Demand and
Supply
Drugs and alcohol offer a
chemical release. One thing they do is trigger brain chemistry that makes
people feel good. They are substances that make someone high and help them to
forget their troubles and lose track of reality. Why would anyone want to quit,
right? Drugs and alcohol also make people slow, dull, foggy, stupid, unaware,
and out-of-touch with reality. They also kill, either slowly and insidiously,
or suddenly and violently. Drugs are a double edged dagger – perceived benefits
and deadly consequences intertwined. Why don’t people simply see through the
veil of deceit surrounding drugs? Why don’t they wise up? It’s not because no
one is attempting to cut the supply. The problem is the demand. As the “war on
drugs” wages against the suppliers and their cohorts, the public demand only
rises. But it’s not really the “public” that is demanding. Factually, that is
way too general a statement. Distill the problem down and you wind up with individuals.
Understanding the problem requires an understanding of why the individual
turns to drugs – why drugs are appealing in the first place and why a
person repeatedly uses them:
The Appeal
Drugs and alcohol are attractive because they offer
an alternative to the status quo. They are a route by which one can rebel
against his or her parents. They are linked to a counter-culture, and the idea
of experimenting in them can be appealing to youth. What they seem to miss is
that one can rebel against the status quo all they want without taking a single
drug. There’s plenty wrong with status quo already. Drugs are also attractive
for the opposite reason. They offer a way to fit in. People use drugs to “feel
normal” and feel comfortable in a social situation. Social drinking is a prime
example, but there are many more. Broad scale television and print advertising
espouse the need to take psychoactive pills to be well-adjusted – yet those
same pills are fueling a pandemic of prescription drug abuse. Drugs offer easy
and quick escape from stress and tedium. But just as a deal with the devil
requires payment, drugs exact a price in return. Just ask an addict.
Dependency and Addiction
As one journeys further into drug abuse, they will
begin to “need” drugs. This dependency or addiction can be physical or
psychological – but it is commonly both. Protracted alcohol abuse takes a heavy
toll on the drinker. First they build up tolerance; they must drink more and more
to get the same effect. If they decide to quit they experience painful and
severe withdrawal symptoms, including seizures and unpleasant hallucinations.
Their “solution” is to keep drinking. Cocaine, crack, meth, heroin, and a wide
array of illicit drugs provide a euphoric high and a dismal low, and they all
send an addict down a trail of misery from which many do not return. Prescription
psychotropic drugs – stimulants, benzodiazepines (anti-anxiety),
antidepressants, antipsychotics – offer a whole new level of addiction. Many
people have been on these since childhood, having been prescribed them at a
young age (by doctors or psychiatrists). To compound the situation, people get strung
out on multiple drugs, with one prescribed to offset the side-effects of
another. These types of drugs are often harder to kick than opiates like heroin
or methadone.
Relapse
Why do people revert to drugs after having been
through rehab? One answer is that they choose to do so. But that is too
simplistic an answer. A primary factor is that the rehab program did not
address WHY they turned to drugs in
the first place. Previously, they had been experiencing problems, stress,
insecurities, apathy, trauma – or any of a long list of barriers – for which
drugs provided an easy “out.” They subsequently got off drugs, but the original
difficulties returned and they had no other solution. Thus rehabilitation, to
be complete, would need to offer effective solutions to the fundamental
problems the user sought to solve. Not an easy proposition, but a necessary
one.
Environment
Some users are pushed back into the same environment
that fomented (stirred up) their drug abuse in the first place. They go hang
out with the same crowd, the users and the pushers. They put themselves in a
lose-lose situation. The people involved can be in their own family, further
complicating the situation. Some former addicts, in analyzing their situation,
even move to a different city or town in order to avoid putting themselves in
the same scenario. But it is true that a person who intends to find drug will
find them. Ultimately, rehabilitation without
the element of relapse prevention is
at best incomplete.
Holistic
Holistic
rehabilitation means addressing the physical, mental,
environmental, societal and spiritual aspects of drug abuse. It means
confronting the body, the mind, and the spirit. Hence, holistic, meaning
whole – the whole person and all the influences surrounding him or her.
Why is it hard to beat drug abuse? Why is a person a person? Each person is an
individual. By addressing the individual, we beat drug abuse – one person at a
time.
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