The Road to Addiction: 14 Triggers -- Why, When and How it Starts

The road to addiction is one of the most confusing and misunderstood areas of substance abuse. Many parents pride themselves on having a strong family unit and are often baffled as to why their children have started dabbling or actually have turned to drugs or alcohol. Likewise, mates or friends struggle to understand what prompted their loved ones to walk down the road to addiction.

More often than not, people judge and blame themselves and think that they somehow "did something" that lead their loved ones down this path. It is helpful if we can set aside our emotions and personal blame and look for answers that might shed a detached, realistic light on what leads to addiction.

In this article and the next several ones, I am going to explore 14 triggers as to why someone may become an addict. My hope is that you will begin to understand (though difficult) that there are stimulus and unforeseen situations that can be outside of your control, and therefore can lead to addiction. The more you understand about substance abuse, the better your chances are of coping with the situation successfully.

1. The family itself is involved in drugs or alcohol
2. The neighborhood is drug-infested
3. The "addiction gene" is passed on
4. The desire to belong, to be accepted, and to be popular
5. Feeling lonely or depressed; anything to take away the pain
6. Experimentation that turns into addiction
7. Trauma
8. Boredom
9. Low self-esteem
10. Glamorized -- the cool, hip thing to do
11. The only way to "party"; fame and/or fortune will give immunity from addiction
12. Weight reducer or energizer to keep up with challenges
13. Prescription medication turns into dependency
14. Expectations and/or pressure from family to adhere to social status/performance.

Keep in mind that many of these triggers are interchangeable. Boredom and feeling lonely or depressed are kissing cousins, just as the neighborhood and family can be intertwined regarding substance abuse.

Here is a more in depth look at the first gateway and in next week's blog we will continue through the list.

1) The family itself is involved in drugs or alcohol

It is very hard for a child to remain drug free if their family with whom they are living with is abusing drugs or alcohol on a regular and/or open basis. An adult has the option of walking away whereas children are a captive audience. Instinctively, the child may know this is not how most families function, but they will have grown so accustomed to this kind of lifestyle that it is all they can relate to. We all know that a child learns good or bad habits by their parents' behavior.

In addition, a child can be easily influenced if they witness a loved one having a "good time" with alcohol, so it may stand to reason that they too should expect the same good time if they indulge. There is a fine line between what is responsible social drinking and irresponsible even out of control behavior due to excessive alcohol intake. The same is true for a drug-infested home.

A serious drinking problem or drug use often becomes the footsteps for that child to follow, since this has been the only exposure they have had. Keep in mind that the family involvement in drugs and or alcohol can range from ghetto dwellers to multi-millionaires. Drug and alcohol abuse knows no social-economic boundaries.

Answer? The child that grows up in a family where everyone participates in a drug and/or alcohol lifestyle may not have an ally to help him or her break out of such a toxic environment. The child may not even be aware of this injustice and be innocent as to the damage that is being psychologically inflicted upon them. If you suspect that a child is exposed to this way of life, contact Child Welfare Services. Your call is confidential and a social worker will be dispatched to the home no questions asked. Or visit the child's school and talk to their teacher or principle.

One last word: a family that is involved in drugs or alcohol is not necessarily an unloving one, it is just an irresponsible one.

If you have a question about substance abuse, please e-mail me at [e-mail] Each week I will choose 1 or 2 and answer them in my blog.

Thank you, and I invite you to visit my website, Family Recovery Solutions.

Comments

[CambridgeLane]

I look forward to reading more about this subject in the Huffington Post. Like plastic surgery, drug and alcohol addiction is widespread, but rarely discussed. And it is not just a problem with children.

I was in my mid-thirties when I found, to my distress, that I could not stop drinking. In fact, the more I tried to stop, the more I drank. I was in college when I began drinking, and yes, I admit that I went down the vomiting road more than once during those years when I was learning how much I could tolerate.

I don't know when my drinking became a lifestyle and a daily occurance, but certainly the glamour that is often attached to alcohol (in my case, expensive wine) made it seem socially acceptable.

