What Drives Workers to Keep Using Drugs…Even When it Means Loss of Livelihood

Illicit drug use is isolating, which is one reason why the Australian Injecting and Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) was formed. The peer-based organisation has a message that it does not matter what opinion people have about those who use drugs; they just need to accept the reality that a large number of Australians are drug users. The reason the organisation takes that stand is because it believes people are driven away from seeking help due to societal shame.¹ In the workplace, the shame of addiction stops people from asking for access to resources like Employee Assistance Programs. Instead, they wait until a random drug or alcohol testing returns a positive result and then either ask for help or deny there is a problem.

The statistics support the AIVL’s premise concerning the number of drug users, and the problem is not confined to Australia. A report issued by the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy says that, “In countries like Australia, the UK and the USA, a significant proportion of the population develop an addiction to alcohol (8-15 percent) and illicit drugs (4-6 percent).”² The report also points out that addiction is a pattern of behaviour marked by a person using drugs despite knowing the harm it can cause. In fact, some drug users do express a desire to quit using drugs, but they cannot seem to help themselves. In many cases, continued drug use leads to the loss of a job.

Expanding List of Addiction Theories

What drives workers to follow a pattern of behaviour that is likely to lead to job loss and thus their ability to support their family or themselves? There are people who just simply do not care about consequences and act in a reckless manner, but that is generally not true for people with a drug dependency. Drug dependence is defined by the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association as a situation in which taking drugs is compulsive behaviour and requires a lot of a person’s time to the detriment of their other roles as parents or workers. Drug abuse leads to loss of employment, creates a burden on society, and negatively impacts relationships. So the question remains: Why are more and more people using illicit drugs and jeopardising their livelihoods?

There have been a number of theories advanced as to why people continue using drugs despite knowing it could cost them their jobs and that they are putting co-workers in harm’s way. Briefly, they include the following:³

• Hedonic – the pleasurable effects of using drugs serves as positive reinforcement for continuing their use

• Withdrawal – people continue using drugs to avoid experiencing withdrawal symptoms

• Self-medication – drugs are used to deal with negative emotions like depression or anxiety

• Self-control – addiction results from a failure to self-regulate which can be due to deficits in reasoning, attention, information processing, and so on

• Associative learning and habit – positive reinforcement from drugs leads to learning ingrained habits; presentation of drugs eventually elicits strong emotional cravings

• Incentive sensitisation – drugs produce changes in the motivation and reward systems in the brain, making the regions hypersensitive to drug use; continue drug use leads to a heightened value of the drug use and cravings are produced (shift from drug-liking to drug craving takes place)

• Allostasis – opposing brain systems try to stay in equilibrium and continued drug use produces a pathological shift in the hedonic set point and causes dysregulation of the brain reward system; leads to loss of control over drug use and compulsion to use drugs

• Executive control dysregulation - chronic drug use dysregulates active in the brain’s prefrontal cortex, leading to deficits in decision-making and a reduced ability to control desire for drugs and to control behaviour

Books have been written on each one of these theories. The list of theories gives only the briefest explanations, but it shows that even medical researchers continue to struggle with explaining drug dependency.

Knowledge Leads to Better Program Management

Employers administering random drug and alcohol tests are concerned with the safety and health of the workforce. They are usually not thinking about research theories. However, the more employers know about drug addiction, the more equipped they are to manage an effective drug and alcohol program. The scientists are getting closer to pinpointing the specific biological changes that lead to addiction, but clearly some theories believe there are people who simply choose to use drugs because they like the effects. Whatever the motivation for abusing substances, illicit drugs and alcohol have no place in the workplace.

Mediscreen at mediscreen.net.au offers a NATA accredited national onsite drug and alcohol screening service. Every workplace location should be kept substance free, and Mediscreen’s quality services help employers across industries achieve that goal.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/what-drives-workers-to-keep-using-drugseven-when-it-means-loss-of-livelihood/