With the vast amount of information and resources available, it’s hard to imagine that people try and use drugs without knowing they might become addicted. Despite this, users end up taking that first line or using that first needle and begin their descent into addiction. But why do they do it? Everyone’s experience is different, but there are several common draws to addictive substances.
It Feels Good: While the stories of addiction and the way it destroys lives and families can be enough to keep some people completely clean, there are those who are drawn to the unique experiences drugs can provide. From intense hallucinations to euphoric pleasure, drugs are addictive because of the euphoria they provide as a smoke screen to the damage they inflict.
These drugs overload the pleasure receptors in the brain to provide a temporary feeling of intense euphoria. But it never lasts.
As a person continues to use, their brain begins to adjust to the elevated level of serotonin or dopamine, the chemicals in your brain that cause you to feel happy. This causes a person to need more of the drug in order to feel the same effect, and many people die attempting to recreate the feeling they had when they tried the drug for the first time.
It Provides Relief: Life can be and often is difficult. There are many trials and tribulations that people go through in life, and sometimes people don’t feel like they can manage them alone. Suffering through a divorce, the death of a loved one, eviction, or being fired can all be life rattling events that people feel they can’t overcome.
Desperate to escape that reality and to feel the peace and happiness they thought lost to them, these people often turn to drugs to give them an escape from the realities that they don’t want to face.
This also connects drugs to another, legal substance that gives people a temporary burst of happiness: alcohol. Results from the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health showed that 1 in every 8 people who suffered from a substance-abuse problem also had issues with alcohol abuse.
The Prescription Crisis: The opioid epidemic is a well-known and often coined term to describe the opioid addictions ravaging the nation. Opioids are painkillers often prescribed by doctors to treat injuries and other ailments. While these medicines can sometimes be the only thing that helps minimize the pain, people can become too reliant on these drugs and develop an addiction.
According to the CDC, more people died of prescription opioid overdoses than heroin overdoses in 2016. While pushback against regular and unrestrained prescriptions has grown, the addiction levels remain a crisis within the country and affect millions every day.
While a general list, these aren’t the only reasons that people delve into intense drugs despite the warnings given to them. Several other factors can tie into drug addiction including ethnicity, mental disorders, social status, and even genetic predispositions.
Despite the concerted efforts by the government to curb the problem, drug addiction is still flourishing in the nation, and it’s easy to feel like you’re alone in your struggle toward sobriety, but the team at Asana Recovery is here to help you at every stage in your journey.
