College can be a stressful setting for many young adults. Unfortunately, students often engage in careless and harmful behavior that could briefly end college enrollment. Instead of focusing on education, college students may party too much and become addicted to substances and alcohol.
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Prescription Medication Addiction
College students may often abuse prescription medication that’s prescribed for certain medical conditions. For example, some students may have legitimate prescriptions for sleeping pills. Staying late and studying every night, students may find little time to get some sleep. They often turn to dangerous sleeping aids that can cause serious symptoms including a trip to the emergency room.
Some students also abuse pills without prescription. Other students may take medication for anxiety and depression to help cope with the stressful college campus life. It’s important for parents to know the type of legal drugs that their children are taking while studying in college. Abuse of prescription medication can lead to habit forming use and ultimately addiction that’s as bad as traditional drugs.
Alcohol and Partying
Many college campuses are notorious for hosting parties that are full of binge drinking and promiscuity. Students that are under the legal drinking age may still get their hands on a few beers or other more potent shots. College students may use parties and drinking as ways to escape stress of the classroom. Binge drinking leads to severe mental impairment that makes it difficult to maintain passing grades in school. Binge drinking also leads to blackouts as students fail to wake up the next morning in time and start to feel sick.
Excessive alcohol drinking often leads to symptoms such as nausea that can last for more than a day. It’s easy to spot a drunk student on campus. He or she may wobble and stumble while walking through the hallways. Slurred speech and difficulty concentrating may also be symptoms of addiction to alcohol while studying in college. Professors, counselors, fellow students and parents can all notice the horrible signs of alcohol addiction of enrolled students.
Withdrawal Symptoms and Help
College students that become addicted to substances and alcohol may feel very severe withdrawal symptoms. Such individuals can be very aggressive and restless if they fail to get their hands on alcohol, prescription medication and illegal drugs. When engaging in a conversation with someone, students may have a short attention span as they become obsessed with getting alcohol and drugs. College students with addiction also show a lack of care about their poor academic performance. In their minds, addiction is controlling their priorities that involve drinking and taking drugs.
College students suffering from addiction can get immediate help from psychologists and specialists on campus. There are substance abuse therapists and experts that actually teach related courses in a given university. Parents should also make efforts to enroll their addicted children into local support groups or into specialized facilities for young adults. Admission to a specialized rehabilitation facility should be considered for helping addicted college students. Rehab treatment facilities like Tucson Transitional Living believe that a sober life and continuing education can be achieved successfully in a positive environment. It is possible to do so with a strong support system.
Students often develop addictions to drugs and alcohol while studying in college or university. The pressures of higher education can really get to young adults that are adjusting to their new lives.
