“Last year alone, 37,000 people died from drug related overdoses.” Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. Substance abuse is a growing problem that not only affects the person who is abusing alcohol or drugs but also affects the lives of those who are close to the abuser. Substance abuse is the abuse of any substance. A drug is a substance that modifies one or more of the body’s functions when it is consumed. It is often mistakenly assumed that drug abusers lack moral principles or willpower and that they could stop using drugs simply by choosing to change their behavior. In reality, drug addiction is a disease and quitting takes a lot more than just changing your behavior. Drug Abuse is generally …show more content…
Some people are more susceptible than others in that their reward responses are stronger which is why some people will get addicted to things more easily than other people will. If you add to that a troubled background of some sort, then when the brain offers its reward response though making that person feels calmer and happier or more in control, they are more likely than someone who is pretty happy. Alcohol is made of ethanol, it is a depressant, your body becomes addictive to the depressant effects and you eventually need it to stop the shakes (delirium tremors) and the withdrawals of the depressant effects on the brain and body. For example, caffeine is a stimulant, and people become addicted to that and when having caffeine withdrawals one has headaches and other neurological effects. However, alcohol is a lot more dangerous because if you are a hardcore not only can you die from drinking, if you stop cold turkey you can have convulsions and die from withdrawals. The “addictive substance” is ethanol. When you are pregnant, it is important that you watch what you put into your body. Consumption of illegal drugs is not safe for the unborn baby or for the mother. Studies have shown that consumption of illegal drugs during pregnancy can result in miscarriage, low birth weight, premature labor, placental abruption, fetal death, and even maternal death. If its suspected that woman whose pregnant is using drugs they will test the baby to see if its born addicted,
Maia Szalavitz, author of Unbroken Brain, points out in an article about our finger-pointing mentality on drug abuse, “Addiction is one of the most serious health problems we face today, and as of 2010, more than 23 million people have an addiction to drugs, and according to the National Institutes of Health, these addictions contribute to more than 100,000 deaths per year.” Drug abuse is a major problem in the United States and throughout the world as more and more people become addicted every day. When you hear the words drug addict you think of desensitizing terms, like “junkie” or “crack head,” and when you see someone panhandling for money on the street, passed out, or swaying in a doorway you likely wonder, “why don’t they just get
Substance abuse is a tragedy that touches many lives. Abuse begins with a single use event that, with continued use and overindulgence, transforms into a battle. The abuser most always loses that battle. Personal relationships, social ties, and employment suffers. Irresponsible and erratic behavior becomes the norm, and though the abuser is aware on some level of the reckless and thoughtless acts that they commit, they continue to use and abuse their drug of choice. What starts as experimentation often ends in addiction. The best hope for a person in the grips of substance abuse is immediate,
Many people do not understand why or how other people become addicted to drugs. Drug addiction is a complex chronic disease that causes impairment with the mind to express emotion, engage into physical activities and simply being one’s self. In fact, through scientific research, people understand more about how drugs work in the brain more than ever, and they also know that drug addiction can be successfully treated with some help from those who want change in the death rates amongst drug addict Americans. No one will ever truly understand why a person performs such deadly behaviors, but this is their way of crying out for help. It is time to take a stand and help those in need of escape from drugs and
The video, “The Truth of Addiction – Side Effects of Alcohol Review” by Healthy2Fitness describes a personal experience with substance addiction and recovery, as well as the physiological processes that take place when addiction occurs (2013). The speaker begins by stating that as a child, he did not know that people did drugs or how drugs were taken (Healthy2Fitness 2013). Instead, he felt that parents and teachers warned him about drugs because they were paranoid. At the age of 15, he began chewing tobacco, drinking alcohol, and using recreational drugs (Healthy2Fitness 2013). This lead to a series of consequences and despite those, the speaker continued to abuse substances until realizing that in order to control his addiction,
Marijuana, tobacco and alcohol are considered gateway drugs that often lead to other more addictive drug use, such as LSD, crack cocaine or heroin. However, understanding why and how people start using drugs in the first place is difficult and complex. For example, people may take drugs to fit in, to escape reality, relax, avoid boredom, feel grown up, rebel or experimentation.
Drug use in today’s society is something that has become too common. We have a large percentage of our population using drugs for numerous reasons. The stresses of our fast paced lives can be the reason we need drugs to keep up. We sometime take these drugs with out thinking of the future consequences and risk that might be attached to them. We have to teach society of the dangers of drugs and the treatment available to quit using.
