Long-Term Side Effects of Opium

Opium is a powerful substance that comes from the poppy plant, and it has been used for a very long time to dull pain and to bring a feeling of calm. That calm feeling is the reason some people keep returning to it. But the calm does not last, and the price of using it again and again is paid slowly, in the body and in the mind. Long-term use does not usually cause one sudden disaster. It causes a slow wearing down. Energy fades. Sleep becomes shallow. Food loses its appeal. Thinking becomes cloudy. Moods swing more often. Work becomes harder. Family life becomes strained. By the time the damage is obvious, it has usually been building for months or years, and some of it takes a long time to improve even after a person stops.

This article explains what can happen after months and years of opium use, in plain words. It is general information, not individual medical advice. Opium is an opioid, and its effects overlap with other opioids in many ways, because they act on the same systems in the body. If you are worried about your own health, or about someone close to you, a qualified health professional or a local addiction support service is the right place to turn for help. You do not need to wait until things become desperate before you ask.

How Opium Works in the Body Over Time

Opium contains natural compounds that act on the brain and the nervous system. When a person uses it, those compounds attach to receptors that normally respond to the body’s own pain-relieving chemicals. The result is a dulling of pain, a feeling of warmth and calm, and a slowing of the body’s systems. Breathing becomes slower. The gut moves more slowly. Alertness drops. For a short while, worries feel further away. That is the effect people remember, and it is the effect that draws them back.

The problem is that the body adapts. After repeated use, the same amount brings less relief and less calm than it did at first. This is called tolerance, and it is one of the most important long-term effects of opium. The brain adjusts its own chemistry around the drug, producing less of its natural calming chemicals and relying more on the drug to feel normal. As tolerance grows, a person may use more often, or in larger amounts, just to avoid feeling unwell. The drug stops being a way to feel good and becomes a way to avoid feeling bad. That shift is a warning sign, and it often happens gradually, without the person noticing the exact moment it changed.

Over time, the body’s dependence deepens. When the drug wears off, the person may feel restless, anxious, sweaty, sick to the stomach, or unable to sleep. Muscles may ache. The nose may run. These are withdrawal symptoms, and they are the body’s way of protesting the absence of something it has learned to expect. Withdrawal is deeply unpleasant, and the fear of it keeps many people using long after they have stopped enjoying the drug. It is also the reason that stopping on your own, without support, can feel so difficult. The body needs time to relearn how to work without opium, and that process is easier with proper help and a plan.

The long-term picture is not only about the brain. Opium slows many systems at once, and when those systems are slowed day after day, month after month, they begin to work less well. The lungs take in less air. The gut moves food more slowly. Hormones shift. The immune system weakens. None of these changes happens in a single day. They accumulate quietly, which is why people often blame them on age, tiredness, or stress, rather than on the drug itself. Understanding how the drug works helps make sense of why the harm is so broad: it does not attack one organ. It changes how the whole body regulates itself.

Breathing, Sleep and the Body Slowing Down

One of the most serious long-term effects of opium is on breathing. Opioids slow the rate and depth of breathing, because they reduce the brain’s response to carbon dioxide building up in the blood. During sleep, this effect becomes more dangerous, because a sleeping person cannot consciously take a deeper breath. Over months and years, people who use opium regularly are more likely to develop sleep apnoea, a condition in which breathing pauses repeatedly during the night. Each pause starves the body of oxygen for a few seconds, and the sleep is broken again and again. The person may not remember waking, but the sleep is shallow and unrefreshing, and the next day brings tiredness, headaches, and poor concentration.

Even during the day, breathing can become less efficient. The lungs clear mucus less well, and infections of the chest become more common and take longer to clear. A cough that would pass in a week in a healthy person may linger for weeks. Exercise becomes harder, because the body cannot take in enough oxygen during effort. Climbing stairs, walking uphill, or carrying a heavy load leaves the person breathless sooner than before. Over years, this reduced capacity can make ordinary physical work feel exhausting, and it can make recovery from illness slower and more difficult.

Sleep itself changes in other ways too. Opium may make a person feel drowsy, but the sleep it brings is not the deep, restorative sleep the body needs. It suppresses the dreaming stage of sleep and fragments the night into short, light stretches. Over time, the person may sleep for many hours yet wake feeling unrefreshed, as if they had not slept at all. Daytime drowsiness follows, and with it comes a higher risk of accidents, especially when driving or working with machinery. The cycle feeds itself: poor sleep makes the next day harder, and the harder day makes the person more likely to reach for the drug again in the evening, in the hope of rest that never properly comes.

