It is common for individuals to believe that the only individuals at risk of developing substance use disorder (SUD) are those with addictive personalities. Further, they may believe that addictive personalities develop only when addiction or SUD runs in the family, or when direct relatives have also struggled with substance abuse. Although biological vulnerabilities often play a role in the development of SUD, there are many additional risk factors to consider. One category of addiction risk factors pertains to the environments that an individual is exposed to as they age.
It is important to become familiar with environmental risk factors for several reasons. First, it can help families and loved ones become more cautious of environments that may trigger their loved ones in recovery. Second, it can also empower loved ones to avoid the development of substance abuse and SUD in adolescents and teenagers by addressing potentially problematic environments more quickly. Lastly, it can encourage individuals with SUD to recognise what environmental influences may have contributed to their substance abuse.
The Impact of Positive Environments on Developmental Processes
Every individual will be exposed to a variety of different environments throughout their lifetime. While some environments may have little to no impact on an individual, others leave long-lasting impacts on their developmental processes. Before understanding how certain environments can increase an individual’s risk of SUD, it is important to recognise what kind of environments contribute to positive development and growth in an individual’s life. These resiliency factors can help prevent the harmful impact of trauma and the development of SUD.
A Healthy Home Environment
The home environment is one of the most influential environments known to man. This environment is responsible for providing building blocks of nurturing, safety, and love for all family members. An article from Social Science Research explains, “A healthy and safe home environment is essential for promoting and protecting health and development during childhood.” However, what does a healthy and safe home environment look like?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains that a healthy home is “designed, built, and maintained to support our health.” A healthy home provides resources to meet all family member’s survival needs, such as safe water to drink and quality air to breathe. Additionally, it is built on a solid foundation, keeping out moisture, pests, and noise. When living in a healthy home, family members feel physically safe.
In addition to a healthy home providing physical safety to its members, it must also provide psychological safety. Parents are tasked with providing a home environment for children that is not only loving but also educational. Often, healthy home environments have set boundaries for children’s behaviour, ensuring that there are consequences in place for when rules are bent or broken. This provides a much-needed structure for children as they work through important developmental stages.
Above all, a healthy home environment fosters unconditional love for all of its members. All members of a family system alike can feel an immense vibration of support upon walking into such a home. Parents are heavily involved in their children’s lives, attending to their children’s needs whenever necessary. On the other hand, children should feel heavily supported and as if their parents are proud of them.
A Healthy School Environment
The second most influential environment for adolescent development is school, including associated peer groups. Similar to the home environment, schools are responsible for providing both physically and psychologically safe environments for children. In a healthy school, individuals learn the importance of their own health and how to value it. They learn through both academic lessons and examples shown by their peers.
In the classroom, individuals must feel as if they can speak their voices, with the expectation that they will feel validated by their teacher and other classmates. When the classroom atmosphere is healthy, students feel comfortable asking for help. They can learn to problem-solve with their classmates, which can reduce feelings of isolation and judgment.
Healthy Peer Groups
It is also important to consider the impact that peer groups have on an individual’s development. Young children tend to migrate toward friend groups where they feel valued, which can be both positive and negative. Healthy peer groups support one another through both losses and celebrations. According to News in Health (NIH), “High quality friendships provide understanding, support, and validation of your self-worth. These types of friendships are more stable and are more satisfying.”
Addressing Environmental Influences on SUD
Now that individuals have a better understanding of the important qualities that healthy and supportive environments can provide to adolescents, it is imperative to discuss specific environmental influences that can contribute to the development of SUD. Adolescents and adults alike may find themselves in environments and situations that foster feelings of fear, anxiety, and discomfort throughout their lives. Shedding light on some common environmental influences can increase an individual’s overall awareness and understanding of the nature of addiction.
SUD in an Unhealthy or Unstable Home Environment
As mentioned above, a healthy home environment fosters both physical and psychological safety. When the home environment does not foster these elements of security or does so inconsistently, it can increase family members’ risks of developing SUD.
