Addiction. It is a word that many of us are scared of, and may be all too familiar with it, especially as college-age adults. Now more than ever, in an age of immediacy and instant gratification, access to recreational drugs is ever increasing with internet vendors on the deep web and also on the regularly accessible internet.
In addition to recreational drugs, many college students feel the need to use prescription stimulants such as Adderall or Ritalin in order to keep up with their life, especially with the steady increase of tuition. Many students work and are required to overextend their bodily limits in order to stay afloat while juggling school, work, campus organizations, and their social lives.
Addiction can take anyone and turn them into someone unrecognizable in an emotional, if not physical way. The truth is that it is a real concern and the statistics prove it. The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that drug use (including legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco) amongst college students is in not increasing but is still relatively high. People may use or abuse drugs to hide or cope with many issues such as emptiness or self medicating.
As college students, we may see drug usage as a regular activity and something to be taken lightly, but you may never know someone’s rational, so it doesn’t hurt to ask if you see a friend that does not seem the same as they usually are as a result of it.
All photos sourced: drugabuse.gov