Substance use is likely to rise in many people after a collapse because trauma, grief, chronic stress, boredom, lost purpose and weakened social controls all push toward self-medication, and alcohol is easy to make. It will not rise in everyone: when supplies vanish, some users are forced into abstinence or sudden withdrawal, so a community should expect both increased use and unplanned, sometimes dangerous, stopping.
The links between catastrophe and substance use run through distress, opportunity and supply, and they do not all point the same way.
The Parent Guide Overstates With One Word
The parent guide says flatly that addiction “intensifies” after collapse. The pressures it names are real, but the outcome is not uniform. Studies of disaster-affected populations (my recollection of the general literature, not checked for this guide) find increases in substance use among people already using and among those most heavily exposed, with mixed evidence on new users, and use falling in people whose access is cut. The honest statement is that a collapse raises the risk for many and removes the substance for some.
Pressures That Push Use Up
Self-medication. Substance use can ease the symptoms of trauma, anxiety and depression for a time, and people reach for what is available. The idea is often associated with Edward Khantzian (from recollection). Post-traumatic stress and substance use disorders commonly occur together in clinical populations, which is one of the better-established links in this area. The relief is short and costly: alcohol, for instance, fragments sleep and worsens mood, so the problem it treats returns worse. See Trauma & PTSD Management Without Professional Help.
Grief and loss. Mourners may drink or use to numb. See Delayed Grief & Grief Debt.
Purposelessness and boredom. People without roles and goals are more vulnerable; the work of rebuilding is partly protective; see Purpose & Productivity.
Weakened controls. Jobs, family structures, and legal penalties that once discouraged heavy use are weakened or gone.
Access. Alcohol can be made from many fermentable materials. Found drugs and wild psychoactive plants may be available. The risks of the improvised are separate and large; see Substances of Concern.
Social norms. If heavy drinking becomes the way a community copes, individuals follow.
Pressures That Push Use Down Or Force A Stop
- Supply collapse. Pharmacies, shops and dealers disappear. A heavy drinker whose stock runs out or an opioid user whose supply ends stops involuntarily. For alcohol and sedatives this is dangerous; see Withdrawal Management.
- Cost and effort. Substances take work to obtain or make.
- Community needs and safety. In a small group where every person’s work matters, impairment is visible and costly.
- New purpose and connection. For some, the collapse provides roles and relationships that protect.
Who Is Most At Risk
- People already dependent
- People with trauma or untreated mental illness
- Those who have lost close people
- Those with no role or companionship
- Adolescents, for whom early use predicts later problems
- Anyone with easy access to a strong substance
What To Do With This
- Count the likely dependent people early and plan for supply running out; see Community Substance Policies.
- Treat distress, not only use; see Peer Support Structures.
- Give people roles and company.
- Make heavy use visible and discussable without shame; see Stigma Reduction.
- Watch young people.
Common Mistakes
- Assuming addiction will “disappear” because supply has. It is replaced by withdrawal and then by homemade alternatives.
- Assuming it will universally “explode.”
- Blaming individuals for responding to a very hard situation.
- Overlooking prescription sedatives and painkillers, which are the most dangerous to lose suddenly.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Substances of Concern — what is likely to be in play
- Combine with: Substitute Behaviors — what protects