Drug Addiction And Substance Abuse

A current common trend is drug abuse. Drug abuse is commonly referred to as an addiction. This addiction is the overuse of any drug like marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamines. Many people have their own theories as to why people face these addictions. With the seven psychological perspectives, it is evident that different factors affect different people.

mothers suicide he states, “Eating oatmeal for breakfast, skipping lunch, smoking more and more dope, I’m determined to get her in the water before mid-December, the one-year anniversary of my mother’s death” (Flynn 138) These traumatic life events leave Nick wishing for a altered state of consciousness that is one of the many motives for drug use (Hart and Ksir 19). This motive is shown when he uses drugs after seeing his father sleeping on a bench. Flynn states, “I got high not long after seeing him on the Esplanade” (Flynn 176). This event is another example of Flynn using drugs in emotionally stressful times, which is an accurate portrayal of drug use and drug dependence. This need for a altered state of consciousness is extremely emotionally impactful. Due to this avoidance Nick never emotionally deals with traumatic life events, such as his mothers suicide. This emotional backup is shown when he becomes clean, “I went to meetings once or twice a week, feeling absolutely nothing on the wall over, only to leave feeling wretched. And I couldn’t stop crying. I cried every day for a year, and then the flow lessened” (Flynn 234). Nick’s outpouring of emotion after his sobriety is extremely indicative of the impact drugs were having on his mental state. This need for an altered state of consciousness is also shown when he was in high school, to illustrate, Flynn states, “Without hesitation I answered: I drink to get drunk, feel more myself when outside myself” (Flynn 99).

According to UAB's health website, "Substance abuse is used to describe a pattern of substance (drug) use leading to significant problems or distress such as failure to attend work/school, substance use in dangerous situations (driving a car), substance-related legal problems, or continued substance use that interferes with friendships and or family relationships. Substance abuse, as a disorder, refers to the abuse of illegal substances or the abusive use of legal substances. Alcohol is the most common legal drug of abuse."

Drug addiction is a chronic relapsing brain disorder which produces compulsive drug seeking and use. The abuse of drugs leads to changes in the function and structure of the brain. Consuming chemical substances to achieve pleasure or euphoria The most commonly abused classes of prescription drugs according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse include opioids used for chronic pain; central nervous system (CNS) depressants used in anxiety and sleep disorder treatments; and stimulants, such as amphetamine among others, utilized to treat attention deficit disorder and narcolepsy.[4]

Addiction is something that most of my family and many others in the world face today. Addiction can look like many things: drug abuse, the lust of money, or even having an extreme obsession. What defines addiction is whether if a person is deprived of something and then goes through physical or mental withdraws. My parents happen to go through many of these withdraws when deprived of the drug methamphetamine.

There are many causes of addiction and addictive behaviors. The causes can stem from, but are not limited to, physiological, historical, social, and environmental factors that come together to cause addiction and addictive behaviors (The Highjacked Brain, 1998). It is important to point out that addictions and addictive behaviors are not caused by only one factor, but rather a combination of them. Physiological factors occur and affect the brain, thus, addictions and addictive behaviors can be considered a disease because of the changes that occur to the brain (The Highjacked Brain, 1998). Considering this more, substance abuse and addictive behaviors, such as

Addiction is a chronic and relapsing disorder that can have devastating affects on physical, mental and emotional health of the addict and also has drastic affects on the family members of addicts. There are wide variety of things one can be addicted to including, drugs, gambling, sex, overeating and videogames. For the purpose of this paper, addiction to drugs and alcohol will be examined and discussed. More specifically, the aspects that will be investigated are etiology, affects on the brain, treatment options and further research directions for this debilitating disorder.

Addiction is a disease that affects both the brain and behavior of a person. All addictive drugs mimic the actions of normal brain chemistry by inhibiting or slowing down the release of neurotransmitters, stimulating or speeding up their release, preventing their reuptake after they have stimulated neighboring neurons, or breaking transmitters down more quickly. (Criminology). This is why addiction is so common; the addict is stuck looking for that first euphoric experience. Like mentioned in the previous paragraph, people turn to illegal drugs to be sociable, feel pleasure, escape stress or “boredom,” and make money illegally. Ultimately, that turns into people getting hurt: loved ones, victims, the person consuming drugs. Those who experiment drugs have become highly addicted and it becomes the user’s number one priority. When one is willing to go through extreme measures to experience some sort of high, they become aggressive, rude, and will hurt anyone to get what they want. Physical dependence changes the user’s body and life to where the user needs to consume drugs in order to avoid withdrawal symptoms. In addition, psychological dependence is a deep craving for a type of drug and the feeling of not being able to function without

Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction contribute to the largest portion of all crime, and this correlation is the leading culprit to induce crime. (Goode, 2012) Although there is a common knowledge of drug and alcohol abuse, drug and alcohol abuse or addiction contributes to the largest portion of all crime, and this correlation is the foremost culprit to induce crime. Across the United States and throughout the world there is an epidemic of epic proportion involving drug and alcohol addiction. Addiction is defined as a psychological illness characterized by intense craving for a particular substance (Corrections pg 652). Substance abuse problems are extremely difficult to treat because individuals most at risk for becoming addicted share many of the same traits associated with chronic criminal behavior, with many of the traits being genetic (Corrections, pg 434). Each year, nearly 700,000 men and women are released from prison into communities across the United States (Sabol, Minton, and Harrison 2007). Many do not make a successful transition: two-thirds are arrested within three years and one-half are returned to prison, either for parole violation or new crimes (Langan and Levin 2002). This revolving door phenomenon is costly in terms of criminal justice system costs, not only the human and social costs suffered by crime victims, returning prisoners, their families, and the communities in which they reside.

Whenever someone thinks of what an addict should be, many different images come to mind. It could be the homeless man on the street, the raging adolescent who is struggling, the majority of the prison population. My grandfather himself dealt with his own addiction. He struggled for many years with alcoholism as well as an opiate addiction. Many of my family members cast him out and told him that if he really wanted to stop he would. His addiction went on for years before he was admitted to rehab and even after years of sobriety, he still thinks it was his fault for getting involved in drugs in the first place. It seems as though this is a common theme, in which people believe the addict is the one to blame and they just lack the willpower to stop. However, this is not the case. Continual drug use has the power to drastically affect the addict’s mind and only make it harder to stop substance abuse. Most addicts don’t even know this and soon believe that this is their fault when it’s not. In other words, it’s necessary to deem addiction as a chronic, relapsing disorder that affects the brain and its cognitive processes as this definition can lead many addicts to recovery and a shame free life.

Many drug addicts go back and forth into the correctional system due to their drug and alcohol addiction. They are suffering from an addiction that they need help in overcoming, or else they will find themselves getting it the best way they know how. They will prey on the community by robbing and stealing to support their habit. The question is should they go to jail or should they get help for this habit? The answer is quite simple they should be offered help within the justice system to help deter crimes in the community. But in order to do this the offender must be willing to take the first step in gaining recovery from this addiction by admitting he or she has a problem. This will allow him or her help needed to overcome this addiction. Many offenders have been arrested over and over again to support a habit that they need to feed, and it seems like a waste of time and effort in trying to get help from a drug treatment program that they have to pay for, because they can’t afford it. Many drug treatment centers are too expensive, that it turns away the drug addicts that are in need of help and are crying out for the help. It seems like they would have to get arrested for the problem in order for it to be paid for, there is no way around it. Some drug programs ask for medical insurance, and many offenders do not have medical insurance let along afford to pay for it. Therefore, they continue to use drugs and alcohol due to no form of support or help unless they get arrested

Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), National Drug Control Budget: FY2015 Funding Highlights, March 2014,

College is a time of great personal growth and education, but it is also a time to have a lot of fun. Unfortunately, people often take this fun too far by delving into excessive drug and alcohol abuse. This impacts millions of college students every year in multiple ways, including creating a lifelong addiction, causing educational problems, and even personal injury.

Many drug users inject drugs such as heroine into their blood stream with needles or syringes. Not everyone is exposed to sterile needles so many share the same needle, which can be the leading cause of diseases like HIV and Hepatitis C. So, the U.S. government has come up with some “brilliant” funded programs to supply clean needles to drug users, so the risk of sharing needles and diseases decreases. According to “Drug Use and HIV Risk Practices of Secondary and Primary Needle Exchange Users” studies confirm, “Needle exchange programs are designed to stem the spread of HIV and other blood-borne pathogens among injection drug users by providing sterile needles in exchange for contaminated ones” (Huo 170). The government is basically giving drug users the okay to do dangerous drugs. Claims have been made that needle exchange programs do not encourage people to do drugs it has had a huge increase on heroine and other drugs as well. Heroin use has doubled in the past five years. Sterile needle exchange may sound like a safe and heathy thing for these drug users. We need to be encouraging safe needle injections. Injecting drugs in your body is a terrible thing to do, but if we have some form of help so people aren’t sharing unsterile needles then that’s great. I feel as if people would have heard about this topic there would be a whole argument on this and how wrongful or how great this opportunity is. We all get you have to slowly go off of an addiction not just stop at all.

Substance abuse and drug diversion are ubiquitous in our healthcare institutions, rendering healthcare providers incompetent in providing safe, appropriate patient care. “Untreated opioid dependence harms the individual and society through increased mortality, increased risk of blood-borne virus transmission associated with injecting drug use, poor social functioning, loss of economic productivity and criminal justice expenditure” (Wright et al., 2015, p. e368). Frequently, hospital administration does realize the existence of the issue, but fail to identify the signs and symptoms of addiction, determine the factors that lead to it or formulate strategies to address the misconduct.