Teen Drugs / Alcohol Abuse

COMMUNITY – there are numerous of problems to faced in a community. Like poverty, violence and crime, and low income and inability to ensure basic goods and services, and discrimination.

Drug and alcohol addiction is a chronic disease in the brain. It's a common relapsing brain disease that causes drug/alcohol seeking and use. This addiction can lead to health problems and can affect your safety, and your future. This has been known as a big problem for teens, buh they are offered little help due to the environment they are in or hiding their addiction from their loved ones. As a conclusion, there are many reasons why teens use drugs but their are also many ways to help them stop.

As a counselor in training and an advocate for individuals’ mental health and wellness, I chose to become an official member of the American Counseling Association (ACA) and create an advocacy project to enhance adolescent mental health and wellness by advocating for more available protective factor to reduce substance use and abuse among this population. The purpose of this paper/project is to address and improve the rate of substance use and abuse among adolescents in Pitt County, more specifically in Greenville, North Carolina. This paper goes into great detail of the description of the population (adolescents), providing statistical evidence of adolescents’ use of drugs in Greenville. An increase in youth involved community activities, community service work and parental involvement will be discussed as ways to create a healthy, anti-drug, and stable environment for adolescents in Greenville, North Carolina.

Community is the difference between being and belonging. It is just too easy to just be a part of a group, but to feel like you belong to the group is far more meaningful. You can go to the meetings and know everyone’s names but none of that means anything if you don’t feel that you are a significant component in a group. To be a part of a community means that you are a part of group where inclusion, support and friendship are highly-regarded. The beauty about community is that everyone has their own gifts, talents, opinions and experiences to offer to it, therefore making each member valuable. As a Resident Assistant, I intend to create an inclusive community in which each person is accepted and encouraged regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual-orientation or ability. By promoting diversity in my community, I hope that everyone gains a sense of belonging. In my community, I will have an open mind and tolerant attitude and will encourage my residents to do the same. Because understanding that no two residents are the same, I will conduct myself through equity. I will try to learn about my residents individually so if

According to current statistics released by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, “In the United States in 2011, there were an estimated 25.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17. In the past year, more than one quarter of adolescents drank alcohol, approximately one fifth used an illicit drug, and almost one eighth smoked cigarettes” ("A Day in the Life of American Adolescents," 2013, para. 1). Substance abuse is major problem amongst adolescents. Some are experimenting, but some adolescents may become dependent on a particular substance. If one becomes dependent on a substance as an adolescent it could be detrimental to their future health and success as an adult. Spear (2003) stated in an article titled Alcohol’s

From a young age, I have been fascinated and drawn to camaraderie. I believe much can be gained from a community environment, not only from teamwork and a feeling of togetherness, but opportunities it provides to aid others.

In my hometown, I have noticed an abundance of drug use. Many teens get peer pressured into doing drugs by their friends. They tell it’s cool, and how it can easily clear your mind. Also on TV they act like are fine. But what they don’t tell you is how it can totally ruin your life. You can become addicted and get into a lot of trouble. After recent research, I conclude that teens using drugs are a major problem in Piedmont and nationwide.

Substances abuse on today’s teens has become one of the main problems in the United State Society. Even though the Juvenile Department Center has create different programs and campaigns to help lower the rate of juveniles abusing substances, it seems hopeless. Now, this problem has directly affected Jane, who’s her son (which is a teen) has become involved with abusing three different substances. To be specific, Jane’s son has been abusing Percocet’s, Alcohol, and Marijuana. Jane has ask this author to provide her with facts in order to help her comprehend and help his son with the problem he has got himself into. Therefore, this paper will explain three things: explain the effects these three substances (Percocet’s, alcohol, marijuana) have on her sons, explain which drugs are addictive and what this means for treatment, and offer her the best treatment option/s for her son.

Ohmer, M. L., & DeMasi, K. (2009). Consensus organizing: A community development workbook: A comprehensive guide to designing, implementing, and evaluating community change initiatives. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc. doi:

Being an adolescent myself and having a first hand perspective on adolescent substance abuse, I feel that I have a certain perspective on the substance abuse and misconduct issues that others may not. An old friend of mine went through these issues, with continuous and serious substance abuse along with conduct problems. Personally, I believe that there is a serious lack of justification to begin abusing substances, however, I understand that there are many factors that are involved when developing an SUD. In this day and age there is so much information surrounding substances at one’s fingertips, the consequences are clearly outlined in numerous online websites, and television ads, making most people very aware. I do consider the backgrounds

Bill Lee identifies community as “a complex notion of the way people live and connect with each other” (Lee, B., 2011, p.20), and defines “community organization as a social intervention which seeks to maximize the ability of oppressed or disadvantaged people to take action and influence their environment: .....”(Lee B., 2011, p.100). Lee also suggests that a pragmatic community organizing should have specific objectives that include community participation, sense of community, social production (Gamble, N. D. & Weil, M., 2009, p.123), proper use of appropriate resources, and social learning in order to achieve community goal focusing upon citizen empowerment (Lee, B., 2011, p. 94).

The definition of a community is a group of people who live in the same place and have similarities. The success of a community is the responsibility of every individual in it. What you invest and what personal interest you put aside for the community will determine its success. Many people don't help their community because it infringes with their own personal interests or well being, which sadly is the case with most communities, be that the USA, Decatur Il, or Meadowlark.

I chose an article from the Chamberlain Library entitled Teens and alcohol abuse. This article coincides with my previous discussion topic college students and underage drinking. This article outlines the statistics for alcohol use and abuse among teenagers and young adults. It defines alcohol abuse as “a pattern of heavy drinking that significantly compromises a person’s physical health and social functioning” (Sherwood, 2015). It is estimated that 855,000 Americans ages twelve to seventeen fit the diagnosis of alcohol use disorder in 2012 (NIAAA, 2012). It goes on to say 35% of American teens have had at least one alcoholic drink by age 15 and 65% begin drinking by age 18.

While it is difficult to define what constitutes a successful community, many of these share a variety of common characteristics. Successful communities strive to capitalize on the unique history, natural surroundings, architecture, and locally owned businesses found in their area to bring economic success to their citizens. In order to achieve this, a successful community must work to organize their members and to maximize community engagement to plan for the future (McMahon, 2013).

Substance abuse among adolescents and youth has been a concerning issue for society for a long time. Abusing substances at an early age can alter brain functioning in areas essential for motivation, memory, learning, judgment, and behavior control. Therefore, it should not be of surprise that teens abusing alcohol and other drugs often have family and social problems, poor academic performance, health-related problems, mental health problems, and involvement with the juvenile justice system (Fowler, Volkow, Kassed, & Chang, 2007). However, a recent study done by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the University of Michigan, Institute of Social Research (2014) has shed a promising light onto the trend of substance use in youth populations. Together, NIDA and the University of Michigan conducted the 2014 Monitoring the Future (MFT) survey, which included 41,551 students from 377 public and private schools across the United States of America. The MFT survey focused on identifying trends in drug use and attitudes towards drug use among American 8th, 10th, and 12th graders. Participants were asked to report their drug use behaviors across three time spans: lifetime, past year, and the past month. The results from the survey presented enlightening news about current and recent drug use among youth and adolescents in high schools across the country. The findings show a decreasing use of alcohol, cigarettes, and prescription pain relievers, inhalants, and synthetic