Parents of a household can uniquely increase – as well as prevent – these risks. For example, children who experience neglect from their parents may experience impaired development. Children may learn to grow up quickly, taking on the responsibilities of their parents prematurely. They may feel as if their parents’ uninvolved or disorganised behaviour is their fault. Moreover, an intoxicated parent may subject their child to traumas. These added stressors may cause a child to feel lonely or depressed, increasing their risk of substance abuse as they age.
It is important to recognise the impact of parent or sibling substance abuse within the home. Parents with SUD place their children at an increased risk of developing SUD themselves. This may be due to the parent’s favourable attitudes toward substance use and abuse. It may also be due to the increased availability of alcohol and drugs within the home environment, increasing adolescent curiosity and experimentation.
When parents exhibit unfavourable attitudes toward alcohol and drug use in the home, even if a parent has SUD, it can reduce the risks of adolescent substance abuse. This is especially true if a parent is seeking out treatment for their SUD.
Additional environmental factors within the home that may influence the development of SUD in family members may include:
- Poor parental monitoring and involvement in a child’s life
- Family rejection of sexual orientation or gender identity
- Parents or siblings with mental health disorders
- Loss of a parent or sibling
- Parental divorce
- Early age of the first intoxication
Though unhealthy homes cause a lot of SUD risks, these risks are also posed for individuals without a stable, physical home environment. Experiencing homelessness, as well as poverty or financial insecurity, can cause an individual to feel physically unsafe in the world around them. Additionally, homelessness often results in trauma, an experience linked to self-medication.
An Unhealthy or Unsafe School Environment
Unhealthy and unsafe school environments can influence earlier experimentation with alcohol and drug use as well as the development of SUD throughout adulthood. Unfortunately, many individuals are not exposed to a healthy school environment, as outlined earlier. According to youth.gov:
Negative school climate is tied to multiple negative outcomes for students and has been shown to exacerbate harmful behavio[u]r and diminish achievement. Neglecting to purposefully address issues related to school climate may result in missed opportunities for student success and improved well-being.
For example, children who are bullied or rejected by peers may feel pressured to self-medicate. School environments without anti-bullying policies or consequences for bullying behaviour may cause children to feel unsupported and unloved.
There is also the circumstance where teachers are not appropriately trained to address delinquent adolescent behaviour. If children display delinquency, have low academic achievement, or lack school connectedness, teachers must address the situation with care and concern. Otherwise, such children may develop anxiety or depressive-related conditions, informing future substance abuse and SUD.
Delinquent Peer Groups
Peer groups have a direct influence on the development of children. Likewise, they have a direct influence on the development of substance use and abuse as well as SUD. It is typical for children to cross paths with delinquent peer groups, both inside and outside of the school environment. Children may feel compelled to associate with these peer groups in an attempt to feel popular or because others among such peer groups share similar qualities and interests as them.
The brain’s frontal lobes – responsible for functions such as planning, working memory, and impulse control – are among some of the last brain areas to reach full maturity. Typically, these brain areas do not fully develop until an individual reaches age 25. According to Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, the delay in the development of the frontal lobes “explains why some adolescents exhibit behavio[u]ral immaturity.”
Due to this, adolescents often succumb to peer pressure within peer groups. Realistically, it only takes one child with access to alcohol or other drugs to initiate feelings of curiosity and experimentation in an entire peer group. As adolescents lack the developmental maturity to consider the consequences of substance abuse, many may find themselves experimenting at an early age. Unfortunately, the earlier an individual is exposed to the effects of alcohol and other drugs, the higher their risk of addiction throughout their life.
In addition to associating with delinquent peer groups, lack of association in any peer group can also be a risk factor for SUD. Experiencing a lack of connectedness or approval from peers can influence feelings of isolation and depression. It can cause an individual to become unmotivated in their academic and extracurricular involvements, further informing the use of alcohol and other drugs to cope. Individuals must have access to a variety of social support groups to ensure that they can find their place in their community.
Community Attitudes About SUD
Other environmental influences that can increase an individual’s risk of SUD surface from the broader community. For example, consider community attitudes regarding alcohol and drug use. Communities that favour substance use may lead community members to believe that alcohol and drug use is not inherently unsafe or dangerous. Bars and other places of gathering may promote “happy hour” deals and other incentives to encourage individuals to use alcohol. Social drinking may seem the norm there. This, in turn, can increase an individual’s risk of using alcohol and other drugs and developing SUD.
