If you are looking to move into a career within the healthcare sector in the U.S. today, then there is a good chance the role you ultimately fulfill will be somehow related to overcoming addiction. In fact, online health jobs board Health Jobs Nationwide say that the number of positions either directly or tangentially related to helping drug addiction is only increasing. This is a sad reflection of the extent to which substance abuse problems are a significant issue in the U.S.
Addiction specialists could find themselves working in not only hospitals but also in clinics, rehabs centers, or even out in the community. Addiction, tragically, is found everywhere and in diverse forms, ranging across different substances, different levels of severity, and different social environments, each requiring different expertise and a different approach.
Many Causes
Just as diverse and as complex as the many manifestations of addiction and substance abuse is the question of what actually causes addiction. There is a lot of energetic political debate about this question involving a complex intersection of social factors and genetic dispositions. However, those looking to move into this field need to know it is important to understand the rudiments of addiction causes, the things which are not in a doubt, as well as the broad topics the debate revolves around. One must be general here because where the causes of addiction are concerned, it is very easy to veer into contested territory.
What is certainly not contested is that the causes of addiction can be split into genetic and environmental factors. For example, the children of alcoholics are more likely to be become alcoholics themselves, and this is because of what they have genetically inherited from their parents (genetics) and because they grow up around heavy drinkers (environmental).
Environmental Factors
If you want to treat addiction, you need to have a good knowledge of how environmental factors play a role. The environmental factors which are known to cause addiction include:
Peer Pressure
Addiction often starts early, at the time in life when we are heavily influenced by the company we keep. If drug use is common among a social group, members of that social group will be more likely to become addicts.
Exposure to Drugs
In socio-economically-deprived areas, drugs are simply a more common occurrence and exist in greater abundance. It is obvious that more exposure to a substance increases your chances of becoming addicted to it.
Unstable Home Environment
As mentioned, if a person’s home environment is unstable and parents use drugs or alcohol, this will massively increase the likelihood of an individual becoming an addict.
Genetic Factors
Many of the social and environmental causes of addiction are uncontested, but the role genetics play is less well understood. On the one hand, there is no definitive link between genes and drugs; scientists have found over four hundred locations in the human genome that might influence activities like partaking in drugs and drinking. However, there is still no definitive link.
It is clear that the children of addicts are more likely to become addicts themselves, but the extent to which this is either genetic or environmental (i.e., being influenced by what your parents actually do instead of the genes you have inherited) is far from clear at this stage.
Last Word
Without going too far into it, this is how the land lies when it comes to the environmental/genetic addiction debate. While you certainly do not have to take a solid position, to work in this field it is important to know where the science – and social science – is currently at.
