Addictions from a social point of view

The social context has a very important impact on the development of addictions.

The addictions problem, due to its complexity, requires a complex, interdisciplinary approach in order to achieve an integral approach that leads us to understand it as completely as possible. One of the possible reading and analysis edges in the area of addictions is the social area..

What does the social gaze focus on?

In the configuration of an addiction, many aspects, conditions and factors converge. Beyond the physical and psychological characteristics that a person must have for addictive behavior to develop, and outside the most intimate and individual, there are social factors that condition it and intertwine with other circumstances for this to occur.

The broader family and social contextwhere the person is born, raised and develops his or her life, can condition, although not determine, the habit of compulsive consumption, and in some way promote it.

As each family is different, there will be the possibility that each one will have a different stance on consumption. Thus, just as some families promote consumption and others abruptly prohibit it, acquiring repressive and taboo-like traits; other families can, without facilitating or prohibiting consumptionbut educate so that consumption, if it is going to exist, will be moderate.

Social and family factors of addiction

Are there socio-familial factors that can promote addictive or risky behavior?

Yes, there are many factors that can constitute a risk. We can mention the lack of support networks, lack of involvement of family ties, lack of communication and dialogue, or the presence of family members or close loved ones with problematic consumption.

When a socio-familial environment promotes substance use, risk factors that increase the likelihood of substance use and its problematic nature prevail. That is, if a child is born and grows up in a family system where the elders (and sometimes also young people under the age of 18) drink alcohol, at every family gathering, the child may come to think that alcohol consumption is a problem, the child may come to believe that drinking is a must.. If this same child observes some significant reference figure drinking to excess, having fun, he or she may come to associate alcohol = fun.

It may also happen that you get used to someone in your immediate environment taking pills to sleep, not to be nervous or to be calmer, without proper supervised treatment.

The message is the same: you need the substances to have a better time. And even if children are told not to drink, or not to drink too much or not to get involved with certain substances, it will be the concrete acts and facts that will modulate the behavior of young people. They learn more by what they see than by what they are told, so we must accompany our words with our actions.

Other recurring scenes of consumption are often seen in the neighborhood. Sitting on the sidewalk, young and old, as a way of life they use the "stop at the corner", with people they consider friends but perhaps they are only momentary companions of consumption.

Are these aspects sufficient to determine a consumption problem?

Of course these social aspects are not enough. Other factors that are linked to the social aspect must converge. Social phenomena are only one component, important and conditioning but not determining. In the framework of issues that generate a problematic situation of consumption, we find social, cultural, physical-neurological and psychological.

Each member of the society we make up takes a position, sometimes without realizing it, on the different social events and problems. Especially with addictions, it is difficult to understand if it is a problem, or if there is an intention to generate discomfort, as well as confusing the addict as a synonym of criminal, or dangerous.

Depending on what position we assume as part of society we can contribute or not, to a social change.