Beautiful Boy David Sheff Analysis

A recent poll published by CASA Columbia shows that substantial portions of the public still see addiction as a choice rather than an illness. The nature of addiction is not something David Sheff leaves open to debate for his readers. Once David discovers that his son is addicted to meth, he tracks Nic down and unconditionally demands that Nic check himself into a rehabilitation center. During Nic’s first stay in rehab, Sheff meet with a Dr. London, a Professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at UCLA, to gather information on his son’s condition. Dr. London shows Sheff her research on brain functions of meth addicts. Commenting on Dr. London’s work, Sheff

Addictions – Children that live with adults that are addicts may be relied upon by the adults at times to be their main carers. At times these young people may feel isolated and unable to tell people what they are experiencing at home, they may experience stressful situations and may be living in the poverty that

Psychodynamic theorists explain the causes or substance abuse as related to dependency issues dating back to early childhood. This view claims that a when parents fail to satisfy a young child’s need for nurturance the child will grow to be highly dependent on others for

It was never my intention to work with addicted clients, but nearly every family therapy course I have taken has, either overtly or covertly, stressed the need to understand addictions. While I understand the concept on a cognitive level, I had judgements about the type of people that become addicted and did not feel compelled to work with them, until my niece died. Her drug addiction deeply affected all members of her immediate family. Her parents and her step-dad, my brother, each reacted to my niece’s addiction in different ways but none were successful and the family began to fail under the stress.

Their relationship was strained, and oftentimes nonexistent, up until the point where Nic hit “rock bottom”, when he would call his parents and beg for help. While Nic was out alone struggling to rid himself of his inner demons, David and the rest of his family dealt with the realities of Nic’s drug and alcohol addiction directly. At first came the denial. The denial that there was even the remote possibility that their sweet, innocent Nic would become dependent on substance to keep him remotely functional. Rather than let his son waste away, David utilized his journalistic abilities and set off to research as much as he could about addiction. He set out to contact ULCA’s top methamphetamine researcher, Dr. Richard Rawson. As a researcher, Dr. Rawson has no agenda other than fact and truth. He is completely dedicated to the work he does for one sole reason, to help addicts (Sheff, 2008, p.277). Alongside research, Sheff also attends Alcoholics Anonymous and therapy sessions to better grasp what is going on with his son. In these sessions, he is continuously drilled of the three Cs, “you did not cause it, you cannot control it, and you cannot cure it”. Sheff has difficulties accepting all but one of the three Cs at the end of his memoir. He comes to realize that he cannot control, nor can he cure Nic’s addiction. After years of panic and worry over Nic’s wellbeing, numerous rehab treatments and therapy

Most children in urban areas are exposed to a plethora of information from different sources and it is very likely that they will have a good idea about addiction even at ages younger than 12. As part of the addiction preventive campaign, the interaction between children and addicts who are under treatment should be explored. This type of first hand testimony of an individual who experienced the grief of addiction can be exceptionally effective and taken much more seriously.

The majority of children living in a dysfunctional family with a drug addicted parent will not develop a secure attachment with another individual, where the relationship revolves around intimacy and mutual understanding. Parents who are codependent on each other have learned to regard the dysfunction as normal, and their children could be susceptible to numerous scenarios. They could become the target of their parent’s abuse, either sexual or physical. The children of codependent parents could easily gain access to drugs or alcohol since no one is paying attention to the child. The codependent parents are preoccupied with the alcoholic or drug addicted parent, and they might never bother to realize their child is in grave danger. The codependent parent’s children might never recover fully from the trauma, abuse, or neglect inflicted on them. In addition, the children learn to become adults who repeat the vicious cycle of domestic violence or abuse themselves. Children of codependent parent might grow resilient despite

Watching A Mother's Desperation and The Adolescent Addict, I noticed that both parents said that at first they would get upset and their child would lash out at them, than go find their drug of choice. Living with someone else’s addiction puts the family under unusual stress. Normal routines are constantly being interrupted by unexpected events or frightening kinds of experiences. The family has to keep track of what is going on all the time because there is no trust, the child steals and will do whatever they need to do to get their drug of choice. For the parents and even siblings it has to be draining, heartbreaking, nerve-racking and even scary because you do not know if your child will come home or even wake up in the morning. My opinion

This experience has changed the way I see those who haven’t had enough and those who haven’t found away out of the addicted world. I’ve learned there is more to a person than their appearance and in these cases there is a lot of hurt and anger in their souls. Even after recovery some people still carry around guilt and anger. Some are ashamed because they let something affect them in a way in which they lost control. Others are angry at

The novels, Tweak by Nic Sheff and Beautiful Boy by David Sheff have shed an enormous amount of light on a topic that most of the population tries to avoid and pretend doesn’t exist: drug addiction. These novels are both compelling and haunting. They leave the reader anxiously turning each page, unable to read quick enough. Both sides of a drug addiction story, the addicts and the families of addicts, are told with deep sincerity and powerful insight. Because of these novels

Addicts blame others when things go wrong, they make loved ones feel guilty or ashamed, and maintaining an addiction can take a financial toll on a family. Children, pets, and other family members are often neglected and left to fend for themselves when living with an addict. Addiction can also cause separation in a family. Eventually patience runs out and people end up walking away from the addict when they refuse to get help or take responsibility.

Along with illegal behavior often a substance abuser will find themselves as homeless, spending their paychecks on their habits of using substances (Tracy, 2005). Children of abusers are affected by both possessing negative role models that set the example that drug use is not wrong and sometimes the children are placed into the care of the community because of neglect and abuse by the substance user (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Adolescent and School Health [CDC], 2009). Other medical, social, and economic issues also are being experienced from substance abuse and use.

With the awareness of substance abuse as an illness, attention has also been directed to the families and loved ones of those who suffer. Why do families and loved ones stay with someone who is so obviously ill? Why do they tolerate being taken advantage of? One of the first books to address this issue is Codependent No More. According to the author, the issue at hand is codependency, where the individual in the relationship with the addict suffers from an illness as well. This paper is an analysis of the book compared with similar research on the topic.

Drug addiction is a serious issue in not only America today, but globally. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, substance addiction is a “chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite the harmful consequences” (“What is drug addiction?”). Drug abuse affects not only the user, but those around the user as well. The actions of a drug user place a significant amount of worry on the people that are closest to them such as friends and family. Children with parents who are addicted to drugs or alcohol can be severely affected by the actions of their parents which can cause them much harm in terms of biological and

Sometimes that I learned about the article was, that some drug addict can be very harmful to children. Some kids are even scared to be around their own parents because of their drug addiction. It also talks about how kids are even afraid that their own schoolmates find out that their parents are drug addicts. Also, many drug addiction care about their families, but need or have the urge to feed their addiction so it seems that they don’t care but in reality they do. " Substance misuse may be one of a series of inter-related factors within a family, such as poverty or depression, so that disentangling exactly what causes poor outcomes for the child can be difficult,"(Hart 9 ). In other words, children do not really understand why their