Drug abuse has been a serious problems for decades now, and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. All over the world, society is being forced to deal with horrible issues created by addiction to alcohol, prescription drugs and street substances. The challenge for each and every one of us is to figure out how to stop drug abuse. The lives of millions of addicts hang in the balance. How to Stop Drug Abuse
To illustrate the magnitude of the research problem and provide a frame of reference, this section begins with a brief overview of the increased use of pharmaceuticals and prescription drug abuse in the US. The section continues with the relationship between illicit drugs and prescriptions, adolescents’ abuse, personal and social factors; then concludes with the theoretical approach. The Social-Ecological Theory, will be applied in researching prescription drug abuse, possible influences and protective factors in adolescents in relation to prescription drug abuse, to develop focused intervention strategies and educational programs for this population, similar to other substances such as tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana.
Although some people argue for the legalization of drugs, addiction to these substances has caused a huge increase in violent crimes in the home, at school, and on the street. Many people do not understand why individuals become addicted to drugs or how drugs change the brain to create compulsive drug abuse. They mistakenly view drug abuse and addiction as strictly a social problem and may characterize those who take drugs as morally weak. One very common belief is that drug abusers should be able to just stop taking drugs if they are only willing to change their behavior. This is a false and uneducated belief. Drug abuse may start as a social problem or social escape but one the addiction has taken ahold of a person
The usage of drugs is a very common practice in our society nowadays. The usage of drugs can vary from medical purposes to recreational purposes. What is drugs? ‘A drug is any chemical you take that affects the way your body works.’ (Science Museum, What is a drug?, n.d.) So this does not mean that drugs can only be in the form of pill, tablet, oral solution, and injection drugs can also in the form of tobacco that contains nicotine, or drinkable substance such as coffee and tea that contains caffeine and beer that contains alcohol. (Crocq, 2003) For some people nowadays recreational drugs already become a way of life.
In order to successfully decrease the cases of drug addiction, society needs to remember that we cannot change the physiological effects of drugs, but we can prevent individuals from turning into them. In other words, the primary focus should be on the individual and not the drug.
Drug and alcohol addiction is a very serious and widespread problem in America, and across the globe. Drug addiction is a constant craving, seeking, and using of a substance, despite the negative consequences it may have on the addict or those around them. When drug use becomes more frequent, it is considered drug abuse. Once an individual’s drug abuse is can no longer be controlled, and they are using the drug to get through everyday life, it beomes an addiction. A person on drugs has an altered way of thinking, behaving, and perceiving. There are treatment facilities all over the world dedicated to help those suffering with drug addictions. All
It is believed that living a life laced with drugs is a chosen lifestyle and that people addicted to drugs can stop whenever if they wanted. Unfortunately that’s not the case and this mindset must be altered, because it causes people to pay no regards to this really important issue. Drug addiction is not something society can brush off easily; as a country, we need to prioritize helping addicts because not only is it ruining the lives of the addicts themselves, it is also ruining the lives of people around them. Drug Addiction is a relapsing disease, and it affects the lives of the surrounding people. And even though recovery is hard to achieve and addiction never truly goes away, there are effective solutions for it. We just have to look
The book 'From chocolate to morphine ' provides a brief history of the drugs, how drugs are harvested or manufactured, which kind of experiences they offer, their side effects and suggestions on how to deal with them. The authors maintain the approach of providing the facts about drugs while explaining the relevant terms. Each chapter deals with a specific drug category like stimulants or inhalants. Each section provides tips about drug use and a detailed list of further reading. The book also explores the political motivations that make some drugs illegal while others are considered legal. The authors do not hesitate to put forward their opinion on the war on drugs and the problems associated with it. The book also discusses the kinds of problems the policy creates and the persecution it perpetuates on certain classes of people.
The literature notes there has been a considerable amount of research on NAS, and effective management strategies have been developed as explained by (McQueen & Murphy-Oikonen, 2016). There remains significant gaps in treatment protocol between non-pharmacological measures such as pacifiers, swaddling and reducing environmental stimuli. However, when symptoms are so severe they warrant pharmacological measures, there does not seem to be a consensus on what drug to use, when to initiate the drug and how long to keep the infant on the drug as explained, by (McQueen & Murphy-Oikonen, 2016). Gaps still exist, including a lack of clarity and consistency in how the syndrome is defined, measured, and managed.