Substance Abuse
Substance Abuse & Addiction
Substance abuse is when you use illegal drugs, alcohol, prescription medicine, and other legal substances too often in the wrong way affecting your daily functioning, causing problems at work, home, and social interactions.
Substance abuse is different from addiction. Many people with substance abuse problems can quit or change their unhealthy behavior. Addiction is a disease, meaning you cannot stop using even when your condition causes you harm.
Commonly Abused Drugs
Both legal and illegal substances have chemicals that can change how your body and mind work. You can have a pleasurable “high,” ease of stress, or help you avoid problems in your life.
Alcohol
Alcohol affects everyone differently, and if you drink too much too often, your chance of an injury or accident increases. Heavy drinking can cause liver and other health problems or lead to a more serious alcohol disorder.
If you’re a man and consume more than four drinks in a day or 14 in a week, you are drinking too much. For women, heavy drinking means more than three in a day or more than seven a week.
One drink is
- 12 ounces of regular beer
- 8-9 ounces of malt liquor, which has more alcohol than beer
- 5 ounces of wine
- 1 & 1/2 ounces of distilled spirits like vodka and whiskey