How Drugs Can Affect Your Appearance: The Ugly Truth

We all know that drugs are not good for us. That’s something we learn from a young age, but while we know that it can lead to the likes of cancer, heart problems, liver problems and all manner of mental health issues, you may not be aware just how much drug abuse can impact your appearance too.

Many illicit drugs have an impact on how we look, from opioid abuse to smoking cannabis, which is of course legal in many parts of the country now, and they can affect our appearance in various forms, forms that require a lot of treatment.

It can be a costly exercise to fix such problems, on top of the cost of rehab, unless you can find drug rehab centers that accept insurance, so it’s important to be aware just how drugs can affect your appearance, and the knock-on effect it can have financially to put things right…

Our Skin

When it comes to the parts of our body we are most self conscious about, the skin often comes out at the top of the charts. It’s the part of our body that gives us a youthful glow or healthy looking complexion. Yet, still so many people abuse drugs despite such anxieties around skin.

Drugs can cause a range of different problems with the skin, while drugs such as:

• Dry skin
• Rashes
• Scars
• Slower-healing wounds
• Uneven skin tone
• Dark spots
• Chapped lips

Our Hair

Similar to skin, hair can look significantly less healthy because of drug abuse, with the likes of cocaine, steroids, alcohol and meth particularly damaging our luscious locks.

Drug abuse can leave our hair looking dull and dry, while people will also suffer from a dry scalp that can lead to scabs and flaky skin.

What’s more, hair loss can be one of the most dramatic results of drug abuse.

Our Mouth

Alongside skin, our oral hygiene is also something as human’s we’re particularly self conscious about. After all, what are we without our smiles?

Different drugs can have different impacts on our oral hygiene, with stimulants likely to cause mouth sores, decay, as well as altering our sense of taste and smell, while studies have shown a connection between cannabis and oral cancer.

Opiates can also cause significant damage to teeth and gums, while methamphetamine causes so many problems the term “meth mouth” has been coined, with tooth loss, mouth sores and many more issues, leaving your smile a real sight for sore eyes.