The physical disasters that follow the continued use of intoxicating beverages are sad enough, and terrible enough; but the surely attendant mental, moral and spiritual disasters are sadder and more terrible still. If you disturb the healthy condition of the brain, which is the physical organ through which the mind acts, you disturb the mind. It will not have the same clearness of perception as before; nor have the same rational control over the impulses and passions.

Heavenly order in the body.

In order to understand a subject clearly, certain general laws, or principles, must be seen and admitted. And here we assume, as a general truth, that health in the human body is normal heavenly order on the physical plane of life, and that any disturbance of that order exposes the man to destructive influences, which are evil and infernal in their character. Above the natural and physical plane, and resting upon it, while man lives in this world, is the mental and spiritual plane, or degree of life. This degree is in heavenly order when the reason is clear, and the appetites and passions under its wise control. But, if, through any cause, this fine equipoise is disturbed, or lost, then a way is opened for the influx of more subtle evil influences than such as invade the body, because they have power to act upon the reason and the passions, obscuring the one and inflaming the others.

We know how surely the loss of bodily health results in mental disturbance. If the seat of disease be remote from the brain, the disturbance is usually slight; but it increases as the trouble comes nearer and nearer to that organ, and shows itself in multiform ways according to character, temperament or inherited disposition; but almost always in a predominance of what is evil instead of good. There will be fretfulness, or ill-nature, or selfish exactions, or mental obscurity, or unreasoning demands, or, it may be, vicious and cruel propensities, where, when the brain was undisturbed by disease, reason held rule with patience and loving kindness. If the disease which has attacked the brain goes on increasing, the mental disease which follows as a consequence of organic disturbance or deterioration, will have increased also, until insanity may be established in some one or more of its many sad and varied forms.

Insanity.

It is, therefore, a very serious thing for a man to take into his body any substance which, on reaching that wonderfully delicate organ the brain, sets up therein a diseased action; for, diseased mental action is sure to follow. A fever is a fever, whether it be light or intensely burning; and so any disturbance of the mind’s rational equipoise is insanity, whether it be in the simplest form of temporary obscurity, or in the midnight of a totally darkened intellect.

We are not writing in the interest of any special theory, nor in the spirit of partisanship; but with an earnest desire to make the truth appear. You must not accept anything simply because we say it, but because he sees it to be true. Now, as to this matter of insanity, let him think calmly. The word is one that gives us a shock; and, as we hear it, we almost involuntarily thank God for the good gift of a well-balanced mind. What, if from any cause this beautiful equipoise should be disturbed and the mind lose its power to think clearly, or to hold the lower passions in due control? Shall we exceed the truth if we say that the man in whom this takes place is insane just in the degree that he has lost his rational self-control; and that he is restored when he regains that control?

In this view, the question as to the hurtfulness of alcoholic drinks assumes a new and graver aspect. Do they disturb the brain when they come in contact with its substance; and deteriorate it if the contact be long continued? Fact, observation, experience and scientific investigation all emphatically say yes; and we know that if the brain be disordered the mind, will be disordered, likewise; and a disordered mind is an insane mind. Clearly, then, in the degree that a man impairs or hurts his brain temporarily or continuously in that degree his mind is unbalanced; in that degree he is not a truly rational and sane man.

We are holding your thought just here that you may have time to think, and to look at the question in the light of reason and common sense. So far as he does this, will he be able to feel the force of such evidence as we shall educe in what follows, and to comprehend its true meaning.

Other substances besides alcohol act injuriously on the brain; but there is none that compares with this in the extent, variety and diabolical aspect of the mental aberrations which follow its use. We are not speaking thoughtlessly or wildly; but simply uttering a truth well-known to every man of observation, and which every man, and especially those who take this substance in any form, should, lay deeply to heart. Why it is that such awful and destructive forms of insanity should follow, as they do, the use of alcohol it is not for us to say. That they do follow it, we know, and we hold, up the fact in solemn warning.

Another consideration, which should have weight with every one, is this, that no man can tell what may be the character of the legacy he has received from his ancestors. He may have an inheritance of latent evil forces, transmitted through many generations, which only await some favoring opportunity to spring into life and action. So long as he maintains a rational self-control, and the healthy order of his life be not disturbed, they may continue quiescent; but if his brain loses its equipoise, or is hurt or impaired, then a diseased psychical condition may be induced and the latent evil forces be quickened into life.

http://www.healthau.net/forum

One of the most detrimental long-term effects of heroin is addiction itself.

Addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease, characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, and by neurochemical and molecular changes in the brain. Heroin also produces profound degrees of tolerance and physical dependence, which are also powerful motivating factors for compulsive use and abuse. As with abusers of any addictive drug, heroin abusers gradually spend more and more time and energy obtaining and using the drug. Once they are addicted, the heroin abusers’ primary purpose in life becomes seeking and using drugs. The drugs literally change their brains.

