Drug addiction prevention

To date, there are about six million drug addicts in Russia, and only 500 thousand of them are officially registered. The fact is that only a small part of people who regularly use drugs agree to get a medical record. Meanwhile, in 1 year, drug treatment clinics can take a load of 50 thousand people. 20 percent of all drug addicts in our country are schoolchildren. 60% are young people between the ages of 16 and 30. The remaining 20% are people over thirty.

The average age of starting drug use in our country is 15-17 years. In addition, the number of drug addicts aged 9-13 years increases every year. There are also cases of drug use by children aged 6-7 years, most often they are forced to drug addiction by parents with an existing dependence on psychotropic substances.

The main sources of drugs in Russia are educational institutions, clubs and discos. 70 percent of young drug addicts admitted that they used drugs for the first time in these places. According to statistics, one drug addict attracts 13-15 people to the use of psychotropic substances.

Over the past few years, the number of deaths caused by drug use has increased 12-fold. Among children, this figure has increased 40 times. On average, after the start of drug use, the addict lives 3-5 years.

There are specific features of the human psyche that contribute to the emergence of addiction to drugs. These people usually do not know how to be on good terms with others. Their psyche is weak and unstable. They are impressionable, fearful, and suffer greatly from this, as they consider their compliance a sign of weakness. Therefore, they try to pass themselves off as people with a strong character, try to impose their will on others, but at the same time they are unable to resist various life failures, although they try to hide it. They do not know how to accept defeats, they are easily irritated by life's failures, which discourage them and discourage them from doing anything. This prevents them from achieving their goals, they are very painfully experiencing constant failures and lack of success. In order to drown out these unpleasant feelings, they become aggressive, quarrelsome, or, conversely, passive, trying to avoid difficulties instead of overcoming them.

One of the most important external causes of addiction to drugs is the influence of a group of peers in which the drug-addicted lifestyle reigns.

Such groups are particularly dangerous for highly excitable, mobile natures. They can not sit in one place, they can not concentrate their attention on any one subject for a long time. Such people have many aspirations, but they do not finish any business. They are not seriously and deeply interested in anything. In school, the situation of these teenagers is not brilliant, since they are not interested in lessons and they do not have enough patience to study. They compensate for the lack of success in school by demonstrating independence, rudeness, and physical strength by ignoring generally accepted norms. They are bold and defiant with their teachers.

The most important factor in the emergence of drug addiction is also the curiosity and fashion for drugs among young people. An extremely dangerous situation occurs when a drug taken out of curiosity or boredom immediately causes a pleasant sensation. As a result, a person has a desire to experience the same feeling. So there is a mental dependence on the drug. This is known to professional drug dealers who are looking for their clients among schoolchildren, Often they give drugs for a long time and for free, until their victim falls into the addiction network and begins to beg for a drug, without which he can no longer do. After that, she is forced to pay dearly for the drug, thus forcing her to get money somewhere, pushing her to commit a crime.

The use of drugs, as it were, increases the rank of a young man among his comrades. In some youth circles, this becomes something of a claim to the right to be considered a real person, just as smoking and drinking alcohol at a certain age is considered by some teenagers to be a sign of adulthood.

A special and very important motive for the use of drugs by young people is the hope to escape with their help from their life difficulties associated with family conflicts, school troubles or with some other problems. Difficulties of various kinds give rise to an unusually strong and unpleasant feeling of internal mental tension, which does not allow a person to live normally and requires mandatory discharge. The ability to overcome such difficulties, which is necessary for everyone, is developed the better, the more correctly the young person's psyche was formed. If a young person, who is characterized by the above-mentioned mental defects, meets with complex life problems that he can not cope with, then he begins to look for some ways to discharge the tension that torments him. And so he discovers that the drug can, at least for a while, put off all the trouble. And then, quite often, a group of drug addicts appears on the horizon, and the drug becomes a discovery.

The sooner parents and teachers discover signs of a teenager's involvement in the use of drugs or toxic substances, the more hope there is for him to get rid of the drug. Therefore, it is necessary to have information about the" portrait " of a young drug addict.

According to his psychological tone, he is loose, unhinged, unable to make a long-term effort of will, unable to fix his attention for more or less a long time, to take seriously any one subject in which he had previously shown interest. As a result of drug use, the interests of drug addicts are usually poor and limited to the satisfaction of the resulting drives in the lower emotions. Early anesthesia disrupts the process of harmonious development of the individual, negatively affects the physical, mental and intellectual health of adolescents. They significantly slow down the pace of mental operations. The level of moral standards is falling, and morality is declining. Characterized by poor emotions, high suggestibility, lack of creative abilities. Consumer psychology and general egocentric orientation are being formed. Drugs have an adverse effect on the sexual sphere of a teenager, reducing potency, and sometimes cause an excessive increase in sexual feelings, which is most often manifested in sexual promiscuity.

Ways to involve adolescents and young people in drug addiction are very diverse. The researchers note that none of the teenagers who started using drugs, do not think about the possibility of becoming dependent on them. All of them either satisfy their own curiosity ("Come on, let's check-what are hallucinations?", "Come on, is it true that drugs give pleasure?"), or try drugs to please the company they respect. The first steps in drug addiction are carried out by teenagers with the intention of only a single use, but the circumstances are such that similar situations are repeated.

