What is dependence?
Back to Topic
Click to Print
Useful Websites
Glossary Term Selection
When you take drugs like heroin (opioids) on a regular basis, changes take place in your brain and nervous system so you need to continue taking the drug just to feel normal.
What’s more, your body keeps on changing, adapting its own responses so that often more and more drugs are needed just to get through the day. With drug dependence’s acute (or short-term) symptoms – like cravings and withdrawal – and its chronic (or long-term) effects – like depression and liver damage – it’s little wonder that a lot of users say that they feel “out of control” and that drugs have taken over their lives. For many, treatment offers a way to get some control back over their brain, their body and their life.
Stigma and exclusion
Using heroin and similar drugs has been heavily stigmatised in the past – just like having a disability or a mental health problem has been. But times are changing: a 2009 public opinion poll for the charity DrugScope found that 19% of people had a direct or close experi...
Want to see the rest of this article?
Would you like to see the rest of this article and all the other benefits that Issues Online can provide with?
- Useful related articles
- Video and multimedia references
- Statistical information and reference material
- Glossary of terms
- Key Facts and figures
- Related assignments
- Resource material and websites
