Since this has hit the news in the past week, I've read a few articles about the heroin epidemic in the US right now. I've noticed that many of the stories mention how the addict was on various ADHD/anxiety/depression drugs when they were young kids. I wonder if anyone is looking into that as a possible reason for the current problem, not just the easy access to their parents' pain pills as the gateway. We have a generation of young adults that were raised to believe that it is perfectly normal and acceptable to alter your mood and behavior with drugs on a regular basis. We had easy access to pain pills as kids, too, but weren't part of the ADHD generation. We knew it was wrong and weren't raised to believe that it is perfectly normal and expected that you regularly take drugs to alter your mental state. Of course, some still did drugs or stole mommy's Vicodin for old fashioned reasons, but there was never a sense that it was acceptable to do so.
I've seen possible evidence of this while working with foster youth; they have grown up being told that they need to take all these drugs to alter their mental state and how they feel physically. It is pretty standard practice to prescribe ADHD and depression drugs to foster youth without question. All those drugs make them feel like crap and have other side-effects that they don't like, so they all try other things - marijuana at first - to alter their state without feeling bad or having other side-effects. From what I hear, heroin is the silver-bullet drug for feeling great... at first. Every single addict I've read about or known says that one hit gets you hooked because it is the best feeling you've ever experienced. It seems like a natural progression for these drugged-up kids looking to feel better because they've been trained that seeking the perfect altered state is normal.
These kids I've talked to are very open about their drug use and seem to have this attitude that it is normal and they aren't doing anything wrong. I'm amazed every time I sit in a school conference with the kid, teachers, social workers and lawyers all in the room and everyone is openly talking about the kid's smoking habit and drug use as if we are talking about how he bites his nails. It truly is surreal coming from a generation where the goal was to make sure adults had no clue that you smoke, drank, or did any kind of drugs.
Very interesting thoughts. One of my nephew's friends died from a heroin overdose suffered from Tourette's Syndrome. He had a history of drug abuse and had been on/off medication for a large portion of his life. They'd put him on one drug, it would help his TS, then lose effectiveness, they'd switch the medication and it would repeat. I'm sure that taking a drug to modify his natural state wasn't daunting at all.
