Top Reasons Why Women Can Become More Prone to Addiction

Posted by Indra Cidambi on July 31st, 2018

A lot of studies have already been made with conclusions stating that men are more prone to abuse of different substances compared to women. However, there are other studies that also say how the rate of addiction in women is alarming as well. In fact, with further studies, it has been found out that women can become addicted to drugs even more compared to men. Here are a few reasons to support this claim.

Mental Disorder is High in Women

Studies show that one-third of the population of America is suffering from some sort of a mental issue. And, a majority of them are women who are suffering from anxiety and depression. In a research, it was found out that 75 percent, it is women who report depression episodes. Moreover, there is a 40 percent chance that women are more likely to acquire a mental issue.

This is alarming because most mental disorders like depression, anxiety, and many others are correlated with abuse of a substance. This can come in the form the patient’s efforts in self-medicating. This has become such an issue to the point that when a person is addicted to any substance, they are also concluded to have a mental disorder.

Susceptibility to Marijuana

A study in 2014 made experiments to female rats and they found out that the estrogen levels that are higher in content in female rats are responsible for a higher responsiveness to the effects of THC, the most active component of marijuana. However, there are bad effects that they found out too. This can include paranoia, anxiety, and addiction.

As we all know, marijuana has become today’s most popular get away drug. And, when its deregulation continues to progress, women will be exposed to its negative effects more and more, making them very susceptible to become addicted to the drug.

Stress

We live in a society where women are experiencing stress, trauma, and discrimination more than men. For example, a study says that half of the female population will experience a traumatic at least once in their whole lifetime. Most of the time, women will turn to a substance to help alleviate the negative feeling they experience with the trauma. Ultimately, this can lead to abuse and addiction.
Moreover, common situations like gender discrimination will result in stress. Stress is then becoming a determining factor with one’s level of drug abuse.

Pain Levels

Scientifically, women experience more pain than men. This means that they would resort to prescription drugs to relieve the pain. Since they are feeling more pain, they are most likely to overdose on drugs and this can then lead to addiction.

This is brought about by the fact that since they are more in pain, the prescription is usually given in higher dosage. This can trigger dependence on the drugs, especially when used for a longer period of time. This can be backed up by a study done in Pennsylvania that says treatment programs have accepted more cases of addiction in women with an alarming rate due to the severity of dependence on drugs.

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