Empowering families affected by substance use

It is hard to know why some people develop substance use or other addictions and others do not. No single answer has been found, though it seems that addictions result from connections among a number of factors, such as:

genes
the way a person’s brain works
difficulties during childhood
life events
mental health problems
stress
environment
cultural influences.

People may continue to use substances because they feel driven to do so and find it difficult to reduce or stop. This is not because they are weak or unmotivated. For some people, using substances over and over again can lead to changes in their brain chemistry. These changes lead to their continued substance use (Volkow et al., 2016). While not everything about addiction is understood, some things are clear: nobody chooses to become addicted, and addiction is not a personal weakness or character flaw.