Substance Abuse In Young Adulthood

"Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect for Adult Survivors." Child Family Community Australia. N.p., Feb. 2017. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

Child abuse and neglect is a big problem in the United States. Child abuse is sexual, physical, emotional, and even verbal maltreatment towards the children. When food, clothing, and shelter is not provided this is termed neglect. Many children in the United States are abused and neglected by parents, grandparents, guardians, and friends of the family. Many children suffer abuse such as beating, starved,

“’ Were seeing kids coming in with blood alcohol see levels in the mid-.3s, even .4, which four to five times the legal limit for driving. That’s the level at which 50% of people die,”’ says Dr. Mary Claire O’ Brien, an emergency medicine physician and associate professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Underage drinking has become an issue in young teens. Teens are drinking large amounts of alcohol in short periods of time. The effects of alcohol in adolescents are much more life threating then an adult. In the article “The Underage Drinking “, Emily Listfield acknowledges that binge drinking is common in adolescents, it causes long term effects, physical injury and death.

The National Children 's Alliance reported that the number of unique cases of abused and neglected children in the United States stands at an annual rate of 700,000 and rising (as cited in ?U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,? 2016, p. ii). Sadly, this means that more than 1,900 new children become victims of abuse and neglect with each passing day. Neglect was the type of

As a result of the drinking age at twenty-one, many teenagers binge drink in dangerous and unsupervised places. According to the NIAAA, almost 28 percent of eighteen to twenty-four year olds binge drink at least once a month. Binge drinking is a type of heavy episodic drinking with the primary intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time. Binge drinking is also associated with an increased risk of unplanned ad unprotected sex, unplanned pregnancies, and an increased risk of HIV infection. Many proponents of lowering the drinking age believe that “with higher alcohol age limits, young people in the United States find it harder to get alcohol and so binge-drink whey they do” (Debatepedia) As mentioned before, binge drinking can lead to alcohol poisoning which can have traumatic consequences. According to the CDC, Each year, excessive drinking and binge drinking cause 80,000 deaths across the country. Furthermore, binge drinking and any other kind of drinking “may have lasting harmful consequences, including greater risk for the development of alcohol dependence” (ICAP)

and delinquent behaviour (Jones and Donovan 2001). Among young people aged 16 to 24 years, alcohol related harm is one of the leading causes of disease and

Child Maltreatment continues to be a pressing issue throughout the United States. Over the years many children are victims of some type of maltreatment which in some cases can lead to fatalities. Maltreatment can have a negative impact on children and can leave numerous physical and psychological scars affecting the child’s adjustment not only at the time of abuse, but also into their young

Youth is the time of life when one is young, but often means the time between childhood and adulthood. The amount of youth that consume alcohol in dangerous amounts is alarming. In a 2013 study, it was shown that 18.2% of people 14 and older drank excessive amounts of alcohol that exceeded the national recommended alcohol serving and 26% of those people drank excessive amounts of alcohol at least once a month (NHMRC, 2015) . Binge drinking can be defined as ‘the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time.’ Binge drinking is a large social issue (GreenFacts, 2016) that affects not only the individual but the community and can have negative effects on mental health, physical health, emotional health and social health. Binge drinking increases the risk of many health issues such as: road accidents, domestic abuse, crime, disease, public violence and can contribute to social dysfunction and relationship issues (Drinkwise Australia, 2016). The Centre for Disease Control (CDC) released a report that stated that one in five high school girls engage in binge drinking. There are many factors that could contribute to adolescent binge drinking such as peer pressure, family attitudes, social status and the culture surrounding alcohol. There are many risks involved with binge drinking (details in appendix 1). One problem associated with binge drinking is physical violence that occurs when under the influence of alcohol and around 40% of all

The levels of substance abuse among older adults can be conceptually define as individuals, between the ages of 50 and older, excessive misuse of a drug. The abuse of alcohol and other drugs in the older adult population, which includes the aging “baby boomers,” is escalating (Ligon, 2013). The use of drugs can result in medical and psychiatric diseases influenced by lifestyle choices and behaviors (Blow & Barry, 2014, p. 53). The abuse of medications are common among older adults because they have more chronic medical illnesses and are prescribed more medications. However, according to the National Survey on Drug use and Health (as cited in Blow & Barry, 2014), 1.8 percent of adults ages 50 and older used illicit drugs.

