Drug addiction can begin anywhere. A father uses drugs and his son or daughter sees him. A friend invites you to join them in smoking a joint. A boyfriend or girlfriend doesn’t just buy you alcohol, but also “helps” you with your pill addiction. The problem isn’t that we all understand drugs are dangerous, but that so many try to defeat drug addiction on their own.
The leading health site Mayo Clinic offered five risk factors for people who become dependent on drugs: personality, social environment, anxiety and depression, genetics, and types of drugs.
That’s only part of the story. With millions who use illegal drugs on a daily basis, there has to be more problem factors. Let’s begin by exploring personality problems.
Personality:
The rates of people who suffer from depression using drugs is considered high in both government and private studies. Simply put, this is a classic example of why people use drugs. It’s also proof to some degree that defeating drugs on your own may be too hard.  If you suffer from a worse condition like schizophrenia, which already has high suicide rates, defeating drugs on your own could be impossible.
Social:
Many  use drugs to fit in with a certain group. And it isn’t always the young peer groups. In many ways society is becoming more accepting of active drug users.  This all depends on the person and comes down to theory.  But if this is the only problem, if you only use drugs to fit in and have no mental or physical problems, it may be possible to defeat drugs. The danger is in starting you become physically addicted, especially with the harsher drugs.
Type of Drug:
Some drugs will be tougher to “kick” than others.  This isn’t theory at all. Cocaine, for example, has far more addicting aspects than marijuana. On the other hand, some “legal” drugs like cigarettes or pain pills can be just as addicting to certain people.  Heroin addicts, cocaine users … the type of the drug doesn’t always fit in with the personality. However, when it starts changing how you live on a daily basis, when you have to get one or you think you’ll die, the only answer is coping, medication, and the help of professional doctors. Some drugs are simply too hard to kick on your own.
So what does it all mean? This isn’t meant as a scheme of studying why we’re addicted to drugs or how to defeat them. The drug epidemic has been a problem for decades. People are still dying. But many addicts are also successfully quitting drug use, sometimes on their own. The safest bet is to seek professional help in the beginning. Or, not trying highly addictive drugs in the first place.