Social Theories Related to Substance Misuse
The social theory of symbolic interactionism is considered relevant to developing alcohol, nicotine, and drug addiction since it splits any reference to psychoactive substances into signs and symbols. Modern culture, based mainly on signs, or images, repeatedly aestheticizes and romanticizes dependence on psychoactive substances (The Learning Portal / Le Portail d’Apprentissage, 2018).
At the same time, it is precisely the consolidation of these images that subsequently prevents addicted people from avoiding the label ‘drug addict.’ Almost without censorship, modern TV series and films of the last decades showed the addictions of young people dressed in beautiful clothes, living in beautiful houses, and looking good. Posing with a cigarette and the sexualization of young people who use drugs became the basis for forming a symbol in many other stable characters for perceiving other people.
The advantage of this approach is the ability to see the described demonstration of labels on specific examples (advertising, series, films). However, this same factor can also become a disadvantage on closer examination, as this approach lacks a general view of society and contemporary culture. Often, the symbols and labels that the followers of symbolic interactionism talk about may not concern a stratum of people, for example, alcohol addiction, but about a specific person and his personality.
An example of a situation that leads to alcohol abuse is a group of teenagers or young people, among whom there is a drug user. Instead of treating this person with condemnation, the society around him indulges his weaknesses and joins in addiction since addiction can offer culturally acceptable and aestheticized symbols and images (Mosher & Akins, 2014). As a result, young people allow themselves to participate in the creation of the same image from their examples.
Genetic and Environmental Factors Related to Substance Abuse
Genetic factors in addiction include the number of receptors in the brain that influence the perception of drugs and other substances. The order of habituation to substances, resistance, or compliance, is also inherited. Examples of genes that raise the risk of alcoholism are ADH1B and ALDH2, making a family’s offspring 50% more likely to have alcoholism (Biology of Addiction, 2017). Environmental factors are domestic violence, homelessness, bullying, including sexual abuse.
Often alcohol intake at an early age is influenced by its frequent demonstration in the house and constant examples before one’s eyes. It is how the children of alcoholics and drug addicts become like their parents, not only because of genes but because of the environment. Other environmental factors are the price of alcohol and cigarettes, their availability in the area of residence, and the severity of policies that oppose them.
Genetic factors and environment are rapidly intertwined and can produce in young patients severe addiction products of their parents. Similarly, the removal of one of the factors, for example, the adoption by a healthy family of a child from a family of drug addicts, can help a healthy member of society grow up. Genetic factors play a supportive role in the creation and development of an unfavorable and violent environment (TEDx Talks, 2016).
A person with a genetic predisposition will develop addiction more easily in a hostile environment, and getting rid of it will be more difficult. An example of genetics and environmental factors is drug addiction among homeless children and the poor. The genetic predisposition of parents usually makes children organize their lifestyle in such a way that there are no stimulant substances in their lives. They are afraid of the psychological effects (unpleasant associations) and the rapid development of dependence.
References
Biology of Addiction. (2017). NIH News in Health. Web.
The Learning Portal / Le Portail d’Apprentissage. (2018). Social/Psychological Reasons for Substance Abuse [Video]. YouTube. Web.
Mosher, C.J. & Akins, S. (2014). Drugs and drug policy: The control of the consciousness alteration. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
TEDx Talks. (2016). From Genes to Addiction: How Risk Unfolds Across the Lifespan | Dr. Danielle Dick| TEDxRVA [Video]. YouTube. Web.