Avoiding And Over-coming Drug Abuse

Drugs ruin lives.  When you put illegal drugs into your body hoping for a "high" feeling, you are ruining the natural chemistry of your body and setting yourself up for destruction.  Successful people across the world have been ruined by drugs. They might distract you from a problem but, using drugs does not solve a problem and often complicate it.

Many people are brain-washed to actually believe that drugs use leads to fabulous experiences and good time but if you take everything into consideration, you can have a MUCH better time WITHOUT IT.

Many drugs can cause addiction with the first use.  Other types of drugs thought to be just recreational by many actually lead you down the slippery slope of addiction and can lead to trying more serious, addictive drugs.

Drugs cause you to age unnaturally.  They can make you lose weight; cost you all of your savings as the need to use the drugs becomes greater than any thoughts of retirement or financial security.  The addiction to drugs can become so great you will cease to care about your family and friends unless they can help you secure drugs to get high.

The best way to stay away from the negative effects of drugs is to simply stay off of drugs and by involving yourself with better alternatives  Don't try them, not even once.  People will try to pressure you and tempt you to get you to try the drugs.  You don't need to take drugs to gain an advantage or work or school.  The high feeling you get will not last and the dowside is often a nightmare.  Most of the time, drugs are used by either ignorant, desperate or reckless people who think that they can find more power, solutions and happiness by using drugs but Instead they find disappointment, addiction, destruction of their life, and even death.

Studies show that high risk individuals, particularly teenagers, who participate in a peer-led substance abuse prevention program, will reduce their drug use by as much as 15 percent compared to other traditional drug prevention programs.  Additionally, conventional drug prevention programs focus on abstinence-only education.  With a peer led program, the chances of reaching a teen for those that may be thinking about trying drugs, have tried it, or are habitual users, will be able to hear the message from their friends rather than parental-type individuals. 

One important aspect of a peer-led program is that kids will listen to kids.  For instance, most programs teach information about the bad effects of drugs and how to avoid them without considering the strong influence peers have with one another. 

Parents are also very important to the equation.  Since substance abuse is a preventable problem, parents are more powerful than they believe. By discussing what drug use can do to a person with their children reduces the risk of abuse by as much as half. Parents need to provide structure and boundaries that are clear consistent and explained in advance and are based on love and transparency. With explained boundaries and expectations, you provides a foundation for your kids to be able to make better decisions when faced with choices such as drug use.

Even if you know your kids or friends aren't using any kind of drugs, you still need to make sure you have a conversation with them regarding the topic.  Proactive communication is an excellent form of prevention and if the lines of communication are open, the individual contemplating drug use may talk with you before trying the drugs or simply remember you good advice.

Drug abuse does not discriminate—it goes across race, gender and economic lines.  The unfortunate reality is that most people know someone who is or was a drug addict.  More shocking is that one in four teenagers has a parent who is addicted.  Even more shocking is that addiction is hereditary—if there is a pattern of drug use in the family increases the chances of the individual becoming addicted. 

Drug use is a health problem and is very much preventable.  Depending on the substance being used, onence you get started, it is often hard to stop.  That is because habitual drug use changes the physiological basis of a person's body.  Specifically, chronic drug use will change the brain and body chemistry which makes it even harder to stop the abuse.

Drug abuse is not limited to illegal substances.  There are an increasing number of people of all ages turning to prescription drug use and over the counter drug use, such as cough medicine.  Make sure you keep your prescription medicines locked up and safe and try to take as few as possible.

It is important to know that recovery from drug abuse is possible and will happen, but will take time, love and support.  The best thing you can do to encourage someone to stop abusing drugs is to get them professional help.