People use drugs to change how they feel or experience the world around them. People also use drugs to enhance their abilities at work, lovemaking, for weight loss, playing an instrument, or cleaning the house. Another common reason people take drugs is to feel euphoria and get high. Ultimately drugs make a person feel better about themselves. Even with peer pressure to use drugs, the goal is to fit in to secure being liked. Drug use and drug addiction, though, are not the same. There is no going back when someone crosses the thin line of drug use to drug addiction. Addicts have lost the ability to see drugs as damaging because they do more for the addict than anything else in life.
Among people aged 12 or older in 2020, 58.7 percent (or 162.5 million people) used tobacco, alcohol, or an illicit drug in the past month. (SAMHSA)
Which Addiction Influencer is Most Common?
The most common among addicts and alcoholics is a personal history of trauma, abuse, or neglect of the four influential markers. These are the most likely to cause emotional pain, depression, anger, fear, anxiety, and resentments out of the four influencers above. When someone experiences a trauma such as witnessing violence between parents, getting injured, being emotionally abused, sexually or physically abused, or being neglected and not having enough food to eat or never being told or shown they are loved, these situations are tremendously damaging. In a room full of recovering addicts and alcoholics, the number one reason most will say why they drank or drugged will have to do with trauma, abuse, or neglect.
Why Do Only Some People Get Addicted to Drugs and Others Don’t?
Addiction is, in fact, a mental health disorder that centers on the mind and emotions. It is a disease that continually gets worse unless the individual receives professional drug treatment and emotional therapy. The reason that some people can binge on alcohol and cocaine all weekend and then not use or drink for many months or years afterward, has to do with four main criteria that all addicts share in common. The four markers that predispose a person to addiction include:
- History of trauma, abuse, or neglect (especially during childhood)
- Family history of addiction
- Drug use or condoning of drug use in the home during youth and teenage years
- Diagnosed or Undiagnosed mental health disorders
Are You on Drugs Because of Who you Are?
The answer to this question is YES. People use drugs to change how they feel, perform, tolerate social settings, and modify how they perceive their lives. So, when a person is high on any drug, they are made new or different by the drug. As a result, many people think that drugs solve their problems. But, at the same time, people who rely on drugs to help them in any capacity also know what it feels like not to have the effects of the drug helping them- and that is when addiction most often starts. Still, some non-addicts use drugs to escape occasionally, but when the high ends, they are also done being different and will not pursue the drug ever again. Addicts will simply use more or try a different drug to attain the desired effect.
What Do Different Substances Do To People?
Generally, drugs will fall into three basic categories regarding the effects. First, drugs that relax a person are called central nervous system depressants. Drugs that excite or wake someone up are central nervous system stimulants. The last category is hallucinogens which often slow and energize a person. The following are the most popular drugs and their category:
- CNS Depressants: Heroin, Prescription Pain Killers, Fentanyl, Alcohol, Benzodiazepines, Muscle Relaxers, Sleep Aides
- CNS Stimulants: Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Prescription Stimulants
- Hallucinogens: Marijuana, Ecstasy, LSD, Mushrooms, GHB, Molly, Ketamine
What Do Addiction Experts Say Why Someone Uses Drugs?
The National Institute on Drug Abuse is the leading branch of government that focuses solely on addiction. They specify that people use drugs to feel better, fit in, and fix a poor emotional state. The Institute also defines what happens in the brain on drugs.
Drugs excite the parts of the brain that make you feel good. But after you take a drug for a while, the feel-good parts of your brain get used to it. Then you need to take more of the drug to get the same good feeling. Soon, your brain and body must have the drug just to feel normal. You feel sick, awful, anxious, and irritable without the drug. You no longer have the good feelings you had when you first used the drug. This is true if you use illegal drugs or if you misuse prescription drugs. (NIDA)
How Do I Quit Using Drugs?
Evoke Wellness provides evidence-based forms of treatment and therapy that help addicts and alcoholics not desire to use drugs or drink any longer. Recovery is not a quick fix, and all addicts need lifelong support to remain happy and content without using drugs. Evokes programs provide each person the foundations to enjoy life without getting high or drinking. We have a program for men, women, and young adults. We provide inpatient, outpatient, intensive outpatient, aftercare, and sober living. To find out how to be content without drugs, call now for immediate conversation with our clinical staff.
