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I came home after a long day only to hear that my next-door neighbor has been rushed to the hospital because he was acting like a person who had lost his mind and was also having difficulty breathing. I started to ask what could have gone wrong. The woman said that before he was rushed to the hospital, he had a seizure and people poured excessive water on him and then he was rushed to the hospital. She said he had stopped breathing before they got to the hospital. I saw his roommate crying and repeating "he is addicted to drugs and I warned him". Before I continue, I want to ask if there is a medical board in Nigeria that says pouring water is the most appropriate type of first aid for any type of sickness or condition. I remember there was a young man who lost his life some time back as a result of pouring water on him after an Electrocution. This young electrician got electrocuted by a life pole wire while trying to fix a person's electricity and fell to the ground from the pole, but the only first aid the people could think of was pouring him water. Pouring water as a first aid in Nigeria is very common, there are cases of accidents where the only thing the people would think of is pouring water on the accident victims while they are losing lots of blood. There really needs to be a sensitization on the use of water as first aid in Nigeria, I am not sure of other countries but I am certain that most Nigerians would go for water as first aid before thinking of the hospital. I am not writing about using water as a first aid, rather I will be writing on addiction.

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According to the [National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics](https://drugabusestatistics.org/), Half of the young people between the age of 12 and above would have used illicit drugs once or more. What causes addiction? We could look at the desire for the brain to receive a reward of satisfaction after work to be a factor in this. If he had listened was what his roommate kept saying and he kept on saying he was redeemable if he had listened but he didn't. Addiction can go from taking pain reliefs to taking substances and alcohols. It starts from little and gradually they begin to grow in resistance which allows them want to keep having more. If people are in pain and they start to use pain relief to treat pain, over time the pain comes back and for it to be gone, people start to use pain relief and they become addicted to it. When you hear that people become addicted to opioids, then do not be surprised because most do it to get rid of pain. A lot of cases of addictions even start at the hospital where doctors keep prescribing certain drugs to treat certain issues causing the patient being treated to become addicted but over time, they do not give them these drugs again when they notice the patients are addicted to it. At this point, the addicted victim as to suffer from opioid withdrawals and addiction at the same time causing them to start looking for another way to satisfy their craving and forget the mess they have become and here is were other opioids like heroin comes in by local hard drug vendors. Robert Malenka in his study [ADDICTION AND THE BRAIN: THE NEUROBIOLOGY OF COMPULSION AND ITS PERSISTENCE](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/11765843_Hyman_SE_Malenka_RC_Addiction_and_the_brain_the_neurobiology_of_compulsion_and_its_persistence_Nat_Rev_Neurosci_2_695-703) he was able to show that our brain loves to seek pleasure caused by dopamine and this leads to addiction.

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All drugs of addiction increases dopamine level but at the same time, they start to make the brain imbalance but then when the brain tries to get back to normal, the production of dopamine is reduced and this makes the body very weak that the individuals cannot do anything. There will be a reduction of Dopamine D2 receptors and the person would need dopamine. While drugs are a major concern, other activities can spike dopamine level such as gambling, eating fatty and sugar foods, and when the brain wants to go back to normal, the desire to remain at the point of excitement begins to play. Drug use lead to reduced or dissociated grey matter in addicted people especially those in cocaine causing impaired decision making in these patients. Drugs also affects genes in the brain such as Glutamate, thereby affecting the brain activities since there is a distortion in brain neuron traveling. 
 
While people try to satisfy their excitement urge, they begin to take more drugs and graduate to more potent drugs like Fentanyl which can lead to death when taken in overdose as it makes it difficult to breath when taken excessively. Drugs such as Buprenorphine/naloxone, and methadone helps to get the patients craving satisfied thereby allowing the brain to work normally by partially activating opioid receptors. When these patients knocked out towards death, the focus would be reviving them and this would be done using nalaxone which usually reverses the overdose by opioids pullout from the brain receptors. While treatment of addiction is possible, it is important to deal with the relapses, and the withdrawal symptoms.


* https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/12/most-reported-substance-use-among-adolescents-held-steady-in-2022
* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448203/
* https://drugabusestatistics.org/
* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8301978/
* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459126/
* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7517938/
* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3601087/
* https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4633516/

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I came home after a long day only to hear that my next-door neighbor has been rushed to the hospital because he was acting like a person who had lost his mind and was also having difficulty breathing.