Causes of Addiction

What causes addiction in our society?

Rory believes it is trauma. Beth believes it is Marijuana shops on every corner. Peer Pressure, a lot of peer pressure is out there, a competition where people are comparing themselves to others. Stress, including financial stress, especially in rural areas with seasonal jobs, people might want to cope in a bad way like a drink or use. Genetics, family history of addiction, the environment can be some causes that were described to me by many people whom I talked to during the creation of this book. Dr. Tedd Levin describes causes related to genetic predisposition, family history of substance abuse disorder. Not everybody has a family history of socioeconomic factors, broken families where children and youth are raised by one parent, foster care system, no housing, lack of close relationships with people who can look out for them, nobody to lend a helping hand. Additionally, the peer group young people hang out with, so many factors, it is pretty complicated and there can be multiple causes why someone ends up in the addiction trap.

When I was talking to Angel, the small-town influence came up, where she felt that excuses are made up, that kids are just kids and if they are at my house, I at least know what they are doing. Then, she said all of the sudden parents have these "monsters" that they did not know existed and don't know what to do with anymore. She feels this is very sad. She describes that the kids that were lost locally to addiction were kids she did not think that would end up that way. They were athletes, intelligent, well-liked.

Fun fact: At this point, we were both amazed because a hummingbird just came up to us, very close as we were sitting outside and talking. Angel started laughing, she said she loves them. Neither of us ever seen a hummingbird this close. Angel then burst out laughing more and said, "why are you not at my feeder, I've been trying to feed you".

These kids Angel describes seeming to have everything going well in life. When these kids get close to graduation and don't know what they want to do, where to go and who they are supposed to be. The identity they had in their community as an athlete or a good scholar or something else is now up in the air. Angel feels that we (schools, parents, doctors, everybody she said) don't do a good job saying it is ok not to know at age 18 who you are going to be at age 30. It is normal, it is ok to be scared. It is ok not to know where you want to be. It is ok to go out and fail and come home and go and try again. She feels that a lot of the kids she had seen who lost their lives either permanently or lost who they are because of drugs or alcohol. Don't know what to hang on to so they start self-medicating trying to cope with the feelings they have and it just never works. The loss of potential, she thinks is the most awful thing, when she sees what a kid could be. What is lost. This is probably the most difficult part of the job, seeing this happen. (She works in a school system). She mentioned to me that there are a lot more ways to self-medicate now than before and it is not just drugs and alcohol, but food, sex, shopping, all things youth trying to use to make them feel better. We discussed smoking and vaping in schools and how many times it is the first step to addiction and addictive behaviors. Angel describes a youth who lost his mom, he was caught vaping, the first thing he said: "I just miss my mom. I just miss my mom". Not the best coping skill, but probably he had nothing else or no one else to comfort him. He was trying to cope by picking up a habit that is not necessarily healthy. It takes his mind off of it Angel thinks so he does not have to feel the hurt.

We also had a discussion with Angel about life in general and the misconceptions of expectations of this great life for all. She said this is not how this works. Life throws curve balls. It is ok to fall, and we have to teach our kids that it is ok to fall then they need to get up and keep moving forward, work through it, whatever it is.

Paige asserts that sometimes there is just a kid who is in the wrong place and at the wrong time and gets caught up in addiction. The majority of the time there are root causes before the addiction begins. Paige had met people from both ends. People who got caught up in addiction very quickly were not prepared for what it will do to them and others who had been able to try meth for example once or twice and decide it is not for them and stop. She feels a combination of lifestyle, brain makeup, impulsivity, and society as a whole play a part in addiction. Chief Jason feels that there are a lot of broken homes and kids do not get the attention they need growing up. Then kids start to hang out with friends that are more involved in addictive behaviors. Jason gives an example from his daughter's class in middle school where just before spring break there were 13 kids disciplined because of vaping in class. He was wondering how this can go on and teachers not paying attention to this? This is not easy. What could a teacher do? I talked to teachers and they are not sure how to handle this situation. They take the devices away and more comes. With all the broken homes and poverty, how would people deal with this? We also discussed how alcohol and smoking look better in advertisements. It looks good on TV, posters, it shows something that people might want to do. Having models and famous people who look good doing it might suggest to other people that they can get healthier by using those products. He talks about how advertising still shows that people are having more fun when they are drinking. He also talks about marijuana and heath and natural advertisement and the chemicals and additives that come with it and how harmful that can be. It is a continuous battle.

