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One of the people that we spoke to,
she was a 20 year old from China.
She said to me that it would make
her feel euphoric, that she felt
like the most interesting person
in the room when she took them.
One of these is propranolol,
which are beta blockers.
So you may have heard
a lot of celebrities talking
about taking them on the red carpet.
It doesn't make
that social anxiety go away.
In fact, it makes you feel
as if you're not equipped
to deal with it without the drugs.
Hey, it's Hannah and this is What in
the World from the BBC World Service.
Now, you might remember the episode
we did on Gen Z Drinking less.
And some of you told us that that
is not necessarily about going sober.
We got one comment that said,
are we ignoring soaring drug usage
is cheaper than alcohol?
And we decided that that is what
we wanted to have a look into today.
Why more people are swapping booze
for drugs,
particularly prescription
anxiety meds.
And I've got Jacqui Wakefield here,
who is our global health reporter.
Hey. Welcome back.
Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
So what kind of evidence is there
that drug usage is going up?
So there's been a few studies
of Gen Z in particular showing
that drugs are being misused more and
more by this particular generation.
So UCL did a study - University
College London did a study -
this year showing that drug misuse
for all of the most common drugs,
so marijuana as well as prescription
medications is increasing.
There's been a bunch of other studies as
well that have also shown this finding.
So we've got the illegal,
you know, drugs
that you'll get out
on the street drugs, shall we say.
And then you've got prescription meds
that are being used out
of their usual context, if I'm right.
What kind of prescription medication
are we talking about?
What would they usually be used for
and how are people getting hold
of them if they're not getting them
from the doctor?
Yeah. So we found in our research
that a lot of young people
are increasingly taking prescription
anxiety drugs, particularly.
So one of these is propranolol,
which are beta blockers.
So you may have heard
a lot of celebrities talking
about taking them on the red carpet,
that they kind of block those physical
symptoms of anxiety, the adrenaline.
And then we also found the other really
common one is a drug called pregabalin.
This kind of tackles, I guess,
the more mental effects of anxiety.
So makes people, I guess, almost feel
the mental effects of being drunk,
like a little bit looser,
lower inhibitions.
Everything feels a bit more soothed.
You might feel a bit more confident.
So these are the two drugs that
people seem to be gravitating towards.
And when taken together, they do seem
to simulate that kind of experience
of potentially being drunk.
But as you said, there's many people
taking them not through their doctor,
so taking them through your doctor,
it's completely fine.
They're very safe medications
in that context.
But the issue here is a lot of people
we spoke to are getting them
on social media platforms,
online black or grey market.
What do we mean by grey market?
Grey market is in essence
like research compounds.
So it's when drugs are sold online
as not for human use.
So it's semi-illegal in essence.
Whereas black markets completely,
you know, off the market.
And yeah, the young people
we spoke to said it was very easy
to find them
on social media platforms.
Many influencers were selling them,
usually linked through their bios.
And it was incredibly easy
to get hold of them.
From the people you spoke to, why
did they say that they were taking
these drugs?
There's a few different reasons.
So one of the people that we spoke
to, she was a 20 year old from China.
We changed her name for the piece.
So we'll call her Mae.
She said that she took the drugs
because she felt real social anxiety
before going out on a night out.
She said to me that it would make
her feel euphoric, that she felt
like the most interesting person
in the room when she took them.
She described the feeling
as almost like having ten drinks,
but without the negative feelings
that come alongside that.
But she did say after taking it again
and again for nights out,
it bled into her everyday life,
and now she can't leave the house
without taking them.
And then another guy that we spoke
to here in the UK,
he said that similarly he could take
them without feeling those awful
like sickness feelings of alcohol.
He also said that they were cheaper
and that they also,
in his view, were healthier.
They didn't have the calories
that alcohol had in them.
Of course, this is you know, it all
sounds great when you hear it like, 'Oh,
you can get drunk without the
hangover or without the calories.'
But the issue is because it doesn't have
that immediate negative feedback,
a lot of the young people we spoke to
became really dependent on these drugs.
So any social situation now,
many of them said
they take these drugs for them.
They're not just party drugs anymore.
They're almost required
for everyday social interactions.
So social anxiety has got
quite a lot to play in this.
Exactly. So the people we spoke to,
a lot of them felt a lot of social
anxiety before taking the drugs,
which is why, you know, they were
so compelling to begin with.
But the issue is, is it doesn't make
that social anxiety go away.
In fact, it makes you feel
as if you're not equipped to deal
with it without the drugs.
Interesting.
Which results in dependence
and potentially addiction as well.
And taking multiple drugs
at the same time,
something that I've seen called
stacking, are they just doing it
with these two drugs propranolol
and pregabalin, or is it mixing
with other kind of illegal drugs
or mixing with alcohol as well?
It was a really common combination
because propranolol and pregabalin,
they do kind of act well together.
They sort of combat
different symptoms of anxiety.
