What are predisposing and precipitating factors of substance abuse on a middle adult male?

Loneliness, Isolation, Fear, Insecurity, Anger, Sadness, Family History, Mental Illness (Bi-Polar, Depression, etc) The list goes on.....

The main predisposing factor would be personal and/or family history of substance abuse. If you have family history, your likelyhood for drug abuse increases. Someone either is or is not predisposed to substance abuse. The fact that the individual is a middle adult is irrelevant although they would certainly face a different set of possible factors than those of another age group- see below. Precipitating factors, on the other hand, could include any number of factors including social modeling (this would be an adult form of peer pressure), stressful life events such as divorce, job loss, death of a loved one, etc.

I'm just throwing out a few possibilities for you to think over. mid life crisis, impotence, sexual frustration, sexual identity crisis, cheating on spouse, extreme stress, lost job, secret gambling habit, new friends, new girl friend, being diagnosed with serious illness like cancer and keeping this a secret, poor impulse control that now extends into drug usage, and many more reasons. If you know he is abusing drugs, then asking him what is going on in a non confrontational manner is a good starting place. http://www.alanon.org.za/