The Effects Of Substance Abuse On An Extended Family

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

One issue that has made me passionate about social work is substance abuse, an issue that has made a deep impact for communities everywhere. Not only does it affect the mental and physical health of the individual, but it also burdens the friends, family, and community as a whole. This concern is a personal interest because of my mother and grandfather’s past struggle with alcoholism, as well as because of a childhood friend who was killed by a drunk underage driver on her second offense. While my mother won her fight against her addiction during the time that she was in therapy for depression, I know the tragic effects of addiction firsthand from my grandfather’s death from the consequences of alcoholism and my friend’s death at the wheels of a drunk driver. I wish to address and understand this social issue in detail during and after graduate school.

It was never my intention to work with addicted clients, but nearly every family therapy course I have taken has, either overtly or covertly, stressed the need to understand addictions. While I understand the concept on a cognitive level, I had judgements about the type of people that become addicted and did not feel compelled to work with them, until my niece died. Her drug addiction deeply affected all members of her immediate family. Her parents and her step-dad, my brother, each reacted to my niece’s addiction in different ways but none were successful and the family began to fail under the stress.

In reading chapter one of the textbook “Substance Abuse and Family” I found a couple things that caught my attention and felt were important to know. The first being the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) I first heard about this manual in my Anthropology class two days ago when examining attributes that can lead to disorders such as non-attachments, interpersonal disorganization and mother and child strain. The textbook describes DSM as providing criteria for varies types of substance (mental health) issues, they are clustered by different symptoms that impact individual functioning. Another interesting piece of the chapter was the four species of alcoholism found in the disease model being one of the three primary models of addiction.

During our class of addiction we talk about the role that each person play in the family in regards to addiction. According to the chemically dependent family model we have C.P. person, Hero, Mascot, Enabler, Scape Goat and Lost Child Passive adult each of them has issues that they are struggling within themselves. When doing family therapy for family with alcohol addiction you will see and understand this model.

It was a calamitous knock, a knock that brought with it the worst of news that commenced a series of devastating events to follow for years to come. This knock arrived at our door at 5:00 a.m. one morning and it was my brother, Andrew. He refused to reveal the contents of his night, but in his insensible stupor he incessantly demanded for our help in finding his lost car, keys, phone, and wallet. After hours of much endeavor from each family member, Andrew’s car was discovered in a ditch with a blown out tire, his keys in another city miles away from the crash scene, and his wallet and phone were never recovered. My brother’s desperate knock and our cautious opening of the door revealed that Andrew’s misfortunes of that night had derived from the abuse of methamphetamine. This event remains in my mind as the initial incident that began our continuous familial struggle over the past five years.

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

Great job on the paper! The first connection I made between my population (the mentally disabled) and substance abusers is the role that family can potentially have. In some of the worst cases, a mentally disabled person or a person with a substance disorder may have no one to turn to but family. Both may rely on their family to provide for them as they struggle with their disability or addiction. Furthermore, both those with substance disorders and mental disabilities may have different social patterns than those who have neither. Just like y'all mentioned, a substance abuser may become withdrawn or only be able to hang out with other substance abusers and perhaps a few other close family members and friends,

Ever since I was a kid the topic of substance abuse has been very familiar to me. Growing up I have watched my aunt drink her life away and I have lost my uncle who was very close to me from an overdose. It has affected me in ways I never knew. Unknowingly I have grown up to completely despise all addictive substances. I find myself wishing I could do more for the people who abuse drugs and alcohol. I find myself thinking about what could have been if I was there for my uncle, even though I was so young. It’s sad to think of all the young and old lives lost due to substance abuse, it’s sad to think that maybe they thought they had no purpose in life. Lately there have been dozens of high schoolers in my area that have been found overdosed

Addiction is a condition that can affect many people other than just the user. Families, friends, and relationships can be lost because of addiction taking control of a victim’s life. Family is one of the most impacted by addiction. They will blame themselves and start to believe they are why the addict is using drugs. Many families isolate themselves to stop the fear of embarrassment of the rumors circulating about them, they might stop going to social gatherings or doing things they used to love. They will stop their lives in order to take care of the addict and fear that everyday might be the victims last. If an addict constantly lies to their family, they will lose trust over time and attempt to see lies in every situation and expect the

Around the world there are numerous types of addictions that every type of person suffers from, but there is only one type of addiction that I am interested in discussing today, alcoholism. I am sure that even if your life is not directly affected by the disease, you are at least a little familiar with the basics. In this paper I plan to give you a brief understanding of the three basic issues you should be informed upon so you can make better decisions involving alcohol in the future. First, I will discuss who is at the most risk of falling victim to alcoholism, second, I will discuss the symptoms of alcoholism, and finally I will discuss the impact alcoholism has on family, children, and the individuals suffering from alcoholism.

Visible symptoms of borderline sociopath include; physical aggression, the inability to sustain relationships and shows a lack of regret in his or her actions. Sometimes I truly hate myself for what I have done to my children and family and it is a constant struggle to stay focused on my recovery.

The main goal of substance abuse therapy is to center the therapy on the client’s specific needs to ensure that they stop abusing dangerous and harmful substances. Because this is the main goal, substance abuse therapy takes the perspective that any individual is capable of getting better. It also takes the stance that the individual needs to take steps on their own to make themselves better. The client has to want to get better before the therapy can actually start to work (Koehn & Cutcliffe, 2012).

I am Mrs. Sherri Colvin Edwards I have been in the field of Substance Abuse for more than 22 years. I am License Chemical Dependence Counselor (LCDC). I have a Bachelor of Sciences in Human Services that I receive in 2014 from Springfield College. I am currently working on my Master of Sciences schedule to be completed in August 2016 from Springfield College my concentration is Mental Health Counseling. My passion has always been working with adolescents and their family and the community at large. Substance abuse effects the entire family and can cause on the family to have broken relationships.

I am writing to you about my concern of teen alcoholism. Alcoholism is a disease of the family, if only one family member has a drinking problem it still affects the rest of the family. Many relationships have ended because of the husband’s or wife's drinking problem. Families play a big role in recovering from alcoholism, if the family helps a lot it increases the better chances of recovering alcoholism.