What problem is your substance use trying to fix?

Human brains associate experiences like success, having good food, intimacy and laughter which are part of everyone’s life with happiness and reward by releasing dopamine, a feel-good chemical that is more or less responsible for motivation or a balanced state of mind in us. Pain, trauma or loss of a loved one also is a part of everyone’s life and will result in short-term effects that may or may not lead to major long-term effects on one’s quality of life depending on how the individual responds to such events and their consequences. Some can overcome such consequences and some cannot.

The key here lies in the ability to deal with trauma in a healthier way. While the knowledge of dealing with emotions in a healthier way is all over the physical world and the web too, some people are in-adept at controlling or balancing their emotions and end up self-medicating themselves with prescription drugs or illegal substances to overcome their pain. Some casually seek a reward from the brain for a pleasurable experience by using illegal substances. With a significant surge in the number of people falling prey to addiction over the past few decades, all interventions now boil down to one question. i.e., 

What problem is their substance use trying to fix? Why would an individual willingly put himself/herself in harm’s way by consuming dangerous substances? One reason they commonly mention is that drugs help them fix their problems. But do drugs really fix problems? Before analysing the facts, let’s just look at the various problems that substance abusers attempt to fix by using drugs:

Trauma

Trauma results from experiencing unexpected, terrible events such as accidents, rape or a natural disaster like flood or earthquake, etc.. An emotional response generated by the brain out of shock from experiencing disaster or watching a disaster is called trauma. Trauma can be both emotional and physical i.e., losing parts of the body to an accident, permanent loss or dysfunction of a productive organ or permanent loss of mobility due to a rape etc.

Shock and denial are the natural manifestations of such events which can also cause physical symptoms like headaches or nausea. People who have experienced trauma suffer from a condition called PTSD that causes them to look at the entire world as dangerous. Their past pain when not treated, gives them nightmares and hinders their logic. It makes their and their loved one’s everyday life difficult. These people abuse substances in order to forget their past and carry on with their present.

Inherent mental illness

Some people have inherent mental illnesses that cause them to feel irritated at the slightest of the incidents. We observe so many adolescent kids who are prone to aggression and keep landing themselves and others too in unexpected troubles. These children might be suffering from mental conditions called psychosis, depression, schizophrenia or anxiety. 

People suffering from such illnesses cannot mingle with the crowd as they are aware of their drawbacks and also suffer from lack of compassion from others. They assume that the entire world hates them because of their behaviour. Since social situations are inevitable, they resort to substances to overcome their anxiety and awkwardness. 

Low self-esteem

Bad parenting or harsh parenting gives rise to children who suffer from lower self-esteem. These children are raised to seek validation from their parents every moment. They do not have basic confidence in themselves. Without validation, these people feel worth less and go to any painful extent to please people and end up seeking validation from every person they encounter. This is a serious issue as validation comes rarely in the society.

People with low self-esteem cannot make their own decisions and tend to regard themselves as the reason for every failure, be it a team failure. Such people feel lonely and depressed all the time. Any amount of appreciation falls short to make them feel confident again.

People with low-self-esteem avoid social situations and suffer from conditions like insomnia. They also suffer from anxiety which is why they resort to substance use to alleviate their conditions.

Poverty

Poverty is the worst of all situations as the entire world is driven by money. Poverty pushes people into a state of affairs where they struggle to earn their every day food, leave alone clothing and shelter. They need to lead a compromised life that lacks Health, Safety, Security, Education opportunities and Employment opportunities.

Poverty, hunger and homelessness is also linked with negative circumstances such as substandard housing, malnutrition, food insecurity, inadequate child care, lack of access to health care, dangerous neighbourhoods, and under resourced schools which adversely impacts the general wellness of poor people. Poor people are looked down upon the society and have limited means of survival which is painful. Poor people abuse substances to forget their emotional pain and carry on with their everyday activities. 

Relationship problems

Unlike others, some people face relations ship issues that prove to be daunting. These challenges are caused by having no common attributes, Lack of sexual attraction, one person trying to control the other, lavish spending habits, revisiting past issues, inability to observe boundaries, and communication issues among others. 

The relationship challenges arising from such issues are infidelity, divorce, break ups, loss of intimacy, communication difficulties, coping with stress challenges, financial crunch resulting from divorce, boundary issues, difficulty handling individual and couple expectations. While these may sound common and easy to deal with in today’s society, these could be in fact significant sources of stress. The stress that can negatively impact both the partners. Alcohol is a common substance of abuse in such cases. 

Loss of a loved one

All of us experience the loss of a loved one at least once in our life time. The effects of these kind of a loss ware away with time. Though this experience is common, some people cannot overcome the emotions of loss and resort to substances to forget their pain. 

Chronic pain or medical conditions: Some people suffer from chronic health conditions like cancer that give pain everyday and every second. Some people fight the pain with faith and hope until they recover but some people are weak and abuse substances or prescription medicines such as opioids to deal with the pain.

Dearest substance abusers, your pain is understandable. But, FYI, you may be abusing drugs to feel good, ease stress, or avoid reality. But in fact, abusing drugs to alleviate pain feels good momentarily for the reason that using drugs triggers more than normal release of dopamine than a chocolate or a cuddling does, and the rush of euphoria makes you feel it compelling to repeat the experience. The more you use drugs, the more you condition your brain to anticipate the same substance-fuelled pleasant sensations turns you to a complete addict in no time. Addiction is a much more painful disease that takes control of your life. Addiction causes you to madly indulge in such stimulants that peril your life and reputation and reason. It only squeezes out the remaining quality of your life if any. 

How to get help?

Medicine has now evolved in tremendous ways and possesses an answer for almost all kinds of pains. Psychological counselling treatment for example, holds the track record of solving many more emotional pains than anyone could imagine. It just needs a proper counselling session with an expert therapist to set you back on the track without side effects.  Hence, the right answer for your problems is to seek treatment, not to abuse illegal substances.