Drug Use And The Factors That Influence A Future Drug Addiction

A few of the many reasons why people begin to take drugs is because of sensation-seeking, social conformity, or the fact that they are just curious. Substance abuse has been a common concern among specifically, the younger population. Adolescents and young adults are more easily influenced by society and other factors because their brains are not fully developed yet. Science explains, “By 18–20 years old, most of the subcortical white matter and association pathways have reached a plateau. Risk-taking behavior and novelty-seeking may provide, with an appropriate feedback, a mechanism to optimize brain development in adolescence” (Adolescent Brain Development, Risk-taking and Vulnerability to Addiction). By the early twenties, people will begin to realize the consequences that follow while engaging in risky behavior and will less likely do it.

Why is adolescence a critical time for preventing early drug addiction? The risk of drug abuse increases greatly in times of transition. In early teens, when children advance from elementary school through middle school, to high school, they face new challenging social situations. In many cases during this period, many teens are exposed to drugs for the first time. When they enter high school, many teens encounter greater availability to drugs. At the same time, many behaviors that are a normal aspect of their development such as the desire to try new things or take bigger risks, may increase teens to try

Adolescence is a time where adolescents grow and mature at a rapid rate. It is also a time where adolescents are more vulnerable to taking risks, such as using and becoming addicted to illegal substances, due to raging hormones. Whether or not an adolescent chooses to engage in drug use and abuse depends on their home environment and those they choose to associate themselves with. Adolescents are confronted with an enormous amount of pressure to participate in risky behaviors by their peers. According to Broderick and Blewitt (2015), “risky behaviors are behaviors that constitute a departure from socially accepted norms or behaviors that pose a threat to the well-being of individuals or groups” (p. 389). One such risky behavior is drug use and addiction. Some adolescents use cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and prescription drugs in order to get “high”. Adolescents who engage in drug use are likely to become addicted, and thus, their addiction will negatively affect their brain development.

A teenagers risk taking is a crucial part of their brains development and can significantly benefit their growth as a person. Recent test have shown that in social situations, teenagers are more likely to take risks. In the article, Beautiful Brains, the author, David Dobbs, discussed a study in which teenagers played a game alone, then with people in the room. “When teens drive the course alone, in what Steinberg calls the emotionally ‘cool’ situation of an empty room, they take risks at the same rates that adults do.” (Pbs.org) This shows that teenagers are capable of making good decisions and taking the same amount of risks as a developed adult. So many parents assume that they take unnecessary risk, when really, the teenager knows exactly

According to current statistics released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “In the United States in 2011, there were an estimated 25.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17. In the past year, more than one quarter of adolescents drank alcohol, approximately one fifth used an illicit drug, and almost one eighth smoked cigarettes” ("A Day in the Life of American Adolescents," 2013, para. 1). Substance abuse is major problem amongst adolescents. Some are experimenting, but some adolescents may become dependent on a particular substance. If one becomes dependent on a substance as an adolescent it could be detrimental to their future health and success as an adult. Spear (2003) stated in an article titled Alcohol’s

Adolescent substance abuse is a phenomenon in our country that has been steadily inclining ever since the 2000’s. The effects of this incline are very straight forward and call for action. The facts are that alcohol and drugs are the leading causes of crime among youth and that alcohol and drugs are the leading factors in teenage suicide. (National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., 2014) Because adolescence is such a crucial developmental age the effects of alcohol and drug use are catastrophic. To fully understand this phenomenon we must firs operationalize all of the factors we are trying to study. The DSM V classifies substance abuse as,

A teenager’s brain and body is still developing, which makes them more acceptable to the harmful effects of drug use. The early use of abuse

Author, Maia Szalavitz in her article, Why the Teen Brain is Drawn to Risk, notes that teens are reckless and do things without looking at the consequences first. She supports her claim by first illustrating an example from a research that states teens overestimate risks like sex and drug use. Then Szalavitz quotes Tymula, postal doctoral student at New York University, that teens are likely to engage more in known risks than they doin the known risks. Finally, she cites Valerie Reyna, professor of human development and psychology at Cornell University, on how the teen brain takes twice the amount of time on quantitative reasoning since their prefrontal cortex hasn’t developed fully. Szalavitz’s purpose is to recommend we change our teaching

