The Link Between Self-Esteem and Drug Addiction

It is pretty typical for most teens to go through a period of time when their self-esteem is less than stellar. However, for some teens, that never goes away. Instead, they adapt to it and create lives based around that very issue. Most affordable drug treatment centers have dealt with the results repeatedly. It may only be in understanding the link between self-esteem and addiction that there is a possibility of doing anything to change it.

Sources of Low Self-Esteem

There are plenty of articles talking about how people need to get over their childhoods and stop blaming their parents. Yet, parent really are the first line of defense from day one. Before teens ever look to their peers for validation, they were first looking to their parents.

There is a theory used with gusto in the educational system. Tell a student something 7 times, and they won’t be able to forget it. It is the reason that students review the same information over and over. Now apply that to a child at home who is going to hear cutting remarks about themselves far more than 7 times. In the end, their minds absorb those comments as part of their makeup and basis for self-identification.

Self-Esteem and Substance Abuse

It isn’t just parents who have an impact on teens. As they start to believe all the negative things they hear, they assume the role of the person they are being defined as. Soon enough, they push people away when they really want to be accepted, as everyone does. The pain and loneliness can be overbearing, so they turn to relief in the form of drugs. They may even develop relationships based on their substance abuse, giving them a sense of belonging they can’t find anywhere else.

As the teen turns into an adult, those activities become habits, and later become addictions. The substances numb the pain and offer the knowledge that there is most likely a group that will accept the individual on some level. Until the self-esteem is addressed, the individual may feel that this is all they are and all they are worth. This is the conundrum that many Orange County drug rehab centers are up against on a daily basis. For information on how you can help boost someone’s self-esteem and keep them from using drugs, contact Yellowstone Recovery today.