Embraced By The Needle By Gabor Mate

To understand the problem, one must first identify the pathways that lead to meth, which is where Shukla began to explore her participants’ different experiences. While the reasoning and circumstances surrounding initiation into meth use several themes appeared. Most notably, most individuals started their drug using careers before they were teenagers, and none began with meth. Early childhood was exposed to drugs, and for that abuse and neglect, were the norm among those with whom she spoke. Shukla uncovered those secrets, regardless of their life experiences, a ‘‘deep love of meth’’ kept her participants trapped in a cycle of drug abuse. (Tchoula 2017).

Chapter 3, “A Community of Addicted Bodies”, traces how physical and emotional dependence on heroin creates a social hierarchy within the

Dr. Gabor Mate, a Hungarian born Canadian physician, who is also a neurologist, psychiatrist, and psychologist, but who specializes in the study and treatment of addiction, reveals revolutionary evidence pertaining to addiction. In Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, Dr. Mate worked with patients suffering chronic drug addiction for 12 years. With 20 years of experience as a family practitioner, Dr. Mate is a renowned speaker and teacher throughout North America; sharing his extensive knowledge with diverse audiences including health care professionals and educators (Mate, About Dr. Mate, 2016). The Realm of Hungry Ghosts, Dr. Mate’s most recent best-selling book, illuminates the origins and causes of addiction. As Co-founder of Compassion for Addiction (a non-profit organization), Dr. Gabor Mate encourages a greater understanding; “addiction is the attempt of affected human beings to escape a profound discomfort with themselves and their world” (Mate, Compassion4Addiction, 2015). Drawing on cutting-edge science, Dr. Mate presents the world with a shocking discovery: “The source of addiction is not to be found in genes, but in the early childhood environment.” Therefore, Dr. Mate simply “calls for a more compassionate approach toward the addict.” (Mate, 2016) As cutting-edge science concludes addiction to be a mental health issue, rather than criminal behavior, the American legal system demonstrates a devastating disservice to its own society.

He assumes that drug addiction originated by younger years adversity in major cases; like many women who are addicted are victims of sexual assault in childhood years. Similar, he tells that males suffered “series of abandonment or severe physical and psychological abuse” (Maté 274) in childhood memory would easily be involved in addiction. According to Mate, drug addicts are usually in a state of unawareness; they can self-harm without feeling pain (274). Maté’s patient, Carl, thirty-six year-old native, angrily hurt himself with a knife as punishment for using cocaine (274). However, people misunderstand that addiction will not happen in families that raise children with a “secure nurturing home” (Maté 275). He argues that it still exists in those secure homes, even though they do not recognize it. In brief, Maté describes the mental factors such as stress, anxiety, and depression which are saddled “from family problem, or from outside circumstance” (274); this pressures can emotionally affect to the process of “endorphin-liberating interaction with their children” (Maté 275). He thinks children would rely on opiates to comfort their deepest emotions; it would be a best solution to escape their lonely world. For that reason, Maté confirms addicts usually blame themselves for “stupid decision” (Maté 275) after being suffered of drug starvation. In the last paragraph, Maté concludes his essay by stating “that is the great wound of all” (275),

In his essay “Embraced by the Needle”, Gabor Maté argues that addiction is the consequence of lack of care of parents on their children at an early age, where those children were deprived of ‘soft warm hug’. Maté reinforces his argument by providing some of his own experiences with his patients, while working as a physician in Downtown Eastside, Vancouver, who helps mental people and addicts. Generally, this place is the “drug capital” as Maté writes in his essay.

The authors explain that addiction is caused by people adopting excessive habit to compensate for the painful void from lack of psychosocial integration. The lack of psychosocial integration is rooted from the dislocation

This source examines the effect of gateway drugs on the opioid epidemic. Bradley states that parents allowing their children to use marijuana and alcohol otherwise referred to as “soft drugs” at an early age sets them up to struggle with addiction later in life. Addiction is born in the adolescent years with “soft drugs” and then later in life the addiction often turns to“hard drugs”. If you use “soft drugs” regularly in your adolescent years, you have a one and five chance of becoming an addict later in life. According to the article kids today are so caught up in school, sports, and friends that the idea of an escape by using alcohol and drugs is extremely appealing.

