Adolescents who have gone through traumatic experiences are often looking for a way to numb their inner pain. And this way can be drugs. How to prevent this?
Adolescents who experienced potentially traumatic events before the age of 11 are, on average, more likely to try different types of drugs. This conclusion was reached by the American psychologist Hannah Carliner and her colleagues.1.
They studied the personal files of almost 10 teenagers: 11% of them were victims of physical violence, 18% experienced accidents, and another 15% of the victims of accidents were relatives.
It turned out that 22% of the teenagers had already tried marijuana, 2% — cocaine, 5% took strong drugs without a doctor’s prescription, 3% — other drugs, and 6% — several different types of drugs.
“Children are particularly hard hit by abuse,” says Hannah Karliner. Survivors are more likely to use drugs during adolescence. However, the risk of addiction is also affected by other traumatic events experienced in childhood: car accidents, natural disasters, serious illnesses.
Child abuse is particularly hard on children.
Most often, children tried drugs, whose parents themselves suffered from drug addiction or alcoholism. The authors of the study see several possible explanations for this. Children in such families have the opportunity to try drugs at home or have inherited a genetic predisposition to bad habits from their parents. Watching their parents, they see that it is possible to “relieve stress” with the help of psychoactive substances. The fact that such parents often neglect the duties of raising a child also plays a role.
The consequences of teenage experiments with illicit drugs can be sad: it is possible to develop severe addiction, mental disorders. As the researchers emphasize, children who have experienced mental trauma need special support from the school, psychologists and families. It is especially important to teach them to cope with stress and difficult experiences. Otherwise, drugs will take over the role of anti-stress.
1 H. Carliner et al. «Childhood Trauma and Illicit Drug Use in Adolescence: A Population-Based National Comorbidity Survey Replication–Adolescent Supplement Study», Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2016.