Addiction Cultural Report

Within The Glass Menagerie there are a few examples of morally ambiguous characters. Amanda Wingfield may be the most obvious morally ambiguous character in the story. Amanda Wingfield embodies the perfect example of a strong woman in society, especially the society within the story. Amanda lives with her two grown children after her husband abandons them. She goes through the struggles of guiding them by herself and though she loves them, she fights with her past and what the past has taught her in order to best equip her children for the world. Amanda Wingfield can be seen as overbearing, but she only acts this way with them because of her incredible love.

The history of addiction goes back centuries, and unfortunately, there is still a long way to go for people to realize the effects of chemical substances do more harm than good. The difference between drug use and abuse relies heavily on a person’s dependence on the substance. The line between the differences is often very fine. Depending on other factors involved, such as morals, values, environment, and genetic predisposition, the line will most likely be crossed without regard to the consequences until treatment and recovery are the only options left. This is essay compares two theoretical explanations

The designing used in the addiction scenario would be a double-blind, randomized, study of the effects of Antaquil vs placebo in minimizing the cravings of individuals suffering from alcohol dependence. Participants for the study should meet the DSM-V criteria for alcohol dependence and have recently entered into treatment. Certain medical and psychotic conditions along with any current substance use will disqualify the individual from participation. To secure that the sample is random, several outpatient clinics should be used to recruit the participants, a computer randomization program will then be used to ensure that each member of the qualifying population has an equal possibility of being chosen. The randomize sample will consist of (n=36)

In the 1980’s, Nancy Reagan started the “Just Say No” campaign. This was an attempt to help people avoid the pitfalls of drugs and addiction. Now, imagine if the government started a campaign about drugs that was “Just Say Yes”. Opponents of drug addiction claim that drugs alter brain structures, change thought processes, and causes family issues. However, Aldous Huxley’s book, Brave New World, portrays a more irrational perspective of drugs where addiction is necessary for controlling the population.

While most live and go on with life in a pretty average way other choose to live a life where risk is almost the main aspect. Drug and alcohol use for many is a death sentence. What compels people to destroy their lives, their relationships and sometimes their own family? What effect does this have on the Native American population? It has long been known that Aboriginal people suffer from alcoholism in vast numbers but with this paper we will get an in depth look at how this happened and why is it still a problem. We will also see the effects this has on future generations, who grow up in such an environment and even those genetically inclined to such addictive behaviours. And according to the DSM-III-R there is a difference between abuse and dependence, “abuse being one or more of the following occurring in a 12 moths period; failure to fulfill major obligations at work, home or school, substance use in physically hazardous situations, substance related legal problems, and continued use even when suffering social and interpersonal problems because of substance use. Also the symptoms must never have met the criteria for dependence. Dependence on the other hand, is three or more of the following, occurring anytime in the same 12 month period; a need for increased amounts to achieve “high” or diminished effect of particular amount over time, withdrawal when not using or need for something to replace substance when not available,

All around the world anyone can find people that are addicted to some form of drug. Drug addiction is a huge issue that has been occurring for about thirty years now and is occurring to this day for many reasons. Some of those reasons may be that something is going on back home and they have had enough, or because of stress, peer pressure, biological reasons and the list goes on. However, there has been law enforcement due to drugs since the mid 1980’s. People have many viewpoints to when it comes to drug use and addiction. There are three perspectives people have that view the use of drugs and drug addiction which are structural functionalism, conflict, and symbolic interactionist.

Since Asian Americans are mostly immigrants and their substance abuse issues are often close related to acculturation status, based on the conceptual framework of acculturation, the key to explain this phenomenon is to understand the cultural distance (Berry, 1997), the difference between the culture and values between society of origin and society of settlement. In this case, it is necessary to understand the different attitudes (attitudes of original society and that of settlement society) toward specific substance abuse issues (alcohol, drugs, tobacco) and the different attitudes toward the specific ethnic group.