Physical dependence develops with higher doses of the drug. With physical dependence, the body adapts to the presence of the drug and withdrawal symptoms occur if use is reduced abruptly. Withdrawal may occur within a few hours after the last time the drug is taken. Symptoms of withdrawal include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps ("cold turkey"), and leg movements. Major withdrawal symptoms peak between 24 and 48 hours after the last dose of heroin and subside after about a week. However, some people have shown persistent withdrawal signs for many months. Heroin withdrawal is never fatal to otherwise healthy adults, but it can cause death to the fetus of a pregnant addict.

At some point during continuous heroin use, a person can become addicted to the drug. Sometimes addicted individuals will endure many of the withdrawal symptoms to reduce their tolerance for the drug so that they can again experience the rush.

Physical dependence and the emergence of withdrawal symptoms were once believed to be the key features of heroin addiction. We now know this may not be the case entirely, since craving and relapse can occur weeks and months after withdrawal symptoms are long gone. We also know that patients with chronic pain who need opiates to function (sometimes over extended periods) have few if any problems leaving opiates after their pain is resolved by other means. This may be because the patient in pain is simply seeking relief of pain and not the rush sought by the addict.

Source

By Kevin Meade

October 26, 2007 06:53am
Article from: The Australian

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MORE than a million Australians have tried ecstasy and the so-called party drug has become the nation’s second most popular illegal drug after marijuana, a federally funded study has found.
In a report released at a national drugs conference on the Gold Coast, University of Queensland senior researcher Greg Fowler said about 1.2million Australians aged 14 and over had tried ecstasy.

According to the latest available statistics, more than 550,000 people used ecstasy in 2004.

Recent studies have estimated that more than five million Australians have tried marijuana.

The ecstasy study, funded under the federal Government’s National Drugs Strategy, found regular use of the drug had increased drastically in the past 15 years. The proportion of Australians who have tried ecstasy had risen from 3.1 per cent in 1993 to 7.5 per cent in 2004.

Mr Fowler said the use of ecstasy had moved beyond nightclubs and the rave party scene to private venues.

“The way that people are using ecstasy has changed,” Mr Fowler told The Australian.

Couples, he said, were increasingly using the drug to enhance their sex lives.

The study found ecstasy consumers tended to be young, white, well-educated and middle class. They were less likely to be involved in criminal activity or to contact the drug treatment system than users of other illicit drugs.

However, they were more likely to be involved in crime than the general population.

Mr Fowler and his research team conducted in-depth interviews with ecstasy consumers, suppliers, police and health officers. Key benefits of the drug identified by consumers included enhanced closeness, bonding and empathy, enhanced communication, talkativeness and sociability and enhanced mood.

Risks reported by users included depression, dependence on the drug and damage to brain functioning.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that 7098kg of ecstasy was seized by law enforcement officers worldwide in 2002, of which 722kg - about 10 per cent - was seized in Australia.

“Based on these data, Australia is believed to be one of the highest per capita ecstasy consuming countries in the world,” the report said.

The report added the data needed to be treated with caution as reporting requirements varied considerably around the world.

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The answer is simple: there is no such thing as the best drug addiction treatment. Depending on the kind of the addiction, your age and social situation different treatments may be chosen for your benefit.

Here are a few most common drug addiction treatments (from www.nida.nih.gov website):

(1) Relapse Prevention - this treatment helps you control your behavior, learn to identify dangerous situations and avoid them. It concentrates on augmenting your learning processes and developing your own defense skills.

(2) Matrix model - strict and personal, with therapist acting as your friend and as your coach at the same time. This drug addiction treatment seems to be intensive and deep. It works as much on your consciousness as on forcing into you a kind of drill which prevents you from using drugs.

(3) Supportive-Expressive Psychotherapy - it works mostly through interpersonal links, creating your sphere of comfort and teaches you to trust in other people support. Good and comfortable, used mostly for cocaine and heroin addicts.

(4) Individualized drug counseling is a drug addiction treatment that concentrates not only on a drug addiction, but works also on other related subject - employment status, family problems etc. It’s a short-term therapy, but when it helps, it helps in a big way.

(5) Motivational Enhancement Therapy - this one concentrates on the addicts will - its aim is to incite the will to fight the addiction. It changes people, but in a good way. It makes them stronger and more focused.

(6) Behavioral Therapy for Adolescents - the treatment is based on assumption that by showing desired behavior and rewarding any steps addicts take toward achieving it, this drug addiction treatment will change patients behavior to drug-free one.

(7) Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) for Adolescents takes a different approach and tries to help addicts by their families. It offers interesting and fruitful approach as many addictions have their roots in dysfunctional families, but it doesn’t need only the addict’s cooperation, but also the help from the family, which may be sometimes difficult.

Article Source: Health Guidance

Jeff Lakie is the founder of http://www.my-herbal-supplements.info website providing information on Vitamins.