Garden Heights Recovery Publishes New Article For Brain Awareness Week

March 16th, 2020 – This week is Brain Awareness Week, and Garden Heights Recovery in Jersey City is raising awareness about the various ways illicit substances can affect the brain. Garden Heights published an article today explaining the connection between brain function and drug abuse.

As an intricate, complex computer, the brain is in charge of the flow of information throughout the entire body. The brain is made up of billions of brain cells called neurons. These neurons are responsible for sending and receiving signals, controlling movement, and regulating emotions.

Illicit substances interfere with the way neurons process signals. Some drugs can amplify these signals, causing large amounts of brain chemicals to be released, while other drugs completely block them. When neurons are amplified, they cause a large number of brain chemicals to be released. This causes feelings of euphoria and extreme pleasure. This sensation is often greater than the pleasure that is produced naturally within the brain, which is what makes certain drugs so addictive.

Continued abuse of illicit substances can dramatically affect the brain, altering areas that are necessary for basic, vital body functions such as breathing, sleep, and heart rate. All of these necessary functions are disrupted by drugs. It explains why overdoses can interrupt a person’s breathing and heart rate. This is also what makes drug abuse so deadly.

Medical professionals continue to be amazed by the seemingly miraculous design of the brain. By participating in Brain Awareness Week, Garden Heights Recovery hopes to shine a light on how this organ can be adversely affected by illicit substance abuse. This Niznik behavioral health facility hopes that anyone living with addiction will reach out and get the help that they need.

Brain Awareness Week was founded by the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives and the European Dana Alliance for the Brain and is put together by the Dana Foundation. It is a global campaign to garner widespread support for brain science. During one week in March of every year, partners host a set of events within their communities to share how brain science impacts people's daily lives.

Drugs’ effects on the brain can be devastating, and it is still only one of the vital organs that are damaged by substance abuse. Long term use of illicit substances can have a much wider array of physical and mental health effects.

Garden Heights Recovery, in Jersey City, New Jersey, provides comprehensive outpatient programs such as Intensive Outpatient (IOP), Partial Hospitalization, and Outpatient (OP) treatment, with treatment modalities like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Emotion and Trauma-based Therapies, Relationship and Family Counseling, Motivational Interviewing, and Life Skills Training.

Garden Heights Recovery’s full continuum of care offers evidence-based and client-centered programs that cater to the specific needs of each client, including relapse prevention, education and employment support, and transportation assistance to group meetings and therapy sessions.

For more information, contact Garden Heights Recovery today. With help, recovery is possible.