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This depends on the drug. For opiates, as early as one week of continuous abuse will cause symptoms such as constipation, behavior that is different than what the person normally will exhibit...i.e. "too cheerful" or "too hyper", mood instability can occur with explosive anger that is unprovoked.

You are speaking of dependence on a drug, not addiction. Being dependent on a drug is very different than being addicted to it. Cancer patients may become dependent on the narcotics they are prescribed for pain, and this is inevitable, as their pain demands relief. They are NOT addicted, because they are not manipulatively seeking out the drug for means other than what it is prescribed for, and most of the time, folks who are dependent on a drug don't even WANT the drug in their life, where as a person whom is addicted craves it.

I'm assuming we are sticking with drug dependence and not addiction in this case.

Every drug has different side effects when dependence on it begins- of course, a need for more of the drug to do the same job will be necessary as the person becomes tolerant to the drug.

Another sign of dependence will be that the person will not be as tired, will not exhibit the same side effects such as lethargy that they did when they first started taking the drug- as their bodies have become used to the drug.

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9y ago

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