There are many reasons drug or alcohol use can become a problem for someone but it’s always something more than just ‘bad luck’.

People use drugs for a bunch of reasons. Most young people do it for fun or pleasure and for most people drugs are unlikely to ever be an issue. But some young people try drugs for fun but find that it helps them in other ways. For instance, lots of young people tell us that it stops their thoughts or feelings and that they like that because their thoughts and feelings aren’t that good.

If you find that drugs are helping you to manage things like bad thoughts, feelings, or anxiety, you’re likely to want to use them more because it’s better to be without those thoughts or that anxiety. But this doesn’t always work so well in the long term – the drugs haven’t dealt with the issue, they’ve just masked it for a while. Unfortunately, drug use can create some issues of its own – for example, fighting with family, health issues and money troubles. These issues can increase your bad thoughts and your anxiety and so you use more drugs. Before you realise, you can be stuck in a miserable cycle.