Kayla describes learning about addictions in the classroom while attending classes in psychology. The brain can change and made her realize that there is a lot more to addiction than what it first seems. The problems are more deeply rooted. She describes from personal experience a time when her dad had a "low" in his life because of issues with his job and marriage and he started drinking. Kayla was unsure if she wanted to share this, sounded like this is still a painful reminder of what had been going on. She describes that there hasn't been alcoholism in her family before that and they did not know how to recognize the signs until it become a "massive problem". Kayla describes that different people have different weaknesses and strengths and no matter how strong someone is addiction can touch anyone just the same way it touched her father. Rory feels that people will always seek out drugs for different reasons like having an altered consciousness. He describes mammals seeking out trees with fruits that are fallen and fermented, and elephants and baboons go and seek that tree out. Then they get staggering drunk. He said that the videos are hysterical. He is wondering if there would be a way to offer people a different kind, a healthier way to do an altered experience. He describes meditation, yoga, chanting, humming, sweat lodging, dance for example. Rory feels that there could be a lot of ways we could help people do that and we don't. We don't teach them. We tell people there is no reason to be out of that experience. Rory said he disagrees with this mentality. Could we prevent addictions by teaching youth about these alternative experiences? Rory describes addiction as a youth disorder. A pediatric condition. He said that research shows that if a person is not addicted by age 25, by the time their brain is fully developed, it is highly unlikely that they will develop an addiction after that. Rory mentioned that the last thing a treatment facility personnel at one place he worked would tell people when they left is if you relapse be sure to come back to us. It is thought in treatment that relapse is expected to get the next client. It is outrageous Rory felt.

Diana talks about her daughter Lana who got addicted to drugs after drugs were introduced to her by her boyfriend. Looking back Diana thinks she should have not brought her Lana into a small town from living in a big city in her sophomore year. The drugs took over so much that Lana wanted nothing to do with her family. She was battered by the boyfriend but would not leave him and cut ties with family. Lana finally got out of the bad relationship but could not get away from the drug abuse. She had 3 beautiful boys by then Diana recalls. Lana had good jobs, hid the addiction well, but started to get into trouble with her employers. She still had the boys at that time, Diana would go with her husband on weekends and asked if the boys could stay with them, she was getting more and more concerned about her grandchildren's safety. Lana was getting more and more verbally abusive with her. Lana eventually got into trouble with the law by driving the car with the kids in it while on cocaine and smashing into other cars. Luckily nobody was hurt badly, but she was arrested and taken into jail. DHS (Department of human services)/CPS (Child protective services) proceedings started to look into the case. Diana and her husband ended up adopting the boys. Lana did not fight for them at that time. Lana has now been clean for 11 years. Before she got clean there was a lot of up and down and when she was using Diana did not let her see the boys, when she was sober, they allowed visitations. This was very hard on the boys as well. When all this happened the kids were 10, 6, and 1 years old. Lana was also abusing oxycodone (opiate) and possibly meth she was not sure about, and alcohol. Lana was mandated by the court and went to treatment twice. Only for 30 days, Diana felt this was not enough. Lana ended up going to prison in Tillamook and that is what "cured" her. After prison Lana turned a corner and jumped in, doing everything she was supposed to do, she found help. Lana started to attend counseling, she felt this saved her life. Diana sent me a picture that represents a new beginning in her life.

Chloe describes peer pressure as a cause for addiction. Especially if someone is in the popular crowd in high school or college. Ron adds that the causes of meth addiction from his experience with his friend come from non-acceptance in the family, community as a gay man. That group become a chemical community, creating a sense of belonging, becoming a social activity that sucked people in. Ron felt that people got wrapped up in the party drugs and sex. Sex was a big focus too. People were dying. Once it got out to the literature and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and the negative effects came to light then people had support to get out from the cycle, some did not. The ones who were too far gone and they lost everything, cars, homes, jobs. Ron describes that for many people it was easier to stay in the addiction than to try to get out. Ron describes a luring evil drug scene.

