hereditary v environment

[Beat Narrative]

I am curious about peole who have developed substance abuse problems as to whether it is based on something your born with or the environment your surrounded by, personally i would imagine its a combination of the two

I grew up in a fairly stereotypical dysfunctional family, violent alcoholic mother who drank hersefl to death and a dad with a gambling addiction that kept us in virtual poverty, i always swore i would never develop an addiction to anything or let anything control my life other than my own will

Here i sit at 30 years of age facing similar problems to my parents, substance abuse issues that are effecting those around me (the one thing i swore i would never let happen)

I always thought of myself as being very intelliegent and being very self aware, i grew up with a close knit group of friends and we started experimenting with drugs together and it has provided some of the best moments of my life, i always attributed my drug taking due to my social scene more than any mechanism for escape or propensity to compulsive behaviour

Now i am older i look at that group of friends, i have seemed to notice the ones who have gone onto to excessive and habit forming drug use (me included) are the ones who had a more dysfunctional upbringing as opposed to my friends who have either eventually abstained from drugs or use them more recreationally

i have always felt that i am completley responsible for my own actions and as an autonomous being i am responsible soley for the choices i make, i then have family members telling me they knew i would turn out with substance abuse issues based on my upbringing

i will never attempt to shift my actions to some blame game but its interesting food for thought i think

 

[RedLeader]

I would imagine that my desire to use drugs has caused me to seek out drug-friendly environments, and in turn drug-friendly environments have led to me (ab)using more drugs. Though it can feel like it at times, it's not a chicken/egg thing, though, because I definitely set out to find them years back. I was not raised in a household that contained drinking/drugs, and was a good kid in school. I don't believe that I was born a drug abuser or anything like that, but I definitely have had a life-long morbid curiosity. And it moved on to drugs about ten years ago.

 

[herbavore]

This is a question I have grappled with quite a bit. My experience in the family that I grew up in, as well as my experience as a mother, have only deepened my sense of the complexity of the question. Both of my siblings and I experimented with drugs as teens and my brother ended up with a lifelong crack addiction, while my sister and I used, and abused, multiple substances but walked away addiction free. Our family was loving and stable while we were young and when my parents decide to end their marriage, while traumatic for us, they had already given us a foundation of values and life-skills that made it easier to weather. My brother has often talked of feeling like he was born with a hole inside him that he could never fill. He was well liked and successful on the outside but says he always felt that his addiction came more from trying to fill that ache within than from anything else.

My husband and I raised two boys. We have the same stresses and strains that any two people have but we love each other and we were dedicated to our boys above all else. They grew up in a functioning family with lots of love, support for their individuality, encouragement and a stable base from which to test their wings. Still, I always feared that when my younger son discovered both the relief and the excitement of drugs he would be vulnerable in a way that his big brother was not. He was a boy of huge emotions right from the get-go; huge rages, huge sadness and equally huge joy. He struggled with his mind, he struggled with his emotions and with such a high sensitivity to everything that he was often overwhelmed. So, almost from the beginning, one son used moderately and one fell full tilt into more compulsive use. One survived, one did not. I struggle with this every day. How much did our family have to do with any of it for either of them?

All I come up with is this: we are each individuals. We come into the world with a certain brain chemistry and a certain physiology all our own. The same love, given to two different people feels differently to each of them.What feels like positive encouragement and support to one child may in fact be perceived as pressure and overwhelming expectation to another. We perceive differently and thus we live in distinctly unique worlds that seem from the outside to be the same.

In the end this is why I feel that all the judgement that is heaped upon people that become addicts is so misguided and ignorant. There is an assumption that only these people made bad choices when in fact we all do. Many of the reasons for doing drugs in the first place are not bad choices at all. Red mentioned curiosity. I would add a desire for adventure, stimulation, an expanded view of oneself and the world as motivators that do not fit the category of bad choices. The complex set of circumstances that leads to addiction in one person and completely circumvents it in another cannot ever be understood from one single vantage point.

I wish you all the best of luck in understanding what addiction means to you; where it came from, what you can learn from it and certainly how you can leave it behind. I look forward to reading all the responses in this thread and thank you for posing the question.

 

[Sheffsam]

For me it was all environment. I grew up in a pretty idyllic place, solid family unit. The downside was I was home-educated 'til 13. When I finally was given the choice to go to school, I took it, and spent a long 3 years learning social skills I'd missed out from the formative years of my childhood. I never shifted from being a misfit there though, and spent plenty of time being on the verge of being expelled for getting in scraps that I had to get in to keep idiots off my back, whilst putting in grades that put me as one of the top 3 students in my year. I did the usual weed smoking and drinking that's pretty much par for the course as a teen, but then moved away when I was 16 and pretty much started over.

