Drug Abuse and Addiction

Almost all of us will take a mood-altering substance at some time or another. These mind-altering substances are what we call drugs. Most of us have had coffee or tea, or had a few glasses of wine or beer. These are acceptable practices in terms of their health and social consequences.

However, some of us will abuse alcohol. Some will smoke cannabis, take amphetamines, try ecstasy, or shoot-up heroin. This over indulgence is dangerous, yet we choose to do it. Why do some abuse drugs while others don't?

People abuse drugs for many different reasons. Here are a few examples:

You should note that all these reasons deal with changing the way a person feels. People like to avoid boredom and loneliness. People also like feeling powerful, fitting into groups, feeling relaxed, feeling "good" etc. Drug abuse provides "good" feelings that are otherwise missing from a person's life. That's why people choose to abuse drugs in the beginning.

A danger with so-called "casual drug abuse" is that it carries a risk that, over time, it can escalate into habitual drug abuse. This is the foundation for drug addiction.

How does this happen?

If person abuses drugs to feel better or as a way of coping with problems, then there's a good chance that he or she will never learn the life skills necessary for feeling good naturally or coping with difficult situations. Instead, he or she may always choose to avoid uncomfortable feelings or situations by simply getting drunk or stoned etc.

Here's a make-believe example:

A schoolboy fails an examination. He feels bad and smokes some marijuana to avoid his feelings of shame and disappointment. He begins to do this regularly when he feels down. He gets older. He loses his job. He's very angry about that, but the old level of drug abuse no longer numbs his emotions. So he gets some tranquillizers from his doctor and soon starts to abuse them. They become his new emotional painkiller. He gets older still. A member of his immediate family dies. He is grieving. The old ways of killing his pain are not enough, he needs more. He begins to get drunk everyday. We can substitute alcohol or other drugs anywhere in here, it's all the same.

This individual has never learned how to cope with his uncomfortable feelings; he turns to drug abuse to "help" him with his problems instead of facing them head on.

So what's the problem with abusing drugs as an emotional painkiller or whatever? Well, drugs are like roses that grow in a garden. They look attractive but they have sharp thorns!

Some of the 'thorns', or risks, associated with drug abuse include:

Another, more insidious, risk associated with drug abuse and addiction is a person's:

This doesn't happen to everyone. Many people drink alcohol or smoke cannabis occasionally and feel no compulsion to drink or smoke more. Some have tried heroin or cocaine once or twice and decided not to take those drugs again. They are very lucky. They haven't lost control.

But many people do loose control of their drug abuse. They discover that drugs, like roses, have got thorns. And they can hurt . . . they can hurt very much. LOSS OF CONTROL can be driven by physical factors, psychological factors, or both.

Physical dependence is when the body comes to need a drug to function normally. If it's not taken, unpleasant withdrawal symptoms occur. The only way to avoid this is to take more of the drug(s). Psychological dependence is when an individual comes to rely on a drug to supply good feelings. These are feeling such as relaxation, self-confidence, self esteem, freedom from anxiety, etc. This is not just a casual desire, it's a powerful compulsion.

So, here's a scenario: A person first takes a drug out of curiosity, peer pressure, boredom, etc. They like the way it makes them feel. It makes them feel self confident, relaxed, and powerful. So they take it again in an attempt to get these good feelings back. They take it again . . . and again . . . and again . . . Now they're becoming either physically or psychologically dependent on the drug. They have to keep on taking it just to feel normal. They feel that they have no choice. At this point they have lost control of their drug use. However, they will probably not be able to admit this, even to themselves.

So, for some people, what began with casual drug abuse can develop into drug addiction. This can happen quickly over a period of weeks, or slowly over a period of many years.

Note that a person who abuses drugs occasionally doesn't intend to go on and become addicted to them. This is not a voluntary process. There seems to be a line somewhere in any person's personality and drug use. Once the line is crossed, it's too late. That person is very likely to be powerless to reduce or stop their drug intake by their own efforts.

We're not just talking about desperate heroin addicts or alcoholics on park benches here. There's a whole range of drug addiction and it can affect anyone.

This could be:

The compulsive alcoholic is no different than the heroin addict. The intensity of desire may be very similar. People who have become physically or psychologically dependent to some degree on their drug or drugs of choice often realize that they're drinking or using more than they used to. They may then make some effort to reduce their drug intake. This could involve cutting down the amount taken each time, only drinking or using drugs on certain days, switching to another drug (e.g. whiskey to beer, alcohol to cannabis, heroin to methadone) etc. Sometimes attempts to cut down may involve a life change such as moving home or changing jobs. It's very common for such efforts to end in total failure, much to the utter bewilderment and dismay of the individual concerned. He or she cannot reduce their drug intake. They're now faced with the fact that their drug addiction is beyond their control. It has taken on a destructive force of its own. He or she now needs help to deal this problem.

Nobody knows why some people become dependent on drugs while others do not. It has nothing to do with lack of will-power or moral weakness. A genetic component may be involved. An individual's family and social environment may also play a part. But it does it really matter why? What's more important is what can be done about it.

DENIAL is a symptom of drug addiction. It works something like this:

A person may like abusing drugs, either for the good feelings that it brings or simply to avoid withdrawal symptoms. He or she wants to keep on using the drug. Yet he or she knows that the drug abuse is hurtful to themselves, their family, and their friends. The individual loves his/her family and friends. There's a subconscious conflict here that can't be resolved. The only way out of it is to deny that he or she has a drug problem and deny that it's harmful to themselves or to others. The person may really believe there's no problem, as this DENIAL is subconscious.

Drug addiction is NOT an illness; it is a serious problem the individual has developed over time and through repetitive drug abuse. Just like any other problem in life, drug addiction has a solution!

Much of what you've read thus far has described the dangers of either regularly abusing drugs or alcohol, or becoming dependent on them. You may be thinking that you know of people who get drunk now and then, or smoke marijuana occasionally without any appearance of problems with their drug use. You should be warned that casual drug use does pose a danger. From our experience we can say that drug abuse and drug addiction are progressive. They start small . . and get larger . . and larger . . and larger.

It's very easy to move from marijuana, to amphetamines, to heroin. It is also easy to transition from a weekly drink, to a daily drink, to permanently drunk. It is common to take more powerful drugs or take more of a single drug. Remember, this can develop slowly over the years. Would you like a so-called "casual drug user" to be your taxi or train driver, to look after you while you are in the hospital, to do electrical wiring in your home, to repair the brakes on your car, to be driving towards you just as you cross the road? Always remember, there's no such thing as a safe level of drug abuse.