Substance Abuse at Workplace

So widely practiced by the teens and tweens, substance abuse has started
threatening the industries. With employees under influence increasing in
number, productivity is at stake. Here is an overview.

Subhananda Bera
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Substance Abuse: An Overview

by

Subhananda Bera
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Table of Contents

Forewords …………………………………………………….. 03

What Is Substance Abuse? Is It A Problem? …………………….. 05

Substance Abuse: Common Causes ……….……………..……….. 09

Substance Abuse at Work Place ……….…………………….….. 11

Impacts of Substance Abuse …….………………………..…….. 13

Interventions …………….……………………………...…….. 17

Afterwords ………….……………………………………..…. 23

References ……………………………………………………. 24
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Forewords
Substance abuse is nothing new as one of the human

tendencies. However, it is since the middle of the nineteenth

century that drug addiction and substance abuse turned out

to be a dangerous peril that has, in multiple ways,

undermined human civilization. The rate at which the

number of the substance abusers is increasing is even more

alarming. In the United States and in Europe the misuse of

Hallucinogens increased remarkably during the span from

1988 to 2003. The rate of the High School students reporting

lifetime Hallucinogens use increased to 36% from 7.7%.

Lifetime risk among substance abusing students was estimated

at 14.5% in 2003 (Gelder, Harrison and Cowen, 2006). The

problem with substance abuse is that it not only affects the

human body but also the human mind, as a result of which,

the addicted person starts having a lot of problems in personal

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life, at work places and in many perspectives. Therefore, the

problems caused by substance abuse never remains confined

within the personal sphere, rather, its impact is of a wider

range, including the industry as well as the society that the

person is involved with. Let us now have an overview of

substance abuse and different aspects related to it.

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What Is Substance Abuse? Is It A Problem?

Substance abuse refers to a sense of dependence on a drug or

overindulgence in it, leading to such impacts on the abusers,

which are detrimental to the physical as well as mental health

of the consumer and also to the welfare of the others

associated with the person (Mosby, 1998). ‘Substance abuse’, as

a term, has often been used to refer to drug addiction or drug

abuse. But the fact remains that substance abuse is quite

distinct from drug addiction. Substance abuse is basically

consumption or use of substances in a way that hardly

conforms to the socio-cultural conventions.

According to the concept of substance abuse, as stated in

Mosby's Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary, the

person who falls victim to substance abuse is affected

physically as well as mentally. Researches show that substance

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abusers have been suffering from depression, lack of the

enthusiasm for activity, declination of grades and

forgetfulness. It has also been found that the person

habituated with substance abuse, have grown suicidal

tendencies.

Apart from these problems that can be categorized as mental

illness, there are many other problems that substance abuse

results in. One can become more and more selfish and the least

caring about anything or anyone else. The tendency to take

risks including sexual risks gets high. Resorting to theft or

other criminal activities is also nothing unusual. The family of

the person will also remarkably suffer for his or her taking to

substance abuse.

It must be, by now, quite evident that all of these problems

negatively influence not only the person but also others

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associated with him. What is even more important is that the

industry that the person is involved with, suffers in ways

more than one. A fall in the productivity of the employee is

not the only problem that the industry suffers for any of its

employees getting used to substance abuse. It has to be kept in

mind that an employee who has taken to substance abuse can

affect the very work atmosphere in the work place. As a result

a large share of the entire productivity of the industry may

badly suffer. there have been innumerable case studies as well

as clinical reports that have been unanimous in

demonstrating that a single employee with the habit of

substance abuse or drug addiction or alcohol dependence can

have a “significant impact not only on his or her own

productivity and medical or legal costs but also on those of

others – both specific coworkers and business operations” (Joel

B. Bennett, G. Shawn Reynolds, & Wayne E. K. Lehman, Page

31). Though the problems at the personal or familial level are,

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in no way, less important, the huge loss that the industries

suffer for the employees taking to substance abuse becomes

obviously prevalent.
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Substance Abuse: Common Causes

A person can grow the habit of substance abuse for any

reason and it is really impossible to identify and list all the

factors. However, there are certain common risk factors that

have been found to have made a person take to substance

abuse.

