Effects, Causes and Prevention of Drug Abuse in the Society

Drug abuse entails the self-administration of drugs for non-medical reasons in recurrence and amount which may compromise the ability to function effectively. In most instances, it results in physical, emotional, and social impairment. Substance abuse is recognized as one of the main social problems across the globe. It has multiple aspects that relate to magnitude, range of consequences, psychosocial interrelations, the types of substances that are consumed and the impacts on the health delivery systems. Typically, the problem is associated with adolescents and persons in the economic productive age set. Thus, it has a significant impact on the quality of the lifestyles and the economic growth of the nation. With respect to the scope, it is estimated that more than two hundred million individuals are affected by drug use and abuse. There are various consequences and causes of drug abuse, but in this essay we will analyze what exactly can be the cause and what are the ways of prevention. Although the problem is pervasive and is caused by factors such as high levels of stress, social pressure, mental health conditions, and psychological trauma, it can be prevented using an assortment of strategies including mass media campaigns, community organizations and groups, family counselling, training, and managing individual cases, drug laws and policies, education, and behaviour modification interventions.

What Are the Causes and Effects of Drug Abuse

High levels of stress lead to abuse of drugs by increasing impulsive responses, self-medication, and treatment failure. Basically, the stress levels culminate from adversities such as grief and poverty. Biologically, the condition causes a rise in the stress hormones like cortisol. Intense, prolonged, and unpredictable stressors result from interpersonal conflict, unemployment, loss of loved ones, and so forth. They result into depressive like symptoms and learned helplessness, in which a person suffers from impotence, which arose from previous childhood trauma, or other traumatic events. Learned helplessness is also associated with classical conditioning. Prolonged exposure to intense stress increases the risk of developing common cold, depression, tension, anxiety, headaches, and tensing shoulders. Adverse childhood experiences such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, family dysfunction, and neglect increases the risk of drug abuse. Social influence, also referred to as peer pressure, partakes a vital role in its contribution to drug abuse. Further, the psychological distress that is associated with unhappy marriages, harassment, and unemployment dissatisfaction leads to drug addiction. The experience of childhood neglect and abuse promotes drug abuse by decreasing self-control. In this respect, young adults who face the risk for drug abuse have decreased emotional control and self-control. The addictive behaviour is attributable to their painful experiences and environments in which they are brought up. From a theoretical point of view, people abuse drugs to deal with the tension that relate to life stressors or to relieve the symptoms of depression and anxiety. The drugs are used to regulate their emotions as well as sooth their psychological distress.

When at risk populations face peer pressure, it influences them to choose to abuse drugs. In this regard, psychological studies show that a child’s friends play a significant role in their decision making processes regarding various choices. When teenagers interact with those who engage in certain behaviours, they are more likely to involve in similar activities. In addition, the fear of isolation causes them to choose to abuse drugs to be accepted within their social groups. Research evidence indicates that seeing social media posts of other children abusing drugs influenced viewers and encourages them to engage in the same practice. Group cohesion is a sense in which an individual feels entitled to remain loyal to an association to which they belong to. Normally, adolescents and children feel pressured to fit in their social circles. Thus, they make choices and exhibit behaviours depending on what they think and believe their peers want them to do. If they think that abusing the drugs or consuming alcohol would make their peers to respect them, they are likely to engage in the practice. Seemingly, the teens are more likely to engage in risky behaviours because they conceive the acts to be rewarding.

Mental health disorders such as anxiety and depression contribute to drug use and abuse problems like alcoholism. The disorders impair judgement and prevent the victims from making informed decisions. Persons with mental health problems self-medicate drugs to ease the effects of their conditions. According to Centore, the drugs help them to cope with difficult emotions or to change their mood temporarily. Teens who struggle with social anxiety use drugs to relieve the anxiety in order to function effectively in their peer groups. The drugs also help to calm them down before social events. Individuals who are depressed use the drugs to cheer themselves up and reduce irritability. Substance abuse quietens the negative thoughts of depressed individuals. Also, individuals with mental health issues face self-esteem problems. In this respect, they always think that they are less effective and flawed. To fit in the social groups and feel normal, the victims resort to using and abusing drugs.