I then spent nearly 7 years completely clean, didn't drink, didn't smoke weed, and even gave up cigs for 3 years. Bought a house and was engaged when I was 19, but never found a career. During this time I tried to shake the social insecurities I still had, worked pretty hard at it, but by 21 it was getting on top of me. Looking back now I realise that was when the depression started. At 23 I'd shut down so badly I pretty much managed to torch a 6 year relationship, was diagnosed with severe depression. Sold up the house, started smoking cigs again, then weed, then on to mdma, coke, and opiates. I've been lucky enough to never really develop a full addiction, but regular self-medication has been pretty much constant for 7 years now.

The only other thing, I often have insomnia as I simply cannot stop thinking, I discovered that my dad suffers exactly the same problem. Maybe that's just coincidence, but it does make me wonder, and that problem itself is one of the main reasons I got into opiates.

 

[n3ophy7e]

Very interesting topic Beat Narrative
This is something I've wondered about myself, and others, many times.

Personally, I believe my alcohol addiction is a product of genetic predisposition to depression and alcohol dependence (nature), AND witnessing my father as an alcoholic for most of my life (nurture), and also the social circles I put myself in during my teenage years (also nurture). Like you said Beat Narrative, I also imagine that the vast majority of the time addiction and related compulsive behaviour is a product of both nature and nurture.

It begs the question though, if addiction is foreseeable, why is it more often than not so unavoidable?? Again, like you Beat Narrative, when I was growing up I KNEW that I had a predisposition to alcoholism. I KNEW there was an increased risk of me developing a drinking problem. Yet I still couldn't stop myself from going there. I mean, like most cases of addiction it happened so gradually that by the time I realised I was addicted it was much too late. But why wasn't awareness enough to stop me from becoming addicted?

 

[RedLeader]

It begs the question though, if addiction is foreseeable, why is it more often than not so unavoidable??

I think that we hear statistics like "X percent of people who try heroin end up getting addicted" or "Y percent of problem drinkers will die from complications due to alcohol" and as long as the X's and Y's that are thrown out there aren't too close to 100%, we gain a false sense of security. After all, people like us BLers are used to being on the fringes of society, used to being part of minorities, even used to beating the odds, so it might not seem all that different for us to become a bit headstrong in our ability to remain in the percentage who don't let an addictive substance destroy our lives.

I think where things go wrong, though, is that we really have no way to place rules on ourselves to defeat every aspect of addiction. Sure, things like 'one day on, two days off' can prevent physical addictions, but that's the easy part. I could get back on heroin right now, and since I'm not physically addicted, I could follow a schedule so that I could use a day or two each week and not get physically addicted again. However, I can guarantee that even if I did that successfully, the psychological addiction would still be there. Those days per week when I was not using would suck. I might not be dopesick on them, but I'd be craving all day and would drive myself mad. Eventually I'd probably think something like I know how to taper myself with Suboxone, so I'll just start using daily again and yet will still avoid getting sick. And that would go on somewhat successfully for a few weeks or months until someone found my gear or I nodded off while driving or I got arrested.

We *think* that we learn a lot from each addiction we go through, so we then *think* that we are avoiding a repeat based on what we have learned (I know how to avoid physical addiction this time around, so it will be different). But there are many roads to addictionville, and we just are stubborn like that.

 

[n3ophy7e]

^^ So so true man

 

[Vaya]

My feelings are based on personal experience and the wealth of properly-conducted scholarly literature I've read.

Both nature and nurture are significant contributing factors to the development of drug dependence. It would be difficult to argue that one with no access to drugs (environmental), but retains the genetics predisposing them to chemical dependency (nature), will continue on to be a drug addict. Without the wherewithall, it just can't happen.

However, if that same person with a predisposition to chemical dependency is placed in a societal context where reasonable access to substances exists, then the environment spurs nature to take its course.

I've always been fascinated with everything that defines chemical dependency, and have struggled with CD myself - a lot. When I remove myself completely from the "people, places and things" that foster the use of addictive drugs, remaining sober and abstinent from them actually becomes a possibility, despite the fact that I myself (an addict) come from a veritable dynasty of alcoholics and illicit drug users. Out of 21 members of my family (nuclear family plus grandparents, aunts, uncles and first-generation cousins), 19 of them struggle with one form of dependance or another. It's a well-established fact that genetics play at least a 50% role in the formation of clinical drug dependence.

IMO/IME, both heredity and environment combine to form the perfect storm.

 

[n3ophy7e]

^^ Well said, thanks Vaya

 

[Vaya]

Thanks n3ophy7e (I have such trouble typing your username LOL)

Interestingly enough, Nature Neuroscience e-mailed me their February 2012 newsletter today (just after I made this post). In it I found an abstract that I thought I'd come back and share with you all, interesting insight...

