Prescription drug socialising is emerging as the new way many young adults cope with a night out. Doctors are increasingly worried about where it leads.

For 22 year old Matt, a warehouse worker from the north of England, ordinary conversation once felt impossible without alcohol. He would drink until he felt sick just to get through a social gathering. Two years ago he found a different route through social media. He now takes a medicine normally used for epilepsy and nerve pain, paired with a heart slowing beta blocker. Together they quieten his anxious thoughts. He says they deliver the feeling of being drunk, minus the hangover.

Matt is far from alone. Around the world, self medicating social anxiety with pharmaceuticals rather than pints has become a recognisable pattern among Generation Z. It is often shared and normalised through short videos and livestreams.

A generation swapping drink for pills

Fewer young people are drinking in the first place. A survey by the charity Drinkaware found that 26% of 18 to 24 year olds in the UK did not drink alcohol at all last year, compared with just 7% in 2012. That shift away from the pub has coincided with a sharp rise in anxiety among the same age group. More than a quarter, 28%, of people in their early twenties in England report high levels of anxiety, according to research from University College London. The same research found serious mental illness is now far more common in Generation Z than it was among millennials at the same age.

Liam Knowles, an addiction researcher at Teesside University, says many young users see the drugs as a cleaner option. Because a medicine has been prescribed to someone, somewhere, users assume it must be safer than a bottle of spirits. Knowles believes a substantial number of them are becoming addicted without realising it. Many still hold down jobs and relationships, so they do not fit the picture of addiction they carry in their heads.

This kind of prescription drug socialising is not confined to Britain. Mei, a 20 year old student in China, began taking pregabalin for parties after discovering it through a Chinese social media platform. Thousands of posts openly sell the medicine there, she says. What started as a way to feel like the most interesting person in the room soon spread to exams, speeches and debates. Eventually, she says, she could no longer leave the house without it.

The true cost of prescription drug socialising

Global use of pregabalin more than quadrupled between 2008 and 2018, and the human cost is climbing with it. Office for National Statistics figures record the drug on 2,360 death certificates for drug related poisonings in England and Wales between 2020 and 2024. That is up from 768 in the previous five year period. Alex Cottam, a 27 year old software engineer, was one of them. Prescribed pregabalin for anxiety, he became addicted and turned to illicit websites to feed his supply. His mother told the BBC she cannot help thinking every day that the drug killed her son.

Some voices in this debate frame the comparison in terms of relative risk. They argue that pregabalin and propranolol may be less harmful than heavy drinking. That framing sidesteps the more urgent question. Prof Emily Jones, a psychologist at King’s College London, warns that reaching for medication to avoid anxious feelings reinforces the belief that ordinary life is too frightening to face without chemical help. A pill before a party can quietly spread to dates, work meetings and eventually daily life. People lose faith, as she puts it, in their own capacity to cope. Weighing one substance against another misses the point. A young person who cannot picture socialising, working or simply leaving the house without a drug already has a dependency problem, whichever substance is involved.

Sofia, a customer service worker from Ukraine, followed exactly that path. She began taking pregabalin before parties, then brought it into her working day because it made dealing with people easier. When she went two weeks without it, she experienced depressive episodes and suicidal thoughts. She did not understand what was happening to her body and mind.

Why prevention matters more than ever

England reclassified pregabalin as a Class C controlled drug in 2019. It remains widely available on prescription and easy to source illegally online. The UK government’s independent drugs advisers have now launched a review into misuse. China has tightened controls this year by banning most online sales. But tighter borders and stricter scheduling will not, on their own, stop a young person from believing they need a substance to get through a Friday night.

That belief is the real story behind prescription drug socialising. Alcohol has fallen out of favour with a generation that increasingly wants to protect its health. Yet many of its members are simply replacing one chemical crutch with another, rather than learning to tolerate ordinary social discomfort. Matt says he has already tried therapy and still frames his drug use as a clear, worthwhile trade off. That confidence, addiction specialists say, is exactly what makes early intervention and honest education about dependency so important. It matters well before a habit becomes one a young person cannot even recognise as an addiction.

Source: dbrecoveryresources