The Most Famous Addictive Substances

Addictive substances can affect the brain in different ways. Stimulants make a person feel more energetic, and depressants bring a feeling of relaxation. Hallucinogens change the way someone experiences reality, (the most famous hallucinogens are LSD and ecstasy). Many drugs fall into more than one classification. Most often addictive substances change brain chemistry by flooding the brain with dopamine, a chemical that adjusts pleasure, attention, cognition and other functions. They perform this in one of two ways: imitating brain chemicals or causing the brain to release more naturally occurring chemicals.

Many of these addictive substances are legal. One of the most famous and popular stimulant is caffeine. Maybe it's the world’s most widely used drug. Caffeine is not just coffee, but also tea, chocolate, soda, sports and energy drinks. Coffee has roughly twice as much caffeine as other beverages. Moderate consumption is three cups or less of coffee per day. Ten cups is considered excessive and results in nervousness, insomnia, tachycardia, headaches, anxiety and nausea.

Yet another legal addictive substance, alcohol is generally consumed in the form of beer, wine, liquor and spirits. Alcohol is a depressant and relaxant that affect neurons in the central nervous system, it lessens anxiety in the user, finally alcohol consumption leads to relaxation, drowsiness, lack of inhibition, sleep, coma and even death. Eventually, erratic and unpredictable behavior would pop up and more often than not mess things up. Alcohol, when abused in the long term, also takes its toll on the liver, pancreas, and the heart. And it goes downright dangerous when mixed with other drugs like heroin, cocaine or barbiturates. Addiction to alcohol is named alcoholism.

There are some other addictive substances less known than listed above like inhalants - aerosols, solvents, gases and nitrates. Even one-time-only use of inhalants can kill or cause heart failure. Also there are some addictive substances that are legal by prescription only like amphetamines, sedative-hypnotic drugs and opioids.

Amphetamines - speed, crystal meth. Stimulants that increase alertness and concentration normally prescribed for treatment of attention deficit hyperactive disorder. Sedative-hypnotic drugs - benzodiazepines Xanax, Valium, barbiturates, Seconol, phenobarbital. These drugs are prescribed for insomnia, anxiety, seizures and symptoms of bipolar and manic depressive disorder. Even a small overdose of barbiturates used for anesthesia can result in coma, respiratory distress or death. Opioids - heroin, morphine, oxycodone, codeine and other narcotic pain relievers can be very helpful when prescribed. Opioids interfere with the way pain messages are sent to the brain and how they brain receives them. Morphine is regarded as the gold standard of analgesics used to relieve severe pains and suffering. Instead, heroin is treated as an illegal drug that processed from the poppy-plant product, morphine, and like the morphine is highly addictive.

Heroin is definitely one of the most dangerous drugs. Processed from morphine, heroin often looks like a white or brown powder. When ingested, it immediately gives the user a euphoric sensation, as it goes straight to the brain where it tinkers with the ability to feel pleasure. But the pleasure doesn’t last long. In as little as one or two hours from the last dose, users may feel themselves extremely uncomfortable or frightening and experience withdrawal symptoms, ranging from muscle and bone pain to diarrhea and vomiting.

Cocaine maybe is as famous as the heroin these days. Extracted from the leaves of the coca plant, cocaine is one of the most popular illegal drug. Cocaine attacks the central nervous system and toys with its ability to reabsorb dopamine, a neurotransmitter that is directly associated with pleasure. With this, cocaine makes the user euphoric, confident, alert and hyper-stimulated. These effects, however tend to be short lived, and withdrawal symptoms like high incidence of stroke, seizure, respiratory failure, convulsions, death, aggression, hallucinations may set in in as little as one to two hours from the last dose.

Marijuana, also named as cannabis, grass, pot, hashish sometime described as a 'gateway' drug, sometimes like 'terminus' drug. While not addictive to many casual users, marijuana decrease user's motivation, poor communication due to difficulty focusing, that leads to isolation from others due to behavior changes. Its active chemical compound, Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), produce psychoactive effects, including increased appetite, feelings of relaxation, a feeling of slowing of time, and also the mood fluctuations. Impaired concentration, increased heart rate and lower blood pressure are some of its physiological and neurological effects.

It's hard to say which substance is the most addictive. The results will always vary, but maybe you’d not be surprised that nicotine is possibly the most addictive substance of them all. Cigarettes, cigars, nicotine patches contain nicotine that are stimulant (like caffeine) and not only increase dopamine levels, but boost adrenaline. Increased adrenaline raises the user's heart rate and blood pressure, and interferes with the release of insulin by the pancreas, leading to elevated blood sugar. Nicotine is widespread, legal, available, and worst of all, very addictive. Smokers often pick up the smoking habit during their teen years, and as years of smoking go by, they finally become hardly addicted to nicotine and in most cases become smokers for life. And there’s no question about the deadly effects of long-term use of nicotine like lung cancer, oral cancer, heart disease, strokes and emphysema and other hard health problems.

If you think that you or someone you care about is addicted to addictive substances, recognizing the problem is the first step in getting help. Many people think they can kick the addiction on their own, but that rarely works. Find someone supportive and understanding, someone you trust to talk to – it is your best option for getting help. The odds are that overcoming addiction is not easy. Quitting drugs, drinking or smoking is probably going to be one of the hardest things you or your friend have ever done. Most people who try to kick the addiction need professional help or a treatment program to do so.

