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Understanding

Teen Drug & Substance Abuse

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There is a difference between drug/substance abuse and drug addiction!

Drug abuse is a mild or moderate form of addiction since it has only 2 or 3 symptoms of addiction. Despite being a less severe condition, it is still dangerous because drug abuse could lead one to get into accidents, difficulty in interacting with others, lack of focus at school, violence, and much more. A person with a drug abuse however, is able to stop their habit without them progressing into an addiction.

If a person finds him/herself needing extensive and long term treatment for their drinking or intaking of drugs, then that person might have the worse form of addiction. In this case, addiction would be a more severe scenario than drug abuse because this illness brings along other chronic illnesses like depression and anxiety. This is due to that person becoming more and more sick over time.

What are some signs that a person has drug/substance abuse?

Alcohol, smoke or other chemical odors on your child’s or their friends’ breath or clothing
Obvious intoxication, dizziness or bizarre behavior
Changes in dress and grooming
Changes in choice of friends
Frequent arguments, sudden mood changes and unexplained violent actions
Changes in eating and sleeping patterns
Sudden weight gain or loss
Loss of interest in usual activities or hobbies
School problems such as declining or failing grades, poor attendance and recent discipline problems
Trauma or frequent injuries
Runaway and delinquent behavior
Depressed mood or talk about depression or suicide; suicide attempts

Source: American Academy of Pediatrics. (2009). “Substance Abuse Prevention”

Biological Explanation

The Top Five Reasons for Teen Drug Abuse

Peer pressure and social influence
Escape or self-medication
Academic or performance pressure
Coping with trauma, anxiety, depression or another underlying mental health issue
Media influences: Studies show that teens who watch movies that depict smoking or alcohol consumption are more likely to engage in those behaviors themselves.

Source: Newport Academy

In-Depth Explanation of Cause

As children transition to being teenagers to being adults, their brain develops - particularly starting from the back of the brain to the front. The location of the brain as to where the development takes place plays a huge significance to a person's behavior, as a source from the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids website expresses, "the parts of the adolescent brain that develop first are those that control physical activity, emotion and motivation, in the back of the brain in the cerebellum, amygdala, and nucleus accumbens respectively."

To point out, part of the brain that develops last is the prefrontal cortex, where it controls a person's impulses and reasoning. This explains why teenagers are more prone to being thrill-seeking, impulsive, and unreasonable. These uncontrolled emotions are reflected through common reckless teenage behavior such as a teenager's indifference for consequences, inability to break away from peer pressure, difficulty to controlling \ fluctuated emotions, and more.

Let's use alcohol as an example - an example that could be applied to other drugs.

There are three main ways that alcoholism affects the brain: it affects its homeostasis, communications patterns, and brain structure and function.

In terms of the brain's homeostasis, alcoholism harms the cerebral cortex. Doing so increases a person's irresistibility and increases his/her tendency to repeat poor decisions and actions. This occurs because the cerebral cortex part of the brain manages a person's decision-making, impulses, and compulses.

Moreover, alcohol comes in part with the brain's amygdala, which is responsible for a person's emotions and memories. Attached to memories are emotions that could either be good or bad. Alcohol in this instance would induce as a feel-good emotion which further motivates a person continue interacting with it. Continuing to drink alcohol on a daily basis becomes an unwavering habit, which would be terribly difficult for the person to break off. Even if he/she were to attempt to break off their habits with alcohol, they would still experience withdrawals - an uncomfortable episode that occurs when one stops taking a certain type of drugs. Those symptoms include instances such as anxiety, sweating, fatigue, depression, hallucinations, seizures, and vomiting. If that person were to give in during that episode, he/she would find themselves intaking alcohol again with a stronger potent of pleasure and easiness, further weakening their ability to break away from alcohol.

Lastly, alcohol also damages the brain's hypothalamus, hurting a person's ability to regulate stress. Alcohol is used as a way to ease stress. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, it is very uncomfortable and indeed stressful to try to break away from drugs. Thus, by hurting the hypothalamus, the person is less likely to handle his/her withdrawals, ultimately bringing them to an unhealthy and toxic cycle.

General Understanding of Effects

General Understanding

Effects of Teen Drug and Substance Abuse

Drugs of any kind decreases teens' ability to pay attention.
The younger a person is when they begin using drugs the more likely they are to develop a substance-abuse problem and the more likely they are to relapse into drug abuse when trying to quit.
Juveniles who use drugs are more likely to have unprotected sex, sex with a stranger, as well as to engage in sexual activity at all. This, in turn, puts them at risk for pregnancy, rape commission or victimization, and for sexually transmitted diseases.
Substance use can cause or mask other emotional problems, like anxiety, depression, mood swings, or hallucinations (for example, hearing or seeing things). Either of those illnesses can result in death by suicide or homicide.

Source: Roxanne Dryden-Edwards fro MedicineNet

Biological Explanation of Effects

In-Depth Explanation of Effects

There is a greater and deeper explanation of the effects in this issue - that is, revolving around the concept of our brain and body nerves.

As explained by the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids website, drugs increase the availability of a particular nerve cell called dopamine. These nerve cells release a "feel-good" emotion that tells the human brain that whatever action was that triggered this emotion, that action should continue to be made. An example of that induces this emotion would be eating. Without dopamine, humans will feel no inclination to eat. Without eating, humans could die. With this in mind, the dopamine is an essential asset for the human body.

The problem with it however, is that an excessive amount of dopamine is produced when unnecessary drugs are brought into the body system. Therefore, the human gets overwhelmed with a great deal of "feel-good" emotions that heavily influences them to continue using drugs. The tolerance level increases or as the source mentions, "the body needs more of the drug to feel the same high as before." In other words, the overuse of one particular drug can be ineffective, not producing the same high as before, therefore pushing the person to experiment with more intense drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

As can be seen, drugs play into effect of the body system as they increase the tolerance levels and act as dangerous gateway drugs. This biological explanation brings light to why a teen, rather anybody, can become so heavily attached to these substances. There is an unfortunate and devastating difference between the effects on teens and adults: since teens are still developing their brains, drugs inhibit and damage their way of thinking much more significantly, making it incredibly harder and more dangerous for them to deal with as they grow older.

Stand

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Abuse

Bibliography:

Dryden-Edwards, Roxanne. “Teen Drug Abuse: Get the Facts and Statistics.” MedicineNet, MedicineNet, 18 Nov. 2015, www.medicinenet.com/teen_drug_abuse/article.htm.

Monroe, Jamison. “10 Facts About Teenage Drug Abuse.” Newport Academy, Newport Academy, 25 Sept. 2019, www.newportacademy.com/resources/substance-abuse/10-facts-teen-drug-abuse/.

Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. “Brain Development, Teen Behavior and Preventing Drug Use.” Where Families Find Answers on Substance Use | Partnership for Drug-Free Kids, drugfree.org/article/brain-development-teen-behavior/.

“Prevention in Teens.” Center on Addiction, 14 Apr. 2017, www.centeronaddiction.org/addiction-prevention/teenage-addiction?gclid=CjwKCAjwwYP2BRBGEiwAkoBpAtfIg1kXZWxLbvOmp7ZE35P7WS3XfNeVjJEgwntK9iuxN6h9q75U3BoCgg8QAvD_BwE.