How to Overcome Drug Addiction in Houston

Is It Possible To Stop Being Addicted?

The first step to overcoming drug addiction is to understand it. Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing condition. As a substance addiction develops, a person’s brain chemistry changes. Drugs and alcohol change how the brain sends and receives nerve cells; drugs also interfere with how the brain processes information. Some drugs tap into the brain’s message system more easily because they chemically mimic the structure of a neurotransmitter. Opioids like heroin, for example, have this ability. Of course, they aren’t actually a neurotransmitter, so their action in the brain results in abnormal processes.

Although other drugs may not mimic brain chemicals, they disrupt normal brain processes and interfere with the brain’s neurotransmitters. Taking too much of a drug causes many other serious and, sometimes, deadly problems. If too much of an opioid floods the brain, it suppresses the area of the brain that controls the respiratory system; in such cases, the person’s breathing slows, preventing them from getting the oxygen their body needs. Breathing can also stop, which results in death if the individual does not receive immediate medical attention.