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Alaina Montanez

Paul Roberts

HLTH 1050

3 December 2020

Why Do Drugs?

Drug abuse has been an issue everywhere across the globe for a very long time. One big

chunk of these users being collegiate students. “National estimates from 2018 indicated that

roughly 13% of undergraduate students reported thoughts about killing themselves within the

past 12-months,” according to Robert Davis and Vinayak Nahar. This percentage is even

presumed to not be fully accurate since many students are expected to be frightened to admit

this. The biggest correlation with drug absuse issue is suicide. The young adult age that these

students are in is a time where it is very popular to think about suicide. These drugs help enhance

these thoughts and provoke these students even further. Collegiate students go through many

changes during this time and flow through many different environments, causing a lot of

overwhelmed feelings.

“Depression is a commonly identified correlate of suicidal thoughts, plans, and

behaviors,” says Robert Davis and Vinayak Nahar. Many people are familiar with the idea of

depression or have even dealt with this on their own. Depression can be a very dangerous factor

in many people's lives. Robert Davis and Vinayak Nahar added, “Further, review findings

suggested that college students may be at an increased risk for depression when compared to
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their age-matched non-student counterparts.“ That quote pulled from the investigation alone is

very frightening. College students not only are at higher risk for drug use, but also depression.

These two really go hand in hand. Of course they can also be a factor in people's lives on their

own but together is not a big stretch. Many college students deal with depression because of

stress from classes and possibly even the social aspect. College students also like to party a lot.

They could start drugs from these parties or even begin due to depression. No matter where these

start, depression is a likely result of doing drugs.

“ Moreover, independence, loss of primary support systems, failure to adapt to new social

groups, lack of coping skills, and engagement in addictive behaviors such as drug and alcohol

use are associated with suicide and other mental health problems among this group,” Robert

Davis and Vinayak Nahar. It is clear to see that your early adult years are a very hard time for

most. This is the time where many feel like they need everything figured out in order to have a

good future. Just writing about this or reading this causes some sort of stress or anxiety. College

students are living a very fast paced and stressful life. It is extremely hard for these students to

have it completely together all of the time.

The horrible thing is that not only are these students going through a lot, now if they

started drugs they get looked at differently now too. According to Robert Davis and Vinayak

Nahar, “Systematic review findings suggest that society views individuals with drug use

disorders as dangers to themselves and others, subsequently, these individuals are intentionally

avoided.“ Some of these students may have these feelings or started drugs due to how society
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treated them to begin with. Now, if they use drugs as a coping mechanism, more people will start

to treat them differently or avoid them. When you walk on the side of a road and see someone

who is clearly on drugs what do you do? Most would walk fastly by them or perhaps even cross

the street to avoid contact with them. This is just a natural reaction of humans so that we can feel

safer.

“ Most notably, college students are more likely than their non-college counterparts to

misuse prescription stimulants, particularly Adderall,” according to Rasha M. Arabyat and

colleagues. College students more specifically are using prescriptions such as this one even

though they actually were not prescribed this. Rasha M. Arabyat and her colleagues add, “This

trend may be explained by the fact college students are using stimulants as study aids.” How sad

is it that students are using things like this to help them advance in school. School is stressful to

most college students, some so severe they start drugs. Some may never be able to get off of

them, affecting them now and forever just because they wanted to pass a math test. College

students have a huge load on their chest. Most work and still attend school making their lives

super stressful.

“The USA is currently undergoing a major drug use epidemic: a record 52,000 people

were killed in 2015 due to overdoses (Rudd, Puja, David, & Scholl, 2016). The drug overdose

death rate has increased significantly from 12.3 per 100,000 population in 2010 to 16.3 in 2015,”

says James Carter and colleagues. It is clear to see how big of a problem this really is becoming.

Everyday in the country people are getting addicted to drugs. Many caused, as we have seen,
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from pills. James Carter and his colleagues added, “Two-thirds of overdose deaths are due to

opioids such as OxyContin. This is a major concern, especially for young adults.” Two thirds is a

huge chunk. The major concern is young adults. This amount is horrifying. Many young people

are possibly ruining their lives before they have even begun. Many being college students who

are all going to school to better their future just to have drugs ruin this.

As it is clear to see drugs, sucicide, and depression are all terrible things. Sadly many

college students are expected to deal with this at some point in their college career. So many

things are changing for college students during this time making it really hard for them to feel

emotionally stable. Stress is a really big factor for these students too because of homework load,

financial stress, and the list goes on. We definitely need to bring more awareness to this horrible

thing that is going on all around the world. Eventually we may even need to lessen the amount of

homework and tests that are given at the collegiate level.

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Works Cited

Davis, Robert E., and Vinayak K. Nahar. “An Investigation of the Associations Between Drug-Related

Self-Stigmatizing Beliefs, Depression, and Suicidal Ideation Among Collegiate Drug Users.”

Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education,​ vol. 64, no. 1, Apr. 2020, pp. 52–80. ​EBSCOhost​,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=146059251&site=eds-live.

Arabyat, Rasha M., et al. “The Impact of a Theory-Based Web-Intervention on the Intention to Use

Prescription Drugs for Non-Medical Purposes among College Students: A Randomized

Controlled Trial.” ​Health Education Research​, vol. 34, no. 2, Apr. 2019, pp. 173–187.

EBSCOhost,​ doi:10.1093/her/cyy047.

Carter, James, et al. “The Association Between Ethnic Identity and Non-Medical Prescription Drug Use

Among A Sample of College Students: Does a Sense of Ethnic Belonging Matter?” ​Substance

Use & Misuse​, vol. 54, no. 2, Feb. 2019, pp. 203–213. ​EBSCOhost,​

doi:10.1080/10826084.2018.1501065