Drug/Substance abuse
Causes
Consequences
Course of action
Key facts
Mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders or personality disorders.
High stress as a result of a combination of unemployment and family problems.
Genetics
can start with experimental use of a recreational drug in social situations, and, for some people, the drug use becomes more frequent.
Physical, sexual or emotional abuse
Violence, crime and delinquency
Negative Impact on education.Many educators recognize that drug and alcohol abuse among students are significant barriers to the achievement of educational objectives.
Drug/Substance abuse have serious effects on a person's mental and physical health.
Public safety: Drug abuse plays a role in numerous transportation or other accidents. For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 40.8 percent of traffic fatalities were alcohol related (NHTSA, 1995).
Addiction
Cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive therapy—or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)—is a type of psychotherapy or talk therapy. It focuses on how a person’s thoughts and beliefs affect their actions, emotions and behaviors. By addressing unhealthy or dysfunctional thinking, people can change their feelings and actions. Oftentimes, these unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors are learned over the course of a person’s life.
The most commonly used approach to drug and alcohol abuse education involves simply providing students with factual information about drugs and alcohol. Some information-dissemination approaches attempt to dramatize the dangers of drug abuse by using fear-arousal techniques designed to attract attention and frighten individuals into not using drugs, accompanied by vivid portrayals of the severe adverse consequences of drug abuse.
There is always a chance that substance abuse can develop into an addiction.
Substance abuse differs from addiction. Many people with substance abuse problems are able to quit or can change their unhealthy behavior. Addiction, on the other hand, is a condition. It means you can’t stop using even when your condition causes you harm.
Drugs are related to crime in multiple ways. Most directly, it is a crime to use, possess, manufacture, or distribute drugs classified as having a potential for abuse. Cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and amphetamines are examples of drugs classified to have abuse potential. Drugs are also related to crime through the effects they have on the user’s behavior and by generating violence and other illegal activity in connection with drug traffick- ing.
Over 50 percent of those with a substance use disorder at some point in their life may also have another form of mental health disorder at some point in their life, and over 50 percent of those with a lifetime mental health disorder may also have a lifetime substance use disorder.
The use of illegal drugs or the use of prescription or over-the-counter drugs for purposes other than those for which they are meant to be used, or in excessive amounts. It’s also when you use alcohol, prescription medicine, and other legal substances too much or in the wrong way.