Addicts care less about other people

Study found a correlation between substance abuse and the inability to judge others' feelings

Young people with alcohol and other substances are more likely to put other people at risk: have more sex without a condom and drive more often intoxicated. It may seem only lack of responsibility induced to be ... (what is the word?) Got high, but there is a darker side to it: these young people with some kind of addiction are much less likely to engage in volunteer work, help the others.

These are the findings in the study by psychologist Maria Pagano of Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA). She studied the behavior of 585 high school youth, classifying them according to their habits with alcohol and other drugs and measuring these three variables: drunk driving (the age for qualification in the US is 16 years), have unprotected sex and be interested in volunteering . Pagano found, among other things, a 100% higher correlation in young people who abused drugs or alcohol in unprotected sex? even when they knew they had sexually transmitted diseases? that those who did not use.

Addicts, in other words, do not give much attention to others or understand how your issue affects your loved ones. Which explains how the disease can destroy their social lives and also how difficult it is to convince them to treat. ? The addict is like a tornado through the lives of others ?, says Pagano. ? Even when they are recovering, there is little evidence that they understand how their actions impact those around them. This is part of your illness.?

Important: none of this is to criminalize addicts who also suffer from the disease itself. According to Pagani, this factor insensitivity is just something that should be taken into account when planning treatments. It aims to find ways to reduce that part of the problem. One of his bets is just the volunteer work, ressensibilizar the patient to the problems of others.