Medical studies have established alcohol and drugs can cause memory loss in diverse ways. These memory impacts can have short-term or long-term consequences. These studies specify that once the brain’s storage center is compromised, it has significant trickle-down effects on cognitive functions. You can restore mental functionality and maximize cognitive repair by heeding life-changing rehab at Bayview Recovery Center in San Diego, California.
How Does Addiction Affect the Brain?
Once the brain has developed a dependency, it alters the chemical and genetic makeup of neuronic balances to center around that chemical craving. Put simply, addiction hijacks the brain’s pleasure center, which is also responsible for managing stress and anxiety levels. Therefore, if your body does not receive the craved chemical, the pleasure center crashes, adversely affecting stress, anxiety, and mood. In essence, the source of your addiction is given complete control of your neuronic frequencies and physiological impulses. It affects what you think, feel, and how you feel it.
How Can Drugs Cause Memory Loss in the Long Term?
More important than the inquiry “Can drugs cause memory loss?” is the answer to how drugs cause these permanent chemical brain alterations. The fact is, that exposure to drugs can permanently affect several memory-retention areas of the brain. This means even after full recovery from addiction, one can never fully restore these damaged regions. The following provides more specific long-term memory loss that can be permanently impacted by persistent drug use.
Reduced Learning Capacity
Inhibited Memorization Skills
Drugs inhibit the cognitive functions of your brain such as memorization. As drugs continue to kill vital brain cells with each use, memorization skills can become permanently inhibited with prolonged use. As a result, once these memorization storage neural pathways are damaged, it takes longer for you to retain audible and visual memory. Thankfully, partial neuropathway reparation is achievable given the proper first-rate recovery programs.
Reduced Decision-Making Ability
The prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain responsible for decision-making and discretion, is also heavily affected by addiction. Drug’s long-term effects on decision-making go beyond losing clarity of thought, though thought clarity is part of these permanent deficiencies. Once substance dependency affects the central reward center, it modifies the discretionary processes of the prefrontal cortex. This means all decision-making capabilities are defaulted beneath the control of the craved substance. Though full substance dependency recovery can partially heal this region of the brain, full prefrontal functionality may not be possible. The degree of mental restoration is fully dependent upon the duration of abuse, frequency, and dosage levels.
What are Drug’s Short-Term Effects on Memory?
Drugs’ short-term memory effects have a commanding impact on personal relationships, work performance, and personality through several neuronic alterations. Please note that the short-term effects to be mentioned can become permanent struggles if you fail to immediately seek professional help
Distorted Priorities
People who lack addiction understanding assume addiction-induced priority distortion means an individual lacks maturity, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Addiction-induced priority distortion has nothing to do with maturity and everything to do with chemical alterations of a substance-dependent mind. When the brain forms an addiction, neurotransmitters responsible for telling your body when you need food and drink, for example, are hijacked.
Suddenly these natural inhibitions along with work, relationships, and other priorities take a back seat to the brain’s chemical craving. In short, your mind’s craving for drugs dictates what you need, and want, and how you satisfy that need. The good news is, that proper mental re-prioritization is possible by re-stabilizing your neuronic balances through high-quality rehab.
Lowered Inhibitions and Conscience
When addiction takes hold, the mind constantly seeks when and how to achieve the next “high” to satisfy neuronic cravings. This fuels many to do rash things such as stealing or harming people to get the means necessary to acquire their desired drug. In the chemically altered mental state of addiction, such actions are justifiable and even necessary to satisfy the user’s needs. The longer one dives into addiction, the more rash and frequent their actions may become to appease their addictive mentality.
Slower Reflexes and Motor Skills
Insomnia
Restlessness and lack of sleep are common short-term effects of many hard drugs. Even after the effects of the drug wear off, substance-dependent individuals may experience withdrawal-related insomnia that can last for hours, days, or longer. Thankfully, our exclusively trained recovery team has just the tools and medications to help you overcome these withdrawal symptoms. Most importantly, our unparalleled treatment methods can help you conquer the source of your addiction entirely.
Is Alcohol Considered a Drug?
Contrary to popular belief, medical studies confirm alcohol to be a drug due to its mind-altering properties. These same studies say alcohol’s interactions with neurotransmitters that regulate emotion, mood, and decision-making are similar to cocaine and other hard drugs. Therefore, alcohol addiction should be treated as equally important as any other drug addiction. In many cases, it poses an even greater risk to brain damage, physical health, and other vital functions.
Which Substances Cause Memory Problems?
Whether legal or illegal, the majority of mind-altering substances have adverse effects on your brain. Here are some precise substances and the specifics of how these drugs can cause memory loss.
Cocaine
Cocaine specifically affects the regions of the brain responsible for critical thought and decision-making processes. Therefore, abuse of this drug induces short-term memorization and decision-making deficiencies. These memorization and discretionary deficiencies can grow into long-term or permanent issues with prolonged use. Get cocaine recovery treatment now to prevent these permanent effects and begin your mental and physical healing process.
Psilocybin
Psilocybin is better known by its street name “magic mushrooms” or “shrooms”. Psilocybin distorts visual and circumstantial realities. It also impairs the user’s capacity to distinguish between the present, past, or future. This can dangerously drive the user into rash and potentially fatal decisions while under the influence. Aside from these short-term effects, limited studies suggest long-term effects consist of permanent and irreparable extended memory impairments.
PCP
PCP, a potent hallucinogen, is another distorter of circumstance and reality that was originally used as a medical anesthetic. PCP is frequently associated with permanent brain damage due to its repetitive disruption and genetic alterations of neurotransmitter functions. In short, the drug’s audio/visual hallucinatory effects rewire the brain’s chemical structure so drastically that some changes become permanent. This extreme rewiring is why many with a PCP dependency still report hallucinations during the detox healing process.
Alcohol
Ecstasy
The main addictive chemical in ecstasy, MDMA, over-stimulates the cerebral cortex. Since the cerebral cortex involves the largest part of the brain, the extent of short-term and long-term memory loss can cover a wide range. Everything from learning skills, analytical capabilities, memory retention, emotions, and more are affected by ecstasy in these regions. While ecstasy’s long-term effects on memory are not yet fully known, studies suggest that the drug can permanently damage any area of the cerebral cortex.
Marijuana
THC in marijuana binds to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, releasing high concentrations of dopamine while inhibiting cognitive and memory functions. Numerous studies prove marijuana’s short-term inhibitory properties on memory loss. While research on long-term memory loss is inconclusive due to the limited studies, further examination implicates long-term memory corruption.
Your Healing Journey Begins at Bayview Recovery Center
In honor of June’s Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, you owe it to yourself to preserve your mind. Your mental healing from substances and long-term damage begins and ends with our unparalleled support team and top-notch treatment options. You hold the key to a better, happier future with the decision you make at this moment. Unlock your limitless potential by reaching out to a dedicated physician who cares about your sobriety needs and addiction struggles. Our empathetic receptionists are eager to help you begin your healing journey. All you need to do is reach out to Bayview Recovery to embark on your road to true happiness.
