Professionals and Substance Abuse, Addiction Affects Everyone
PUBLISHED JAN. 17, 2023
Substance Use Disorder is something that affects people from all walks of life. It is not a disease that only affects the most unfortunate in our society. Whether you are rich or poor, addiction does not discriminate and will find ways to sink its ugly teeth into your life in any way that it can. One way that addiction can rear its ugly head and develop in our lives is through how we deal with stress. For many people, no matter the status, drugs are a way of relieving stress or providing respite from the daily grind. When polling industries with the highest rates of addiction, the common thread that connected all these different professionals in all these different industries is that they are under a lot of stress. Whether it’s a 60-hour work week or having to hold a scalpel steady for 8 hours, in every industry employees deal with unique types of stress. It is important to remember that no matter where you work or what you do, addiction can come from anyone. Addiction is a complex disease that is brought on by a complex mix of factors and there is no one factor that pushes one to use drugs.
Healthcare Professionals
While we like to hold doctors and other healthcare professionals to a higher standard, the general perception that surrounds them is an air of professionalism and expertise. We know that it is a long and tedious path to becoming a doctor and because we rely on them to take care of us when we are sick, we would like to think they are perfect. However, roughly 4.4% of all healthcare professionals suffer from addiction, roughly 671,000 professionals (National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2015). This is most likely due to the stressful and often long hours that many of these professionals work. Increased access to prescription substances also puts healthcare professionals at an increased level of risk. While the public stigma around doctors is that they are somewhat perfect, they are people too, and can become trapped in the false comfort of addiction.
Hospitality Industry
Waitstaff and bartenders are trained to serve you with a smile. They take your order and bring you your food all with a positive attitude. However, the accommodation and food services industries suffer from high rates of addiction, with roughly 16.5% of professionals in these industries dealing with substance abuse issues (National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 2015). This again can be linked to two factors, stressful and often long working hours and increased access to substances. Restaurant workers are often working long shifts with short, typically 15-minute breaks. These employees also tend to enter this industry at a young age, and facing all of these external stresses can take a massive toll on these young workers who are even more susceptible to substance abuse. Furthermore, has led to the common practice for employees to take smoke breaks to help relieve stress, especially after long rush hours, and get more breaks. Bartenders are another section of employees that are at an increased risk. Bartenders have almost constant access to alcohol, and in some restaurants and bars, they are even required to taste the drinks before serving them. This increased access along with other factors, such as patrons asking the bartender to take shots with them, can lead to an increased risk of substance abuse and the development of risky drinking patterns.
Conclusion
No matter what status you hold or what industry you work in, addiction is a blight that can affect everyone equally. We all deal with stress, but it is important that we find healthy ways of coping with that stress. If we do not find ways to cope with the stress then we are more likely to turn to substances to help alleviate stress. It is important to recognize the stress that we all endure every day and how it affects us. We need to face the stress head-on and deal with it ourselves in a healthy way, blocking out the stress with substances is a band-aid fix that only leads to greater stress and turmoil down the road.
References
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2015, April 16). National Survey on Drug Use and health. SAMHSA.gov. Retrieved January 5, 2023, from https://www.samhsa.gov/data/data-we-collect/nsduh-national-survey-drug-use-and-health