Digestion, Appetite and Weight

Opium slows the movement of food through the gut, and this is one of the most common and most miserable long-term effects. Constipation becomes a regular problem, sometimes severe. The bowels move less often, the stools become hard and difficult to pass, and the abdomen feels bloated and uncomfortable. Over months, chronic constipation can lead to pain, piles, and in serious cases, a blockage of the bowel that needs urgent medical care. It is a side effect that people rarely talk about, because it feels embarrassing, but it is very real, and it affects daily comfort and health in a direct way.

Appetite also changes. Many people who use opium over a long period eat less, or eat at irregular times, or choose sugary food because it is easy and quick. The drug dulls hunger and changes taste, so meals lose their appeal. Weight often falls, sometimes slowly, sometimes sharply. Muscles weaken as the body takes in less protein and fewer nutrients. Skin can become dry and pale. Hair may thin. Teeth and gums can suffer too, partly because of poor diet, partly because of a dry mouth, and partly because dental care is neglected when life revolves around the drug. These changes are not cosmetic. They are signs that the body is not getting what it needs to repair itself.

Nausea is another frequent companion of long-term use. The drug can irritate the stomach and slow its emptying, so food sits heavily and the person feels sick after eating. Vomiting may follow. Over time, this can damage the lining of the gullet and the teeth, and it can make eating even less appealing. The gut is not the only system affected by poor nutrition. A body that is short of vitamins and minerals heals more slowly, fights infection less well, and feels tired more often. The person may catch colds and other infections more easily, and recover from them more slowly, because the immune system is weakened by both the drug and the poor diet that goes with it.

The Brain, Memory and Clear Thinking

The brain is where opium does its most subtle long-term damage, and it is also where the damage is easiest to miss. Opium does not make a person suddenly forget everything. It makes thinking slower and less sharp in small ways that add up. Attention wanders. It becomes harder to follow a long conversation, or to keep track of several things at once. Reading a page takes longer, because the mind drifts. Learning something new feels harder than it used to. These are not dramatic failures. They are small losses of clarity that make work, study, and everyday decisions more tiring than they should be.

Memory is affected in a similar way. Short-term memory becomes less reliable. A person may forget an appointment, lose track of a conversation, or walk into a room and forget why they went there. Over years, this can affect confidence at work and at home. The person may start writing everything down, or avoiding tasks that need careful remembering, or relying on others to keep track of things. The brain’s ability to plan ahead and to weigh consequences also weakens. Decisions become more impulsive, and the future feels less real than the present moment. That shift in thinking makes it harder to plan for stopping, because stopping is a future benefit that requires present discomfort.

There is another, quieter change. The brain’s reward system, which normally responds to food, friendship, work well done, and other everyday pleasures, becomes dulled. Ordinary joys feel flat. A good meal, a laugh with a friend, a walk in the evening, these things bring less pleasure than they once did, because the brain has learned to expect the much stronger signal of the drug. This is why long-term users often say that nothing else feels enjoyable any more. It is not that they have become ungrateful. It is that their brain’s chemistry has changed, and it takes time without the drug for normal pleasure to return. That return does happen, but it is slow, and it is one of the reasons the early weeks after stopping can feel grey and empty.

Mood, Anxiety and Low Mood Over Time

Opium is often used to escape low mood, anxiety, or stress, and in the short term it can seem to help, because it dulls feeling. Over the long term, it usually makes mood worse. The brain adapts to the drug by producing less of its own mood-regulating chemicals, so when the drug is not present, mood falls lower than it was before use began. Anxiety rises between doses. Irritability grows. Sleep worsens, which worsens mood further. The person may feel trapped in a cycle: they use the drug to feel better, the drug makes their baseline mood worse, and so they need the drug again to reach the level of calm they once had naturally.

Depression is common among people who use opium over a long period, and it is not always easy to tell where the drug ends and the depression begins. The two feed each other. Low mood makes it harder to eat well, to sleep well, to work, and to keep in touch with friends and family. Isolation deepens the low mood. The drug offers a brief escape from that isolation, but it does not solve it, and the next day the isolation is still there, often a little worse. Some people also become more anxious, worrying about money, about being found out, about their health, and about what will happen if they cannot get the drug. That worry is not irrational. It is a realistic response to a life that has become organised around a substance.

