Causes of Drug Addiction

Causes of Drug AddictionBy Ned WickerIt has always fascinated me that people of good will, people of letters, qualified people who study and earnestly try to understand the nature of addiction, can so often completely disagree with each other. Many Theories on the Causes of Drug AddictionThe Mayo Clinic offers a scientific explanation of when drug addiction occurs, stating, “Physical addiction appears to occur when repeated use of a drug alters reward pathways in your brain. The addicting drug causes physical changes to some nerve cells (neurons) in your brain. Neurons use chemicals called neurotransmitters to communicate.”NA sees the causes of drug addiction as being caused partially by the self-esteem of the individual. “People who have low self-concepts, who feel bad about themselves, have a higher rate of addiction. People with low self-concepts use psychoactive substances either to enhance or create pleasure in their lives, or to decrease the constant emotional pain they live with. The better a person feels about himself, the less likely he will be to use or abuse psychoactive substances. A society that has easy access to drugs that has a population that is “addiction-prone” due to genetics or emotional pain, and that has pro-use or unclear norms, is a society prone to addiction.”No REAL LoveDr. Greg Baer, a former ophthalmologist, who asserts that the primary cause of addiction is a response to pain, emptiness and the lack of what he calls real love, presents another approach to the cause of drug addiction. He does not ascribe to the theory that addiction is a disease. “After extensive interviews with thousands of addicts,” says Dr. Baer, “less than one percent of them fail to respond enthusiastically to this definition of addiction and the clarification of the causes of drug addiction, whereas most of them have had serious problems with the usual definitions and explanations.”There are countless explanations of the cause of drug addiction. I chose these three because they offered different viewpoints. Humans are prone to excess. There is never enough, or it’s not good enough, or it’s not available soon enough. We push the limits, as Adam and Eve did in Genesis 3. When we push the limits of something, there are consequences, both medical and psychological. We search to get our fill of what’s missing in our lives.Must Accept GodIn the absence of God, there are few options. Power, wealth and pleasure, in varying degrees, are options for most people. Few people make the real love connection with God. Dr. Baer tries to make love connection, but without God. The human condition in most mandates that we accept God on our own terms, that we get to define God, that we set the limitations on just how close God is allowed to come.What is the cause of addiction? It is a lack of allowing God in our lives.One of the clear current causes of drug addiction is the increasing common prescriptions to VERY strong opiates like Vicodin.Let’s say you are a active duty military person who is injured in Afghanistan. Your just about to end your third tour of duty and your shipped home to recover. Your prescribed Vicodin for the pain and WOW does it make you feel GOOD! That’s the beginning of addiction. One in ten prescribed an opiate for pain are predisposed to addiction.Prescription drug addiction is by far the fastest growing addiction in the US and shows no signs of declining. Thousands of people each day are prescribed an strong opiate for routine medical problems. Many will have more trouble than they’re expecting avoiding addiction.Until we stop so causally prescribing dangerous opiates, that will likely continue to be the leading cause of drug addiction in the United States.Glue sniffing leading addiction in third world countriesOne of the primary causes of drug addiction in third world countries is the cheap availability of glue. Children as young as five are sold glue and begin sniffing it because it’s fun. Because the glue is SO cheap and so readily available they get hooked quickly and spend the rest of their very short lives sniffing glue. The glue destroys their brain and chains them to their drug dealer.Targeting very young children with very harmful and cheap substances are a terrible cause of addiction in many third world countries.ConclusionAlthough the causes of addiction very the results are the same drug dealer prey of the misery of their customers and the addict leads a horrible life that can only be redeemed with help and support. For more about Causes of Drug Addiction link to Books