LIFE EXPERIENCE AND DRUG ADDICTION
Life experience can
certainly contribute to addiction as well as protect potential addicts. The life histories of people who
have entered drug-treatment
facilities show that certain characteristics appear more frequently in substance users than in people without
substance-use problems.
Substance abusers are more likely to have grown up
in a family with a
Alcoholism can be passed on by the experience of living
with an alcoholic parent (although almost as often this experience will
motivate a life of abstinence). Do people growing up in an alcoholic household
simply learn to respond to stress with alcohol? Possibly. Chil‑ dren
of alcoholics also are more likely to experience physical and emo‑ tional abuse at the hands of their parents, and a
past history of physical and emotional abuse is another characteristic of
many substance abusers. This is particularly true among women. In studies
of hospitalized alcohol‑ ics, 50 to 60 percent typically report having
experienced childhood abuse.
Why should bad early
experience lead to adult substance use? One group of theories suggests a psychological origin for the substance use. However, a biological theory was developed from
experimental work done on monkeys.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health and elsewhere have shown that when infant monkeys are
neglected or abused by their mothers,
they have a number of behavioral problems as they grow up. As adults, they tend to get into fights, and
if given the chance to drink alcohol,
they drink to excess. This is not just a genetic tendency because infants from perfectly normal mothers will show
these tendencies if they are raised by
neglectful mothers. None of this is surprising. What is surprising is that these behavioral problems are
accompanied by changes in the brain.
The alcohol-drinking monkeys show lower levels of the
neurotransmitter serotonin in their brains. This study indicates that this
early life experience may produce
long-lasting changes in the brain that contribute to these behaviors.
We know that associating with drug-using peers
increases the chances that a person
will choose to try drugs. Also, early use of cigarettes, alcohol, or marijuana is associated with later use of
other drugs. This association has led
to the popular "gateway theory" of drug addiction. This theory is based on evidence that most people who
use illegal addictive drugs first used
drugs like alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana. These drugs are viewed as a gateway to the use of more
dangerous drugs. However, the vast
majority of people using cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana never use
"harder" drugs. Although the statistics are correct, this situation reminds us of our favorite statistics teacher, who
is fond of saying that statistics
don't prove how things happen. It is possible that people who are risk takers, or mentally ill, or living in
chaotic families, or hanging out with
deviant friends are more likely to experiment with many deviant behaviors, including drug use. The drug use could
just as likely be symptom as a disease.