There are various personal as well

as familial events that can

increase one’s likeliness to grow

the habit of abusing substances. A

chaotic home environment is one

of the major reasons in this

regard. Lack of proper parenting

and nurturing is also one of the

factors that play important roles in inspiring one to resort to

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substance abuse. If a person grows up in an environment

characterized by lack of attachment with the parents, or by

utter negligence, it is most probable that he would start taking

drugs or abusing substances as soon as he enters adolescence.

There are also some other factors that contribute to the

increase of the likeliness of a person’s abusing drugs. If a

person is either shy by behavior or aggressive by nature in the

classroom or in the association that he or she keeps, there is a

higher risk of tending to start substance abuse. Other reason

take into account poor performance in the school, poor coping

skills with the society and perception of the approval of the

behavior related to use of drugs. However, the most important

and most obvious factor that has been found to be responsible

in most of the cases is nothing but association with a deviant

peer group.
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Substance Abuse at Work Place

Too much of stress is one

of the reasons for which

people resort to substance

abuse. Considering the

hectic hurry and sick

business of the modern

times it can never be

denied that people belonging to any social or economic status

have to undergo a lot of stressful time, especially in the

spheres related to work. Again, it is a human instinct to get

rid of the stress in some way or the other. Considering the

general trend, substance abuse appears to be the easiest way

to get unstressed, as most of the people think. Tremendous

workload, non-cooperation from the coworkers, lack of

autonomy, and even the perception of the absence of

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distributive justice can make an employee feel too stressed and

burnout. In such cases the employees may feel like quitting the

job. Again, it may not always possible for one to quit job for

several reasons including his or her financial or familial

conditions.
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Impacts of Substance Abuse

It is impossible that a person abuses substances and his or her

family is not affected by it. There are a number of ill effects

that the family of the person who abuses substances has to

suffer.

Financial problem is the most obvious effect of the one of its

member’s substance abuse. The substance abusers always have

the tendency to spend the maximum amount of money for

buying substances. If the substance abuser happens to be the

earning member of the family, he starts thinking that he has

every right to spend as much money on buying substances as

he wishes. If there is any other family member who turns to be

his or her accomplice, it just adds to the financial crisis of the

family to a large extent.

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The very family environment gets affected if any of its

members is a substance abuser. Especially, the effect on the

children in the family seems to be the worst. It is very natural

that the presence of the substance abusers in a family

increases the likeliness of the children to take up substance

abuse very soon. Moreover, it has been found through a

number of researches that the substance abusers have

tremendously poor parenting skills. It also increases

aggression, sensation–seeking, delinquency, impulsivity,

hyperactivity and negative activity among the children,

especially among the adolescents (G. D. Shoal and P. R.

Giancola, 2003, Page: 221 - 233).

It is not that the workplace of the substance abuser remains

unaffected by the ill habit of the employee. The direct way in

which the workplace gets affected by the substance abuser is

the lack of productivity, leading to the financial loss of the

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industry. Moreover, the behavior or the selfish nature, as it

happens in most of the cases, creates lots of inconvenient

situations in the workplace. What is even more important the

substance abusers are most likely to get involved in and in

creating negative relationships in the workplace, which is

even worse.

The human self is what is

at stake when one starts

abusing drugs. At the

initial stages, one may find

it enjoyable with a highness

of feeling. Regular and

prolonged habit of taking

drugs just to feel high has

serious effects on the body and the mind. The nature and

character of an individual can change due to substance abuse.

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It has been found that most of those who have history of years

of substance abuse grow the habit of lying, and that too for no

certain purpose. They lie just because they feel like lying.

Those who are introverts are most prone to suffer from

depression. The acuteness of depression can go to such an

extent that one can feel suicidal impulses, which is again

prompted by lack of rationality and practicality. With the

sense of reason under influence, one may find thousands of

justifications for committing suicide.

