What Are The Major Causes Of Drug Addiction?

The incidence drug addiction has been increasing in our country.  The adolescents more easily fall prey to this curse.  Some of the causes are:

  Personality Tendency

The individual having some peculiar personalities are more prone to become a drug addict.  The most common are those having Dyssocial Personality.

Drug Experimentation

Some individuals have a tendency to use various drugs just for experimentation.  During the course of experimentation, some of them develop addiction.

Influence of Company

If an individual lives in company with a drug addict, he is likely to become an addict as well, after some time.  Most of the adolescents in our society develop addiction in this way.

Socio-Cultural Factors

Sometimes, the sociocultural factors encourage the incidence of addiction.  For instance, alcohol is socially acceptable in Western culture and is a commodity of every day use.  As a result, the chances of those societies are much greater compared to those cultures, where it is prohibited.

Tension and Anxiety

When a person faces a stressful situation, he usually uses drugs to get relief from his tension and anxiety.  Come of the individuals become addicts during this period.

Abuse of Medicines

Abuse of medicines is a common cause of addiction in many countries of the world, and unfortunately in Pakistan too.  There is no procedure regarding purchase of drugs.  Any one can buy medicines, such as Valium, Lexotanil, etc. from a chemist without prescription by a doctor.  Under these circumstances, an individual starts using one of these drugs, prescribed to him by the doctor, during illness.  After recovery from illness, he may continue the use of tranquillizers on his own.  A large number of individuals become addicts in this way.

The human psyche is equipped to handle a number of challenges. The reactions to people and situations depend upon past impressions. Over a period of time, a person becomes sort of 'conditioned' and his behavior becomes more or less predictable. However, it becomes serious when a person resorts to external help to deal with mental or physical need. The external help could come in the form of intoxicants or medication. Such addiction is more painful for the immediate society in the peripheral than the person.

Physical addiction is usually observed when the repeated use of drugs hampers and in a way, alters, the 'reward pathways' in the brain. This results in distorted thinking and self-abuse. On the other hand, hypersensitivity to internal and external stimuli results in extreme craving and in turn, mental addiction. Addicts are observed to react differently, depending on the extent of indulgence already reached and the availability of immediate help. However, there are certain factors that can help to arrest addiction, like:
- Extended help from immediate society.
- Patience and support of immediate family.
- Professional help from rehabilitation centers.
- Personal and private counseling.
- Timely recognition of the addiction.

Of all the above mentioned factors, the last, timely recognition is most important. It is important to identify the cause for addiction, which could be:
- Broken love affair.
- Financial crises.
- Personality disorder.
- Inability to deal with social stigma, arising out of personality disorder.

There are a number of causes of drug abuse and addiction. All of them are equally important, as they contribute to the terrible problem of addiction.

There are a number of people who become addicted to drugs because of pressure. Pressure can be of different types, the one most commonly seen is peer pressure. The people who usually succumb to this kind of pressure are the teenagers. Acceptance is a very important aspect of a teenager's life, and in many cases they are blinded to the bad things that they might be getting into just so they are accepted by others of their age. Besides acceptance, another cause for the increasing incidence of teenage addiction is the 'cool' factor. A lot of them think it is 'cool' to get high on drugs.

Athletes and sports people can get addicted to performance enhancing drugs. These are drugs that help boost performance, usually by increasing the muscle mass in the body and also endurance and stamina levels.

There are also a large number of people who are addicted to prescription drugs, usually anti-depressants and painkillers. They are usually prescribed these drugs for specific medical conditions, and get hooked to them over a period of time.

Then, there are the other category of people who do drugs just for the high. No inner reason for these people to do drugs, just a need to feel high that becomes a repetitive desire each time they do it.