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Substance Abuse And Smoking, And How It Affects Family Relationships

Decent Essays
The topic that will be discussed in the following paper will focus on the issues of addiction; in specific, substance abuse and smoking, and how it affects family relationships. Living with someone who struggles with substance abuse is a very difficult battle amongst many families worldwide. When we were brought into this world, we were not born with a set of values and expectations, but rather, that is something that we learnt over our years of development. Primarily, we spend most of our time with our families, who are the ones that influence our values and expectations for ourselves the most. During our child and youth years, we are very impressionable, where we spend most, if not all our time with our family members. We adapt to these rules by watching and observing everything they do, and learn what is right and what is wrong. If our parents are religious, we grow up and take on those beliefs. If our parents smoke, drink, and do drugs, that can become something a child adapts to as well. The nature vs. nurture debate can relate to this issue, as what molds our behaviors more? Our genes and genetics, or environmental impacts? In a lot of cases, the interactions and experiences we have in our environments have a very large impact on ourselves and individuals, but also, our genes, mental health, family and social environment all play a role in addiction too (Saisan, Smith, Robinson, 2015). Substance and drug abuse is something that affects a family both short term and long
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