Alcohol and substance addiction is an issue that needs to be addressed from multiple perspectives. It covers many parameters, from medical treatment requirements to psychological and social potentials, from family structure and cultural values to international drug focuses and policies developed against them. Substance addiction, which is a global problem that will be addressed and combated in many ways, negatively affects individuals, families, societies and threatens new generations and social life.
Substance addiction is a brain disease and the person who somehow falls into this addiction spiral is within himself. It invades by capturing from deep gaps.
Once young individuals step into this mysterious garden, they have to give up their future, their dreams, their feelings, their physical and spiritual health in exchange for their excitement-filled curiosity.
Screening research shows that substance addiction most often begins with steps taken out of curiosity.
Drug and alcohol addicts usually start using these substances at a young age; The first steps of the addiction adventure, which will gradually worsen in the future, are taken at an early age. There are many reasons for this. The nature of psychosocial development processes during adolescence and the processes that pave the way for substance use that may occur can be listed as follows.
Youth is the period when development is tested most harshly by change. In the process of adapting to this spiritual and physical change and creating a new identity, young people strive to create a position for themselves in society. This change-transformation process, which we can consider as a kind of metamorphosis, is the most fragile period of human beings. This fragility emphasizes once again that young people are the segment of society to which we should be most sensitive as a society.
Young people try to become autonomous from their parents, to whom they have been dependent since birth and from whom they are slowly trying to separate. They do this by getting closer to their friend groups. They try to create a value system of their own that is different from the principles and value system they formed in childhood. The way to do this is by joining groups of friends. r.
The young person who tries to direct the separation process in this way tends to reconcile his own value system with the value system of the society and in this way, to gain a place in society and to define himself within society. However, this process is not an easy process. In today's world, it often happens in a painful way. The difficulties experienced in this process push the young person into a state of alienation, inability to find a place for himself in society, and inability to determine his identity.
The need to be included in a group and be accepted by it is very essential in adolescence. Friend groups have rules that define the behavior and thought patterns that define the group and draw its boundaries. The young person will also want to establish himself by not going beyond these rules and being a tireless advocate. If there is close familiarity with alcohol, cigarettes and drugs within the norms of the group, and if the young person is required to comply with these norms, the young person can fulfill this requirement in order not to be ridiculed and excluded by other members of the group and to remain within the group. The pain of being excluded from a group seems more frightening than the anticipated negative effects of using substances.
Similarly, male-girl relationships, which gain much more volume in adolescence, can also be a determining factor in substance addiction. Needs such as bonding within a relationship, self-acceptance, looking attractive or being preferred can also lead a young person to use substances.
Another important window is the mental transformation during adolescence. Every young mind that moves from concrete thinking to abstract thinking begins to question life in order to re-understand and give meaning to it. He wants to internalize the general acceptances that have become an ordinary part of daily life for adults, by filtering them through his own filter. He often rejects established values in order to assert himself as a different individual, because the need to prove that he is an independent individual on his own, not an extension of his parents, is very vital.
In addition, youth is a time when we are much more fearless about taking many risks in life. period. The thought that nothing will happen to me, the belief that one will not face the consequences and costs of one's actions, the power to influence the environment and prove oneself. When combined with this belief, a lifestyle that is closer to risks and falls more easily is adopted.
The future and possible risks in the future are seen as very distant. The young person is more interested in the results right then and there. For example, while the immediate satisfaction of alcohol or substances or escaping from the pressures of the environment are important for the young person, he does not care about the health problems that may arise years later due to smoking.
The fluctuating stops of this spiritual transformation process are the young person's need to do in the process of gaining an identity. determines to what extent it will oscillate in new trials. A young person cannot decide at once what kind of identity he will adopt in society. Society should also give him this time and the chance to be wrong. The opposite situation is like requiring you to find the outfit that suits you best on the first try. However, the best result will be achieved after many attempts. For young people, the process of acquiring an identity is a process in which these experiments will take place, in which they will be wrong from time to time and come close to the truth from time to time.
Of course, the need to contact what is wrong and unacceptable may arise in order to find what is right and appropriate. Especially for many young people, whose processes of acquiring an identity and having it accepted in society are conflicting, when a positive identity cannot be acquired, assuming a negative identity may be considered preferable to being nothing.
In the trial and error process of acquiring this identity, young people become acquainted with matter and incorporate it into their lives. The possibilities of placing their lives on it are increasingly encountered in today's world.
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