It is important to say clearly that opium is not a treatment for anxiety or depression, even though it can feel like one in the moment. It masks the symptoms while making the underlying problem harder to address. A person who uses it to cope with emotional pain is less likely to seek the kind of help that could actually address that pain, whether that is talking to a health professional, joining a support group, or working through the problems that caused the distress in the first place. When the drug is removed, the original pain is still there, and it needs to be faced. That is why support after stopping matters so much. Stopping the drug is only the first step. Learning to live without it, and dealing with the feelings it was hiding, is the longer work, and it is work that deserves proper help.

Tolerance, Dependence and the Risk of Overdose

Tolerance is not a minor detail. It is the engine that drives long-term harm, because it pushes the amount used steadily upward. A dose that once brought calm and relief eventually brings almost nothing, and the person uses more to chase the original feeling. But the body’s other systems do not develop tolerance at the same rate. Breathing, in particular, remains sensitive to the drug even when the feeling of pleasure has faded. This mismatch is dangerous, because a person may take a large amount in search of an effect they no longer feel, while their breathing slows to a dangerous level. That is how overdose happens, often without warning, and often in people who have used the drug for years and believe they know their limits.

Overdose is the most serious acute risk of opium, and the risk grows with long-term use, not smaller. The signs include very slow or shallow breathing, blue lips or fingertips, a pale or clammy face, and a person who cannot be woken. This is a medical emergency, and it needs immediate help. The longer the brain goes without oxygen, the greater the damage. Even if a person survives an overdose, the lack of oxygen can leave lasting harm to the brain, affecting memory, thinking, and movement. The risk is higher when opium is mixed with alcohol or with sleeping medicines, because those substances also slow breathing, and their effects add together. It is also higher after a period without use, because tolerance falls during that break, and a dose that was once usual can become too much.

Dependence also changes how the body handles other medicines and other illnesses. A person who uses opium regularly may need different care when they have surgery, or when they develop another health problem, because the drug interacts with pain relief and with anaesthesia. Health professionals need to know about opium use in order to give safe care, and that can be hard to admit. But hiding it puts the person at greater risk. The long-term picture is clear: the more the body depends on opium, the narrower the margin between a dose that feels normal and a dose that harms becomes. That narrowing margin is one of the most honest reasons to seek help before a crisis forces the issue.

Work, Family and Daily Life After Years of Use

The effects of long-term opium use are not confined to the body. They spread into every part of daily life. Work is often one of the first things to suffer. Concentration fades, energy drops, and the person may miss days, arrive late, or make mistakes they would not have made before. Employers notice. Colleagues notice. Income falls, and with it comes financial pressure, which adds stress, which makes the person more likely to use the drug again. It is a cycle that is hard to break from inside, because each part of it makes the next part worse.

Family life suffers in a similar way. The person may become withdrawn, spending more time alone, or more time with people who also use the drug, and less time with family. Promises are broken. Money that was meant for food, rent, or children’s needs may go to the drug instead. Trust erodes, slowly at first, then more quickly. Children notice the change, even if they cannot name it. They notice the parent who is present in body but absent in attention, the parent who falls asleep in the middle of the day, the parent who is irritable or tearful without warning. That absence leaves a mark, and it is one of the saddest parts of long-term use: the harm is not only to the person using the drug, but to the people who love them and depend on them.

Social life narrows too. Friends who do not use the drug drift away, because the person is less reliable, less present, and less fun to be around. The social circle shrinks to a smaller group, often centred on the drug itself. Hobbies fall away. Exercise stops. The day becomes organised around obtaining the drug, using it, and recovering from it. That narrowing is not a choice the person makes in a single moment. It happens in small steps, each one reasonable on its own, until the life that remains is much smaller than the life the person once had. Recognising that narrowing is painful, but it is also useful, because it shows what could be regained if the drug were left behind.

When the Harm Becomes Harder to Reverse

Some of the harm of long-term opium use improves after stopping. Sleep deepens. Appetite returns. Energy rises. Thinking clears. Mood lifts. But not all of it reverses quickly, and some of it may not fully reverse at all. The longer the use has gone on, and the heavier it has been, the longer recovery takes. The brain needs time to rebuild its own chemistry. The gut needs time to move normally again. Muscles need time to rebuild. Relationships need time to heal. That slowness is not a reason to give up. It is a reason to start sooner rather than later, because every month of continued use adds to the time recovery will take.

