– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

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.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
euphoric /juːˈfɔːrɪk/ C2	adjective - characterized by or feeling intense excitement and happiness
anxiety /æŋˈzaɪəti/ B2	noun - a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease
equipped /ɪˈkwɪpt/ B2	adjective - having the necessary skills or resources to do something
misuse /ˌmɪsˈjuːs/ B2	noun - the wrong or improper use of something
prescription /prɪˈskrɪpʃn/ B2	noun - an instruction written by a medical practitioner that authorizes a patient to be provided with a medicine
symptoms /ˈsɪmptəmz/ B2	noun - physical or mental features which indicate a condition of disease
adrenaline /əˈdrenəlɪn/ C1	noun - a hormone secreted in conditions of stress, increasing heart rate
tackle /ˈtækl/ B2	verb - to make a determined effort to deal with a problem
inhibitions /ˌɪnhɪˈbɪʃnz/ C1	noun - a feeling that makes one self-conscious and unable to act in a relaxed way
soothed /suːðd/ B2	verb - to gently calm or alleviate pain
gravitating /ˈɡrævɪteɪtɪŋ/ C1	verb - to move towards or be attracted to something
simulate /ˈsɪmjuleɪt/ C1	verb - to imitate the appearance or character of something
compelling /kəmˈpelɪŋ/ B2	adjective - evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a powerful way
dependence /dɪˈpendəns/ B2	noun - the state of relying on or being controlled by someone or something
unregulated /ʌnˈreɡjuleɪtɪd/ C1	adjective - not controlled or supervised by regulations