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Interventions

So far as intervention to the problem of substance abuse

within the workplace is concerned, the best suggestion seems

to come from Mrazek and Habberty as mentioned in

‘Understanding Employee Alcohol and Other Drug Use:

Toward a Multilevel Approach’ by Joel B. Bennett, G. Shawn

Reynolds, and Wayne E. K. Lehman (Page: 41), who indicated

different levels of interventions for substance abuse. Universal

preventive interventions should be targeted to the whole

population of a group. Selective preventive interventions

should be used for the individuals or the small group who have

the higher chance of developing the disorder.

Support at the workplace is also one of the most effective ways

of interventions to prevent substance abuse. If the employees

work as a team and practices thought provoking exercises

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(New Learning Tool, Training and Development, December

1996, Page: 62), it will add to the fun that employees have at

the workplaces. In that case there would be little possibility of

the employees getting stressed or exhausted.

A number of

substances do

not have a very

favorable legal

status. In these

cases it is not too

tough to

normalize

situations when there is an instance of an employee being

detected as having a habit of abusing substance. Attention of

the management and the human resource departments can

also be an effective intervention to prevent employees from

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abusing substances. It has been found that “compared to the

other workplace factors, substance abuse is not an ongoing or

salient concern that has gained sufficient among managers

and human resources” (Joel B. Bennett, G. Shawn Reynolds,

and Wayne E. K. Lehman, Page: 46).

Counseling

happens to be

one of the

main

effective

interventions

that can

prevent

substance

abuse. Proper counseling can make the abuser realize the ill

effect that his abusing substance is causing. The typical way of

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the counselors will definitely have some healing impact on the

substance abuser. If intervention for preventing substance

abuse only at workplace is the concern, employee assistance

program and applicant drug testing can be two very

methodical means (Chester S. Spell and Terry C. Blum, 2005,

Page: 1131). In these cases the risk of recruiting such people

would be reduced. Even if some one us there wit the habit of

substance abuse, he or she can be helped by the due employee

assistance program.

There are some barriers that people face in the process of

intervention for preventing substance abuse. It is for this

reason that substance abuse at workplaces has not been

annihilated. One of the barriers is the fact that the methods or

the interventions are too stereotype to have some effect on the

substance abusers. New and unique methods of intervention

for preventing substance abuses have become badly necessary.

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The supervisor at the workplace has to play a responsible role

in adopting interventions to prevent substance abuse at

workplaces. They have to motivate the employees so that they

do not feel stressed and do not fail to perform their

professional duties. The work should be distributed in such a

way that the employees should have some time away from

work for themselves. Again, the work should be distributed

keeping in mind that this would make the employees fell that

they are a part of the group. They will, in that case, find

interest in participating in the group activities.

The families of the substance abusers should be made aware of

the ill effects of substance abuses, as an intervention to

prevent substance abuses. Apart from applying different

methods of preventing substance abuse such as proper

treatment or counseling, there should also be community

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support programs so that the families are strengthened more

in fighting substance abuse. A story of the success of one

family may inspire another. There should also be some

interventions so that the families are able to overcome the

barriers tat the families face in preventing substance abuse by

themselves.
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Afterwords
Though there are a number of methods for preventing

substance abuse, including treatment, counseling, spreading

general awareness, it seems that the existing intervention

methods for preventing such abuses are not quite enough. In

fact, much care has to be taken during the development of the

personality of a person from the very childhood; the chances of

getting introduced to or habituated with substance abuse can

be avoided. If the socialization of the child is processed in such

a proper way, there remains the least possibility of the child

or taking to substance abuse for any reason.

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References:

1. Gelder, M. Harrison, P. and Cowen, P. (2006), Shorter

Oxford Textbook of Psychiatry Oxford University Press.

2. Chester S. Spell and Terry C. Blum, 2005, Page: 1131,

Adoption of Workplace Substance Abuse Prevention

Programs: Strategic Choice and Institutional Perspectives

3. Joel B. Bennett, G. Shawn Reynolds, and Wayne E. K.

Lehman, 2002 (Page: 31, 41. 46) Understanding Employee

Alcohol and Other Drug Use: Toward a Multilevel Approach

4. New Learning Tool, Training and Development, December

1996, Page: 62

5. G. D. Shoal and P. R. Giancola, 2003, Page: 221 – 233

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6. Mosby's Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary.

Edition 5, 1998

7. 123RF Images