Teenage Substance Abuse: Causes, Consequences, Recovery

I decided to choose this topic because it is a subject which as I, a teenager feel people should be more aware of. Substance and alcohol abuse is an issue that effects teenagers immensely due to the fact that they more likely to be exposed to substances in their day-to day lives. Studies show that people who ultimately suffer from addiction started their journey as addicts as teenagers or in their early twenties due to the fact that they associated themselves with people that are heavy addicts of illegal substances. According to The Drug Abuse Warning Network, the average number of people seeking emergency treatment related to illegal drug use or nonmedical use of legal drugs for youth ages 12 to 17 in the US has increased by 17 percent from 1993 – 1994 which is an issue that personally concerns me because the numbers almost certainly have increased supplementarily in the past 30 years.

Why are teenagers most likely to be affected by substance abuse?

Teenagers who are more active on the social scene are ordinarily the ones who are most likely to be exposed to addictive substances.

The people we associate ourselves with in our daily lives are also an influence to substances for example teenagers with heavy abusing relatives either don’t see substance as a very negative thing because it is all they know, which can lead to them abusing themselves or they have the chance to see the negative effects develop on a person close to them first hand which will make them stay away from substances.