Researchers at Stony Brook University have compared going through a broken heart to a cocaine addiction. Yes, that’s right, I said cocaine addiction! That sounds pretty powerful to me. “Researchers have also found the area of the brain that is most active during the anguish and pain of a break up is the same part of the brain associated with motivation, reward and addiction cravings”. “Just like a drug addict we go through withdraws, the rejection feels so bad because we actually get addicted to the relationship”, and when the train leaves town we go through withdraw, sounds pretty scary “withdraw from drugs” WOW! I’m just not imagining that I feel like I’m going a little crazy, what a relief. I guess being weak has nothing to do with it,
Chapter two describes how addiction is a brain disease and explains how drugs and alcohol change the way the brain works. Based on what I read, people with addiction basically play mind games to themselves. Most of the time is it all in their head. The way the brain structure works is the first time someone consumes drugs or alcohol and get “high”, the quantity of chemical they consume surpasses the altitude of neurotransmitters in the body. The quantity of the neurotransmitters may contaminate higher than they do even when eating, which may last longer. The “Go” system collects that experience, which is kept in the hippocampus and amygdala. When someone initially gets intoxicated or high, both consumptions deluge the brain with dopamine with an illustrated memory of the pleasant event and response. Which makes the individual look forward to implementing the experience again.
According to DrugAbuse.gov, long-term studies of drug use patterns show that most high school students who use other illegal drugs have tried marijuana first. Teens are often peer pressured into doing drugs; they get to comfortable with them they inevitably reframe to harder and more potent drugs. In Cole Meyer’s short story, “Addiction” the narrator is a struggling teen addict and his addiction continues to worsen as he ages. Meyer uses setting, character and conflict to illustrate the devastating effects of addiction on the individual.
Drug abuse is on the rise. While the use of drugs like cocaine and heroin is in a state of decline in certain parts of the world, prescription drugs abuse is on the rise (UNODC, 2013). Prescription drugs that were prescribed with the intention to do well are now one of the leading causes of self-harm. Drug abuse has no gender or social class, it can affect people regardless of social status and wealth, and now more than ever we need to understand the reason behind the abuse. What psychological factors could cause an individual to abuse drugs in the first place? In this research essay, I will discuss how each one of the major school of psychology perspectives could attempt to explain a
There are several theories of addiction. All of them are imperfect. All are partial explanations. It is for this reason that it is important to be aware of and question addiction theories.
Addiction is a disease that I will battle for the rest of my life. After being sexually assaulted at the age of twelve, I started to self-destruct. Lack of parental support, less than pristine living conditions, and an addictive personality paved an expressway to a life of addiction. I chose to hang with undesirable people, and was introduced to Marijuana, LSD, Ecstasy, PCP, Cocaine, Heroin and eventually what became the love of my life, the prescription painkiller Morphine. Never did I think that trying pot would have a domino effect. It led me to try harder and more addictive substances ultimately turning my life upside down. Often publicly
Many social stigmas are associated with drug use within our society. At one point in my life I shared the negative connotations associated to drug abuse with the vast majority of the population of this country and the society in which I live. As I matured and began forming my own opinions based on several personal experiences, I began to disagree with the believed norm that drugs are bad for our society. They are a means of escape for some just the same as alcohol and tobacco is for millions of others in this country. Those legal substances are just as bad for your body and habit forming as other illegal substances. Why do so many people frown on those of us who need our help? Drug addiction is a disease yet it’s
It was my senior year in high school when my mom told me that my cousin, Mayra, had given birth to a baby girl. However, child protective services decided that Mayra wasn’t adequate to take care of the child; due to her drug abuse. Child protective services from Mexico were trying to place the baby with close relatives. Sadly, there was only three choices, her grandma, my aunt Gloria, and myself. The choices were few and the family small.
Heroin addicts have the psychological dependence on heroin that leads them into the state of self-destruction and the possibility of leading to death by the extreme use of heroin. Never estimate the poppy flower for its power that withholds the fiends to their mentality enduring the euphoria enslavement of the mind that contained for many centuries. The heroin addiction nation is a self numbing injection and dry approach to have the mind under the state of the greatest feeling of great happiness leaving the pain behind under the spell of heroin. Heroin comes in many forms for addicts to enjoy in their own way. They come in powder and rock like form that is combined with other narcotics. The snorting form for heroin is not
I want to share with you, a letter Dan wrote about his addiction. His letter is sincere, powerful, and has great depth. This is the Dan, my family knew before drugs took him away from us. After reading his letter, I realize more clearly the struggle that Dan is goes through every day with his addiction. I am humbled by his letter, I am sure that I couldn’t have written this eloquent letter.
Over the last few days at Providence Crosstown Clinic, I have gained a tremendous amount of insight into the field of addiction and substance use disorder. Crosstown Clinic is an addictions treatment clinic with an interdisciplinary team that cares for over seventy clients with substance-use disorder. Clients come into the clinic three times a day and are given either DEM (diacetylmorphine) or HME (hydromorphine). DEM is an addictive drug derived from opium that produces an intense euphoria, also known as “high”; whereas, hydromorphone is a synthetic narcotic analgesic, similar to morphine and heroin. During the first few days, I have learned Crosstown clinic began as a study to assess long-term opioid medications effectiveness, also known as the SALOME trail, to test whether hydromorphone, a licensed medication, is as good as diacetylmorphine, the active ingredient of heroin, at assisting people who suffer from chronic opioid addiction and who are not benefiting sufficiently from other treatments. I was told by the clinic nurse that the test found that hydromorphone is almost the same as DEM; however, clients prefer DEM better since it gives them a longer “high”. I have yet to work with clients with substance use disorder, and I am excited to learn more about alcohol and substance use like alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, and amphetamines.
When people ask you, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you answer? Most people would say they want to be a professional athlete, working in the sports industry, police officers, doctor, lawyer, working in the business industry, president, and a movie star. However, that’s not what Blake Landry wanted to do. Landry, who was a promising soccer player decided she was going to be a heroin addict for the rest of her life and that’s they it is. That is just one case out of hundreds of case where drugs and especially heroin can ruin someone life. Currently there is an epidemic of a heroin addiction going on in the world today.
Known for his hit song “Thrift Shop,” Ben Haggerty, recognized by the public as Macklemore, occasionally strays from the upbeat, catchy music about sex and partying that can be found on our radios to serious topics such as gay rights with “Same Love.” Macklemore pairs with Ariana DeBoo in his new album This Unruly Mess I’ve Made to create the song “Drug Dealer,” which focuses on the problem of prescription drug abuse in America. According to CNN, drugs have been the leading cause of death in our country since 2009, surpassing even car accidents and shootings (Christensen & Hernandez, 2016). In “Drug Dealer,” Macklemore uses provocative, detailed lyrics about the effects of prescription drugs and his own experience with drug addiction to persuade
Uncontrollable urges lissome sensual energy superior than reason, we made love, in a dark secluded cyclone sweat and bones a lovers throne, her breasts up against my body I felt her smother me with an incandescent lustful demonised fire, two cigars we inhaled and exhaled each others smoky hearts, I crave you everyday, I'm hungry for your fury, like whiskey you're the
“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