Drugs and Substance Abuse - A threat to the youth

Addictions started out like magical pets, pocket monsters. They did extraordinary tricks, showed you things you hadn’t seen, were fun. But came, through some gradual dire alchemy, to make decisions for you. Eventually, they were making your most crucial life-decisions. And they were… less intelligent than goldfish. - William Gibson.

The past couple of weeks have been a bit laid back but we are back with yet another exciting topic. Drugs have had a huge influence on our generation and it's very important that we bring the issue to conversation. Let's dive right in and get over the nitty-gritties of the topic.

WHAT IS DRUG AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE?

It is the harmful pattern of EXCESSIVE use of psychoactive drugs such as alcohol, pain medication or illicit drugs like crystal meth and marijuana. This activity is done mainly for the purpose of creating pleasurable effects on the brain. Drug use is a problem that studies have shown to affect millions of young adults from all walks of life and socioeconomic strata.

WHY DRUGS?

The reasons vary from one person to another and the influence of a reason can not be quantified in all cases. For most individuals, drugs, especially alcohol and marijuana, consumption is for recreational purposes or for ‘casual purposes’ (whatever that is). However, these are some of the other factors:

• Environmental stressors – school and work stresses

• Social pressures – at parties, and social events

• Individual personality characteristics – difficult family situations, lack of a bond with a parent or siblings and lack of supervision may leading to substance abuse among the youth

• Psychiatric problems – depression, PTSD, ADHD, anxiety and loneliness are some of the mental health disorders that can make an individual use drugs in order to cope with painful feelings

• Genetic vulnerability – family history of addiction presents a greater risk of developing dependency or addiction

DRUG CATEGORIES

Drugs abused fall into three categories as follows;

1. Depressants

These drugs are known to depress the brain’s normal function and faculties and they include sleeping pills and anxiety pills.

2. Stimulants

These cause stimulation of the brain giving rise to alertness and increased bursts of activity (energy) as well as high adrenaline releases into the blood stream. Examples include cocaine, crystal meth.

3. Hallucinogens

These cause hallucinations and a feeling of dissociation from oneself. They also cause distorted sensory perception, delusions, paranoia and even depression. Examples include LSD and ecstasy ***.

Other terms of importance in this discussion dependency and addiction.

Dependency is a situation whereby an individual’s functionality is dependent on the necessitated re-consumption of a psychoactive substance due to an adaptive state that would have developed in an individual from consumption of the drug resulting in withdrawal effects which necessitates re-consumption. As we can see, a habit of casual consumption can develop into substance abuse, becoming a disorder of dependency and if perpetuated develops into something much serious, addiction.

Addiction is described as a biosocial compulsive, out of control drug use. It is marked by a change in behaviour caused by the biochemical changes in the brain after continued substance abuse. Regardless of the harm caused by the drug to an individual or others, the drug becomes the main priority causing the individual to act irrationally when they do not have the substance in their system. Addiction in short, encompasses both a mental and physical reliance on a given substance.

HOW TO IDENTIFY SUBSTANCE ABUSE

The question remains quite controversial as to how much of substance/drug usage is considered normal or acceptable. Not to worry, there are some pointers that one can check to tell if they have a dependency or addiction. These signs include but are not limited to;

• Tolerance to the drug or need for higher doses to get a ‘high’

• Withdrawal effects when one tried to decrease or stop using the drug

• Spending a lot of time to get, use and recover from the effects of using

• Withdrawal from social and recreational activities due to drug use

• Continued use in the sight of physical, social, psychological problems from using

• Interferences with work, school or home duties and obligations

• Strong urges to consume that block the thoughts of anything else

• Keeping or maintain a ‘stash’ of the substance or drug

• Use of drug leading to unsafe behaviour such as unprotected sex and driving

WHAT ARE THE LIFE CHANGING COMPLICATIONS?

Drug and substance abuse can create a lot of dangerous and damaging complications and these include;

• Getting a communicable disease e.g. HIV and STIs

• Financial problems

• Legal issues

• Accidents

• Family problems

• Suicide (do check the previous post on this issue here if you haven’t)

• Problems at school

• Work issues

Now that all has been said, what is it that an individual can do in face of this overwhelming mental health disorder you may be wondering? The starting point would be an individual accepting that they have a problem and are willing to work on it. Individual and family psychotherapy should be carried out to address and confront issues that may have contributed to and resulted from the development of a substance abuse disorder. It may seem like a ton of work at first but it takes commitment and persistence to overcome. It is also up to the community, the family, the friends and each and everyone of us to support the individual. This can be achieved through support group meetings and psychological support systems where heart to heart conversations are carried out.

For now; this is as far as we will go on the issue of drugs. If you still haven't subscribed to our blog; please do so now. Head on to our social media pages and be part of the conversation as we further unfold the issue of drugs. Till next time; cheers!