Health Effects of Substance Abuse in Teens

By: C. Paixão

​A young person's biological and psychological changes occur during adolescence. In addition to the physical changes that accompany this time period, a teenager's brain is also developing new methods of working and growing.
 
Teen drug use typically coexists with other mental health issues. A teen who has a drug use issue, for example, is more likely to also have depression, anxiety, learning or behavioural disorder. Drugs can sometimes make diagnosing these other issues more challenging as they may cover up possible symptoms that may be related to these other disorders. Adolescents may begin taking drugs to cope with these disorders, such as depression or anxiety. Nevertheless, frequent drug use may worsen those conditions.
 
The teenage years are extremely important for healthy development of the brain. Due to this, it is critical to maintain a strict quality of healthy lifestyle during the adolescent years in order to have good cognitive function as an adult. Drug addiction can have a short-term influence on the brain's capacity to function, as well as a long-term impact on appropriate growth and development.
 
Substance misuse has an impact on a teen's brain development in many ways, such as interfering with neurotransmitters and causing damage to brain circuits. Also, reducing one's opportunity to experience pleasure. Moreover, developing memory problems, such as memory loss or hallucinations, where you think something has happened but it didn’t. It may also result in missed chances during a period when learning capacity is at its peak, as the young mind has a greater capacity to absorb information. Substance abuse since a young age may also influence the brain’s neural pathway in creating expectation of an unhealthy lifestyle, which may feed one’s addiction even more and create a habit where your body requires the substance. Finally, as the brain is still developing, perceptual abilities may be restricted due to substance abuse since a young age.