Addiction is an epidemic in the United States of America. Yet out of all the addictive substances that are available to Americans, Alcohol has become the leading stimulant to flourish this outbreak. According to the 2014 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration statistics, 60.9 million Americans considered themselves binge drinkers while 1 in 10 underage alcohol users, age 12 to 20, already themselves considered heavy alcohol users (SAMHSA, http://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/NSDUH-FRR1-2014/NSDUH-FRR1-2014.pdf ). Since alcohol addiction can affect any socioeconomic status and any street corner in America, many Americans know a friend or a family member that has been struck by this epidemic. I myself am one of those Americans. Although my grandmother lost her battle to addiction more

Substance abuse is the harmful or dangerous use of any psychoactive substances including drugs, alcohol and even tobacco. The term ‘Substance Abuse’, as understood today was first used in 1987’s DSM-IIIR, before that social & cultural factors were not considered. Even with that change, many Americans still today consider drug and alcohol abuse to be moral weakness or character defect.

The social model of addiction tries to recognize and repair systematic problems within society that could impact a person’s choice about substance use (Doweiko, 2015). Cultural, environmental, and family components of a person’s life are all a part of the social model. These influences can either enable the development of addiction or increase resistance against addiction. For instance, in distinct cultures and environments, the manufacture, sale, and distribution of illicit drugs are considered as acceptable behaviors for a person to prosper and gain respect (Doweiko, 2015). Social aspects such as poverty, community immersion, unemployment, and family structure either influence or guard the person from substance abuse. Identification of adverse social influences so that these concerns can be attended to will decrease the probability of the individual relapsing or the continued abuse of substances (Doweiko, 2015).

Ultimately, these factors contribute to the development of methamphetamine-abuse but also provide tangible strategies to counteract addiction. Boshears et al. (2011) suggest methamphetamine-users separate from existing social networks that encourage consumption and discover new networks that support cessation of drug-use. However, many methamphetamine addicts would be forced to disassociate from immediate family or be required to terminate employment which create limitations due to the impracticality of these changes. Evidently, social determinants contribute to methamphetamine addiction, however successful treatment can only occur in conjunction with the attenuation of significant physiological and psychological factors.

The use and misuse of illicit drugs in today’s society can be blamed on both individual, and societal factors. With the use of societal factors researchers can show the effect for a larger population, and provide better information of the population. Blaming the individual for developing the addiction will not fix issues that lie in society that worked against the individual, the underlying issues of poverty and addiction, many scholarly articles mention bad neighborhoods, low income, and loose family ties with future drug use. I will be using evidence from articles involving both teen and adult drug use and addiction, as the effect on society is noticed in both age brackets. “Substance use is considered a problem by individual addicts who seek treatment, by institutions within society (such as the police or the medical system) that deal with substance use and its consequences on a day-to-day basis, and by national organizations such as governments or supranational organizations, such as the International Narcotics Control Board (a United Nations agency located in Vienna). (Adrian) I will be using scholarly articles to explain the sociological reasoning behind drug use, with theories involving low-income neighborhoods, leading to lessening of family involvement which can lead to drug use. “Drug abuse affects a community 's living conditions and economy, its youth, and the environment for crime.” (Watts)

Addiction- a primary, chronic, neurobiologic disease, with genetic, psychosocial, and environmental factors influencing its development and manifestations. It is characterized by behaviors that include one or more of the following: impaired control over drug use, compulsive use, continued use despite harm, and craving. The difference between addiction and abuse is often times unclear. It’s a difficult call to make as a family member or a close friend that is dealing with a person like this in their life, but ultimately it is a call that only the addict can make for themselves. There are tons of different sources and tests and questions out there that can be done that can

“Addiction is a brain disease expressed in the form of compulsive behavior,” says by Alan Leshner in his article, “Addiction Is a Brain Disease” featured in the book Drug Abuse: Opposing Viewpoints. Addiction has a variety of meanings depending on what your viewpoint of addiction. According to dictionary.com, the concrete definition of the word addiction is, “the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.” Basically various doctors and therapist consider addiction to be a genetic disorder. “Provocative, controversial, unquestionably incomplete, the dopamine hypothesis provides a basic framework

Substance abuse is one of the most detrimental social problems found in all societies. It has been the leading cause for generational breakdowns of families and communities, and is probably the most controversial social problem when developing corrective solutions. Substance abuse can be defined as the chemical dependence, or pattern of usage of both legal and illegal substances, that has adverse physical, psychological, and psychomotor effects on the human body. The use of substances does not always have to be a drug, but can also be anything taken into the body that can cause a mood-altering effect, such as inhalants or solvents. Additionally, substance abuse has many different faces and is the one social problem that crosses all