Personal Narrative: My Own Substance Abuse Clinic

This is only one of the many sad stories of a promising teenager who has fallen into the grasp of opioid addiction in the state of Maine in the last decade. “In 2015 Maine saw a total of 272 deaths due to overdoses” (Ricker, 2016). The leading cause of these deaths are opioid overdoses. Opioid abuse is becoming an epidemic in this country, a raging fire that is sweeping across the nation, leaving many dead in its wake. Lawmakers and pharmaceutical companies believe that they have found the answer; naloxone being made available as an over the counter (OTC) drug. Naloxone, better known by its brand name, Narcan, is an antagonist of the opioids, meaning that it is used to temporarily block the effects of opioids for 30-40 minutes. It is designed to give someone who has overdosed the

This past semester involved the completion of a vast variety of tasks. I started the semester by becoming more familiar with the drug narcan. Narcan is an opioid antagonist drug that reverses the effects of overdose from certain opioids. Narcan can be injected intravenously, intramuscularly, or sprayed up the nose of an inovidual who is showing signs of an overdose from an opioid. Narcan has been in the drug industry since the mid 90s, although more recently it has become more prevalent as a result of an increase in opioid use. Narcan has been making its way into the media. With the attention now on the possible life saving drug narcan, I was interested in the attitude of the public, and specifically among medical professional, pharmacists,

I question are we saving lives with Naloxone or just prolonging it enough until they get a stronger version of heroin or one laced with fentanyl or carfentanyl. Thus, far the effectiveness that Naloxone have on the amount of opioid related overdoses has shown ineffective. The amount of lives saved from Naloxone has increased, however the number of overdoses and deaths have increased in the state of Maryland, since Naloxone has increased on the streets. My audience is for those who set the guidelines for the administration for Naloxone in the State of Maryland. Currently, in Maryland a person does not have to be trained to administer Naloxone. Anyone can go to their local pharmacy to get Naloxone at no cost. There should be more stringent guidelines on how Naloxone is distributed to the community. There should be an increase of education and not a decrease. This is important because educating the community has proven to be an effective intervention for drug use. Administering Naloxone without treatment is keeping people temporarily alive and addicted with the increase of overdoses and deaths in the long-term. Naloxone is reactive and without treatment have been proven ineffective. Naloxone is a short-term solution to

Restricting Narcan from someone who is overdosing on drugs is comparable to disregarding someone’s cry for help in the midst of an assault. Our Governor does not see it the same way however. In the last year he has vetoed multiple bills in the Legislature that would increase the availability of Narcan (a nasal spray variation of the drug Nalaxone) to people who are at risk of over-dosing on drugs. In the state of Maine, the increase of opioid-related deaths should provide enough motive to not only pass bills related to overdose prevention, but encourage people to utilize the antagonist drug and educate younger generations about it.

I decided to write about a current issue involving the usage of Naloxone. There has been a debate going on for quite some time, about if all recue responders should carry Naloxone and administer it to people who have overdosed. Naloxone is described as a drug like morphine or fentanyl, that can cause an opposite effect of an opiate. It is either given by an injection or it can be done by a nasal spray. People debate that by administering this drug to someone who has overdosed is allowing them to go the extremes of usage and that nothing is being done about treating the individual’s addiction. DRUGABUSE.COM reported that there is an estimated 78 deaths a day, caused by the opioid epidemic. Which has led President Trump to recognize the severity of this epidemic, and push for more usage of the Naloxone. In hopes

So I attended the AA (alcoholic anonymous) meeting of a group called Choices Group from the KCB club on November 13th, 2015 at 2:30 PM. This AA meeting was held at the location of 5715 W. Alexander Rd.//Leon Ave. Although they meet everyday, this was the best day for my schedule. What I liked is that right away, I got in touch with the meeting organizer named Laura and she was more then willing to let me sit in in one of the meetings. Even over the phone I could feel that she was a nice person and when I met her I was not wrong. She has purple hair and such a bubbly personality. For starters, I always thought everyone would sit around in a circle but that was not the case in this meeting. There were tables where people can sit as well as some back chairs with no tables. When I arrived, Laura told me to sit in the back and when we go over people’s names to say that I was a visitor, that unfortunately never happened. It was around 2:27 PM and there was roughly 10 people there. As it got closer to 2:30 PM a bus showed up and that is when the rest of the people showed up. Roughly 45 people were there and the meeting started.