I found help in AA. It required me to make many fundamental changes in my friends, my habits, and my attitude toward alcohol. It is not easy to live sober in a society that seems to encourage drinking, but in my case it has been well worth the journey.

Thank you for your comments on this important issue.

[LordMoon]

Lets, not forget drinking, and smoking while the child is in the womb.

Then there is the use of Opiates, and other dissassociatives during labor and delivery, shown to increase recepter cites in the brain. Interference with the birth process, that causes an increase in receptor cites in the brain as well.

Then there is not nursing the baby, which again causes an increase in receptor cites.

Lots of sugary food in childhood, which cause mood swings and teaches children to alter their moods with sugar and caffiene. Then there are fats that alter the rate at which neurotransmitters are absorbed in the brain, causing a sedative effect in children.

Then there's the use of analgesics for pain, which repress the bodies own endogenous pain killers.

Over the counter access to synthetic opiate dissassociatives, by children in cough syrup.

Finally to top it off there is a lack of appropriate response to emotional stimulation, in children who grow up in addicted families, and lack of emotional stimulation, lack of physical affection via toucing, holding, nuturing, by addictive families who don't know how to function emotionally.

and last but not least, the use of more drugs to treat addicts, which instead cause further damage to the addicts internal endogenous pain response system.

I could go on all day, covering prescription tranquilizers, SSRI's, Antipscyho­tic's...an­d many more. Suffice to say, America has more addicts than any other country in the world, why's that?

[Tricialafille]

This is a super breakdown of the causes of addiction---many intertwined---and I look forward to reading more in coming weeks. There is not a person/family I know untouched by substance abuse.

[zippies]

Interesting and helpful article! I know it's not the occasional wine with dinner, responsible social engagements with friends, but the extreme and uncontrolled behavior one needs to worry about. I have a teenage son that I will share this information with in order to help him with the right tools as he goes forth to college and beyond. Thank you Carole!

[joeyfoto]

I respectfully disagree. Not all drug use is irresponsible nor does all drug use lead to addiction. All good things carry the danger of addiction. There is appropriate use of all good things in the fullness of a human life.

To deal with the most ubiquitous drug, alcohol. I grew up in a European family where people consumed alcohol regularly; wine with meals and usually a cocktail before dinner. I saw each of my parents actually drunk once. For my mother, it was at her 70th birthday party; she live to be 93. I find the presumption that all drug use is bad to be as unhelpful as the assumption that there is no risk of addiction. Life is not a disease state; life is a series of experiences. A rich life encompasses a broad range of experiences that deepen our perceptions and expand our awareness.

Any society that has a healthy relationship with drugs, begins with a model of healthy drug use. When I write about learning to drink, I usually start by saying: European teenagers learn to drink by sharing wine at the dinner table, while American teenagers learn to drink by throwing up.

As Thomas Aquinas wrote long ago: "There is no good or bad substance; only good or bad use. " The worst place to begin is with the attitude that all drug use is bad; that encourages people to consume drugs badly. The price, of living in a puritanical society, is very high..

[minkglove]

I find this subject to be one many fail to understand. I am hopeful more will be revealed through your continual blog. Many do not understand that help is available. Your website is fascinating and must be helpful to so many parents dealing with children, spouses dealing with spouses and even children dealing with elderly parents. So many need help and need to know it is available. Keep up the posts!

[dwoodsvc]

Great post. As a recovering alcoholic, I recognized many of triggers on your list as factors on my own road to addiction. As a father of two teenage boys, my initial urge is to feel guilt about the image I put forth for many years. I can only hope they now see the positive difference that being clean and sober has made in my life.
I needed treatment to get sober. For anyone thinking they need help, or know someone that does, I encourage them to take advantage of the author's phone session offer as a starting point.

[d roe]

I recently quit drinking and I find it moving, and rather ironic, that I'm well aware of my personal reasons for doing so, and yet this is the first time that I really get to see in black-and-white how my daughter would have been affected had this lifestyle continued.
I just want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for reminding me. You have really given a special little girl a greater head start in life. I look forward to more blog posts in the future! xo. D