Negative Effects Of Drug Abuse

n the essay “Embraced by the needle” by Gabor Mate, he highlights how an individualès childhood experiences would make them more susceptible to addiction in their future. He highlights if an individual experienced a traumatic, neglectful, or stressful environment in their childhood they are more vulnerable to addiction as adults. If children grew up in relatively stable and loving homes, but still grow up to become addicts, then there are other underlying factors, like stressed parents, that cause them to turn to vices like drugs or alcohol that lead them to addiction. Maté focuses on events that happened in an individual’s childhood and how they developed from it, and discusses the biology of addiction and how without some key experiences in an individual’s childhood it will lead to addiction because “the fewer endorphin exchanging experiences in infancy and early childhood, the greater the need for external sources” (289). Drugs like cocaine or benzodiazepine imitate or inhibit the reabsorption of endorphins, reaffirming that in Maté’s perspective addictions are caused by pain and unhappiness. Bruce K Alexander’s perspective on addiction and drug abuse in Reframing Canada’s “Drug Problem” is that of dislocation. He describes dislocation as being “the absence of that essential integration and identification with family, community, society and spiritual values that makes a “straight” life bearable most of them time and joyful at its peaks.” (226). When individuals are

     In the United States, twenty million children are experiencing physical, verbal and emotional abuse from parents who are addicted to alcohol. Growing up in an alcoholic house can leave emotional scars that may last a lifetime. This is tragic because we consider that childhood is the foundation on which our entire lives are fabricated. When a child’s efforts to bond with an addicted parent are handicapped, the result is confusion and intense anxiety. In order to survive in a home deficient, of healthy parental love, limits, and consistency, they must develop “survival skills” or defense mechanisms very early in life.

Growing up in the household under substances influence can cause severe damage to the child. Parental substance abuse has a significant impact on family function, and it may also contribute to child maltreatment. It heightens the risks to both of the physical and emotional safety of the children, and it generates children’s problematic outcomes. Children who grow up in such families may also experience mental health issues, social isolation, financial difficulties, and exposure to stressful life events and so on.

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

Although all sorts of families can be devastated by addiction, but single parent units (the most common lower class structure) are the most obscured. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches supports, “In every family unit, each person plays a role (or multiple roles) to help the family function better and to maintain a level of homeostasis, stability and balance. When substance abuse is added to this dynamic, the family roles naturally shift to adjust to the new behaviors associated with drug or alcohol use, and to continue maintaining order and balance.”4 In single parent units there is an inability of a second parent to fill the void role of the addicted parent. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states, “Frequently, children may act as surrogate spouses for the parent who abuses substances. For example, [young] children may develop elaborate systems of denial to protect themselves against that reality of the parent’s addiction. Because that option does not exist in a single‐parent household with a parent who abuses substances, children are likely to behave in a manner that is not age‐appropriate to compensate for the parental deficiency.”2 So a child growing up in a compromised family unit where addiction is present may develop altered norms and mature into an addict themselves.4

In the United States, twenty million children are experiencing physical, verbal and emotional abuse from parents who are addicted to alcohol. Growing up in an alcoholic house can leave emotional scars that may last a lifetime. This is tragic because we consider that childhood is the foundation on which our entire lives are fabricated. When a child's efforts to bond with an addicted parent are handicapped, the result is confusion and intense anxiety. In order to survive in a home deficient, of healthy parental love, limits, and consistency, they must develop "survival skills" or defense mechanisms very early in life.

Drug abuse in America is at an all time high across the country. Most people start out with a legit medical issue that leads to a prescription for pain, anxiety, stress, or even trouble concentrating. After repeated prescriptions, the body tends to get use to the medicine, with then leaves the body craving more. In fact, prescription drug abuse is the highest drugs abused my both men and women. Research shows that young adults ages 18 to 25 are the prime abusers of prescription drugs, ADHD drugs as well as anti-anxiety drugs. There several reason why this age group abuse these types of drugs. The reasons include getting high, to feel good, better study habits, stress, and weight loss.

