Functional drug use

I have written before about the footballer Ben Cousins in the post, Drug use and prohibition. He has done a biographical documentary type of thing which gives some good insight into a particular type of drug use and the psychological dynamics behind it. He refers to himself as a functional drug addict.

The term drug addict is an nebulous term that is used in a wide variety of ways. Functional drug addict, usually refers to a person who can use recreational drugs regularly, in significant quantities and still maintain their life style, in particular their work life, in a functional way. The drugs do not debilitate the person in the place of work in any significant way.

This is a bit of a contradiction in terms because the term addict often means a person whom is consumed by their drug use. The person who wakes up in the morning and the first thing they think of is how are going to get their next hit. And if they manage to find some drugs then they take it. That means they will take it before going to work or even in the work place. This will effect their performance in the work place and thus they cannot remain functional in this way as sooner or later this will be noticed and they will be ‘sacked’ from the job or at least their performance on the job will be significantly reduced.




Ben Cousins functioned at a very high level in the workplace (the football field) over a long period of time. He was amongst the best of the best in that occupation. He states in his biopic that he never took drugs on game day or the day before game day. This must have been true most of the time because any drug use would quickly reduce his level of performance at such an elite sporting level.

So he is not a drug addict in the usual sense of the word. Just go and meet a few such addicts and one quickly sees they are physically wrecked. The drugs quickly take their toll on the physique. There is no way a drug addict can function at an elite physical level. They can’t even function at a moderate physical level. They would struggle to run around a football field a couple of times let alone run a marathon every game of football they play.

The other thing about him which he states in his biopic and has been reported by others on many occasions is his work ethic. It was unparalleled. He would train longer and harder than all other footballers and thus his fitness was at the highest level amongst a group of very fit men. This is where the psychology behind his drug use starts to become apparent.



To train in such a way means he has a driven quality that others do not have. He can deprive his Child ego state more than most others. When others are exhausted and stop he keeps going. To do that he must have a very large internal critic inside his head. It pushes his Child ego state relentlessly and thus he has that driven quality about him such that he can keep training when others can’t.

The problem with such a psychological structure is it can’t continue on for too long without some symptom developing. The Child ego state is being deprived of pleasant feelings and comfort such that sooner or later some symptom will develop and thus we have the psychological basis of such drug use. He even says this, that the drugs were his reward after training so hard. The good feelings provided by the drugs were the relief for his Child ego state. After training so hard he allowed himself to party and thus he could continue on psychologically. The Child aspect of the personality felt looked after and thus the sense of deprivation subsided. In this way he would be described as a symptomatic drug user rather than a drug dependent user. The drugs solved the problem of physical and psychological deprivation.



If he had not found the drugs worked then some other symptom would have developed. This applies for any person who is highly driven in any kind of workplace. It cannot continue on for any length of time with out something happening. If the drugs or alcohol did not work for him he could have developed depression or had panic attacks which is the Child ego state stating that it can no longer handle the deprivation. It is the Child ego state putting up its hand and saying, “Hello!! I am still here, take notice of me” as indeed any child will do when it is being ignored. If it cannot get noticed for being good it will start doing bad behaviour to get noticed.

This type of drug user does not have the ability to self regulate. As shown in the diagram the Critical Parent ego state is so dominant in the personality the Child ego state is overwhelmed and its needs are lost under a tsunami of parental directives from the CP.

Thus the treatment strategy for this type of drug user is clear. Reduce the CP allowing the Child ego state to gets its needs met, then the desire for the drugs looses its importance, or the depression lifts or panic attacks subside. The person learns how to listen to their Child ego state thus allowing them to self regulate.

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Drug use and prohibition

At last Ben Cousins can take as many drugs as he likes. The David Beckham of Australian Rules Football has spent the last 5 years being the bad boy of football. The governing body, the AFL have been drug testing him almost every week for recreational drugs. Never tested positive but he has been banned from playing on a number of occasions for a variety of misdemeanours off the field in a highly publicised way.

However the AFL holds the sword of damocles above all players. If they take recreational drugs and test positive they risk loosing their income and right to play football in that league. Ben Cousins retires in two weeks and thus the sword of damocles disappears and he can take as many drugs as he likes. And you know what, he now has the chance to really deal with the drug issues he has. This raises the issue of the difference between externally driven prohibitions and internal choices in the want to use drugs.

The problem if you have an external force whether that be a spouse, a parent or the AFL, pressuring you to stop using then it does not allow you to make your own decisions. Or at least it makes it harder to make your own decisions as this diagram shows.



If an outside person or organisation gives the directive “Don’t use” (particularly if they are using some kind of punishment like loss of income) then the user is pressured to respond from an AC (Adapted Child ego state) position. They can adapt to the directive in two different ways. They can either conform and don’t use or rebel and the use simply goes under ground and they try and outsmart the detection system.

The problem with both of these responses is neither is about what the user wants. The external prohibitor makes it much harder for the user to find out what they actually want. That comes from the Free Child aspect of the personality and it is here that one gets the possibility of the user deciding that drugs are not for him or he uses recreationally or he is OK with his current drug use. The decision comes from inside the psyche of the drug user and not as a reaction to some outside pressure.

Now the AFL can no longer pressure Ben Cousins about his drug use, he is much more likely to be able to find out what he actually wants in relation to using drugs. And that is his decision.



As I mentioned before, with pressure from out side the person can continue using by rebelling against the pressure and the use simply goes under ground. This is why drug counsellors need to be careful not to present themselves as an outside pressure because the client will simply stop telling the truth about their drug use. Then the counselling starts to flounder.

Others respond to the outside pressure by conforming and do stop using. But this is fragile because the use depends on the other remaining present. In this sense the person becomes addicted to the outside force which at times can be something like a religion. If the person drifts away from the ‘force’ then the risk of using significantly increases and thus we have the new “addiction”.



Having said this sometimes this approach can work in the longer term with AA being an example. In the initial stages the person becomes addicted to AA, the sponsors and uses them to stop drinking by responding from a conforming position to the ‘pressure’. If the conforming non use can persist for a long time then the person can construct quite a solid non drinking type of life style. Such a person is less likely to fall off the wagon because their whole life style and family are structured to ‘pressure’ them not to drink. And some remain sober for the rest of their lives. A good result indeed.

However in my view, by and large it is better for the user to be given the opportunity to take a look at self with no outside pressure. Then they can begin to decide what they want out of life and one is more likely to get longer term change in their drug using patterns. Again it is their decision.

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