Glossary

Addictive - A drug is described as addictive if it produces a physical dependency.

Addiction - Addiction is often used interchangeably with dependence. So a person can become physically or psychologically addicted to a drug.

Cravings - A person experiences a craving when they feel a compulsion to use the drug or to drink alcohol. Cravings can be very powerful yet they lose their potency the more the person doesn’t give in to them, eg by distracting themselves.

Delusional - Firmly believing something that is not true.

Dependency - A person is psychologically dependent on alcohol or drugs when they believe they cannot cope with life or situations without taking the substance.

Some drugs like alcohol and heroin also make the person physically dependent. This is when the person takes the substance regularly enough – daily – and the body gets used to it. If the person cuts down or stops, the body craves link the drug or alcohol and the person experiences withdrawal symptoms. These can be very unpleasant – shaking/sweating and some can be fatal – withdrawal fits. The person has no control over these – it’s due to physical changes in the body. When a person is physically dependent a gradual reduction in the drug is necessary, often the person will need medical help with medications prescribed to help with withdrawal, known as a detoxification or detox. The term is often used interchangeably with addiction.

Depression - This refers to the medical condition where a person feels profoundly sad and dejected. The person is unable to just ‘pull themselves together’. Anti-depressants are usually prescribed to help lift the person’s mood.

Detox - This is when someone who is physically dependent safely withdraws from the substance with medication prescribed by a doctor.

Flashbacks - This is when a person experiences a memory of the drug induced state. If the flashback is of a bad trip link then the flashback can be distressing.

Hallucinations - This can affect any of the 5 senses: hearing, seeing, feeling, tasting and smell.The experience is totally real for the person, although it has no basis in reality. Hallucinating can be pleasant or terrifying depending on what is being seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelt.
Eg a person may see things that are not really there, like snakes sliding off the wallpaper and moving across the floor, or hearing voices in your head belonging to someone else, that you have no control over. This voice may tell you amusing things or give a running commentary or negatively may tell you that no-one is to be trusted giving rise to a feeling of paranoia.

Hallucinogenic - A drug that brings on hallucinations. The person experiences a trip where hallucinations are present. The trip may be pleasurable, or a frightening trip depending on the hallucinations experienced.

Panic attacks - These involve an overwhelming sense of dread, the person believes something awful is going to happen. The panic attack is usually short but with intense anxiety and fear.

Paranoid - Believing that something or someone is out to get you where there is no external evidence for this.

Psychoactive - The component of a drug which affects the brain.

Psychosis - This is the term for a person experiencing delusions and hallucinations after the effects of the drug have worn off in drug induced psychosis, eg amphetamine psychosis.

The terms also relates to the same experience not related to drug taking. This is due to a mental health condition where the person experience delusions and hallucinations. Conditions such as schizophrenia have these symptoms.

Schizophrenia - This is a mental illness where the person loses some contact with reality. They may experience delusions link and hallucinations. The condition has acute phases where the person is mentally unwell and with treatment including medication the symptoms can disappear. The person usually stays on the medication to keep the symptoms at bay.

Tolerance - This is when someone who is physically dependent on alcohol or drugs needs to take more of the substance to get the same effect. The body has become used to it.
When the person stops taking the substance eg after a detox tolerance is lost and smaller quantities of it are needed for the effect. This can be dangerous if the person takes the higher amount, as overdose can result.

Trip - The drug induced stated where the person experiences hallucinations. The way a person is feeling, what they are thinking, whether they are feeling good about themselves and life. The situation they are in, like a familiar safe place with friends they trust all this has an effect on whether the person experiences a good or bad trip.

Top