The Impact Of Substance Abuse On Mental Health

A difficult challenge to the juvenile justice system and child welfare system is working with adolescents with comorbid difficulties, causing these adolescents to becoming at risk for incarceration and involvement with the juvenile and adult justice system. The juvenile justice system appears to be having a challenging time in determining how to respond and treat adolescents with mental health and substance use. "Many

 A person in an impoverished situation may abuse drugs or alcohol as a way to cope with the dangerous environment he or she may live in, a way to deal with her financial stresses or a way to cope with physical or emotional abuse. Many times,

According to the Diagnostic Statistic Manual 5 (DSM-5) substance use disorder is when the individual has a dependency on alcohol or drug, followed by penetrating craving and antisocial behavior to acquire the substance. The terms substance abuse and substance dependence refer to substance use disorder, which has been separated into three classifications as follows

There is no doubt that there is a prevalence of substance abuse throughout several age groups. To a certain extent, a society is faced with the reality of controlling substance abuse. Or allow it run rampant throughout the community. Often times, we hear and read about the level of substance abuse among teen, young adults and mid-aged

Drug dependence is a health disorder that arises with exposure to drugs, as well pre-existing psychological vulnerabilities. Many people with a drug dependence have gone through an emotional trauma at some point in their lives. In many cases, drug use is a ‘side effect’ of a bigger emotional problem going on in their lives. Incarceration of these individuals would be

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.

The definition provided above is accessible and easy to understand; however, it initiates false beliefs among individuals because it fails to acknowledge that drug addiction is a mental health problem. Moreover, when words such as, “dependence”, “control” and “craving” are used to define drug addiction, it leaves an impression to the reader that addicts are indeed “people who cannot control their impulses.” Consequently, when we fail to recognize that drug addiction is a mental health problem, our focus is diverted towards the physical aspect of drug addiction. This could cause the belief among individuals that drugs alone cause the addiction. It is essential to acknowledge that there are chemical hooks in drugs; however, individuals need to understand that drugs alone do not cause the addiction. We need to identify and distinguish the “root cause” of addiction and ask ourselves: what caused the individual to take the drug in the first place?

There are numerous reasons, yet too many to discuss in this essay, but for the sack of the reader only a few will be mentioned. One is the medical profession; drug addicts don’t realize the damage done to their brains with long term use and the way it alters brain functionality which brings mental illness into the equation. (qtd The Real Drug Abusers). (136). The turn in research processes has now brought forth the claims that drug addiction is a disease. Drug abuse and mental illness are now on the same plane. More research is needed to make the connection more apparent. Second, Stigma is another reason for lack of rehabilitation patients. Those individuals that believe a drug addict is this way because of choice, make an addict feel unworthy. They feel rejected by their family and loved ones and it keeps them from coming close in order to try and get help. Shame, disgrace, dishonor, and humiliation, leaves them in a state of nowhere to go. The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse: CASA) reported out a third reason and a crucial one, why addicts don’t get treatment; and it

Substance abuse is the harmful or dangerous use of any psychoactive substances including drugs, alcohol and even tobacco. The term ‘Substance Abuse’, as understood today was first used in 1987’s DSM-IIIR, before that social & cultural factors were not considered. Even with that change, many Americans still today consider drug and alcohol abuse to be moral weakness or character defect.

Substance abuse disorders is easily defined when an “individual continues to use the substance despite experiencing negative consequences from their use. These negative consequences can include health problems; difficulties in their family, work, and social life; and financial and legal problems. They are said to be dependent on the substance when,” in addition to theses negative consequences, they build tolerance and experience withdrawal if they stop using the drug” (Martin, 2007, p. 265). Substance abuse dates back to the early Americans colonies with beer that was brought over by the pilgrims and more popularly the ratification of the Constitution to prohibit the use of alcohol

Many sociological studies fail to provide an accurate picture of substance abuse in a society for a number of reasons. In treatment or survey interviews, substance abusing individuals frequently misrepresent or misreport their frequency of use. Those living in poverty are often more transient in their housing than those of middle and upper classes and may, therefore, be excluded from many types of household surveys. Often, statistical information is gathered from treatment facilities; however facilities do not all report into a national database and a large number of addicts never seek services. One final problem with the validity of studies involving substance abuse and poverty is the isolation, in many studies, of one or more drugs. Many researchers have focused on drugs, such as crack-cocaine or heroin and not marijuana or powder cocaine (Jacobson and Ensminger, 2011). While it is difficult to obtain valid data on the actual rate and incidence of substance abuse in poverty ridden communities, researchers have been able to isolate some negative effects of substance abuse and correlate them to socio-economic status.

There are several psychological factors that exist in the adolescent with substance and chemical dependency disorders. The moods of these adolescents are not stable and they are more prone to depression. They have various emotional and behavioral difficulties. Adolescents with these disorders also tend to have learning disabilities and psychiatric disturbances. (Jorgenson and Salwen, 2008) According to the research of Terry Brown, “Psychological dependence for long term users is more likely; some have mental health problems such as confusion, sleep disorder depression and paranoia.”

In this paper, I look at forms of substance abuse and the effects on children. I will be using the following headings to break down the different issues associated with this social problem: social causes, phenomenon, and consequences. I hope to educate those that may be ignorant to the situation, and help to spark a flame that can be used to not be a bystander, but a solution to the problem at hand.

In recent years, numerous studies have focused on the conditions and influences of substance use in the development of adolescents worldwide. Current studies are discovering multiple pathways and important risk factors that contribute to the increasing usage of substances surrounding adolescents. Specifically, considerable data referring to the influence of adolescent’s self-esteem to substance abuse. In order to fully understand the complexity of substance abuse, one must consider multiple factors that impact an adolescent’s life greatly, such as their environment and self-esteem. In order to consider the single influence of substance abuse to an adolescent, research must focus on finding similar patterns among substance use, environments, and self-esteem. Research shows that children affected by substance abuse show similar patterns of low self-esteem. These substance abusive experiences include specific socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods, homes with parents that use substances, and adolescent’s own substance abuse struggles. These three different pathways of substance abuse have an equifinal deficit of an adolescent’s self-esteem.

We first begin by taking a look into community psychology which is a branch of psychology that involves the study of how individuals relate to their community and the reciprocal effect of how the community relate to the individual. According to impact the health and wellness of individuals, an example about such could be substance abuse within the community. Now as we know it is substance abuse is a massive issue within all communities’ whether it be alcohol or Nyaope(Wungs) where drunk people either cause fatal accidents or engage in risky behaviours