Just last year, the United States experiences an astonishing 60,000 deaths related to drug overdose—with roughly 33,000 of those deaths due to Opioids. That means that more than 91 Americans die from an opioid overdose per day, making it the leading cause of death for people under 50. As I have said over and over again, this crisis affects Americans across all socioeconomic levels in all regions of the country – including the 6th District of Virginia – and has rightfully gained the attention of Congress as well as the

Every day thousands of people overdose on heroin and or opioids, in which they revived with narcan (naloxone). Many people believe it is a blessing because it carries no health risk nor can it be abused. It is to save lives. At least 78 people overdose every day, with that being said narcan is now more accessible to not just people in the medical field but

The goal is to reduce the rate of drug overdose deaths in the city of Huntington, West Virginia. A nursing diagnosis regarding this health issues is as follows: Increased risk of mortality among Huntington’s substance abuse population related to an increase in drug abuse/misuse, especially heroin, lack of knowledge regarding the risks of death with drug use and multi-drug use, lack of access to drug abuse counseling and resources, lack of access to naloxone, lack of employment opportunities for persons with criminal records and history of drug use, as demonstrated in the drug overdose rates in the city, poverty rates, crime rates related to theft to support their drug addiction, median household income below the national median, and inability to stop drug trafficking to the

Furthermore, it is estimated that in 2016 approximately 948,000 people used heroin, and over 15,000 users died from heroin overdoses (United States Department of Health and Human Services, 2018). However, in my personal experience as a police officer, I have seen the same person overdose on heroin three times in a two-week period and that individual was saved each time by paramedic administering naloxone HCI (NARCAN); therefore, the death totals due to overdose statistics provided are skewed by this lifesaving

In view of my honest admiration of the staff and the overall experience at the Reading Hospital Drug and Alcohol Center (DAC), I found it hard to find an example for this assignment. However, upon entering my internship, I was apprehensive about working with a certain staff member, who I know from when I was thirteen years old. It is safe to say that seeing this person does not evoke warm memories for me, and I fear that something unprofessional may occur on my part, such as an off-color remark. In fact, my strong feelings of repulsion of this person almost kept me from accepting the challenge of interning at this site despite the knowledge of it being an enormous opportunity for experience and learning.

I began working immediately out of High School because my parents gave me an ultimatum, “Either go to college, or get a job!” I married at the age of 21 and three years into my marriage, I lost my first born-she was 18 months old-in a car accident. Although I am a Christian, I struggled for a few years with alcohol. I thought that alcohol was helping me cope, but it was pulling me deeper into darkness. When I became a mother again, I struggled on and off with alcohol until one day my oldest daughter took care of me because of a hangover. She was only about 7 years old at the time. I couldn’t allow my daughters to struggle with the knowledge that their mother had a problem. I was raised in a home with an abusive and alcoholic parent.

Life seemed normal at first, I was a normal 14 year old boy in High School, but when I had my first sip of what seemed like the best thing in the world it was soon to be found out that i had an alcohol addiction that would then last for the rest of my schooling life. When me and my mates went to my brother's 18th birthday party everything went downhill we were slowly pushed into a circle and told to chug a fool 325mL of full strength beer from then on i was unstoppable i would then have another 5, 6 and lastly an eighth. When i leave the party someone shouts “have another one” but my mates held me back they knew something was wrong, my forehead was throbbing and an excruciating noise of a million drums rang in my head.Subsequently I hit the

Have you ever been in love with someone that was addicted to drugs? I have, and it is one of the worst things you can watch. Someone that used to be so bright and healthy, reduced to almost unrecognizable. My best friend in the entire world was the smartest person I knew, and he was on a fast track to a very bright future. Then he started messing with drugs and everything fell apart for him. I sat there, day after day, and watched him reduce himself to nothing. It was the most painful thing to watch, I couldn’t even recognize him anymore. I decided to take action when he overdosed one night and was hospitalized. I was eighteen at the time and I had just graduated and come back to my hometown for the summer. I jumped into action and I took

From a very early age, I was always an extremely curious and anxiety-ridden child. I had an extreme interest in anything that was outside the realm of mundane activities and the notions of everyday life. Unknowing at the time, this was setting me up for a very self-destructive path towards drug and alcohol abuse. It isn’t easy to reflect on why I sought comfort in drugs and alcohol from an early age, but it is necessary in order to remind myself why I am on the continuous path towards happiness and wellness without the need for any alternative substances. My inner desire to alter consciousness, my drug use as a passive activity, my extreme boredom, and my impulsivity were all factors that led to my drug and alcohol abuse which has been made