Exposure to certain situations might also make an addiction more likely. Stressful life events, like the death of a close relative, could spur a downward spiral into addiction, as might an injury or illness that causes chronic pain. Sometimes, even long-term issues people feel they’ve left behind in childhood continue to impact them in adulthood. For example, statistics from the Child Welfare Information Gateway point to a disturbing relationship between substance abuse and child maltreatment. Research indicates that drug addiction is five times more common in women who were sexually abused as children than in women who were not abused, for example. These traumatic experiences could lead to a lifetime of poor habits.
Even the time at which people experiment with drugs could be key to the development of an addiction. Because the brain is still developing in adolescence, young people who abuse drugs are at high risk of falling into addiction. Young people who wait to experiment until they’re older may be less likely to develop compulsive habits, simply because their brains are more developed.