Immunity to Drug Abuse: Resilience

Do you ever wonder why some people become addicted to drugs, and others, who most would assume to be doomed to follow in the disastrous footsteps of a related addict, don’t?  There are definitely all types of scientific answers about ones’ chemistry, and whether or not heredity contributes, but I’m no scientist, and science isn’t always the right answer.  Resilience is the immunity, it is the reason why a select few don’t become drug addicts even when the odds are stacked up against them.

Imagine growing up in a home where your primary, well lets up the stakes, where your only caretaker (single parent home) is a drug addict, and of course you live in what is considered to be a less than desirable community (I’m being politically correct here), in a less than appealing apartment, and you are pretty much home alone all the time from the age of 5 onward.  What do you think the child’s odds are of not becoming a product of his or her environment?  Most statistics, if not all of them, say that the odds are pretty low that a child subjected to this type of environment will make it out alive, let alone drug free.

So what’s the difference between me, and you, and her, and him, pretty much any and all who may have been or are being subjected to an environment littered with misery, defeat, depression, and drugs?  Resilience is the difference, it always is, always was, and always will be, even before we know what it is.  I’m sure that the child spending birthdays home alone, or pretty much doing everything and anything important and monumental with absolutely no familial support whatsoever, doesn’t know what resilience is, but I’m also sure that tomorrow he’ll go to school and he’ll smile, he’ll laugh, and he’ll play as if all is well with the world, because something in him knows that there is something better somewhere, and the show will and must go on.

As defined by Google, “Resilience is the ability to roll with the punches. When stress, adversity or trauma strikes, you still experience anger, grief and pain, but you're able to keep functioning — both physically and psychologically”.  I don’t know if you’re born with it, or if you develop it over time, and to be honest who really cares so long as you have it.  Let’s teach it to the children who are being neglected and abused, let’s teach it to those who are subjected to drug addicted environments, and let’s just teach it to everyone for no reason at all other than to teach people how to never give up, no matter what.

Vaccinations mandated from birth up to and even throughout college work by creating within us immunities to potentially life threatening diseases,  so why not mandate the readily available immunity to drug abuse; resilience?  Drug abuse is very life threatening, and teaching resilience can eradicate it.

Resilience, did you get your dose today?