Why we misuse drugs

Some people who try drugs are thrill-seekers, some are just curious, some try drugs because their friends use them, or they want to be perceived as ‘cool’. Even more susceptible to abusing drugs – and at risk of falling into addiction – are people who are suffering emotionally and who use the drug to cope with the day-to-day difficulties of life.These people try to ‘self-medicate’ themselves out of loneliness, low self-esteem, unhappy relationships, stress, and many other types of problems. Some drug misusers suffer from a mental illness such as depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, or schizophrenia.

Drug use doesn’t solve any of those problems, and it can easily make them worse or create new ones. But the short-term escape drugs provide can be so attractive that the dangerous consequences of misuse can seem unimportant.

How drug misuse can lead to drug addiction

You cross the line from drug misuse to drug addiction when using drugs stops being a choice and becomes a necessity. You’re convinced that the drug is necessary for you to have a feeling of well-being or even just to get through the day. Nothing is more important than getting high: not your family or job or relationship. Getting high, in fact, becomes so important that you’re willing to sacrifice everything, even as you deny that you have a problem.

Some factors that can lead us into drug misuse and addiction

Addiction is a very complex behaviour. Doctors and counsellors have been trying to understand its causes for many years. Today, we understand through research that a variety of factors can contribute to a person becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol. Some of these include:

• Use of drugs/alcohol by family members and friends. Peer pressure can be one of the most overwhelming factors in causing a person to use drugs/alcohol.
• Boredom, rebellion and curiosity.
• Growing up or marrying into a family where love, warmth, praise, and acceptance are lacking, sometimes to be replaced by emotional and/or physical abuse.
• Poor communication within a family means that children are not taught life skills to communicate with others outside the family and they can become isolated and suffer from low self-confidence or depression.
• Poverty or isolation from other people.
• Failure in school.
• Growing up where drug use is common and widely accepted.
• A highly emotional event such as the death of a parent or close family member or friend.
• Frequent family moves to new homes creating a lack of stability.
• Mental illness.
• Medical use of prescription drugs to treat depression or alleviate pain. For example, a doctor may prescribe a drug to an individual suffering from back pain. While the drug is intended to alleviate the pain, it may also contain some addictive side effects. If the doctor does not closely monitor use of these prescribed medicines, a patient may start to depend on them even if their back pain has gone, due to the feeling the medicine may give that individual.