How do long term stress and drugs age the face?

Perhaps by impacting on the collagen underpinning to the facial skin. That along with not sleep and a face in constant tension.

Maybe it causes constriction of the blood vessels in the face

Alot of it is hereditary. Of course hard living affects the looks, but with some people not at all. Crack and any stimulant drug does it the worst because they dry out the body.

A lot of people near where I live now look strung out or like they did drugs for a long time, but might be recovered now. They are wrinkled, skinny, and even their hair makes me think that about them. Although, it is possible they just have been in the sun a lot and maybe smoked a lot of cigarettes too. But, really the sun is the worst offender. I was just talking to a guy over the weekend and The back of his neck was wrinkled so deeply, I don’t think I have ever seen it that bad. His head was shaven and the contrast of his smooth bald head made the neck wrinkles even more obvious. It was easy to see he had let the back of his neck burn many many times in his life and used to have a full head of hair.

Alcohol can make people look ruddy/red. Especially if they have red undertones in their skin to begin with. They also sometimes get a swollen look to their face. I think it is something with the blood vessels. Both drugs and alcohol can dry out the body, dryness and also repetitive motion, along with collegen breakdown can create wrinkles. For instance if you smoke your drug of choice you might get wrinkles around the mouth area sooner than you would have.

I sometimes can tell young people are alcoholics by their face, word choice, and how they behave. The other day I was listening to talk radio and a caller said about three sentences and the DJ interupted her out of the blue and said, “you do coke don’t you?” She admitted to using cocaine once in a while, which pretty much the DJ and audience figured it was more or had been more. That’s a little off topic, but my point is alcohol and drugs show up in our bodies in all sorts of ways, and it doesn’t surprise me they can possibly cause wrinkles. Being very skinny makes it worse, because skinny is associated with certain drugs, and being skinny also allows wrinkles to show more.

Add in addicts probably do not get very good restorative sleep. Being passed out on drugs and alcohol actually can effect the sleep cycle. The sleep is not as curative.

Having said all that I know plenty of prescription drug addicts and alcoholics who you would never know just looking at their face. Especially the perscription drug people.

I see it all the time where I work and the community in which I am blessed to live….Alcohol and drug/meth abuse literally decreases oxygen from reaching the skin therefore decreases circulation. This causes skin to lose its luster and healthy shine and ability to heal. It quickly starts to sag, wrinkle and any blemishes or acne, especially if picked are prime sites for bacterial infection and or scarring. These people are usually easy to pick out in my line of work. Pair that up with the weight loss and the behaviorism’s and BINGO….....