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.