Growing up is hard but children that grow up in homes with a parent, or parents, with substance abuse issues are more likely to become dependent themselves on some sort of substance. This can stem from the children carrying a heavier burden than most their age which can lead to depression, aggression, low self-esteem just to name a few issues (Schroeder, Kelley, & Fals-Stewart, 2006). While the chances that a child raised in a conventional home with two loving parents can still turn to drugs it is more likely that a child raised in a troubled home will be addicted to drugs (Sharma, 2016). A child raised in a home with a parent that has a substance abuse is likely to experience poor parental bonding, exposed to a stressful environment, as well as experience rejection from their parents. Growing up with a parent that is addicted to an opioid such as heroin is compared to the family burden of having a person with schizophrenia (Pomini, et al., 2014). Families that have problematic drug or alcohol abuse “experience disruption, chronic stress, excessive worry and poor psychological adjustment” (Gethin, Trimmingham, Chang, Farrell, & Ross, 2016). In the article Dance with a Demon, the writer describes her life growing up

The substance abuse of a parent has a lasting and apparent effect on all young children. There are a number of substances that can become a problem in people’s lives, including but not limited to; marijuana, alcohol, stimulants, depressants, narcotics, hallucinogens and inhalants. Drugs critically affect the individual taking them, but also affect the members of the household, especially children. Not only does the person’s addiction emotionally, mentally, and physically affect the individual lives of other members of the family, but it tears apart relationships between the families. Arguments, disagreements, violence, and stress can derive from the abuse of drugs because of the tension it puts on one’s other members of the family.

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.

Because one never truly knows the composition of the drug being taken, the drug abuser knowingly places himself at great risk for physical harm or even death when abusing drugs. Overdose from heroin or crack/cocaine may be a result of the addict receiving a drug that is "taken combined with concurrent use of alcohol and other sedatives," and the addict may encounter further problems due to the "difficulty posed by adulterants used to cut heroin" (Inciardi, 1986). Professionals involved in counseling heroin and cocaine addicts found that some of these individuals acknowledged that the use of these drugs was risk taking and had the potential to be a fatal event because one never truly knows the composition of the substance being used. When death from a drug overdose occurred in the

When an adolescent is unable to cope with difficult and painful circumstances they are more likely to turn to drugs and alcohol to help ease their pain (McWhirter et al, 2013). McWhirter et al (2013) also states that adolescents may become drug dependent due to their inability to cope with their painful circumstance. The inability to cope can wreak havoc on an individual, especially adolescents who feel depressed, stressed, and worthless (McWhirter et al, 2013). An adolescent who is not receiving the support they need from their peers, teachers, and parents will often look to drugs and alcohol to help them cope (Wormington et al, 2012). Thus, an adolescent can be their own worst enemy due to their inability to cope with painful experiences.

Often victims of child abuse suffer from posttraumatic disorder, which according to Mayo Clinic a nonprofit medical practice and medical research group posttraumatic disorder is defined as “A mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event either experiencing or witnessing (Mayo clinic staff 2014). Victims who deal with psychological disorder not always commit violent crimes but instead victims tend to depend on drugs, alcohol to try to live their lives day by day, as time goes on these individuals tend to be classified as drug addicts or alcoholics. The fact that individuals depend on alcohol and drugs can lead them to ended up living in the streets and becoming what we know as the “homeless” often these individuals the lack of resources to buy drugs or alcohol lead them to commit property crimes and lead them to be processed into the criminal justice system as offenders. According to Exploring the Role of Child Abuse in Later Drug Abuse “As many as two-thirds of all people in treatment for drug abuse report that they were physically, sexually, or emotionally abuse, and witnessing or being threatened with violence or other abuse”. (Neil Swan 1998). As has been noted individuals who abuse substances and alcohol are not regular people

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

    Using illegal drugs has many damaging effects on an individual. These effects not only damage a person physically but also mentally and emotionally. The effects of illegal drug usage have long lasting effects on the individual long after the drug usage has stopped as well.