There are some side effects that will eventually show if these unnatural steroids keep being used. For example, some side effects that are bad for the user are, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, mood swings, impotency shrunken testicles and severe acne and even cancer. A well known side effect is roid rage, where a person can become completely enraged over little things that happen. A person who uses anabolic steroids can get to the point where they totally lose control over their emotions. There have been studies that have proven that the mind is affected by the use of anabolic steroids.
LSD and MDMA are two of the most controversial drugs prevalent in our society today. Both Lysergic acid diethylamide and Methylenedioxymethamphetamine are considered psychedelic chemicals which means they may induce hallucinations and an altered perception of the senses. It is not the chemicals themselves that inspire controversy, but rather how they affect one’s health and state of mind. Little knowledge about these chemicals is known by the general public or even by people who knowingly ingest them. Rumors have circulated for years about the true health and psychoactive effects of these drugs.
Marijuana may cause panic and stress attacks in extreme cases but helps ones gain back loss of appetite, and can dull pain from radiation treatments (GetGoing, 2011). The withdrawal effects of marijuana are minimal but can reverse the features it enhances. Conversely is the use of drugs such as cocaine and heroin. According to GetGoing (2011) using heroin or cocaine, powdered or crack (rock), even one time causes such intense cravings for some individuals that they use it again and again, rapidly becoming addicted. Furthermore, crack is the most highly addictive of all the drugs available because it is smoked and therefore stimulates the brain directly (GetGoing, 2011 p. 2).
Research Paper: Methamphetamine Methamphetamine creates a high that users of the drug find irresistible. The drug is a white, odorless, bitter-tasting crystalline powder easily dissolvable in water or alcohol and is taken orally, by snorting, by needle injection, or by smoking. Users of the drug experience a sudden "rush" of pleasure or a prolonged sense of exhilaration. With this are also increased energy, focus, confidence, sexual competence and feelings of desirability after taking the drug. However, after doing it once, users require more and more of the drug in order to obtain the feeling again, and maintain it.
This may be followed by feelings of peacefulness, acceptance and empathy, feelings of closeness with others and a desire to touch others. Teeth clenching, a loss of inhibitions, nausea, and blurred vision are also some short-term effects of this drug. On the long run however, it gets worse. There may be a disruption or interfere with memory, and it may damage the cells that produce serotonin (regulation of mood, appetite, pain, learning). There are many ways to determine whether someone is taking this drug, physically, there is a sharp increase in body temperature, their liver, kidneys and cardiovascular systems fail, they have an increase in heart rate and or blood pressure, and they are more prone to heart disease.
Recently newer forms of long lasting codeine tablets have been developed, some of whom may last up to twelve hours. Codeine addicts have been known to mix the drug with alcohol to enhance their high. This mixture is simply referred to as a cocktail, but this kind of cocktail is lethal. Mixing codeine with alcohol greatly increases the probability of overdose, and such overdoses have led to countless deaths. Most of the high profile deaths associated with codeine have affected those associated with the hip hop industry.
These effects are not only mental but physical. It starts by releasing large amounts of dopamine into the section of the brain that controls the feeling of pleasure. Methamphetamine “produces the equivalent of 600 times the normal amount of dopamine normally released by the brain during pleasurable events.” (Kelley, 2005, Methamphetamine Abuse.) The effects of meth can last up to 12 hours and the addiction starts and continues because of this high and charged feeling users receive from Meth. Short-term effects can lead to dehydration, irritability, confusion, nervousness, nonstop talking, tremors, convulsions, anxiety, paranoia, and aggressiveness.
Have they ever turned on the news to hear about someone on methamphetamine, and wonder how one drug can have such a dramatic effect on one person? Methamphetamine is composed of many chemicals such as battery acid, amphetamine, anhydrous, acetone, and many others, and is a very dangerous drug. Meth also affects a person’s body in many countless ways. It can cause severe dental problems (“meth mouth”), rapid weight loss, it affects how the brain functions, rapid heart rate, or an irregular heartbeat. It can change a person mentally, physically, and emotionally and before they know it, the person they once knew is gone.
Usually people who abuse pain killers are people who are facing psychological problems. The pain killers are a way for them to cope with the pain and not feel any pain. They are popular because of the euphoric state a person enters after taking them. Popular examples of prescription pain killers are morphine and codeine popular over the counter pain killers are Ibuprofen and Naproxen. Dependency on these drugs can have serious side effects.
GABA, the hormone responsible for anxiety relief naturally in the human body is enhanced by the BZs. The BZs will also help to reduce the serotonin activity in the brain, which is the neurotransmitter which causes arousal, and reduces anxiety as a result. Benzodiazepines have a number of effects that all lead to the reduction of stress in people without much effort. The other type of drug that could be used to treat stress and anxiety issues are Beta Blockers (BBs). When the body detects stress, the SNS is activated which leads to raised heart rate, which leads to higher blood pressure which can lead to Chronic Heart Disease, heart attack, stroke etc.