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■現年25歲的小白，13歲起濫藥，現已出現「過目即忘」的情況。 資料圖片
Drug abuse leads to brain damage and even depression among youth people. A survey reveals that among young people who abused drugs, 64.9% showed signs of brain dysfunction as their fluency in thinking, concentration and visual memory were impaired. A rehabilitated youth said that due to brain damage caused by drugs, she had difficulty in reading as she would forget the first sentence as soon as starting a second one while she read an article. According to a scholar,“weak working memory”is a result of drugs damaging the development of the frontal lobe of the brain and the damage might not be repairable.
The Polytechnic University and the University of Hong Kong jointly conducted a survey in the past year to evaluate the effects of drugs on brain function and mental health among 97 young drug abusers. The survey found that 64.9% of the respondents showed signs of brain dysfunction. Among them, 35% could not think fluently, 31% could not concentrate and 22.8% had visual memory impairment. These damages seriously affected their daily lives and work. The survey also revealed that 62.2% of the respondents had symptoms of depression; the situation was much more serious than the 30% level reported in overseas countries. Besides, 15.8% of the respondents had anxiety disorders.
Xiao Bai, aged 25, started taking drugs at the age of 13 and used to take mostly ketamine. She said she took up drugs initially under peer influence but later she used drugs as a means of handling her emotional problems. Xiao Bai managed to find out eventually that drugs had done harm to her body. During the time of addiction, she would slap the wall, cut her wrist and burst out crying under the influence of drugs. She quitted drugs more than a year ago, and discovered through subsequent body check-ups that drug abuse had damaged her abilities of concentration and memorization.
Young as she is, Xiao Bai has already had problems of memory loss and difficulties in reading. She cannot read an article properly because no sooner has she finished reading a sentence and tried to proceed to the next than she forgets what the sentence is about. She needs to go back and forth all the time while reading a book. ■translated by開明
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