Substance Abuse: Article Analysis

In the story of “Old Doc Rivers,” readers learn Doctor Rivers, an alcoholic who is surprisingly able to do his job in impeccable fashion. Physicians require a tremendous amount of coordination and attention, thus seeing a physician that is consistently intoxicated is concerning. Like Morphine, Dr. Rivers appears to use the alcohol as a coping mechanism, thus generally improving his work. Physicians are not exempt from suffering from illness and addictions. Dr. Rivers, “always had a jug of it behind his desk,” an indication of his embrace of addiction. Though dangerous, Dr. Rivers generally does a satisfactory job, leaving his patients with no reason to complain about his addiction. Do physicians that suffer from deadly addictions have to be barred from practicing? Dr. Rivers brings this debate to light. Physicians should be able to practice as long as they are not harming their patients. Though physicians do have a high responsibility in their career, they cannot be treated as outcasts for dealing with problems other people face on a regular basis. Physicians deal with human problems and patients must be aware of that. The social pressures put on Dr. Rivers to address his addiction ultimately led to his decline as a physician. He was a mediocre physician while sober, but a great physician while under the influence of his alcohol or dope. As Dr. Rivers comes to terms with his addiction, he starts messing up more, indicative of the mental battles some physicians face. He epitomized the saying, “doctors make the worst patients,” creating a dangerous situation for himself as he began to decline further into his addiction

The second scenario, during these 6 week of reading at the end of every story, page, and chapter a person with substance abuse felt alone, confuse, and lost, until they decided to reach out for help or depend on something other than themselves. While making the comparison a lot of individual experience loneliness, temptation, loss their way or direction, hunted by fear and emotional turmoil daily even without having a substance abuse or in the wild. In this sense counselors uses techniques, guidance, spirituality to prepare the individuals to find their own way since every one practice may be different than others an there are non-believers. Therefore, coping respectfully in my eye’s is preparing them for the up and down they may encounter

Some of the current changes that can be seen in regards to prescription privileges include changes in the ways that physicians and mental health professionals are able to prescribe medications to their patients. According to Brenda Smith of the APA (2012), currently patients receive their medications for psychological conditions by a physician usually without having been evaluated by a mental health practitioner according to the CDC. The trend includes individuals to visit their general health practitioners in order to receive psychotropic medications such as antidepressants and anxiolytics. The problem with individuals receiving these medications from other sources include: deterrence

I started talking to him about how the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous started to stay sober only by chatting with each other. I reminded him of the “Big Book” of AA. I reminded him of a passage in the Big Book, of Alcoholics Anonymous; But the ex-problem drinker who has found this solution, who is properly armed with facts about himself, can generally win the entire confidence of another alcoholic in a few hours. Until such and understanding is reached, little or nothing can be accomplished. (Pg. 18)

There have been people who do not consider prescription drugs to be dangerous. In, The Ongoing Opioid Prescription Epidemic: Historical Context, it tells that Kathleen Foley at Memorial-Sloan Cancer Center published two highly influential articles reporting addiction to be rare among inpatients (Meldrum, 2016). The implied message is that there is no risk. This may be possible in some instances because, no two people are the same. The appeal being used is that long-term opioids were potentially safe, because patients could be trusted to manage their

Through my observations of the Narcotics Anonymous meeting I believe that my analysis could be beneficial to the realm of medicine. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2014) released a study that displayed, “health care providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers in 2012, enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.” Considering the mass amount of prescriptions being written nationwide, it is not surprising that one of the members in the NA meeting I attended was able to easily obtain painkillers from her doctor. The specific interaction I encountered during the Narcotics Anonymous meeting where the woman described that her addiction was being supported by the constant prescriptions written by her doctor

According to the Department of Health and Human services, over 650,000 opioid prescriptions are dispensed in one day. This translates to around 230 million prescriptions each year. This amount just barely falls short of being high enough to give every adult in the United States their own bottle of opioid pills. The loose prescribing habits of medical professionals are to blame for these absurdly high numbers. Current doctors will prescribe an opiate-based painkiller for anything from a backache, toothache, to even headaches. To give patients “highly addictive” drugs for low scale chronic pain over the three-days recommended max incurs high risk for tolerance, dependence, and potential addiction to opioids. Some would argue that doctors are simply doing their job by solving their patient’s pain problem and that people should not intrude upon a medical professional’s expertise. However, while doctors should be unbiased pillars of medical advice and treatment, they should also take into account the risks involved with their treatment for their patient’s sake. Particularly for opioid prescriptions, doctors should have to abide by dosing criteria, receive guidance on when to seek consultation, and know how to use their state’s prescription drug monitoring program (Alexander et al., 2015). According to Alexander et al., (2015) Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) are underutilized by 81% of all prescribers.

