotics are highly addictive sedative drugs. Moreover, a person that abuses narcotics will begin to develop a tolerance to drug which will result in them needing to continually increase their dosage of the drug to get the effects that they want.

Narcotics abuse, if it develops into addiction, will eventually lead to a chronic illness in which the individual will feel a compulsion to take the drug and will experience uncontrollable urges to constantly have the drug. Narcotic addiction will eventually control a person’s life which leads to the majority of narcotic abusers suffering from financial problems, getting in trouble with the law, losing friends, ruining their relationships, and losing self-respect.

Narcotic Abuse Diagnosis

When an individual abuses narcotics they will exhibit many signs and symptoms that they will have a hard time controlling. Since narcotics are depressants, a person will be far drowsier on the drug and will have a difficult time concentrating once the drug is in their system, this leads to many abusers having a difficult time at work when they are using.

Behaviorally, when a person is abusing a narcotic drug they can act out in ways that they never did before. Many people who abuse narcotics will begin to commit crimes, mostly stealing so that they can continue to afford their habit, or they can become more violent, especially when the drug is leaving their system and they need more of it. In addition, a person abusing narcotics may begin to pull away from friends and family, and will do limited physical activities.

Physically, a person abusing a narcotic will have dilated pupils and may sleep far more than usual. In addition, the majority of narcotics can cause a person to become constipated resulting in many narcotic abusers to use laxatives. Moreover, many narcotic abusers have a dry mouth and dried out mucus membranes, as well as experience sexual performance issues.

Mentally, a person abusing a narcotic drug may have rapid mood swings and become easily angered; this is especially prominent when the individual is craving the drug. In addition, a person may also experience anxiety and depression when abusing a narcotic.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in 2010, 5.1 million people were using painkillers illegally in the United States.

Painkillers, such as Oxycontin, Percodan and Percocet are amongst the largest group of narcotics abused in addition to heroin. Narcotic treatment is available to people who need help overcoming their addictions and if a narcotics abuse diagnosis has been made on an individual they should attempt to receive help for their illness before it progresses any further.