Can You Prevent Drug Addiction?
Drugs are certainly among some of the hardest things to stop in life. This is due to not only the chemical addictions that develop, but also the psychosocial drug addictions that develop when someone uses drugs on a regular basis.
However, it is important to note that drug addiction can be prevented. Most people think that it is something that is just going to happen, and oftentimes they hope it doesn’t happen to them. However, with a lot of education and a lot of planning ahead, you can prevent drug addiction in several different ways.
First of all, you need to educate people on the negative aspects of drug and alcohol addiction and of drugs themselves. People need to know what drugs do and what drugs do to their bodies. Drug addiction is something that is going to have a bad effect on someone’s body, and if a person knows ahead of time that they are going to be affected in a negative way by drug addiction, they are going to be less likely to try drugs in the first place. Also, if they know what addiction is and how it develops, a person is going to be more likely to only try a certain drug once, instead of using it over and over again and developing a drug addiction. It is lack of education that often leads people into drug addiction.
It is also important that you develop open and honest relationships with the people that you think might be prone to addiction – and that you have open and honest relationships with people to prevent you from developing a drug addiction. When you are held accountable to someone, whether it is a spouse or a friend or a family member, you are going to be less likely to lie to them, and more likely to tell them what is really going on in your life. If you can be honest with someone, they are going to be able to know what you are doing and what kinds of activities you might be involved in. If you are close to someone and you feel that they are experimenting with a certain drug, or that perhaps they are developing a drug addiction, you can talk to them and figure out what is really going on. Many times, a drug addiction can be prevented by talking with someone and figuring out what they are doing with themselves and with their lives. Talking is often the hardest part of drug addiction prevention, but it is often the most successful. You have no idea how important it is to talk to someone, and what your words and your relationships with someone might mean to that person. Talking is often the first front and the best defense against drug addiction.
It is also important to question why you are doing things, or why another person is doing things. Oftentimes we don’t stop to think of the reasons behind our actions. If we decide that we are doing an activity for the wrong reasons, it is much easier to quit that activity when we realize we should be doing something else. The same goes for drug addictions. If you can figure out why you are using drugs, you will often be able to stop yourself before you develop a drug addiction. Many drug rehab programs use addiction counseling to determine the causes behind and individual addiction.