"Bragging rights and envy»

Friends of the teenager repeatedly and excitedly boasted that the night before they had a very nice time: they gathered at the apartment of one of the older comrades and, in addition to the usual entertainment, smoked "weed". It was more fun than ever. Imagination draws a teenager very tempting pictures of entertainment. Curiosity and envy take their toll, and he accepts the offer to join the company.

"A friendly joke»

A friend of a teenager, instead of the usual cigarettes that they usually smoke, offers him imported ones, from which the teenager has previously unknown sensations and causeless laughter. A friend reveals the meaning of the joke and reports that the cigarettes were marijuana. The first unexpectedly acquired drug experience encourages the teenager to repeat pleasant sensations.

"Friendly blackmail»

A group of reputable friends of the teenager invites him to try marijuana, which the members of this company smoke themselves. Friends incite him with the words: "Don't be a coward", "Are you a weakling?". The situation is aggravated by the presence of a pretty girl in the company. The teenager has to give in.

"In a drunken stupor...»

The first drug test takes place in a drunken company, when a teenager who is excited and has lost his alertness (the sea is knee-deep for a drunk) without any pressure from others, zalyvatski agrees to smoke marijuana.

"Amorous blackmail»

The drug is offered to the girl by the guy she is in love with. The guy blackmails her, saying that their further relationship is possible only if she smokes marijuana with him. If at the time of drug seduction the girl is in a state of light alcohol intoxication, she is more easily amenable to such blackmail.

"A compassionate friend»

A friend suggests that the guy from whom the beloved girl left and who is painfully experiencing a breakup, "prick and forget". Indeed, after taking the drug substance, the tragedy fades and is forgotten, but only until sobering up. The young person has to take the drug again, and so — until the state of dependence on it appears.

"Attacked before birth»

The first acquaintance of a child with drug substances can occur even in the womb, when a young woman does not know about her pregnancy for 2 months and leads a normal "modern" lifestyle — drinks alcohol, smokes cigarettes. Sometimes, after learning about pregnancy, a woman stops drinking and smoking, but most often reduces the dose. Studies show that children born to such mothers already show an increased interest in nicotine and alcohol at the age of 10-14.

"Artificial courage»

It is common in combat areas, in "hot spots" among recruits. Often they are afraid of being killed or injured. Colleagues, especially the "demob" (i.e., those who finish military service), begin to "treat" anasha before the battle. Often, under the hallucinogenic high, recruits shoot at anyone, and not always at strangers.

Thus, there are not so many volunteers in the introduction to drug addiction. Much more often this happens through deception or violence. Even when a teenager tries a drug out of his own curiosity, he comes to this desire not by himself, but as a result of deliberate psychological processing that causes this curiosity.

Voluntarily or unwittingly, the process is helped by the mass media: television interviews individuals who "tried everything", and now allegedly"quit". Thus, teenagers subconsciously form the opinion that trying a drug is not a sin and not dangerous, because"those who were shown live normally". The illusion of harmlessness of trying drugs is maintained by those who have a strong type of nervous system and do not have a drug-burdened heredity, their brain can resist the intoxicant longer. Therefore, others have a false impression that the tests were carried out without consequences.

Narcologists offer parents some signs to determine the likely predisposition of a teenager to the consumption of intoxicating substances:

• low resistance to physical overload and stress;
• self-doubt, low self-esteem;
• difficulties in communicating with peers on the street;
• anxiety, tension in communication at school or college;
• the desire to get new sensations, pleasure, and as quickly as possible and in any way;
• excessive dependence on friends, easy submission to the opinion of acquaintances, uncritical willingness to imitate the lifestyle of a friend;
• behavioral abnormalities caused by brain injuries, infections, or congenital diseases, including those associated with brain pathology;
• intolerance of conflicts, the desire to go into the illusory world of well-being;
• burdened heredity — diseases of the father (mother) with drug addiction or alcoholism.

Sometimes just talking to your child is enough. Be attentive, loving, but show your disapproval. Give the following reasons for the need to stop using drugs:

• this is illegal and may lead to conflict with the law;
• drug use can affect your health now or in the future;
• you can ruin your reputation in the eyes of a potential employer and lose your hopes for a prestigious and well-paid job.

If you understand the reasons why the child turns to the use of drugs or solvents, then you can try to help eliminate these reasons first of all, rather than the consequences.

If a teenager uses drugs and this affects his behavior and even his health, do not lose heart. You can take the following actions.

Provide support to the teenager — it is vital for him, no matter what the circumstances.

Show and tell your children that you love them!

Ask for help — for yourself and your children.

There is only one way to resist narcosis: this is a meaningful refusal of every person from drugs. Never taste or smell, even once. Because drug addiction often arises from the first sample.

The years of lack of spirituality, popularly called timelessness, have not passed without a trace. Today, we observe such manifestations of the life of Russian society as unemployment, legal insecurity, and a sharp deterioration in the quality of life of the majority of citizens. This entails the development of individualism, pragmatism, and cynicism among young people, and the destruction of the foundations of collective psychology. And when all this is fueled by a certain dose of drugs-there is a complete degradation of the personality. Society is losing its young generation, and therefore its future.

It is the souls and minds of today's youth that are the place where, according to F. M. Dostoevsky, the devil fights with God, and the battlefield is the human heart. So should we forget this, who is responsible for our children?

Deputy Chief Medical Officer
GUZ " Lipetsk regional Narcological Dispensary»
Tatyana Alexandrovna Afanasyeva