There are also harms that can become permanent if they are left too long. Repeated overdoses can damage the brain. Long-standing constipation can damage the bowel. Long-standing poor nutrition can weaken bones and teeth. Long-standing neglect of other health problems, such as infections, diabetes, or high blood pressure, can allow those problems to worsen unchecked. The body is resilient, and it can recover a great deal, but it is not endlessly forgiving. The earlier a person stops, and the earlier they get proper medical care for the damage that has already happened, the better the chances of a full recovery.

The good news is that recovery is real, and it is not only about the body. People who stop using opium, with support, often find that their thinking sharpens, their sleep improves, their appetite returns, and their relationships begin to heal. It does not happen in a week. It happens over months, in small steps that are easy to miss day by day but obvious when looked back on over a year. The first step is often the hardest, because it means admitting that the drug has caused harm, and asking for help. But that admission is not a sign of weakness. It is the clearest sign that the person is ready to take their life back, and it deserves respect and support, not judgement.

My Take:

I want to be plain about this. Opium is not a harmless old remedy, and it is not a gentle way to relax. It is a powerful opioid, and when it is used over months and years, it wears the body down in ways that are easy to miss until they are serious. I have seen how the story usually goes, not in a dramatic fall, but in a slow narrowing. A person starts using it for pain, or for sleep, or for calm, and at first it seems to help. Then the help fades, the dose rises, the sleep gets worse, the stomach stops working properly, the thinking gets cloudy, and the life around the drug gets smaller. That is the pattern I keep coming back to, and it is why I think the long-term picture matters more than the short-term feeling.

What troubles me most is how quiet the damage is. A cough that lingers, a memory that slips, a mood that sinks a little lower each month, these things do not announce themselves as drug damage. They look like age, or tiredness, or stress, and so they are ignored. By the time a person realises that opium is behind them, years have passed, and the recovery will take longer. I wish more people understood that the slowness of the harm is what makes it dangerous. If opium caused obvious damage in a week, people would stop quickly. Because it causes damage over years, people keep going, telling themselves that they are managing, until managing is no longer true.

Tolerance is the part I think people underestimate most. It is not a sign that the person is strong, or that they can handle the drug. It is a sign that their brain has changed, and that it now needs the drug to feel normal. That is a frightening place to be, because normal should not require a drug. When I think about tolerance, I think about the narrowing margin between feeling normal and stopping breathing. That margin gets smaller as use goes on, and the person often does not know how small it has become until something goes wrong. That is not a moral judgement. It is a fact about how opioids work, and it is a fact that deserves to be said plainly, without softening it.

I also think about the gut, because it is the part people are least likely to talk about, and it is the part that makes daily life miserable. Chronic constipation, nausea, loss of appetite, these are not small complaints. They affect every day, every meal, every moment of comfort. A person who cannot eat properly, cannot sleep properly, and cannot think clearly is not living a full life, whatever the drug promises in the moment. The drug promises calm, but it delivers a body that cannot do its basic jobs properly. That is a bad exchange, and I think it is worth naming it as such, without pretending that the exchange is fair.

The brain effects worry me in a different way. Memory and clear thinking are the things that let a person work, learn, plan, and look after the people they love. When those things fade, the person loses more than a skill. They lose confidence. They start to avoid tasks they once handled easily. They lean on others more. They feel less capable, and that feeling feeds the low mood that makes them reach for the drug again. It is a circle, and it is hard to step out of, but it is not impossible. I have read enough about recovery to know that thinking does improve after stopping, slowly, over months. That improvement is real, and it is worth working towards, even if the first weeks feel grey and slow.

Mood is the part I feel most strongly about, because I know how many people turn to opium to escape pain that is emotional, not physical. Grief, worry, loneliness, shame, these are real pains, and the drug offers a temporary quiet from them. But the quiet is borrowed, and the price is a lower mood when the drug wears off. Over time, the person is not escaping their pain. They are adding to it, and they are making it harder to face the original pain with a clear mind. I do not say that to blame anyone. I say it because I think the honest answer is not more of the drug, but help with the pain itself, whether that help comes from a health professional, a support group, or a trusted person who will listen without judgement.