It is also vital to consider community attitudes toward individuals with addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders. Communities that stigmatise individuals who use drugs or struggle with addiction may not only experience increasing numbers of individuals developing SUD but also reduce the number of individuals seeking treatment and recovery. Community attitudes about drug use often play a key role in citizens’ motivation and willingness to get help. Communities need to promote harm reduction resources, such as education, as well as treatment programmes and services available for those in need of recovery.
Reducing Environmental Risks of SUD in Children
Parents may feel overwhelmed by their responsibility of reducing the environmental risks of SUD in their children. However, parents do not have to feel overwhelmed. It is important for parents to remember that they are likely doing their best when it comes to parenting. Additionally, there is no way that parents can keep their children away from every potential influence of substance use and abuse during their adolescent years.
Still, there are a variety of protective factors that parents can use to reduce the impact of environmental risks of SUD on their children. Consider the following:
- Provide adequate socioeconomic resources for the family
- Be responsive to the child’s needs
- Protect the child from harm, fear, and trauma
- Provide reliable discipline, including boundaries, limits, rules, and monitoring
- Foster opportunities for conflict-resolution
- Build supportive relationships with family members
- Provide behavioural and emotional autonomy as the child develops
- Educate children on the consequences of substance use and addiction
Most importantly, ensure that your child feels loved and supported by you. If you have to, try to put your pride aside. Your connection with your child can make a big difference in preventing SUD or intervening early.
SUD Treatment Programmes by PCP
It is vital for individuals with SUD to understand that recovery is possible with the support and guidance of a professional treatment facility, such as the Perry Clayman Project (PCP) by Rehab Today. PCP offers a variety of different treatment programmes for individuals in recovery, regardless of where they are on their journey. Individuals can expect to experience compassionate, individualised treatment during their participation in treatment with PCP.
Primary Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation
The initial treatment programmes offered by PCP include primary alcohol and drug rehabilitation. These programmes can last two, four, eight, or 12 weeks, depending on the unique needs of a client. PCP’s Rehabilitation programmes provide initial detox services, intensive and highly structured therapeutic interventions, and daily support and recovery guidance. The treatment structure includes both group and 1-2-1 counselling, allowing individuals to address and overcome the underlying causes of their substance abuse with professional and peer support.
Of these programme types, PCP’s 12-week rehabilitation programme is worth highlighting. While there is no set time for how long a client must be in rehab, the 12-week programme allows an adequate enough time for clients to readjust to new behaviours in an effort to stay abstinent long-term.
Secondary Rehabilitation
After a primary rehabilitation programme is complete, PCP encourages clients to engage in their secondary treatment programme. The secondary programme offers access to more specialist treatments and educational opportunities. In addition to group and 1-2-1 counselling, the secondary rehabilitation programme offers:
- Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP)
- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR)
- Visits back home for gentle reintegration
- Yoga therapy
- Gym access
- Life skills development
- Education, training, and voluntary Work
PCP explains that the secondary programme provides individuals with the firm foundations that they need to continue their recovery, further safeguarding against continued substance use and offering assisted transitional opportunities to prepare clients for the world outside the treatment centre.
Aftercare Programme
PCP also offers a free aftercare programme for life for anyone that completes treatment through one of their rehabilitation programmes. Aftercare sessions are available in face-to-face as well as remote formats, consisting of weekly group therapy and ongoing telephone support. Participating in aftercare can further safeguard recovery and complacency, helping clients to keep their focus on their sobriety throughout life’s challenges.
There are a plethora of environmental influences that can increase the risk of using substances and developing substance use disorder (SUD). It is important to recognise how specific environments in your life such as home, school, and peer groups can influence future substance use. If you are already struggling with substance abuse or SUD, we at the Perry Clayman Project (PCP) can help. We offer primary, secondary, and aftercare substance abuse rehabilitation programs in addition to detox services, supported housing, and family support. Wherever you stand in your recovery journey, we can help you maintain lasting sobriety throughout your lifetime. To learn more, call us today at 08000 380 480.