Joel wonders if domestic violence is a part of why people might turn toward addiction. She feels like it is a huge topic. Bernadette senses that a lot of people start to use substances including alcohol to cover up trauma that happened to them. It starts as a coping skill and then becomes an addiction she said. Trauma examples she gave me included being raped repeatedly, seeing her mom being beaten by her boyfriend. She describes a lot of kids in homes where there is a lot of trauma going on. How can we stop all this trauma? She had seen a lot of people with addiction abuse or neglect their children. It is difficult because, on the one hand, nobody wants to take the child away from home. We also would not want the child to be neglected and abused. Better parenting. Can we make parents be better parents? Quality education, good jobs, schools, teachers, social workers. What happens to the kid when they go home from school and they get neglected at home or abused at home. She describes that all the power is with the parents a little with the schools. How about watching out for each other's children? She sees parents not caring for their kids in grocery stores, on the street, kids crying, she feels like just picking them up. Now we can't. It is illegal to care for other people's kids. She feels that is what many kids just need to be held, touched, create attachment. Kids are not attached to their parents; parents are not available. Could we live in a society that allows us to help others care for their children? She wishes we lived in places where everyone could take care of each other's kids. She had dealt with so many adults who had bad parents. Lack of good education and good parenting is a big issue when it comes to our society and addictions, mental health issues. Kids grow up and become bad parents. They use addictions to cover up the pain that was caused by their parents. Very bad cycle to continue. She sees this over and over again. She feels like even if a person does not have a lot of money, and they have good parents they are going to be ok. Because they would have good emotional stability. Also, have a good mentor at school. How can we make better parents? She describes having cooking classes for parents she might have 15 people sign up and one or two show up. Hard to make a change that way. She feels like people don't show up unless things are mandatory. Teaching emotional intelligence in school helps.

Albert feels like a lot of addiction comes out of depression, anxiety, or hopelessness. People fall back on using alcohol or drugs to kind of try to cover it up, bury it. He struggles when people say it is not a mental health issue it is a drug issue he feels like no, why are we separating the two, there is a core here where we are getting it. This person is not drinking themselves to death because they are happy. A person is not using meth because things are going great in their life. It is usually because there is something else going on that they are trying to bury, it might be feelings, trauma, or something similar. Albert feels that there is a lot of overlap with mental health and addictions. He gets a lot of throwbacks when he is trying to get help for some people for mental health and the jail or the district attorney's office would say no it is methamphetamine-induced psychosis or problem. People do not get the same treatment if someone is bipolar or schizophrenic. Albert feels like why not, their brain is broken, he does not care how it happened that is not like they did it on purpose, why can't we give them the same help we give other people? The distinction there does not make much sense to Albert. People have the misconception that using drugs is a choice. He said" yes of course maybe the first time when they took a Vicodin it was a choice but not now, not when they are on the street shooting up heroin and they can't stop. Even if it was a choice, they are in trouble" Albert said, "I don't give a s*** how they get there, but they need help now". The flower feels like many reasons can cause addictions to happen, it could be past trauma, an element of escape, then it becomes a necessity and a dependence. It can happen at a high school party, it could be an advertisement that looks cool, it could all start just for fun, and benign in the beginning or presented as benign. Flower believes that when people use it for the first time, their intention and goal is not to be addicted, but it happens anyway. People fall into it, she explains. Nobody at age 7 for example sets the goal to be addicted to anything. Nobody sets the intention to become addicted to anything with the first use and for some people they might be able to use one time and never again, but others are not so lucky. Flower believes that we as humans are built a certain way to respond to chemicals in our brain. She brings the examples of nicotine and how strong the response is in our body. She knows she is wired to nicotine so she does not even want to try she knows what the response will be. She feels that when people start there is an assumption that the user will be benign. Then many years later people recall, oh yeah first I tried this when I was 13 or so and so gave me this at a party and it went all downhill from there. Another issue is when the whole family is using a substance and it is a normalized behavior in the family. Family can be a great influence to use or not use a substance.

Previous Chapter

This book is dedicated to the memory of

Bagóczky József my uncle who died at age 19 - alcohol related car accident

and to everyone else who has been hurt or lost related to addiction

Many people had been supportive and inspiring to me so I could create this book. Both of my wonderful children told me, just write that book mom. My mom. I could have not done this without all the stories provided and the encouragement love and caring from my family and friends, nurses, doctors, counselors, teachers, professors, friends who are dealing with addiction and staying sober; and children, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers of people who are dealing with addiction currently. Thank you for speaking up, sharing your stories and life experiences. Thank you for all the people who read this book while in progress to provide feedback, ideas and encouragement for me to continue writing. I would like to say special thanks to my friends and family for believing me and encouraging me to go on.

Our Society: Addiction and More Uncovered. Hear the voices of everyday people - collection of stories and experiences. Copyright @ 2020. 1st addition on Amazon KDP. 2nd addition Jan 2021 Barnes & Noble

By Dr. Gabriella Kőrösi. All rights reserved. Dancing Elephants Press.