I think about families a great deal when I write about this. A person who uses opium for years does not only harm themselves. They harm the people who depend on them, and they do it in small, daily ways that are hard to forgive and hard to forget. A child who grows up with a parent who is often absent, irritable, or asleep is not growing up with the parent they deserve. A partner who watches the person they love slowly withdraw is not living the life they chose. I do not say this to add guilt. Guilt does not help anyone stop. I say it because family is often the reason people finally decide to stop, and it is a good reason. Wanting to be present for your children, your partner, your parents, that is a strong and honest motivation, and it deserves to be honoured.

Work matters too, and I do not mean only money, although money matters. I mean the sense of being useful, of doing a job well, of being relied on. Long-term opium use takes that away, slowly. A person who was once reliable becomes unreliable. A person who was once sharp becomes slow. That loss of standing at work is painful, and it is often hidden, because the person is ashamed to admit why it is happening. I think it is important to say that the loss is not permanent. When a person stops, and their thinking clears, and their energy returns, they can rebuild their working life. It takes time, and it takes patience from employers and from the person themselves, but it is possible, and it happens.

Overdose is the risk I would warn about most directly. It is easy to think that because a person has used opium for years, they are safe, because they know what they are doing. The opposite is true. Long-term use makes overdose more likely, not less, because tolerance for the feeling fades faster than tolerance for the breathing effect. A person can take a dose that feels like nothing, and still stop breathing. Mixing opium with alcohol makes that risk much higher, and so does using it after a break. I would urge anyone who uses opium to understand this risk, and to make sure the people around them know what to do if breathing slows and the person cannot be woken. That knowledge can save a life, and it should not be left to chance.

I am also honest about recovery. It is not quick, and it is not easy, and I do not want to pretend otherwise. The first weeks after stopping can feel awful, physically and emotionally. Sleep is broken. Mood is low. Cravings are strong. Ordinary pleasures feel flat. That is the brain relearning how to work without the drug, and it takes time. But the improvement does come, and it is worth waiting for. Sleep deepens. Food tastes better. Thinking clears. Energy returns. Relationships begin to heal. I think it helps to know that the grey feeling is temporary, and that it is a sign of healing, not a sign that stopping was a mistake. The body is repairing itself, even when that repair feels uncomfortable.

If someone you love uses opium, I would say this: do not try to fix it alone, and do not try to shame them into stopping. Shame pushes people away, and it makes them hide their use more carefully. What helps is steady, honest support, and a clear message that help is available and that you will stand by them while they get it. Encourage them to talk to a health professional, or to a local support service, and offer to go with them if they are afraid. Be patient, because recovery is not a straight line, and there may be setbacks. A setback is not a failure. It is a sign that more support is needed, not that the person is beyond help.

Finally, I would say this to anyone who has never used opium: do not start. The calm it offers is brief, and the price is paid over years, in breathing, digestion, thinking, mood, work, and family life. There is no safe way to use it regularly over a long period, and there is no dose that avoids tolerance and dependence. If you are in pain, or you cannot sleep, or you feel low, talk to a health professional about safer options. There are better ways to deal with those problems, ways that do not slowly take your health and your life away. The first use may feel like nothing special. The hundredth use is a habit. The thousandth use is a life organised around a drug. Walk away from the first one, and you will never have to find your way back from the thousandth.

I would add one more thing, about asking for help. In many places, there is still shame around drug use, and that shame keeps people from talking to a doctor or a support service. I think that shame is misplaced. Needing help with a powerful drug is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign that the drug is powerful, which it is. Health professionals have seen this before, and they know how to help, without judgement. The bravest step is not stopping alone in secret. It is saying, plainly, I need help, and then accepting the help that is offered. That step is available to anyone, at any time, and it is never too late to take it.

I think about pain a great deal, because pain is often where opium use begins, and it is where the trap is hardest to see. A person in pain deserves relief, and opium can seem to offer it. But over months and years, the body becomes more sensitive to pain, so ordinary aches feel worse, and the drug that was meant to help now makes the pain feel sharper when it wears off. I would urge anyone who uses opium for pain to talk to a health professional about safer ways to manage that pain, and about help with the dependence that has grown around it. Pain deserves proper care, not a drug that slowly makes it worse while taking everything else away.

