Most addicts use chemicals as a means of escape from an unpleasant emotion or situation. These people have learned at an early age that drugs and/or alcohol can improve the way they feel. Whether it occurred by engagement with peers as a teenager, by a parent giving a child medicine, or by the child observing an adult engaging in substance abuse; the addict has been conditioned to associate a feeling of well being with the use of alcohol and/or drugs.
Many teenagers have learned that alcohol and/or drugs helps them interact with peers as it relieves the tension or nervousness associated with interaction or it allows them to be accepted by a specific group of peers. The interaction with their peers reinforces the use of alcohol and/or drugs. As they mature, they begin to use alcohol and/or drugs to relieve unpleasant emotions or stressful situations. The same applies to the child who, when feeling ill, was given medicine to feel better. This child learns that medicine (a drug) made him feel good. And thus, the reinforcement to use the drug or some equitable substitute such as alcohol or other drug, to attain the sensation of feeling good has begun. This also applies to the individual who is depressed or isolative, if not both, that learned that the influence of chemicals allows them to avoid the unpleasant emotions related to depression or makes them feel better in their isolation.
Another example of conditioning toward substance abuse is children observing adults engaging in substance abuse, usually in positive situations (or what the observing children interpret as a positive situation). These behaviors of the adults are transferred to the children as they mature, and they begin to use substances to engage in similar activities.
In many cases, the disease of addiction has been genetically predisposed to the individual by their parents or their parent's parents. Thus, making it all the more difficulty to avoid becoming addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.
