The Relationship Between Self-esteem And Drug Use

Maintaining a strong and stable self-esteem may not be an easy task; It can be complicated by a low level of emotional intelligence, lack of social skills or a complicated childhood, for example. On the other hand, few would doubt the importance of keeping it in a healthy state due to its different implications. Among all, today we will talk about the relationship between self-esteem and drug use.

We could define low self-esteem as the emotional result of a poor assessment or a negative evaluation of our own worth. The development of self-esteem as a constitutive trait has its germ in childhood itself, and creates a series of dispositions that tend to accompany the person for the rest of his life. The amount and quality of an individual’s self-esteem is usually a powerful driving factor in the directions he takes throughout his life.

In the initial stages of a child’s cognitive-emotional development, practically any factor with a high experiential or emotional impact is capable of leaving an indelible mark in the depths of his psyche. A robust sense of personal worth, or the opposite, could depend on something as seemingly banal as the way a parent addresses their child.

And the truth is that comments loaded with cruelty or poor in consideration, on the part of parents and children’s figures of reference, tend to cause more damage in the long run – and are more difficult to counteract – than in the past. very moment of occurrence would have caused.

If communication and interpersonal relationship patterns between adult and child, essentially within the family, are not based on affection, respect and consideration, a personality suffering from uncertainty, insecurity and confusion could be cementing; this would be the perfect breeding ground to develop an addiction.

Here, then, we would find a first sketch of the way in which self-esteem and drug use can interact and constitute a vicious feedback loop from which, obviously, it could be difficult to escape.

How are self-esteem and drug use related?

If throughout the child’s upbringing and development – and later, the adolescent – a low self-esteem has developed, the probability is high that the child will develop a series of relatively common traits :

• The adolescent will tend to see himself as inferior to others.
• The young person is also probably seen as lacking one or more virtues or abilities.
• You may find your body or general appearance undesirable, even repulsive.
• It may question your ability to do group activities and participate in team sports.
• They would probably tend to issue self-messages that would challenge their intelligence or cognitive abilities.

Whether it is a child or an adult, in general terms, the presence of low self-esteem can lead to a feeling of being trapped, with no possibility of evolution or change; the motivation and energy to undertake plans would also tend to be reduced.

Most of the vital activities, given this situation, could be presented to the person as excessively difficult. This is where the tendency towards destructive and escape behaviors could potentially arise , which is precisely what opens the door to the use of toxins and addictions.

Self-esteem and drug use, as discussed, would make sense as linked entities. The result of drug use generally leads to a kind of world of our own in which there is no possibility of being judged ; it is this absence of the judgment of others that almost always ends up constituting the true hitch.

After all, the use of substances that alter the state of consciousness, in the context of the relationship between self-esteem and drug use, is nothing more than a simple way to get rid, even temporarily, of the afflictions that lower it. Self-esteem imposes on those who lack it. A way to escape from a very destructive internal dialogue.

Classically, people with a tendency to abuse drugs have been branded shy or introverted; in fact, in many cases there is an underlying problem of self-esteem that produces social inhibition. One might think, after analyzing what is presented here, that these people have a tendency to rely on the effects of these substances to free themselves from their psychological ties and reluctance.

Drugs would allow them, so to speak, to integrate more easily into opinions of social interaction to which, due to poor self-esteem, it was difficult to adhere to.

Therefore, the first line of intervention that a mental health professional approaches to treat a person addicted to substance use is usually work with their self-esteem and self-esteem. This is how the association between self-esteem and drug use is oriented in favor of the person.