But we also saw that
a lot of people online, particularly
in the health conscious communities,
were taking unregulated peptides,
which also,
they say tackle feelings of anxiety.
Of course, there's no really strong
evidence to show that this is the case.
The other things that we saw people
taking it with is, yes, drinking.
So people would take it,
drink, but
not quite drink
to the point of getting sick.
So they'd use it all in combination,
which is extremely, extremely dangerous.
And then of course,
with all the other common going out
drugs that many people would take on
a night out.
Yeah. You talked about people feeling
like they're dependent on these drugs
for everyday social situations,
not just, you know,
to loosen yourself up on a night out.
What are some of the other risks of
self-medicating like this?
Because it is self-medicating.
If you're not doing it,
you know, taking prescription drugs
that have been prescribed for you.
Yeah, certainly.
So a lot of the people we spoke to,
they started
on a dose that was like pretty,
even if the - even
if they were taking it illegally,
not a particularly high dose
at the start.
In order to continue feeling
the effects of the medication,
they had to continually up their
dose, up their dose, up their dose.
And at that higher dosage,
these medications can be addictive,
but they can also have
sometimes even deadly effects.
So propranolol slows your heart rate,
that can potentially lead to death.
But it can also make
the symptoms of social anxiety worse.
So the thing that you take it
from the very start,
your body can kind of build up
the tolerance to the drugs.
And therefore when you try to come
off them, you get
those really awful feelings
of extreme anxiety
and sometimes even suicidal thoughts.
So some of the people we spoke
to reported feeling this way
when they were trying to wean
off the drug.
So withdrawal and if these drugs
are being bought on the black
or the grey market, you actually
don't really know what's in them.
I think that's the real danger here.
These medications,
I think because they are safe
and they are taken for anxiety,
when they are prescribed,
a lot of people we spoke to were
under the assumption that they were safe
for them to take, but they
don't actually know what's in them.
They don't know
if it's the exact same compounds.
We don't know.
We weren't able to test these drugs.
So there's that aspect and the aspect
that you can really easily up your dose.
It may not be the dose
that you're buying. You really have
no idea what you're taking.
Yeah.
Where did you find this was happening?
Like, was it all around the world?
It was really common in
most countries that we found really.
So China, we spoke to some people
who were taking it there.
India. It's quite big.
Jordan. Ukraine.
We spoke to a few young women taking it
in Ukraine and here in the UK as well.
It's really hard to say
how popular it is
just because
it is being taken illegally.
It's not something
that's necessarily monitored.
But it's certainly global because the
drugs that we found people were taking
are so cheap and so easily available.
Yeah. I'm wondering
if there's anything that, you know,
if governments are aware that this
is happening, that they can do to,
to try to prevent this
and try to protect people?
Definitely. So I think a lot
of governments are clocking on to it.
So this year, China actually brought
in restrictions to the drug
to make it a stricter class of drug
for people to buy.
The UK did this a couple of years
ago. India's talking about it.
Ukraine's also made
it a stricter class of drug.
The issue with this,
some experts say, is
it then forces it
even more underground.
Yeah.
It doesn't necessarily stop the channels
that these people are getting
the drugs through.
So in the UK here
it's been considered
like a quite like high class
of drug, I guess.
So quite difficult to get without
a prescription for quite some time.
It wasn't stopping young people
from getting it.
Mhm. So Jackie,
if someone is listening to this
and, you know, completely identifies
and relates and thinks,
hey, I take these because they actually
really help with my social anxiety,
is there any advice for how people
can get that social confidence back
without using drugs or alcohol
in these kinds of situations?
Well, I think first off,
if you are taking the medications
through prescription, there's really
nothing wrong with that.
These medications help a lot of
people kind of get their lives back
and feel like they have
the confidence to do things again.
And when it's taken with a doctor,
that means that
you can actually control the dose
and bring it down once
you no longer feel you need them.
I think the problem is
that obviously people are taking them
without these prescriptions.
So I think the first thing is
if you feel that social anxiety is
having a negative impact on your life
and it's stopping you from doing
things, is go see a doctor.
I mean, there's many pathways
that they can suggest,
whether that be medication,
whether that be counseling, therapy.
And outside of that,
there's many
of like the kind
of everyday things you can do,
meditating, taking time for yourself,
thinking through your symptoms
and also knowing that it's something
that we all go through as well.
Like it's not, you know,
it is something
that a lot of people do struggle with
and you're really not alone.
Yeah. I think even the
most confident people are very good
at masking some kind
of social anxiety from time to time.
Oh, Jacqui, thank you so much.
Thank you.
And I mentioned at the top
that this episode actually came
from you guys really
from your comments on our episode
on how Gen Z is drinking less
than previous generations.
So thank you so much
for your comments on that.
Please do keep them coming. You can
watch it if you haven't seen it already
on the BBC
World Service YouTube channel.
And we always love taking ideas
and inspiration from you guys.
But for now, I'm Hannah.
This is What in the world
from the BBC World Service
and we'll see you next time.
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