Addiction is characterized as a chronic disease involving the brain's reward system and impaired ability to control behaviors. Anyone can become addicted depending on risk factors like stress, family history, self-esteem, exposure to drugs, and mental illness. The spectrum of substance use ranges from abstinence to severe addiction. Drugs affect the brain stem, limbic system, and cortex to produce effects like depression, aggression, and impaired thinking. Teenage brains are still developing and vulnerable to long-term effects of drugs on memory, health, and life outcomes like poor academic or job performance and relationship issues. Tobacco and alcohol are the most commonly abused substances among youth and pose serious health risks. Avoiding drugs and smoking is important

3. What is addiction?
 Chronic disease of brain reward circuitry
 Addiction is characterized by inability to consistently
abstain, impairment in behavioural control, craving,
diminished recognition of significant problems with
one’s behaviours and interpersonal relationships, and
a dysfunctional emotional response.
 Excerpt from American Society of Addiction Medicine
(ASAM) definition

4. Who becomes addicted?
 EVERYONE!
 Risk factors that are commonly seen:
 Stress
 Family history
 Self-esteem
 Exposure
 Trauma
 Mental illness – concurrent disorders

5. Spectrum of Substance Use
 The varying points of people’s use:

6. Description








Marijuana
Synthetic Marijuana
Adderall
Alcohol
Vicodin
Cough Medicine
Tranquilizers
Hallucinogens








Sedatives
Salvia Divinorum
Oxycontin
MDMA (Ecstasy)
Tobacco
Inhalants
Cocaine
Ritalin

7. Makes you addictive to it

8. Drug affects 3 main areas of our
brain
 The brain stem – which affects our breathing,
circulating blood and digesting food.
 The limbic stem – which controls our emotional
responses.
 The cerebral cortex – which affects our ability to think,
plan, solve problems and make decisions.

9. Effects on Central Nervous System.
 Depressants




Marijuana
Heroin
Alcohol
Tobacco
 Stimulants



Crystal Meth
Cocaine
Ecstasy
 Hallucinogens


LSD
Magic Mushrooms

10. Brain and Body
 Teenage brain “ A work in progress “
 Blackouts and memory lapses
 Liver disease

11. Drugs are a bet with your mind.
 Natasha’s story
 Age – 22
 Started using drugs the age of 12-13.
 Started hanging out with kids much older than her.
 Peer pressure forced her to try other drugs too.
 She started using cocaine and cannabis at the age of 14.

12. her youth
 It started to affect her personal life
 She withdrew herself from her family.
 She became depressed and her aggression spiked.
 She isolated herself from the society.
 She shoplifted to fund her addictions.

13. When she realized…
 At the age of 18 years she realized that she had a serious
problem.
 She admitted herself into YMCA Drug Program.
 She managed to stay away from drugs with sheer will power
and support from her family.
 She was in the program for 6 months.
 She is now clean from drugs.

14. You drink them to fit in the society
When you sufferred from something, mostly
A love situation, you use it to calm your pain

15. Social and College Life
 Substance abuse and addiction can seriously affect one's
life in college/school, at work, and in relationships.
 Poor college performance.
 Poor work performance.
 Relationship trouble.
 Personality changes.

16. A comparison

17. Marijuana (‘’cool drug’’)
 Also know as cannabis, pot, weed
 These plants have resin containing molecules known
as cannabinoids
 Cannabinoids bind to cannabinoid receptors in your
brain and other parts of your body, in particular the
nervous and immune systems
 It tends to suppress hormones produced by stress
reactions and stimulate an increase in dopamine in the
brain which activates pleasure pathways

18. W.H.O
 If current trend continues, 250 million children alive today will
be killed by tobacco.
 Youth is the time for experimentation.
 Tobacco, LSD, cocaine, Alcohol and Cannabis are the five most
common drugs being abused by children in India.

 In India 20 million children a year and nearly 55,000 children a
day are drawn into a tobacco addition.
 Children affected by substance abuse are considered as children
in need of care and protection under the Juvenile Justice Act,
2000.

19. Protect the future Generation

20. Conjecture
 The most widespread and harmful drugs heavily used
by the youth is Tobacco and Alcohol.
 Drug dependence can be physical or psychological, or
both.

21. Conjecture
 Worldwide, only two large and growing causes of
death exist. One is HIV-1 infection, and the other is
tobacco.
 However, there is no "safe" level of drug use. All drugs
have the potential to cause harm, not just the illegal
ones.

22. This is one of the very common problem at our age
We have to avoid drinking and smoking because our health depends
on our decision and probably our live too
We don´t have to be convinced with bad people and ideas and if we
know the are bad we shouldn´t have to be convinced

23. References complied from slides by
Leanne Paisley
Regional Opioid Intervention Service
Addiction Counsellor
Leanne.Paisley@theroyal.ca
Sandiego teen therapist