Nobody wants to admit it, but drugs have many appeals to them. Lots of parents will hide this fact from their children because they fear that it will make their children consider using drugs.
But the thing is, we should be open about the problems drugs solve. Why? Because thinking about what drugs do for you is the only way to really scrutinize how they fail you as well.
You see, drugs are not a simple thing. They show you one thing, and then they deliver another. This is why explaining them to kids is difficult. However, difficult does not mean impossible. As a child turns into a teen, and a teen into an adult, understanding drugs becomes more important.
So, let’s talk about why people are attracted to drugs: What problems they solve, what problems they cause, and how to stay away from them. As well as how to overcome addiction to them.
Why are Drugs Attractive?
Pop quiz: What are you doing on Friday night?
Many people, especially younger people, stress about this question. For them, it is a million questions wrapped into one. If they can’t answer what they are doing on Friday night, they then have to answer why. If they don’t know, then anxiety and self-doubt begin to creep in.
Everyone knows that the weekend is the time to relax and socialize. There is no work or school, so if you have the opportunity to go somewhere and be with people then you should. And if you don’t, then that must mean you can’t. At least that is what most of society tells us.
Now, consider what drugs do for this question. To begin with, recreational drug use is the activity that people are taking part in on the weekend. If you are a teenager going to a party, there will at least be someone with a joint in their pocket, if not someone selling drugs outright.
Even if you are not going to a party, drugs appear to be a good use of one’s time. The reasons include everything from numbing the pain of social rejection to simply enjoying the sensation of getting high. And you know what? For the most part, no instance of personal drug use is evil.
When Things Start Getting Bad
But it is easy to see how all of these situations can develop into substance abuse problems. No individual instance of personal drug use is evil, but what do you do the next Friday night? And the next one after that? You will find it too easy to make drug use the activity of every weekend.
And once you start using drugs every weekend, whether it is on your own or with friends, that can lead to using it during your downtime during the week. It is not as big of a leap as you think.
Most people develop substance abuse problems after using drugs recreationally. Using drugs becomes an activity for them, and as they become more and more addicted to the substance, they begin to lose the ability to find anything better to do than use drugs or find more drugs.
This underlines how important one’s environment is to both avoiding and combatting drug addiction. If you hang out with the wrong people, then they will make it so that the only activity they are willing to take part in is drug use. The same goes for isolating yourself.
It is possible (and incredibly healthy) for isolation to be a space where you focus on yourself and make your own fun. But many people identify that using drugs is often the path of least resistance when looking for things to do by oneself.
What Does One do About This?
Once you know why drugs are attractive, then comes the question of what to do about them. Well, that depends on where you stand relative to the drug use. After all, you could be a young person who is being repeatedly exposed to this sort of thing. But more likely, you are a parent who suspects that their child is being exposed to drug use, or an adult is being exposed themself.
As a result of these different subject positions, we are going to break down our solutions into preventative solutions (which deal with the problem before or as it is manifesting) and responsive solutions (which deal with the problem after it has already caused more problems).
Preventative Solutions
Staying away from drugs is as easy as having better things to do. A person who finds joy in health activities is far less likely to turn to drugs than one who finds joy in very little.
It is not hard to imagine how to implement this idea, but we will give an example anyways: Maybe you or the person you care for is interested in movies. Filling the spare time with an appreciation of movies is an easy way to keep from being exposed to drugs.
What is hard is making a habit of thinking like this. Drug use is an inherently submissive activity. People choose it because it requires little activity. Finding things to fill the time with is far more active, and therefore more difficult.
Reactive Solutions
If a drug problem is developing or has already become a problem, then consider a detox program, such as the one in Ascendant New York. It might be more necessary than you expect.
Afterward, clean up the environment of the person who developed the drug problem. That doesn’t just mean cleaning their room, but also creating rules against exposure to the people and places that led to the drug problem.
Conclusion
When people want to fill their spare time, drugs are an easy answer. But they can become addictive and harmful to the people taking them, meaning that they are not a good answer.
Luckily, they are far from the only answer. Filling the time with other activities is more enriching and far healthier. And anything addiction takes from you, you can get back.
