While many substances can cause neurological problems, those issues are not necessarily completely permanent. Patients who have been struggling with neurological issues for some time might be worried that their thought processes and patterns are never going to improve.
They might feel the same way about some other consequences of most sustained substance-use patterns, including skin conditions. Patients may be worried about eventually developing serious medical conditions like cancer, but many of them will also wonder if they can address the physical and psychological problems that are affecting them already.
Neurological Changes
Substances almost always affect the brain in some way. Patients typically seek out the substances for at least some of their neurological effects. However, the side effects of those substances will be undesirable, even for the patients who are specifically interested in certain effects.
Some primary effects of substances are, in fact, forms of brain damage. It might not seem like that at the same, but the patients who believe that they are getting some sort of emotional high might be just damaging their brains, especially if they are using substances like inhalants.
Many other supposed chemical highs associated with substances are complex forms of brain damage, and they can cause additional forms of brain damage over time. However, the brain has always been better at healing itself than some researchers once believed, which will apply to the patients who have used substances for varying periods of time.
Patients who have gone to detox centers in Denver might immediately start noticing that they can think more lucidly once they have completed the initial detox process. People who have struggled with remembering things since they have started using substances might actually find that their memory has started to get better.
Cognitive Abilities
It’s also common for people to have a difficult time focusing on tasks or emotions at hand when they’re using certain substances. Even the substances that seem to increase a person’s level of focus can make it worse over time, or at least cause it to become directed poorly. It’s just as common for patients to quickly start finding it easier to focus when they have stopped using certain substances.
Critical thinking skills can suffer for people who have used substances for long enough, and some patients may have experienced those results quickly. People might assume that, given the complexity of critical thinking skills, they might not see much of a substantial improvement when they recover.
However, even a patient’s critical thinking skills can get better after becoming fully sober. Some substances will temporarily impair a person’s critical thinking abilities, and patients could notice at least some change immediately. However, other patients may need to spend more time developing those skills again. If they’re committed to it, recovered substance-use disorder patients can at least partly repair their critical thinking skills.
Many of the habits that people start to preserve cognitive abilities as they get older might help people who are trying to full recover from prolonged substance-use disorders. However, people who can socialize with others and read will already probably notice some positive changes regarding various cognitive skills.
Recovered substance use disorder patients have almost always benefited from having support networks that are stable. Social interaction can help people prevent neurological disorders, and it might address some neurological problems that have already started. The social interaction that people might get from their support networks may help them in this manner as well.
Some cognitive issues may take longer than others to heal. However, patients may also see some beneficial changes rapidly.