There are four main categories of drugs. These are stimulants, depressants, hallucinogens, and narcotics.
Stimulants
Just like the name stipulates, stimulants are drugs that stimulate the body’s activities and often referred to as “uppers.” Stimulants increase the body’s and make an individual feel supercharged with a lot of energy. When stimulants are abused, for example, through smoking or injection, the cause euphoria. The commonly abused stimulants are caffeine, cocaine, and nicotine. Caffeine and nicotine are legal and assist individual to go through the day. However, they pose side effects, for example, when the drink or cigarette has harmful addictiveness. Other stimulants are considered as “street drugs” they include cocaine, ecstasy, and meth. Stimulants like Adderall and Ritalin are prescribed, but lately, they have been increased abuse by patients without a prescription. The common health effects of stimulants include; they cause a “crash” when the drug leaves the body, leaving the person to experience fatigue, poor concentration, and depression. Stimulants increase heartbeat, thus pose a significant risk to a patient suffering from heart disease to get a stroke. They cause mental disorders s for example panic disorders
Depressants
Depressants are drugs that reduce the body’s function by inhibit the central nervous system and slow down body processes such as heart rate. They bring a feeling of peace, relaxation, and often sleepiness. However, when abused, they cause intense euphoria. Research shows 2.5 of Americans are addicted to one depressant. Examples include alcohol, and others are depressant prescribed for stress and anxiety disorder such as benzodiazepines. Depressants are highly dangerous when they overdose. They can limit the amount of oxygen reaching the brain. Other symptoms include; unconsciousness, floppy arms difficulty in breathing.
Hallucinogens
Hallucinogens are drugs that alter a person’s thinking and lead to distortions of reality.
Hallucinogens are mostly abused by people who want to escape life’s reality by enlightening their state of mind. Their effect involves increased body temperature pressure and heart rate, dizziness. Numbness, mood swings impulsiveness hallucination. An example of the drug is LSD, which has serious health effects on the user, such that a potential overdose can result in death.
Narcotics
Narcotics are also referred to as pain relievers and are used mostly in the hospital when performing different operations. They work significantly at reducing pain, but these drugs can also be abused since they make a person feel good. Narcotics pose several effects such as nausea, increased blood pressure, and leads to addictions.
Similarity
All drugs in the two categories are potentially addictive and can make a person be a slave to them
In the case of addiction, the victims need the help of a health professional
A patient experiences withdrawal symptoms once they stop using the drug or have taken quite some time to use it
They exist legal and illegal drugs in each classification; for example, coffee is legal while cocaine is illegal.
No drug in any category is safe to use, and increase use poses a serious health risk to the individual.
Differences
Stimulants increase the body’s activities and are referred to as uppers while depressant reduces the body’s activities and are referred to as downers.
Not all drugs are illegal; however, the legal once need a doctor’s prescription.
The drugs have different effects on the body basing on the drug used.
Stimulants
An example of a commonly abused stimulant is cocaine. Cocaine is highly addictive and can be taken via sniffing injection or rubbing it in the gums. The drug contains dopamine, which increases body alertness and a feeling of energy. The short-term effect comprises high sensitivity to touch, intense happiness, paranoia, and decreased appetite. The long-term effect includes heart disease, lung damage, sexual troubles, loss of smell contraction of HIV through sharing needles. Cocaine dependence varies depending on the users’ vulnerabilities, socioeconomic factors. Cocaine dependence is a chronic stress state accompanied by a strong and uncontrollable urge to use the drug despite its effect. The drug poses a serious health risk when used with other drugs. For example, using cocaine and alcohol together increases the risk of a heart attack. When cocaine and alcohol mix, they react with the liver, forming cocaethylene, a chemical toxic to the heart. When using heroin and cocaine, they disrupt the CNS since heroin is a depressant, and cocaine is a stimulant. They affect breathing and can adversely affect a person’s heart rate. The use of cocaine has increased violence in the US. The drug stimulates the CNS leading to euphoria; thus, individuals feel they amerce strength and intellectual powers. It suppresses pain and fatigue, and once it leaves the system, an individual feels anxious and agitated probing to violence. A person experiences paranoia and impaired judgment, making them indulge in violet behaviors.
Depressants
Alcohols are the most abused depressant. High consumption of alcohol has a serious health effect on the user. They include cardiovascular complications such as increased blood pressure, stroke, or heart attack. It affects reproductive health and can lead to erectile dysfunction or irregular periods. Consumption affects a person’s bone by causing calcium imbalance. Increased alcohol consumption causes alcohol dependence, which is a chronic disease where an individual barely functions without alcohol. A person is entirely dependent on alcohol, and lack of use causes withdrawal symptoms. When mixed with other drugs such as valium (depressant), it causes memory loss, dizziness, and potential death. Alcohol abuse has increased levels of crime in the US. Its consumption causes impaired judgment, thus increasing the risk of aggressive behaviors leading to aggravated assaults. Other crimes involve individuals commit sexual assaults such as rape under the influence of alcohol. Increased robbery as drunkards feels a sense of desperation and drinking and driving which can result in death
Hallucinogens
An example of commonly abused hallucinogens is D-Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD). The consumption of hallucinogens affects brain activities, especially chemical serotonin, which regulates the body’s mood, sleep hunger, etc. LSD’s short-term effect includes nausea, loss of appetite, increased body temperature, panic, paranoia, and bizarre behaviors. The long-term impact includes persistent psychosis such as paranoia and visual disturbance and hallucinogen persisting perception disorder (HPPD). LSD’s continuous use does not trigger drug-seeking behaviors; thus, it cannot be termed a dependence drug. However, this does not make it safe since potential use can cause overdose and lead to possible death. When LSD is mixed with other drugs, such as alcohol, it causes prolonged highness as a person can still be high after the alcohol wears off. The use of LSD has been linked to a lower rate of criminal behaviors; however, continuous use of drugs leads to paranoia and deep depression, making a person injure themselves or others.
Narcotics
An example of commonly abused narcotics is heroin, which is extremely addictive. Continuous use of the drug poses a serious health effect on a person’s body. It affects the psychological of the brain, which is difficult to reverse. Other health effects include insomnia, stomach pain infection in the hearts lining, and collapsed veins. Long-term use of heroin causes addiction accompanied by serious withdrawal symptoms when a person is not under the influence. Continuous use of deteriorates brains function. Constant use causes dependence, and a person barely functions without the drug. They experience withdrawal symptoms a few hours after using the drug. An individual develops drug-seeking tendencies regardless of the consequence. When heroin is mixed with other drugs, alcohol poses a serious health risk to the individual. Heroin mixed with alcohol slows down brain activity and can lead to worse coma and potential death situations. The use of heroin has increased crime rates in the US. Many of the users are engaging in robbery to find money to maintain the addictive nature of heroin. Many people have been shot and died through these robberies, thus increasing levels of crime in the neighborhoods.