DRUG ADDICTION: BEYOND THE HIGH

By Fawunmi Elizabeth

It often starts small. A pill passed around at a party.

A single drag “just to try it.”

A fleeting escape from stress, pain, or emptiness.

In that moment, it doesn’t feel dangerous, It feels like curiosity.

Like fun, like “just once.”

But for many, “just once” is where the climb begins.

Because beyond the high, a higher mountain of consequences waits silently in the distance.

This semester, in my Psychology of Substance Abuse class, I finally understood addiction.

We watched raw videos of lives unraveling, a mother lost in a haze, accidentally harming her own child; young students, just like us, trapped in a cycle they never intended to enter.

I cried. Not only for them, but because I realized how dangerously close it can come to any of us.

I once knew someone who fell into this trap. For years, I blamed them. “Why can’t they just stop?” I asked.

Now I know better.

Addiction is not a moral failure or a simple choice. It is a chain forged in the brain. It doesn’t happen overnight.

It builds quietly. The body adapts, needing more of the substance to feel the same effect. The brain, wired for pleasure, begins to rely on the drug. What starts as a choice slowly becomes a desperate need,an insatiable craving, like a child screaming for something it can no longer live without.

Drugs hijack the brain’s reward system, flooding it with dopamine, the chemical that gives us pleasure and motivation. Over time, repeated use rewires the system so severely that feeling “normal” becomes almost impossible without the substance.

The damage goes far beyond the physical. It steals academic performance, destroys relationships, clouds decision-making, and slowly erodes mental health. Students who once had clear dreams find themselves unable to concentrate, losing interest in the things they once loved, and withdrawing from friends and family.

I’m sharing this because it’s not just a distant story.

It is happening here at the University of Ibadan, possibly even closer than we think.

Marijuana, codeine syrup, alcohol, and other substances don’t just offer a temporary high. They quietly steal goals, relationships, and futures.

I speak from the heart from the lessons of this course and the pain of watching someone I cared about fall.

To every student reading this: You still have a choice right now. Before the mountain grows too high, choose to walk away. Seek help if the climb has already begun.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel better, to escape stress, or to belong. But drugs are rarely the solution. More often, they are the problem wearing a tempting disguise.

True strength does not lie in taking the first hit. It lies in having the courage to say no and in knowing when to reach out for help.

You cannot defeat the darkness by keeping it caged inside you.