The exposure to traumatic experiences leads to substance use disorders including dependence and abuse. Individuals who experience child abuse, disasters, wars, criminal attacks, and other forms of traumatic events resort to drugs or alcohol to deal with bad memories, emotional pain, guilt, poor sleep, terror, anxiety or depression. Teenagers abuse the substances to dull the negative and painful effects of stress and trauma. The experimentation with alcohol for first time users progresses in abuse or dependence. In light of the self-medication theory, people in psychological distress tend to turn to drugs to manage the intense emotions and traumatic reminders. The drugs help them to avoid emotions whether negative or positive. Individuals with drug use problems are more likely to experience trauma than those without the disorders. The affected individuals find themselves in a vicious cycle where traumatic events trigger substance abuse and use of drugs increases their vulnerability to traumatic incidences.

Drug use and abuse has negative effects on the health and productivity of the citizens. Substance abuse is a social problem that affects the American youth in devastating ways. It limits their engagement in employment and thus, prevents economic growth and development. There are various approaches that can be used to resolve the problem and reverse the current trend.

Ways to Prevent Drug Abuse, Its Causes and Effects

Mass media campaigns can reduce drug use and abuse by changing the norms regarding the malpractice. The forums can be used to demonstrate the negative effects of drug abuse on individuals and the society alike. Through mass media, the public can be informed about the positive effects of non-use. The campaigns can change the opinions about the prevalence of the problem, persons who are most affected by the menace, and the techniques that can be employed to resist drugs. The main avenues include use of radio, bill boards, newspapers, and television. Collaborations with the entertainment industry, interactive media, and music videos can lead to desirable outcomes. Conjointly, the government should take deliberate measures to reduce pro drug media messages to discourage victims from involving in the practice.

Community coalitions and organizations can help to reduce drug use and abuse significantly. The efforts require cooperation among several stakeholders at the community level to come up with strategies to reduce substance abuse. The initiatives involve representatives and contributions from community agencies who work together to specify and formulate goals for addressing drug abuse. They also develop collaborative approaches for achieving the goals and implement the respective strategies jointly. The community planning groups run their operations at a grass root level. They focus on engaging and empowering the community residents as well as professional staffs.

Educating family members, counselling, and managing individual cases prevents drug use and abuse in different ways. According to Kempf, Llorca, Pizon, Brousse and Flaudius, the efforts focus on modifying family management practices and building parenting skills through education and training. The education teaches parents important skills and strategies for supervising and monitoring their children. Additionally, the training shows them how to increase emotional attachment, help their children to succeed in school, or assist them in the development of competencies and skills that are essential for avoiding substance abuse. A classic example of such a program entails the Strengthening Family Program. In addition to training, family therapy can help members to maintain strong bonds that are essential for avoiding substance abuse. Therapy builds similar skills sets as training but it is more intensive. Further, it mostly involves high risk teenagers and their families. Moreover, family case management can lead to desirable outcomes. It involves the use of a variety of intervention activities and monitoring initiatives to help families and individuals who require the services. The drug involved families are encouraged to seek treatment. The therapies also address pertinent issues that relate to relapse.

By changing behavior, the modification strategies help to prevent drug use and abuse. According to Malick in his 'Causes and effects of drug abuse essay pdf', the approaches involve the timely review or tracking of behaviours over time. They identify behavioural goals and use feedback and negative or positive reinforcement to modify behaviour. The techniques depend on external reinforcement to mould the behaviour of the affected populations. The benefits of the techniques are realized when students achieve an ability to modify their individual behaviour using a combination of approaches. To teach students or victims cognitive-behavioural strategies, Kumpfer explains that instructors use modelling and demonstrating behaviours. Also, they capitalize on coaching and rehearsals to help the students to acquire new skills. For instance, the students are taught methods of recognizing the physiological cues that are experienced in risky scenarios. They rehearse the skill by practicing stopping rather than acting impulsively when they encounter challenging scenarios. They are taught how to identify and propose alternative activities when friends propose engaging in substance abuse. Also, therapists show them how to use cues to engage in healthy and acceptable behavior.

