Youth and Drugs: The Drivers of the Addiction Crisis- Pt 1
In recent times the issue of drugs has become a menace globally, not just in Nigeria but globally and it is becoming a cause of concern to all stakeholders, the government, international organizations, institutions like churches and Non-Governmental Organizations. The question is- Why is everyone concerned about this issue of drugs? this is simply because the target population or the population that is so affected by this issue of drug abuse, drug addiction is the younger generation.
According to some researchers in terms of drug addiction, it has been proven that by 2025 the unproductive population will be almost out of the way, unproductive because they are already aging while the population set to take over the challenge from them is the youth population. Unfortunately, right now this population of the youth are being confronted by the challenge of drug abuse drug addiction. The research further states that if nothing is done to checkmate this growing trend of drug addiction among the youth population that by 2025 the street of the world will be littered by people who have challenges not just with drug addiction or drug abuse but with mental health challenge. Rather for them being productive they will rather be battling with comorbid cases of drug addiction, mental illness and this means a lot to the world. This is why we are discussing this sensitive topic: what are the drivers to addiction crisis.
One of the problems in the mental health world that has been giving practitioners challenge so far is drug addiction. One of the prominent areas drug addiction and abuse have affected the lives of people most are careers and relationships. In fact, we call it career tragedy and relationship tragedy.
When we refer to career, drug addiction can eat into the fabric of one’s career life and vocational life to the extent it takes away from your fingertips that job or vocation that is making you productive and earn an income. Our career is aching to our survival and that is one of the areas drug abuse attacks. Similarly, it affects our relationships such that when someone is addicted to psychotic substance, they relegate primary relationship such as with friends and family to the secondary while relationship to substance becomes the primary. When you look at relationship with family and friends then you think about support. This means that the support network of humans if drug is giving a chance will definitely be affected. When you take away survival and support from the life of someone what remains, the person is as good as not living.
When you look at the global picture these are the major damage that drugs can do to the lives of people that give room to it.
The saying goes, “if we don’t know where we are coming from, we won’t understand where we going not to talk of where we are headed. Therefore, we need to have a deeper reflection, conduct research to identify where the issues are coming from in other to make sense of where we are.
One other thing that makes drug addiction and abuse a particular problem in our environment is that we are grouped among a set of countries known as developing countries or underdeveloped countries. In such countries there is a high unemployment rate and the youths are the ones who actually need employment. Nigeria falls among countries where there is social inequality meaning that there are many people who don’t have access to resources.
The percentage of people who don’t have access to the resources to those who have are very low. Those who naturally have access to the resources are the older people. Therefore, we have many young people who experience social inequality.
Socially we have the youths having greater odds to scale when compared to people in other parts of the world. This as a result drives many people to begin to find the easy way out of the stresses they experience. For example, if someone is facing unemployment for two years, three years and the persons result gets stretched, depending on other factors this person may want to snap out of the stress and due to the lack of strong support socially or within the family or within the nation, such young person towards behaviors such as substance use forgetting that there are high risks for substance use.
Using psychoactive substance as a way to deal with stress is not medically advised. Our youths should try to reach out to experts on how they can manage their stress.
Science has made us to understand that this issue of drug addiction is hereditary, it runs in the blood. Drug addiction and drug abuse is a family disease, but it doesn’t mean that because one person in the family takes it then everyone takes it. In other words, the fact someone in the family is addicted to psychoactive substance does not mean that everybody in the family is addicted to psychotic substance. What it simply means is that when someone is using substance that person is just a reflection of what is going on in the family, he is just reflecting the psycho pathology of the family.
The Predisposing Factors That Drive Substance Use.
Substances are things that are ingested meaning that there are biological ways by which they affect the individual.
Genetic Factors:
There are genetic factors that predisposes others to substance use. For instance, someone who grows up with parents that use substances, there is a way that the genetic makeup of the offspring of a substance user may incorporate traces of substance use.
Childhood Trauma
Another predisposing factor that leads to substance use in a young person is childhood trauma. Children who grew up in very harsh environment will somehow develop very thick skin but in the negative way. A child who is neglected, malnourished or exposed to a lot of bullying within the family such as excessive child abuse, such experiences will become something in the child and it is possible that such exposure to childhood trauma can be a predisposing factor for substance use. Children who go through rape or those who are exposed to extreme conflict are some instances of trauma that affects our children.
Family history of addiction
Mental health disorders within the family, if not well managed can become predisposal factors to substance use.
We also have precipitating factors. These are factors that trigger someone who is predisposed. For instance, someone who comes from a family where they have a history of diabetes, is a predisposing factor and this person now indulges in excess use of alcohol it is possible that this person becomes diabetic. The use of alcohol for a person who has a genetic predisposition to diabetes is a precipitating factor.
In our next article we conclude this topic by diving into other precipitating factors of drug abuse and ways to curb the menace.
Written by Adedeji Odusanya and Adeleke Taiwo, Clinical Psychologist
Arogi Trauma Care Foundation
Adedeji Odusanya
Odusanya Adedeji A., is a Licensed & Certified Clinical Psychologist whose domain of expertise cuts across management of specific mental health issues such as, Depression, PTSD, Anxiety & Anxiety related disorders, Substance Use Disorder, etc