Smoking Health Effects - COPD

Smokers are at the highest risk of developing Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Most, up to 90% of COPD cases are caused by cigarettes smoking. If you are diagnosed with COPD, the very first thing you should do is quit smoking. COPD is a sickness that included two types of chronic lung diseases: emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Millions people in the United States experience COPD symptoms, such as shortness of breath, wheezing, chronic cough and chest tightness. Some of them treat their condition with Advair Diskus that can help control COPD symptom outbreaks and still can't quit smoking for good. People who quit smoking can slow the loss of lung function dramatically. Anyway, quitting smoking has been shown to help people with COPD (or without it) live longer.

There are tons of quit smoking tips that have helped many smokers to quit smoking for good:

- Pick a quit day. Choose a day when you’ll quit smoking

- Get rid of all cigarettes, ashtrays, and lighters.

- Know your reasons to quit. Write them down. Carry them with you.

- Know your triggers for smoking. Make a list and write how you’ll deal with each trigger.

Below are some simple ideas to prevent cravings and relapse:

- Do deep breathing exercises for five minutes to keep calm and relaxed.

- Enjoy activities like going out, sports, dancing anything else available.

- Get support. Talk with your physician about quitting. Tell your friends to help you to quit.

- Be positive and believe in yourself. Millions of smokers did it and you can too.

No Smoking Day to Join Forces with British Heart Foundation

British Heart Foundation (BHF) declared that the No Smoking Day will be set for March 2012 in order to protect its future following a 50% decrease in its funding due to government shrinkages. No Smoking Day already exists for more than 25 years; it allows support to many local organizations to conduct a stop-smoking day annually.

But following government expenditures cuts the charity's revenue dropped from just over £1m in 2009 to £418,000 in 2011. For instance the Department of Health funding was decreased from £250,000 to £125,000 and there was any funding from the Scottish government or other related entities.

“No Smoking Day is UK's most successful public health campaign. As many other charities we have been significantly affected by public authorities’ cuts with 50% of our full funding wiped out. Luckily we realized to assure a stable and long-lasting future No Smoking Day with the BHF,” stated Amit Aggarwal, chief executive of No Smoking Day.

In July 2010 the charity proposed a strategic plan for its future in order to guarantee constant funding and creating new stakeholder networks and collaborations.

The merger with BHF will have two No Smoking Day employees, marketing manager Vishnee Sauntoo and business manager Judith Skinner, who will enroll in the 45-strong policy and communications team at BHF. “By joining forces we are able to improve the No Smoking Day campaign thus helping more people quit cigarettes, as well as intensifying our policy and lobbying work. The opportunities promised by this merger were too good to miss,” declared Betty McBride, director of policy and communications at BHF.

All No Smoking Days vicarious agents have resigned as part of the merger. Their chief executives, Amit Aggarwal, was leaved on a fixed-term contract until November this year in order to secure the financial perspective of No Smoking Day and direct the team through its 2011 campaign. “Aggarwal has realized a great job. He conducted the merger negotiations and plans to continue working in the voluntary sector,” a BHF spokesperson said in an interview.

No Smoking Day will keep its brand in the merger although BHF is thinking how best combine BHF brand into a unique name. “The NSD is well-known by cigarettes smokes, health care authorities and journalist, and the BHF believed that it will have an effect. The BHF is currently discussing with its members the conditions and methods of introduction the BHF to the name, but it does not want to do anything that will affect NSD’s existing reputation,” BHF representative declared at the press conference.

No Smoking Day is entirely responsible for 250,000 people trying to stop smoking each year, approximately 6,000 of which do so at every turn.

Smoking and Drug Addiction Recovery

Visit any drug rehabilitation center and you are sure to find that many recovering drug addicts are heavy smokers. It is often accepted and even encouraged that recovering addicts should focus on one addiction at a time and refrain from quitting nicotine and illicit substances simultaneously.

The answer however, is not always that simple. Many recovering drug addicts find that quitting smoking during early recovery leads to increased energy levels and better health ­ which only strengths their overall recovery from substance dependency. Other, however, find the experience to be extremely difficult and stressful ­ even leading them to experience cravings for drugs and alcohol ­ the more destructive and dangerous addiction.

Individuals in early recovery should be given options and not be blindly commanded to keep smoking. Some centers, such as this drug rehab in San Francisco, even offer nicotine cessation programs within their facility. If you are in early recovery and wish to quit smoking, we encourage you to look into all of your options before making a decision.

The Benefits of Smoking

The first daring idea was to make this post totally blank as the Allen Carr did in his book, but then I decide to add some thoughts. The main one I've mentioned many times before is that if you believe that smoking helps you to relax or concentrate or both, you probably will have hard times while trying to quit smoking. Learn more about nicotine addiction to understand why are you craving for the next cigarette and why you feel more 'balanced' after it. It's very simple - just because your addiction is satisfied. If you are going to lose your illusions about smoking value - you will get more chances to quit smoking for good and stay clean forever.

Smoking is a dangerous and deadly addiction, but smokers come up with thousands of reasons not to quit. Moreover, nicotine is a stimulant, but most of smokers believe that it's like a magic drug that helps a lot with anxiety, depression and really helps them to deal with the stress. Numerous documented negative health effects of smoking can't help smokers to quit while they believe that there are some advantages of smoking. So, here is my simple advice - find out that there are no real advantages of smoking cigarettes, change your mind and quit smoking easily.