Classroom instruction is an effective strategy that is used by schools to prevent drug use and abuse. In this respect, the curriculum incorporates factual information regarding drugs and the negative implications of abuse. It also focuses on skill building interventions that improve the awareness of students’ social influences surrounding drug use and abuse. Also, the interventions expand the repertoires of students for identifying and appropriately responding to potentially harmful or risky scenarios. In his research, Kumpfer further indicates that normative education interventions have positive impacts on the perspectives of the norms that surround substance abuse. In addition, use of behavioural instructional techniques which rely on rehearsals, coaching, and modelling helps to display and inculcate new skills. Labeling theory plays a major role in educational environments additionally. According to Howard Becker’s studies in the 1960s, the indicated theory discloses why individual’s ethics or demeanour contend with one another resulting in the “deviant” behavior of the individual.

Drug abuse regulation and laws address important issues and help to prevent abuse significantly. They address concerns such as prescription drug abuse, drugged driving, prevention methods, and the effects of drugs on specific populations. In his review, Whitesell et al. asserts that drug abuse policies prevent the practice and educate the public about negative effects of selling drugs and abusing them. The law offers provisions for criminal penalties for people who smuggle drugs in the country as well as possess them. The decriminalization and legalization of certain drugs has significant impacts on addiction. Notably, the laws recognize the importance of willpower and morality to dealing with substance abuse.

The self-administration of drugs for non-medical reasons has devastating effects on the health of individuals and their productivity. By limiting the participation of the affected populations in economic activities, substance abuse compromises economic growth and development of the nation. The government utilizes significant resources to address the problem and safeguard the wellbeing of its population. The causes of drug abuse include mental health complications, peer pressure, and psychological trauma. Another cause is the exposure to high levels of stress that prevents individuals from coping effectively with life challenges. Drug use and abuse can be resolved using various strategies. Education equips the addicts with factual information regarding the negative effects of the practice. Media campaigns can be used to inform the public about substance abuse and change their attitudes, norms, and perceptions. Behavioral therapy aims at modifying behaviour and equipping the victims or risky populations with skills and cues to help them to overcome challenges. Family therapy, training, and individual case management teach parents important skills to supervise and monitor their children as well as establish and nurture meaningful relationships.

Reflection

Many individuals don’t open up about what they go through behind closed doors and keep everything bottled in leading to depression, drug abuse, suicide, and many other impeding health and mental factors. I watched most of my close friends go from drug abusers to sober to becoming motivational speakers on not taking drugs. Throughout my research, I found that most drug abusers come from traumatic experiences such as peer pressure (group cohesion). Being pressured into partaking in such harmful activities is like continuously putting salt on an open wound. Drug abuse can be prevented through counselling, talking to a loved or trusted one about what he/she may be enduring. We are not alone, we must all care for one another in this world of hatred, violence, and evil. You don’t know what each person is going through, be careful with what and how you say your words to someone. Love always wins overall, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.”

References

• Centore, M. (2016). Causes of drug abuse. New York: Mason Crest.
• Charkravarthy, B., Shah, S. & Lotfipour, S. (2013). Adolescent drug abuse-awareness and prevention. Indian Journal of Medical Research, 137 (6), 1021-1023.
• Kempf, C., Llorca, P., Pizon, F., Brousse, G. & Flaudias, V. (2017). What’s new in addiction prevention in young people: A literature review of the last years of research. Frontiers In Psychology, 8, 1131.
• Kumpfer, K. (2014). Family based interventions for the prevention of substance abuse and other impulse control disorders in girls. International Scholarly Research Notices, 2014, 1-23.
• Malick, R. (2018). Prevention of substance use disorders in the community and work place. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 60 (4), S559-S563.
• Spector, M. (2014). Labeling Theory in Social Problems, Volume 24, Issue 1, 69-75.
• Whitesell, M., Bachand, A., Peel, J. & Brown, M. (2013). Familial, social, and individual factors contributing to risk for adolescent substance abuse. Journal of Addiction, 2013, 579310.