Can a Cruel Upbringing “Drive” One to Use Drugs Addictively?
“The young runaway’s memories of her cruel upbringing drove her to drugs,”wrote columnist Patricia Towle in the November 21, 2005 National Enquirer, about Oprah Winfrey’s surrogate daughter, 21-year-old Alexandra Molina. Oprah reportedly told Molina, “You’ve been through hell…All you need is somebody who believes in you….â€
Regardless of whether or not true depending on your view of the Enquirer, the article promulgates far-reaching myths about alcoholism. If behaviors weren’t an issue, no one would bemoan the fact that someone had been driven to drugs. The implication in “drove her to drugs”is, therefore, “drove her to use drugs addictively.”Upbringing does not drive anyone to use drugs addictively. The fact that Molina was raised in a cruel manner indicates that those who raised her were alcohol or other-drug addicts, in which case she inherited an alcoholic biochemistry. If upbringing drove one to addiction, we would be able to teach non-addictive use. The idea that practicing addicts can be successfully counseled or environment causes addictive use is responsible for many an alcoholic’s experiments with attempts at controlling use, which inevitably leads to failure and a return of uncivil behaviors.
Further, the addict does not need somebody who believes in him or her. The addict often needs a program of recovery, to be sure”but more importantly, as many recovering alcoholics who never entered a formal program can attest, she needs to know she will be held accountable for misbehaviors. She needs to be told that if she uses, she will act badly some of the time.
Towle also reports that “a source explained that Alexandra’s slide into drugs was rooted deeply in her painful childhood.”If true, we would expect every child with access to drugs and a painful childhood to use addictively. The fact that a higher proportion of such children do so than would be expected by chance is due to the fact that a child of an alcoholic is four times more likely to become an addict than a child of a non-alcoholic, even when raised by non-alcoholic adoptive parents. Towle further reports on the source claiming, as if fact, “Alexandra turned to drugs to dull her pain.”The next time, Towle might want to cite a different source, which would report, “Alexandra turned to drugs to dull her pain, because she processes drugs in a way that allows her to do so.”The rest of us sometimes wish we could dull our pain with drugs. Alas, we go through life unable to do so, briefly envious of those who can, until we remember the vast cesspool that ultimately results.