I also want to be honest about the shame that surrounds drug use, because that shame does real harm. It keeps people from talking to a doctor. It keeps them from telling their family. It keeps them from asking for help until a crisis forces them to. I think that shame is misplaced, and I think it should be named as such. A person who has used opium for years is not a bad person. They are a person who has been caught by a powerful drug, and who needs help to get free of it. The health professionals who work with drug dependence have seen this many times, and they know how to help without judgement. The shame belongs to no one, and the help belongs to everyone who asks for it.

When I think about what a good outcome looks like, I do not think about a single moment of stopping. I think about a year later: a person who sleeps through the night, who eats regular meals, who thinks clearly at work, who laughs with their family, who has money left at the end of the month, who can walk up a hill without gasping. That is not a fantasy. It is what recovery looks like, in small, ordinary, precious steps. It does not happen in a week, and it does not happen without help, but it does happen, and it is worth every difficult day that leads to it. If you are reading this and you use opium, I would ask you to hold that picture in mind, and to take the first step towards it, by talking to someone who can help.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does damage that builds slowly from Opium go away after stopping?

Some of it does, and some of it takes a long time. Sleep, appetite, energy and clear thinking often improve over weeks and months after stopping, as the body relearns how to work without the drug. Other harm, such as damage from repeated overdoses or from years of poor nutrition, may take much longer, and some of it may not fully reverse. The earlier a person stops, and the sooner they get medical care for any damage that has already happened, the better the chances of recovery. Support from a health professional makes the process safer and easier.

What should I do if Opium is causing tolerance that keeps rising?

Rising tolerance is a clear warning sign that the body has become dependent on opium, and it should not be ignored. The safest step is to talk to a doctor or a local addiction support service, rather than trying to manage the rising amount on your own. They can help plan a safe way to stop, with support for withdrawal and for the longer recovery afterwards. Do not simply take more to chase the original feeling, because the risk of overdose rises as the amount rises, while breathing remains sensitive to the drug.

How soon can relationships worn thin appear after using Opium?

Relationship strain can begin quite early, and it usually grows slowly over months. At first it may be small things: missed meals together, broken promises, less patience, or time spent alone. Over time, trust erodes, money pressure grows, and family members feel the absence of a person who is present in body but distant in attention. Children notice the change early, even if they cannot explain it. The strain is often one of the first signs that use has become a problem, and it is also one of the strongest reasons people give for seeking help.

Can Opium really cause mental health that worsens?

Yes. Opium can worsen mood over the long term, even though it may seem to calm anxiety or low mood in the moment. The brain adapts by producing less of its own mood-regulating chemicals, so mood falls lower between doses, anxiety rises, and sleep worsens, which worsens mood further. Depression is common among long-term users, and the drug and the low mood feed each other. Opium is not a treatment for anxiety or depression. A health professional can help with both the drug use and the underlying mood problems, together.

Who is most at risk of declining health from Opium?

People who use opium often, in larger amounts, or over a long period face the highest risk, because tolerance and dependence grow with frequency and duration. Older people, people with breathing problems, liver or kidney problems, and people who mix opium with alcohol or sleeping medicines face extra risk, because those combinations slow breathing further. Teenagers and young people are also vulnerable, because their brains are still developing. Anyone who is worried about their health should speak to a qualified health professional promptly, rather than waiting for the harm to become severe.

Is a harder road back from Opium dangerous?

Stopping opium after long-term use can be difficult and uncomfortable, and it should not be done alone without support, especially if use has been heavy or long-standing. Withdrawal can bring restlessness, anxiety, sickness, muscle aches and broken sleep, and the fear of those symptoms keeps many people using. A doctor or a local support service can help plan a safe way to stop, with medical support where needed, and with help for the longer recovery afterwards. The safest step is to ask for that help early, before a crisis forces the issue.

Sources

National Institute on Drug Abuse — https://nida.nih.gov/research-topics/opioids
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration — https://www.dea.gov/drug-information
Mayo Clinic, Drug addiction — https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/drug-addiction/symptoms-causes/syc-20365112
World Health Organization, Substance abuse — https://www.who.int/health-topics/substance-abuse
NHS, Drug addiction: getting help — https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/addiction-support/drug-addiction-getting-help/

This article is general information only. It is not medical advice. If you are worried about your health or about someone else, speak to a qualified health professional.