DRUG ABUSE Alex Hamlin recounts his experience as an addict in "Living with Drug Abuse".

More on the DVD "Living with Drug Abuse"

"No matter how bad it is, you can stop the nightmare", says Alex Hamlin, a recovering drug addict who recounts his experience as an addict in "Living with Drug Abuse" and explains how he managed to reclaim his life despite the fact that he started experimenting with drugs at a relatively young age.

Through Alex's story, it becomes clear that drugs may not always be physically addictive, but they are always psychologically addictive – they create a craving for the changed emotional state brought on by using the drug as it stimulates the pleasure system in the brain.

More on drug abuse

A drug is a substance that changes your thoughts and emotions, and is used deliberately to change the way you feel and to alter your mood. Some drugs induce a "high", a feeling of exhilaration, or a state of relaxation, free from anxiety or stress. Some drugs are legal, like alcohol, painkillers, nicotine and caffeine, but are no less addictive. Other drugs, like dagga, cocaine, heroin, and ecstasy, are illegal and are very dangerous. Many people are addicted to more than one drug at a time – this is called multiple drug or poly-drug/substance addiction. This is even more dangerous than using a single drug, as the interactions between substances can be lethal.

Some people think that so-called recreational drugs, such as dagga, are not harmful. They think that they can control it. This is not true – all drugs are harmful and cause physical as well as psychological changes in the body. The longer you use drugs, the worse the effects on your body and mind are. There is simply no safe way to use drugs.