Alcohol use is one of the largest categories for substance abuse problems in older adults. Alcohol consumption is related to high morbidity and mortality in middle-aged adults. If heavy drinking habits do not change, problems can persist or worsen in older adulthood. Increased long-term harm of older adults to the effects of alcohol increases with loneliness and with the combination of other drugs. The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) recommends that alcohol consumption for adults age 65 and older be limited to 1 standard drink per day. NIAAA also recommends no more than 3 drinks in one occasion. 19% of late middle-aged persons are “at risk” drinkers. The tool used for this study was the Short Michigan Alcoholism

Alcohol use disorder (AUD), otherwise known as alcoholism, is the continual use of alcohol that eventually leads to becoming both physically and psychologically dependent. It is a chronic brain disease that occurs due to a combination of genetic and environmental factors (Delis et al., 2013). It has been proven that early exposure to alcohol increases the risk of alcohol dependence: those who started drinking before the age of fifteen are 1.4 times more likely to become dependent on alcohol than their counterparts who began drinking at a later age (Dawson, Goldstein, Chou, Ruan, & Grant, 2008). Exposure to alcoholics in the family also contributes to the likelihood of being dependent on alcohol. Nearly 1 in 4 adolescents are exposed

Alcohol in the United States is a widely used and a socially acceptable substance for adults of legal drinking age. According to SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use, more than half of Americans ages 12 and older have used alcohol within the past month. The focus of this paper is on the portion of Americans who are not allowed to legally purchase or consume alcohol, but still count as alcohol users. This portion of Americans is referred to as youth. Their age range is defined by SAMHSA as being between the ages 12-20. This age range is also known as “underage” or under the age in which one can consume or purchase alcohol legally. We will examine how use of alcohol within these ages can potentially increase the risk of developing alcohol use disorders and other adverse health effects and behaviors which can carry into adulthood while also acknowledging prevention methods and treatment for alcohol use in youth.

Investigators substantiated abuse or neglect for nearly 1 million of the children reported. Among substantiated cases, 56 percent involved physical or emotional neglect, 25 percent involved physical abuse, 13 percent involved sexual abuse, 6 percent involved emotional abuse, and 13 percent involved other abuse, such as educational neglect or abandonment. Some children experienced multiple forms of abuse.

Almost 40% of underage girls in a recent study reported having an alcoholic beverage, and “older age, poorer academic performance, greater levels of depression, higher perceived peer alcohol use, and higher levels of maternal drinking were observed in the group of girls who ever drank and drank recently” (Fang, Schinke, & Cole, 2009, p. 710). Not surprisingly, the same study also found that girls who were less depressed and happier with their appearance were less likely to drink. In addition, boys who drink lose some of their attention spans, and girls lose some of their visuospatial functioning (Squeglia, Spadoni, Infante, Myers, & Tapert, 2009). Binge drinking among adolescents (also commonly called risky single-occasion drinking and heavy episodic drinking- that is, having at least five drinks during one occasion) has been shown to be associated with a variety of adverse consequences, such as low life satisfaction, depressive mood, poor academic performance, accidents and injuries, bullying and fights, and unprotected sexual intercourse. For this reason, there have been multiple prevention programs that are homogenously geared towards everybody, and thus loses individuality (Kuntsche, Knibbe, Engels, & Gmel, 2010). However, these prevention programs have proven somewhat effective in the United States- adolescent students in the state of Washington are less than half as likely to drink as those in Victoria, Australia (Toumbourou, Hemphill, McMorris, Catalano, &

Teenage binge drinking (consumption of five or more alcohol drinks in a row) has grown to be a serious problem in the United States. A report in 2009 from the Surgeon General’s office show alcohol consumption by teens start as early as 11 years of age for boys and 13 years of age for girls (Grant & Dawson, 1997). In the youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Report (2007), data results showed that over three million teenagers in grades 6 through 12 are alcoholics, and several million teens have serious health issues due to drinking. Further research conducted by the Harvard School of Public health (2006) show a direct correlation of automobile accidents, alcohol poisoning, poor academic performance. violence and