substance abuse
- noun
- /ˈsʌbstəns əˈbjuːs/
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- His journey to recovery from substance abuse inspired others to seek treatment.
- substance abuse treatment
- a substance abuse problem
- alcohol and substance abuse
And you know, they were both, I had substance abuse problems.
- And you know, they were both, I had substance abuse problems.
- And what if she's got substance abuse issues?
- It's time to talk about addiction, specifically today, substance abuse in teens and young people.
- So October is alcohol and substance abuse awareness month.
- It's, it's fascinating what huge fame, huge money and huge substance abuse will do to a person.
- Now many people wonder what comes first, the narcissism or the substance abuse.
- How do we properly equip kids with the tools they need to avoid substance abuse?
- When did you first think of yourself as having a problem with any type of of substance abuse or substance use?
- So, and you know, as I said, you can't develop a problem with a substance and develop a substance abuse problem if you never take it.
- And a trigger for an, an anxious or, or, or depressed depressive breakdown, a main trigger is long term substance abuse.
- My parents were, they had substance abuse issues really badly.
- They had massive substance abuse issues and they both, you know, my dad had a massive speed addiction and didn't know that he made the stuff as well.
- And so the overlap of abuse, substance abuse, but also creativity and risk taking.
- In essence, enabling the addicts substance abuse by not drawing the painful boundaries.
Examples
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Do you, or have you ever had, any problems with substance abuse?
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It's time to talk about addiction, specifically today, substance abuse in teens and young people.
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I had some very serious substance abuse problems.
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Do you have a substance abuse problem?
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So October is alcohol and substance abuse awareness month.
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Inky spoke to a group of young men who were from a substance abuse program.
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You're not the only one who came here with substance abuse issues.
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Thus, we need to expand treatment options for adolescents with substance abuse problems.
Academic text (2008) -
She had a really profound substance abuse problem.
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The subjects had high rates of substance abuse during sexual encounters, mostly marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol.
Academic text (1990)
Synonyms
Wrong or excessive use of something that causes harm
To take illegal or harmful drugs
Using illegal or harmful drugs too often so they harm a person's health and life
Using alcohol too much in a way that harms your health
Antonyms
How Severe
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Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'substance' (a material) and 'abuse' (wrong or excessive use), so a learner can infer it means misuse of some kind of material. However, the conventionalized, domain-specific sense referring to drugs or alcohol and issues like addiction is somewhat specialized and may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure, so it is only partially transparent. Cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. Spanish 'abuso de sustancias') make the general idea accessible but the precise drug-related sense can require experience.
Etymology
The phrase substance abuse comes from the image of a thing or drug (substance) being treated badly—abuse means 'to use too much' or 'to use in the wrong way'. So, substance abuse means 'harmful or improper use of drugs or alcohol'.