How can drugs affect my head?

Cocaine can leave you feeling anxious, paranoid, depressed and restless. You also might have to keep taking more to get the same effect which can lead to you developing a strong psychological dependence to cocaine.

Ecstasy can leave you feeling paranoid, confused and even depressed. Some people have even suffered from memory lapses, sleep problems and major depression following regular use.

Speed can make you feel stressed and anxious and leave you feeling tired, depressed and irritable. Speed also affects your memory and concentration. Taking speed over long periods has also been linked to mental illnesses such as psychosis.

Cannabis can affect your short-term memory concentration and leave you feeling stressed and paranoid.

LSD can be really unpredictable and people may experience their surroundings in very different ways. You could experience objects being distored, your surroundings moving and problems with your vision and hearing. You could also suffer from full blown hallucinations and flashbacks of past 'trips' for a long time afterwards.

You are more at risk of mental health problems if you already suffer from depression, anxiety or schizophrenia.

How can drugs affect my body?

Drugs can put a massive strain on your body and give you lasting physical damage:

Cannabis is really bad for your lungs and leaves you at risk of mouth and lung cancer, heart disease and bronchitis.

You can never be exactly sure what you're taking when it comes to ecstacy. If you're allergic to anything that's in it, it could make you seriously ill or even kill you. It also puts a big strain on your heart, liver and kidneys. Some people have died when these vital organs have failed.

Speed can also trigger heart attacks and epileptic fits in anyone who is prone to them. People have even died from overdosing.

Snorting cocaine can damage your nose. Long term it can give you serious heart and breathing problems.  It can also leave you feeling depressed, edgy, tired and paranoid. Some people can even experience muscle twitching, rapid pulse, nausea, high blood pressure, cold sweats, and mood changes.

Heroin is really addictive so it's easy to let the habit spiral out of control. Once addicted, people get very bad withdrawal systems and can experience weakness, sweating, shivering, skin crawling, achey bones, watery eyes, runny stomach and feelings of despair and depression. Injecting heoin also leaves users at risk of dangerous infections like HIV, hepatitis and gangrene if they're sharing needles. When users try to kick the habit, they can experience a period of diarrhoea, insomnia, vomiting, hot and cold sweats, and cramps.

With LSD you can experience dizziness, disorientation, fear, paranoia and even panic. A bad trip can leave users feeling really shaken for a long time afterwards. Some people can experience 'flashbacks' months or years later. This is like reliving moments of the trip all over again which can be really scary.

Eating magic mushrooms can cause stomach pains, nausea and vomiting and people who eat the wrong kind of mushrooms can get seriously ill and even die.

Foxy methoxy can also give people violent diarrhoea and sickness, some people have had epileptic fits or seizures who have never had them before and a few people have died after taking huge doses of foxy. It's relatively new on the scene so the long-term risks are not well known. Most people feel headachey, tired, washed out and perhaps a bit sick the next day. It can leave you feeling anxious with sleep being impossible. This can last for 24 hours afterwards. Food is also a total turn off.

BZP is 100% man-made and quite new on the drugs scene so it's effects are not really understood in the long term. People have experienced racing hearts and breathing and being unable to sleep.

Many people who have used PCP have freaked out and tried to self mutilate and even commit suicide with people being known to leap to their deaths and drown in pools. It can also result in respiratory arrest, kidney failure, convulsions and even death.