Reasons drugs can become a problem

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 try them for fun or pleasure, and for many people drugs are unlikely to ever be an issue, though some young people find their substance use helps them in other ways so they start to use more, or more often.

Many young people tell us that substance use stops thoughts or feelings and that they like that because their thoughts or feelings aren’t that good. This can be helpful to start when drugs are helping to manage things like bad thoughts, low feelings, or anxiety, and you may want to use them more to feel better without those thoughts or that anxiety, but this can have impacts for the long term.  

When using drugs to feel better about something else, the first issue hasn’t been dealt with, only masked 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 also increase bad thoughts and anxiety, making someone use more drugs and/or more often, and become stuck in a tricky cycle..  

No matter how or why drugs have become a problem for you, there is help and support services that understand, are welcoming and want to help you. Feel free to give YoDAA team a call or SMS, we’d love to explore at what’s going on and what support might help you make changes (if you’re ready for that).

Support may also be looking at those other issues first and getting them more under control, before you feel like you can change substance use. This is a very normal experience of support.