The Psychodynamic View suggests that those with substance abuse problems have strong dependency issues that can be traced to their early years. They also directly suggest that when parents fail to provide nurturance, love, and stability, which this can urge the child to find other means to provide these items as they grow. Drugs can provide a means for comfort, even if only temporary and they can provide a source of constant companionship in the mind of a substance abuser. In the case of this book, he describes drugs as being his way to stop thinking about his mother and father, and even though he did not like the anxiety and constant need for them, they were his "companion" and never let him down.

2.1 Million people in the United States suffer from a disorder relating back to the abuse of opiates. (America’s Addiction to Opioids: Heroin and Prescription Drug Abuse, Volkow). Opiates build a wall around your thoughts and every wall of your life. When this happens, their lack of communication is cut off leaving them alone and making them make difficult decisions on their own. (How Does it Feel to be Addicted to Opiates, Donnelly). The substance takes everything from you including your money, family, and sanity. Without these things in their life, most abusers believe they have nothing left to rely on (How Does it Feel to be Addicted to Opiates, Donnelly). When people become addicted, they worry that they will never be back to normal. The substance had such a strong effect on them that they forget how life was before the abuse (How Does it Feel to be Addicted to Opiates,

The reason people are able to communicate, connect, feel, and understand the world around them is because of their highly intelligent minds. People often take this gift for granted, and do not fully comprehend how capable their minds are of absorbing and processing information. Two authors with two very different circumstances for their essays are able to support their arguments through psychology and ongoing brain research. In “Embrace by the Needle” (2001), Gabor Mate explores the psychological reason behind why addictions can develop in drug users. While in “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” (2008) Nicholas Carr, explores the ongoing research on how digital media affect people’s cognitive development, in order

Similarly, Johann Hari explores this underlying social influence throughout his book, Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, and reaches the conclusion that addiction caused by the lack of bonds with other people (176). The author discusses a couple of research studies, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study and the other unnamed, pertaining to childhood experiences and potential drug use. In the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, the researchers observed that children were two to four times more likely to become an addict as an adult each time they endured a traumatic experience (Hari 160). In other words, individuals who suffer from awful occurrences during their youth utilize drugs to cope with the negative, emotional consequences. Comparatively, in longitudinal study examined by Hari, researchers track individuals from childhood to adulthood to determine how parental interactions as a child affect the likelihood of using drugs at an older age (160). Accordingly, indifferent or cruel parenting signified a high probability of heavy substance abuse as an adult, which further suggests that susceptibility to unhealthy use of drugs is considerably impacted by adverse incidents during

Since mothers usually take care of their children, attachment theory places the huge burden of responsibility for their children’s addictions on them. Höfler and Kooyman (1996) discussed the criticism that shows the gap between attachment theory and addiction. They noted that based on studies in the 1990s, good support and another caring adult can replace the presence of a mother apart from the reality that they can leave temporarily without damaging the child psychologically and socially. Citing Bronfenbrenner (1979), they explored the relevance of the ecological perspective of human development on addiction as it also underpins the role of cultural values and environmental differences in shaping human behaviour, including addictions (as cited in Höfler & Kooyman, 1996, p.

Drug addiction has been a destructive element in American society for many decades. It saw a considerable upswing in the 1950 's spreading rapidly through many major US cities. Prior to its infestation of affluent suburban neighborhoods in the 60 's and 70 's, it was associated with low-income neighborhoods striking out the poor despondent underclass. Its rapid spread found its way into the consciousness of the media including many well-known literary and academic works of the time. These works illustrate potential causal factors of addiction including, abuse, mental illness, lack of opportunity, single parent homes and the general poverty associated with the neighborhoods in which they

The characteristics of substance abuse to name a few stems from domestic violence, sexual abuse, or peer pressure (teenager’s example.).

to govern much of the individual’s behavior. The most extreme case of drug use is the