Recent advances in the genetic epidemiology and molecular genetics of substance use disorders

I think it's interesting, at least

~ vaya

 

[Nodding]

I think that we hear statistics like "X percent of people who try heroin end up getting addicted" or "Y percent of problem drinkers will die from complications due to alcohol" and as long as the X's and Y's that are thrown out there aren't too close to 100%, we gain a false sense of security. After all, people like us BLers are used to being on the fringes of society, used to being part of minorities, even used to beating the odds, so it might not seem all that different for us to become a bit headstrong in our ability to remain in the percentage who don't let an addictive substance destroy our lives.

I think where things go wrong, though, is that we really have no way to place rules on ourselves to defeat every aspect of addiction. Sure, things like 'one day on, two days off' can prevent physical addictions, but that's the easy part. I could get back on heroin right now, and since I'm not physically addicted, I could follow a schedule so that I could use a day or two each week and not get physically addicted again. However, I can guarantee that even if I did that successfully, the psychological addiction would still be there. Those days per week when I was not using would suck. I might not be dopesick on them, but I'd be craving all day and would drive myself mad. Eventually I'd probably think something like I know how to taper myself with Suboxone, so I'll just start using daily again and yet will still avoid getting sick. And that would go on somewhat successfully for a few weeks or months until someone found my gear or I nodded off while driving or I got arrested.

We *think* that we learn a lot from each addiction we go through, so we then *think* that we are avoiding a repeat based on what we have learned (I know how to avoid physical addiction this time around, so it will be different). But there are many roads to addictionville, and we just are stubborn like that.

Very well said buddy.

I wouldn't say i grew up in a great family, we were horribly poor until I was about 10, my parents constantly arguing etc.
It usually fell on me to keep things together, keep my younger sisters from seeing the worst of it. As I got older (early 15) I was introduced to drinking and mild drugs (weed, salvia, a few other legal highs) and while I can't deny I loved getting wasted with my friends, I also noticed that when my parents focused on my shortcomings it stopped them from arguing about everything else.
Take one for the team eh? Over the next few years I slipped into harder drugs, got arrested a few times, nearly expelled a few times. My relationship with my parents dwindled but at the same time, the family seemed to be getting on better. Maybe a coincidence, but after rowing with me they'd always take solace in each other, for a while, then it would be back at each others throats / back to the beginning of the cycle.

So I guess that's what got me into drugs. The trouble I found was after doing coke for example, I'd realize that all the media hype about it being horribly addictive were wrong, "I've done it and I'm not addicted, I guess that means I've just got amazing will power, I think I'll try something else".

If I could have taken a step back I'd have realized I have a very addictive personality at a much younger age, as soon as I had a steady supply of something I would always do it to excess.
Interestingly enough I recently found out that my dad was an alcoholic for years, something he still struggles with today. My sister has the same anxiety / paranoia problems that I do (and we suspect my Dad does too, although he'd never admit it).

Who knows, did I get the 'addiction' gene from my father or was it something I instilled in myself? It doesn't matter, what's done is done, my main worry at this point is what my sister will settle on. It seems that she will at some point have a problem with something, I just hope it's something more productive than sticking drugs into her arms.

 

[RedLeader]

So I guess that's what got me into drugs. The trouble I found was after doing coke for example, I'd realize that all the media hype about it being horribly addictive were wrong, "I've done it and I'm not addicted, I guess that means I've just got amazing will power, I think I'll try something else".

One cigarette won't give me cancer. ::smoke:: I didn't get cancer. One (additional) cigarette won't give me cancer...

Removing one brick from my house won't stop it from being a house. ::remove:: It's still a house. Now let's remove another...

Yet we do end up with cancer and eventually there would be nothing let of the house. Same thing with being addicted. Why the flawed induction? Well, there's just no proper way to define addiction (or a house or...) so that one could precisely say that "with one more I will go from non-addict to addict."

This is (partially) why I hate the term "drug-addict." Not only does it make some of us feel degraded, but it gives others a false license to keep "recreationally" playing with fire as long as they've defined it to not include themselves. The media should instead say something like "cocaine won't necessarily make you a drug addict, but it's almost surely going to change something in you in some way that you're not expecting." Or similar.

 

[Nodding]

This is (partially) why I hate the term "drug-addict." Not only does it make some of us feel degraded, but it gives others a false license to keep "recreationally" playing with fire as long as they've defined it to not include themselves. The media should instead say something like "cocaine won't necessarily make you a drug addict, but it's almost surely going to change something in you in some way that you're not expecting." Or similar.

Definitely. I remember when I first started getting into opiates, my parents found out pretty quickly.
By this point they'd just accepted that I was going to do drugs, they weren't happy about it but they'd realized that no amount of arguing would solve it.
They sat me down, tried to stress that I didn't understand what I was doing, that I was playing with fire... and I near enough laughed at them. Of course I new what I was doing, I'd done so many drugs and never been addicted (I had, I just wouldn't admit it to myself at that point), why would this be any different?
I didn't even understand addiction at that point, "I just won't do it every day, I don't get why junkies didn't just think 'hang on, I did this yesterday and the day before, I'll have a day off today', christ I'm not that stupid!". Young and naive or what