Why would you decide to experiment with drugs and alcohol at all? This decision depends to a large extent on the type of family and community that you come from. If you are raised in a society with strict taboos against the use of mood-altering drugs, as in Islamic culture, for example, the opportunity to experiment might never arise, and therefore addiction would not be an issue.

But in middle-class America, experimentation with drugs and alcohol is quite common in the teen and young adult years. If you have watched your parents have a drink in the afternoon to wind down, then you get the message that using alcohol or drugs in order to feel better is acceptable - at least within certain limits. Television and movies often portray characters who drink, and there is a constant push, through advertising, for us to “grab all the gusto” or celebrate “Miller time.” So you may have first used simply because you wanted to grow up faster or to conform.

Availability
The substance that someone starts experimenting with is usually what is available at that time. If you were raised in the fifties and early sixties, you may never have encountered any illicit drugs at all in high school or even in college. Unless you had access to marijuana, for example, there would be no opportunity to try it. But by the mid-to-late sixties, all types of drugs were readily available on college campuses, and by the eighties even a grade-school child could obtain drugs fairly easily.

“Gateway drugs” open the door to further experimentation. Caffeine and nicotine, for example, are gateway drugs.

Once you have the initial experience of changing your mood with a substance, you’re probably less resistant to using something else. Smoking and drinking coffee, then, might be a gateway to using alcohol. Alcohol might be a gateway to trying marijuana, which is a gateway to trying something like LSD or cocaine, and so on.

Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is often the impetus for someone to begin experimenting with alcohol and drugs.

People vary in the degree to which they will respond to such pressure. In an interesting psychology experiment years ago, researchers recruited college students who were told that visual perception was being studied. Each student was placed in a room with a group of other people. Slides were shown of parallel lines, and the group was asked to say which line was longest, those other than the student having been secretly instructed to answer incorrectly each time. The student was subjected to a dilemma - it was obvious which line was longest, but the group said something different. A majority of the student subjects went along with the group, even though they admitted later that they knew the answer was wrong.

The need to conform with the group is very strong, especially for young people. But when a person’s family is supportive and intact and there are opportunities to socialize and participate in rewarding activities, the pressure to use drugs or drink has less effect.

Family Disruption
One reason that future alcoholics and addicts are vulnerable to peer pressure may be that they already have problems with self-esteem or have difficulties at home. If you are an alcoholic or drug addict, it is quite likely that someone in your family has had problems with addiction. This is because there are genetic factors in the development of addiction.

Even if the family member is a grandparent, aunt, or uncle, it’s highly likely that some damage has been done to the structure of your extended family that affected your upbringing.

The net result of growing up in such a family is that you are not provided with a stable basis for help in developing self-esteem and an individual identity. This can make you more vulnerable to peer pressure, and, in turn, lead you to engage in certain behaviors even though you can see the resulting problems in your family. Such a situation is ironic but not uncommon.

Psychological Trauma
You may have an even more compelling reason to experiment with drugs and alcohol. You may be one of the large number of alcoholics and addicts who have a history of being abused or neglected as a child. You may actually be living in an abusive situation at the time that you choose to experiment, and the relief that you get from painful feelings is a powerful reinforcer. People in this situation have a difficult time with early recovery, because the feelings start to surface after a short period of abstinence.

If this was your situation, and you are in recovery, you should find a competent psychologist or psychiatrist who can help you deal with these feelings rather than trying to cover them up by getting high.

Elizabeth Connell Henderson, M.D.

Glossary

Appendix A: Regulation of Addictive Substances

Appendix B: Sources of Additional Information