Macbeth drives himself mad with ambition and fear, at first not seeming to be a man who is able to kill ruthlessly. But, due to Macbeth's overrun consciousness, he changed into a remorseless, bloodthirsty tyrant, unable to be stopped. Shakespeare's "Macbeth" focuses upon the disastrous consequences of a man's unchecked ego, power, and guilt-driven paranoia. Shakespeare criticizes the horrible nature and cruelty of man through Macbeth, through his bloodlust and ego. Initially Macbeth has a deep desire for power but he has never considered to act upon it, not until he receives a prophecy that he will be King.

In 2015 more than 33,000 people were killed due to the current opioid epidemic. This was the first time in history where heroin deaths exceeded deaths caused by gun violence. Some may ask why opioid addiction is so common and that is because most doctors, dentists, and surgeons prescribe opioids as if it's candy, post surgery. Most of these professionals don't take into consideration that such medication can cause addiction after multiple uses. A reason for that can be is prescribing such pills can benefit the doctor financially just as much as the patient psychically. Many pharmaceutical companies hand out a lot of freebies such as free sample medication, free food, free pens and office equipment to doctors in order to bride them over. In addition, many of these physicians over look patient's history's, and some cases like smoking many of these positions may even overload patient history that may show any prior drug abuse issues within their family history or personal use. This may even show if the patient

I can’t count the number of prescriptions I get from the same doctor for the same medication same quantity on a daily basis. I feel that some doctors are simply writing scripts to make the patient happy when in reality their feeding the addiction. I have seen patients jump form pharmacy to pharmacy in order to fill multiple scripts for the same medication on the same day. There is a system that collects and keeps track of the what types of controlled and narcotic medications people received, however the system takes days to update, so it almost impossible to know right away when the last time a patient received a particular opioid medication. Another issue that I believe is feeding the addiction for drugs abusers is the sale of needles. Depending on the state, people who do not have a prescription for needles or a medication that requires the use of needles, can simply walk into a pharmacy and buy a box of needles. Anyone with commons sense would see that if you don’t have a prescription that requires needles your most likely using it for illegal reasons. Pharmacy regulations make it to easy for people to get what they need in order to “get

The American society has taken many steps in the positive direction to ease the pressure on local law enforcement by limiting the amount of opiates doctors prescribe to patients through a system called the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). PDMPs allow doctors universal access to patients drug prescription history to make informed decisions on their prescription habits. However, this system only works if the doctors use the system before writing a prescription. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, “Prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) continue to be among the most promising state-level interventions to improve opioid prescribing, inform clinical practice, and protect patients at risk.” When doctors

Substance abuse disorders are common in our society. It is a disorder that each one of us will most likely experience through a family member, friend, or our self. I felt very drawn to this topic due to the fact that I have a family that has background of substance abuse and I myself have battle the demon. Not until I struggled with my own addiction did I become more tolerable and understanding to those that have a substance abuse disorder. Substance abuse is not something anyone wants to have; it is a disorder that takes control of a person’s life. It is a beast that tears a person apart; from their being to the lives of their loved ones. This disorder is not biased in anyway; rich or poor, male or female, employed or unemployed, young or

There are three reasons why Costa Rica is the most beautiful ever found. This tiny green 51.100 km2 piece of land is the house of imposing volcanoes, amazing beaches, and a refuge for birds. Across the country, Costa Rica has five active volcanoes, it has more than one hundred fifty beaches, and more than nine hundred species of birds. The twenty five percent of Costa Rica are protected areas, this allows visitors to have a better experience in contact with nature. The following paragraphs are a compilation of relevant aspects about the volcanoes, beaches, and birds of Costa Rica.

As technology continues to evolve educators, continue to find ways to incorporate new technology in to classrooms. This drive to innovate is a great thing as it has been shown repeatedly that technology can improve grades, student engagement and increased creativity. However, in all their excitement to push new ideas and devices into schools many over look the basic problems these devices introduce when thrown into the classroom. Regardless of how well a school prepares there will always be two problems present when technology is introduced into the classroom, distraction and cheating. This essay attempts to explain why these problems are counterproductive to the learning process and offer solutions proposed by researchers in the field.

The negative outcomes of medication misuse influence people who ill-use medicates as well as their families and companions, different organizations, and government assets (Akindipe, Abiodun, Adebajo, Lawal, & Rataemane, 2014). Albeit huge numbers of these impacts can 't be evaluated, “Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) as of late in 2002 reported that, the monetary expense of drug abuse within the United States was $180.9 billion” (Akindipe et al., 2014, Pg 250 Para 10). The