The Effects Of Drug Abuse On Family

Gruber, K.J., & Taylor M.F. (2006). A family perspective for substance abuse: Implications from the literature. Journal of Social

Growing up in the household under substances influence can cause severe damage to the child. Parental substance abuse has a significant impact on family function, and it may also contribute to child maltreatment. It heightens the risks to both of the physical and emotional safety of the children, and it generates children’s problematic outcomes. Children who grow up in such families may also experience mental health issues, social isolation, financial difficulties, and exposure to stressful life events and so on.

Drug and chemical abuse affect many families and that particular family that lives through a loved one who is an addict and the priority is to get help for the individual. In any intervention that involves drug addicts, a family's disposition is very important. Full recovery of any drug addict involves the restoration of the person's life as well as ensuring that those who are around the addict have the best ability when it comes to helping with abstinence which is a long-term goal. Abusers are often in denial or even believe that they are totally in control of their use of drugs

Substance abuse is a very widely known public epidemic in today's society. Many people are unfortunately plagued by this issue. According to Emedicinehealth.com (2012), “People abuse substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs for varied and complicated reasons, but it is clear that our society pays a significant cost,” (para. 1). People that are affected by substance abuse includes a very different range of people. Many that abuse the substances end up having health-related problems which in turn increases the need for health care. Other people that are affected by substance abuse are the family members and friends of the abusers because they have to deal with the person abusing the substances. Things that can be abused are

Substance abuse is an issue that continues to grow in America at an alarming rate. Families are an important factor for the onset of substance abuse as well as the sustainment of the addiction (Gruber & Taylor, 2006). The National Institute of Drug Abuse defines substance abuse as “A chronic disease characterized by drug seeking and use that is compulsive, or difficult to control, despite harmful consequences” (“Understanding Drug Use and Addiction,” 2016). In order to prevent relapse, success is found in the formation of familial and social relationships (Baharudin et al., 2014). Substance abuse is a major stressor in the family system and it not only impacts the family’s relationships with those outside of the family but

Although all sorts of families can be devastated by addiction, but single parent units (the most common lower class structure) are the most obscured. Behavioral Health of the Palm Beaches supports, “In every family unit, each person plays a role (or multiple roles) to help the family function better and to maintain a level of homeostasis, stability and balance. When substance abuse is added to this dynamic, the family roles naturally shift to adjust to the new behaviors associated with drug or alcohol use, and to continue maintaining order and balance.”4 In single parent units there is an inability of a second parent to fill the void role of the addicted parent. The National Center for Biotechnology Information states, “Frequently, children may act as surrogate spouses for the parent who abuses substances. For example, [young] children may develop elaborate systems of denial to protect themselves against that reality of the parent’s addiction. Because that option does not exist in a single‐parent household with a parent who abuses substances, children are likely to behave in a manner that is not age‐appropriate to compensate for the parental deficiency.”2 So a child growing up in a compromised family unit where addiction is present may develop altered norms and mature into an addict themselves.4

Drug addiction puts a lot of stress on other family members because the addict cannot be trusted and will do anything they can to get drugs (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2017). Drug use around children is a risk for child abuse and neglect (Taylor, Coall, Marquis & Batten, 2016). Many times, parents that have drug addictions cannot adequately care for their young, and this burden is usually left to the grandparents to raise their own grandchildren (Taylor, Coall, Marquis & Batten, 2016). In regards to the financial cost of this epidemic, results found including rates of emergency room visits and substance abuse treatment admissions cost the American people $72.5 billion dollars in 2007 (Volkow, 2014). In 2016, the cost has risen to 78.5 billion dollars (HealthDay, 2017).

The crippling effects of alcoholism and drug dependency are not confined to the addict alone. The family suffers,

Drug abuse is thought to be a multidetermined, maladaptive way of coping with life problems that often become habitual and leads to a progressive deterioration in life circumstances. Drug abuse is a disease in its own way. It’s damaging, mentally, physically and emotionally with each party involved. When it comes to each party involved that also means family members as well. Youth will find a way to but some sort of blame of the family for their drug addiction. Family members can be a crucial part or a great aspect of the therapy depending the situation or how important that family member plays a role in their life. Family plays an important role in our emotional development since each individual in the family system impacts and its impacted by the others. Its design to address issues that affect the health of family and the addict’s life transition or mental health conditions.

In life things do not always go as planned, sometimes we make some tough choices, which may cause burdens to the ones that love us the most our family (Intervention Videos, 2012). I will be conducting a family analysis on twenty- one-year-old Kaylene from Bernardsville, North Carolina (Intervention Videos, 2012). Kaylene has been battling her drug addiction since the age of thirteen where she started using cocaine and marijuana (Intervention Videos, 2012). For five years now she has been addicted to prescription drugs and she also sells them for money. It all began in Kaylene’s childhood she was abused as a child for some of the simplest things by her estranged father who was an alcoholic at

In reading chapters four and five of the textbook “Substance Abuse and the Family” I found a couple of things that caught my interest. In chapter four, the middle phrase of an alcoholic family is discussed on page 58, regulatory behaviors of the family enabling whatever use of alcohol is occurring hiding and maintaining for others not to see the alcoholism. The children are usually pressured not to talk about the situation at school, work, etc. I have seen parents threaten their children if they were to tell, saying things like “ if you tell they will take us away from you forever and it will be your fault” or “ if you tell punishment will be sure to follow”. Therefore, the family must endure the negative impacts of an alcoholic parent falling

Along with illegal behavior often a substance abuser will find themselves as homeless, spending their paychecks on their habits of using substances (Tracy, 2005). Children of abusers are affected by both possessing negative role models that set the example that drug use is not wrong and sometimes the children are placed into the care of the community because of neglect and abuse by the substance user (National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Division of Adolescent and School Health [CDC], 2009). Other medical, social, and economic issues also are being experienced from substance abuse and use.

Drugs and alcohol have been used for medical and recreational purposes throughout history. With advancement of technology it has become easier and easier to access these substances. It is not only illegal drugs but prescription drugs that are being misused and wreaking havoc across the world. Even with billions of dollars being paid out to stop the war on drugs, the problem persists. People from all walks of life have been affected by drugs or are becoming drug addicts themselves. One particular group afflicted by the misuse of these substances is the children of drug addicted parents. According to Cattapan and Grimwade, “Drug use seen in one generation affects the lives of the next”. Children with one or both parents on drugs face huge

Drug addiction is a serious issue in not only America today, but globally. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, substance addiction is a “chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, despite the harmful consequences” (“What is drug addiction?”). Drug abuse affects not only the user, but those around the user as well. The actions of a drug user place a significant amount of worry on the people that are closest to them such as friends and family. Children with parents who are addicted to drugs or alcohol can be severely affected by the actions of their parents which can cause them much harm in terms of biological and

Sometimes that I learned about the article was, that some drug addict can be very harmful to children. Some kids are even scared to be around their own parents because of their drug addiction. It also talks about how kids are even afraid that their own schoolmates find out that their parents are drug addicts. Also, many drug addiction care about their families, but need or have the urge to feed their addiction so it seems that they don’t care but in reality they do. " Substance misuse may be one of a series of inter-related factors within a family, such as poverty or depression, so that disentangling exactly what causes poor outcomes for the child can be difficult,"(Hart 9 ). In other words, children do not really understand why their