The pre-mature prefrontal cortex of the adolescent to mid-20’s brain is not fully capable to perform its role, such as being responsible for assessing situation, control emotions and impulses, and making decisions. Moreover, the individual within the ages are typically tend to seek pleasure more and avoid pain. As the result, they are more prone to adapt substance abuse pattern and become more vulnerable to substance abuse. If the abuse pattern does not addressed and continuously develop, it can pose serious behavioral, physical, social issues, such as failure in occupational performance, impaired memory, impulsiveness behavior, lose motivation in healthy life style, organ failure, and mild to severe mental health problems. Not only interpersonal problems but also it can cause social crimes. Therefore, Adolescence substance abuse pattern must take in as serious matters and need to be addressed (Casey, Jones, & Hare, 2008; reviewed by Winters & Arria, 2011).

Some teenagers go through a depression stage with confusion and loneliness, some even consider harming themselves or taking drugs to cope with the depression. Some teenagers go through a period of stupid, reckless behavior. Some teenagers go through a period when drug addiction overrules their lives. When teens get peer pressured into taking drugs they think it will be cool, but throughout their addictive period they get involved with bad people. Research has shown that it take about 11 seconds after a teen takes a drug and they can be addicted. Teenagers have very high chances of addiction. Young people grasp things very quickly and can easily get addicted to things quicker, because their minds are constantly growing and it speeds up their learning process. According to the article, "Experts Link Brains' Immaturity, Juvenile Crime", Juveniles are more vulnerable and susceptible to negative influences and outside pressures, including peer pressure. This peer pressure often comes from a persons closest friends. During the development of a teen brain it matures and grows. People overcome challenges in adulthood by remembering choices they made during their teenage years and what those choices led them

When studying any public health phenomenon, it is imperative for researchers to examine the interplay between contextual facts that influences population health outcomes. Biological factors and early childhood events significantly influence adolescent behavior, at which point many young people begin experimenting with substance use. Research has identified that subpar prenatal neurological experiences and family history of substance abuse disorders are predictive of substance use in young adulthood (Bastra, Hadders-Algra, Ormel, & Neeleman, 2004; Courtney & Polich, 2009; Kreek, Nielsen, Butelman, & LaForge, 2005; Malone et al., 2004). Further, association between parental substance abuse and substances abuse

Addiction is a developmental disease which typically begins in childhood or adolescence. Children's earliest interactions within the family are vital to their healthy development and risk for drug abuse (NIDA). One of the brain areas still maturing during adolescence is the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that enables us to assess situations, make sound decisions, and keep our emotions and desires under control. The fact that this critical part of an adolescent’s brain is still a work in progress puts them at an increased risk for making poor decisions (such as trying drugs or continuing to take them). Also, introducing drugs during this period of development may cause brain changes that have profound and long-lasting consequences.

It is a well known fact that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty-five. The frontal lobe is an area of the brain where a huge difference is shown between adults and minors. This is the part of our brain that helps humans control impulses and think things through. For this reason adolescents tend to make riskier decisions. In addition to the riskiness of adolescent decision

The imbalance model seeks to explain the mechanisms that influence adolescent risk taking. The prefrontal cortex, linked to decision making among other processes, and the subcortical limbic regions, linked to reward, are in an unbalanced state in the brains of adolescents. During adolescence, the limbic regions develop more quickly than the prefrontal cortical regions involved in control and decision making; therefore, there is an imbalance between the regions, with the limbic reward regions having more influence. In pre-adolescent children, these regions are not developed, which explains the difference in decision making and risk taking relative to adolescents. On the other side of that, the prefrontal cortical and subcortical limbic regions are fully developed in adults, explaining their better understanding of consequences, impulsivity control, good decision making, and less risk-taking behaviors. According to the researchers,

When someone says, “You get that laugh or that smile from your father or your mother.” You don’t always believe them, but in some studies today it is said that if your parents or anyone in your family has a history of a drug addiction those traits in their genes have a decent chance of being passed down to the children causing problems for them later in life. According to the Drugs and Addiction article in the 2009 Addiction Journal, “Family, twin and adoption studies suggest that the heritability of substance use disorders is moderate to