Lesson 4
Lesson 4 Module 1
Women in Relationships
Now let's think about why your reproductive life, healthy relationships, and substance use can interact. If you are in a relationship, dating someone, or sleeping with someone that routinely uses or abuses drugs and alcohol, it can be a predictor of your own behavior. Often couples have rituals around their drinking or drug use and use together.
Did You Know:
Partner drinking is an important predictor of a woman’s drinking/drug use behavior. Have you ever noticed this to be true for you and someone you’ve dated?
The Different Reasons People Use
Thinking about women using during pregnancy may bring up a lot of feelings for you. We encourage everyone to think a bit bigger about our culture and how we approve of using alcohol. For example, drinking as a way to unwind after a long day, or smoking marijuana or eating an edible to have more fun while going out on the weekends. Becoming pregnant doesn’t make you a different person living a different life. It also doesn’t necessarily make quitting drugs or alcohol easier if you are in the habit of using them socially or to help you cope with your emotions or stress.
Ways people rely on substances to regulate how they feel
• Relax
• Give you a boost of energy
• Allow you to sleep better
• Feel happier
• Feel nothing
How do substances mix with social situations?
• Partying
• Deciding if/when/how to engage in dating and sexual activities
• Take more risks
Discuss:
Write down some reasons that you or people you know may use alcohol, tobacco/nicotine, or other drugs.
What is Addiction/Substance Use Disorder
Continue to consider why you use and how that may change over the course of your life. Before we discuss opioids, alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana, we want to define addiction or substance use disorder. It is when someone has chronic or long-term use of a substance, often relapsing when they attempt to stop using completely. Having a substance use disorder is also when someone compulsively uses, or is unable to control themselves or their behavior. Over time substance use does change your brain, and can impact major organ systems, giving rise to additional health issues.
Biology and Family History Play a Role
It is true that your biology and your family history can play a part in your experience of substance use disorder or addiction. Genetics, sex, mental illness, how old you are – several aspects of your identity and your body affect whether you may be more likely to develop a substance use issue.
Your biology and family history play a role:
• Genetics
• How old you are
• Sensitivity to drugs
• Mental illness
• Sex
Discuss:
Take a moment to consider the health history of your immediate and extended family.
Consider Family History
It is important to remember that you are more than your genes or family history. Also remember that rarely, if ever, does one single risk factor – such as a family history of substance use or mental illness, determine your future. There are millions of things that impact how we turn out and it is usually the result of a variety of influences and experiences. It is complicated and not easy to predict which person may have trouble with substance use.
When we consider family history, remember:
• Your genes are not your doom – you are more than your genes
• General principle of human development: rarely, does one single risk factor (such as family substance use or mental illness) tell the whole story or determine our future
• Rather, it is the buildup of influences and experiences that accounts for differences in how
we all turn out. It’s complicated!
Putting It in Context
We encourage you to reflect upon why you may use a substance and what the positive and negative impacts of your use may be. We are going to discuss opioids specifically, as well as marijuana, tobacco, and alcohol use during pregnancy. Discussing these parts of our lives sets the context for why we may come to develop habits around using or abusing drugs and alcohol. It also highlights what areas will be directly or indirectly impacted by that use. Think about not only a developing baby, but also yourself and your health as an individual and as a parent.
