Are single people more vulnerable to addiction?

Getting married is one of the most significant changes that can occur in a person's life. Of course, today, choosing the path of marriage is not a duty that we must all abide by, so the reason why one person decides to marry another can (and should!) differ. It is a first individual decision and then as a couple; either based on consolidating a life project together, on the desire to continue a family tradition, or simply because they wanted it that way.

Beyond the reasons behind such a decision, the fact of getting married means beginning to participate in an institution, marriage, and therefore in the social roles that accompany it. It is always good to question the way in which we behave according to the social functions that we begin to perform. Otherwise, we run the risk of suffering the consequences of accepting the ball of reality "as it comes to us", without question whether the cultural guidelines of what being a good spouse should entail is congruent with the life we we want to live

However, it is also true that the assumption of a new marital status seems to go beyond papers and our ordinary reflection: Different researchers have wondered if there could be a relationship between the adoption of a new social role and our mental health, know, how likely married people might be compared to single people to fall into an addiction. The results are extremely interesting, which is why we will develop this topic in the following article.

• You may be interested in: "Is Singleness Linked to Low Mood?"

From single to married: a change of identity

Although at a sociocultural level marriage has been painted as the culminating point of romantic love, reality may be far removed from that illusion. As we anticipated at the beginning, there are different factors —both individual and cultural, economic, migratory, etc.— that operate as triggers for the decision to get married. However, the fundamental problem with this movie-like vision of marriage is that it does not illustrate the fact that getting married could be the event capable of giving rise to a life crisis.

In general, life crises occur as a result of an event that could be sudden and shocking, such as an unexpected move, a job offer or the loss of a loved one, but it could also occur in situations that are desired and have been brewing for some time, such as putting the ring on the ring finger. The common point between vital crises is that the person usually finds himself facing a fork, in which he must choose between two (and often more) paths to walk.

In the case of marriage, it is not just the question whether I should get married or not, but another more fundamental one: Who do I want to be once I assume this commitment? It is only there that it is possible to lower the stage lights and focus them on the complexity of this vital crisis. When getting married, a modification of the identity of the person is put into play, so it is totally understandable that they are faced with a dilemma when facing the new challenge. In addition, marriage often tends to coincide with other vital transitions, other potential "changes of being", such as "being a father/mother" or "being an adult". The diversification between who was until then and who wants to be gives rise to change, which could lead a person to modify certain behaviors strongly established in him or her to adjust to the new social role of her, different from that of her singleness.

• Related article: "Self-concept: what is it and how is it formed?"

The relationship between addiction and marital status

Normally, being single is staged from intense experiences, frequenting social events and going out partying with friends, in which consumption habits that are harmful to health are often present. Its counterpart, marriage, tends to be characterized by a life that involves a greater degree of responsibility. for himself/herself and her partner, where these substances are absent or are reserved for occasions specials. Now, when a person modifies her marital status, and therefore assumes a new social role, Does the frequency of substance use change?

As a result of this question, a group of researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University studied the possible articulation between marital status and marriage according to two objectives. The first of these is to find out if married men consume less alcohol, cannabis and tobacco than single or divorced men (as suggested by the social representation we have of them). Secondly, whether the transition from being single to married meant a change in the consumption habits of these psychoactive substances.

The results of this research suggest that, on the one hand, married men drink and smoke less than divorced and single men. As for their second objective, they found that the transition from single to married led to a significant reduction in the use of alcohol and marijuana, but not tobacco. These results are consistent with the social images we build around married and single people. Perhaps it could be due to the fact that these representations reach deep into our subjectivity once we are socialized within the institutional worlds of a society.

That happens even before getting married: as children, we observed our parents, uncles, grandparents, and partners around us behave in a certain way sustained over time. The conclusions of this study are in line with previous literature on the subject, which suggests that getting married is a protective factor in health.

Now, can we ensure that the cause of the reduction in substance use is due, in itself, to the fact of getting married? The reality is that no. Other research indicates that it is the otherwise healthy people who tend to marry their partners more frequently. Yes, we could affirm that single people are more unprotected in the face of problematic consumption or a substance abuse disorder, also that they are more prone to consume; but this does not mean that the excessive use of alcohol or marijuana is intrinsically caused by your condition single or divorced, so to take care of our mental health it is not necessary to run to the altar.