Why do people abuse drugs?

Question

I never understood why anyone will take drugs. There are already so many stories everywhere about how it ruins lives. Even if the school makes a terrible job at explaining the danger, I still fear them. The only thing keeping me away from drugs or smoking is the fear of the addiction itself. Why do people abuse drugs? Aren’t they afraid of getting addicted to it?

Answer 1

As to why people abuse drugs, the number one reason is that they want to forget. Drugs could actually make your head feel clearer, removing all sense of stress in the body. This is the reason why so many people with dead-end jobs tend to be relying on drugs, they want to forget they are working dead-end jobs. They end up enjoying the usage of the drug, even hospital nurses abuse them, most of the jobs that are high stress, low reward will probably have people abusing drugs. It’s a method to ease their own suffering.

Being in the poverty class makes it worse as well, it gets you trapped in the circle of working only to obtain that drugs that you severely need more and more dosage of. Once you are addicted, getting out of it is another problem. Prevention is the best cure.

Answer 2

People who abuse drugs, often do not know they are abusing it themselves. In contrast to popular believe, no one gets hooked on drugs instantly. Addiction is often a slow process, involving repeated intake over time, which forces the body to rely on them. Drug addiction is a complex “disease” that can’t be easily solved with just willpower or moral principles.

Most drugs work by forcing your brain to release tons of dopamine, or the chemical that keeps you happy, so much so that it gives you that “high” (Research has shown that blocking dopamine receptors could instantly stop heroin cravings, but at the cost of, you name it, depression). There is the common misconception that you get instantly addicted, you can use it daily for weeks with no withdrawal effect whatsoever. The mindset becomes “why not use it again?”, no cravings until one day, a switch flips inside, usually felt like the flu, which is instantly “cured” by a dose of heroin. You start with pills but turns to the needle only after you become addicted.

Answer 3

When looking at why do people abuse drugs, we just can’t forget terrible drug education system, where drug abuse could be stemmed from. Prevention is always the best cure when it comes to drugs. Scare tactics do not work since a friend could easily convince you that whatever the educators are saying is garbage. Sometimes this friend could be an older, more experienced person himself, a bad influence. The friend might have tried one himself, offering you to try one as well.

Due to peer pressure, you might end up abusing it. It’s still true, some teens will try one to fit in with the popular kids, just because it is seen as the “cool” thing to do. Telling a teen that drugs is not the right thing to do will probably only make them do it more. While others just try it out of boredom, then end up getting hooked on it. It has always been a mean to escape the mundane life or even from naggy parents.