Women and Substance Abuse (Why?) Essay

Individuals plagued with alcohol and other substance-abuse problems face numerous barriers along the way to their recovery (Cunningham, Sobell, Sobell, Agrawal & Toneatte, 1993). At the micro-level, some of the primary barriers relate to the potential threat to their employment and income as a result of acknowledging their problems. They include the financial risks associated with disclosure of the problem to employers. At the macro-level, there are relatively few high-quality opportunities for community-funded programs, particularly for middle and upper-middle-class working individuals. Those barriers include the relative unavailability of publicly-funded programs that are well-regulated and staffed by professionals with licenses in substance abuse fields. At the psychosocial level, there are significant barriers in the form of societal behavioral norms that pose barriers of different types based substantially on gender (Beckman & Amaro, 1986). They include general societal behavioral norms that promote alcoholism and substance abuse and particular psychosocial interpersonal dynamics at work and in the home that present different types of barriers to effective treatment based largely on gender (Beckman & Amaro, 1986; Jessup, Humphreys, Brindis & Lee, 2003).

Even some women seek help to reduce or cease their drug use, but were unable to do so. Some of them believed that getting off drugs might improve their quality of live but would not provide them with suitable housing, education or better jobs. Thus, they used this reasoning to continue their drug use. In response to this, they are responsible for their own downfall. Their reason to keep using drugs is pitiful due to the fact, getting off drugs would keep them in a sober mind to help them find better jobs or educational opportunities.

Surratt in the article, “Gender-Specific Issues in the Treatment of Drug-Involved Women” talks about how women biologically react to drug different and how they often connect treatment recovery and motherhood together (Surratt, p. 349). Surratt suggests that women become addicted to drug much more quickly than men (Surratt, p. 349). However, most treatment does no not focus on women’s recover and the unique forms of treatment they may need for recovery (Surratt, p. 350). Often women feel more guilt than men when battling drug addiction because women are more harshly judged for drug use, especially when she is pregnant or has children (Surratt, p. 351). Surratt looks at the treatment program at Florida State called “The Village”, which has treatment program called Families in Transition for mothers battling addiction and their children under the age of 12 years old (Surratt, p. 352). This allows for the children to live with their mothers while they are receiving treatment (Surratt, p. 352). The author held interviews with some women in the program and almost all attributed treatment with becoming a good mother for their children (Surratt, p. 353). Many of the women who were battling with addiction had family members who were addicts or had some form of childhood or domestic abuse (Surratt, p. 355). Treatment for these women needs to be more complex than your typical user because they have many layers of issues to over come. This program did not include the

“A maladaptive pattern of substance use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress, as manifested by one (or more) of the following, occurring

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

People who are seeking welfare, while abusing illicit substances, also show unemployment barriers such as; education, psychiatric, health, legal, job skills, etc.

The results identified that the trauma these women experienced from childhood on, and the impoverished environments in which they lived, played a significant role in their ongoing substance abuse. The study results emphasized the importance of including trauma-specific treatments and awareness of the individuals’ living environments in drug treatment plans, and that those factors should be considered in the development of services for such women.

Women are more vulnerable to the effects of drugs and alcohols than men. Women drinking even smaller amounts of alcohol then men may result in greater harm over a shorter period of time; women also tend to lose mental function and brain mass quicker than men do. Most times women let their addiction escalade, because they tend to take care of themselves last. Some barriers why majority of women don’t seek professional help is denial. Scheduling conflict can be a big issue as well, such as not being able to take off work, house obligations, taking care of kids, they can have a hard time finding a good treatment center, lack of resources, and even understanding addiction. One problem I hear a lot from women at the facility is, having to go through

In order to apply this theory, let us begin by examining causes and effects of women and drug crimes. There have been multiple studies that have shown a close correlation between drug abuse and criminal involvement. Furthermore, involvement with drugs can have negative consequences for later opportunities and life careers. In regards to women specifically, there can be many different pathways during a woman’s life that may lead to an involvement

Numerous factors influence the reasons for initiation of substance use among women, and a number of these factors are more prevalent among women than men. Women often

Illicit drug use by women is also not new. By the end of the 19th century, almost two-thirds of the nation's opium and m morphine addicts were women. The issue of drug use during pregnancy began to focus on the possible harm to the unborn child. By 1962, evidence showed that a rare set of deformities, mostly limb malformations, were caused by the drug and 8,000 children had been affected. Pregnant women aged 15 to 44, 5.4 percent were current illicit drug users based on data averaged across 2012 and 2013. (Lester, Barry) This was lower than the rate among women in this age group who were not pregnant 11.4 percent. Among pregnant women aged 15 to 44, the average rate of current illicit drug use in 2012-2013 5.4 percent was not significantly

According to the article “Girls and Drugs” written by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), they found that there were more girls than boys who started drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes and marijuana in 2004. Girls surpassed boys in smoking marijuana alone in 2002. The question they had was “why?”. Why do they believe, and what do the statistics say about the reasons as to why girls seem to be surpassing boys in drinking alcohol and participating

Drug and substance abuse has been known to be a major risk factor for HIV/AIDS in the world. According to reports by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), there are an estimated 1 million people who are living with HIV/AIDS in the US and about a third of these cases are directly and indirectly linked to some kind of drug abuse ADDIN EN.CITE National Institute on Drug Abuse2005823(National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2005)82382312National Institute on Drug Abuse,Drug abuse is a significant risk factor for HIV/AIDS in the U.S.2012March 5th2005http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/topics-in-brief/linked-epidemics-drug-abuse-hivaids( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_7" o "National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2005 #823" National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2005). Research has also shown that of four out of 10 AIDS related deaths in the US are related to drug abuse ADDIN EN.CITE Macklin2011825(Macklin, 2011)82582517Macklin, RuthEthical challenges in HIV microbicide research: What protections do women need?International Journal of Feminist Approaches to BioethicsInternational Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics124-143422011Indiana University Press19374585http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/intjfemappbio.4.2.124( HYPERLINK l "_ENREF_5" o "Macklin, 2011 #825" Macklin, 2011). This has led to NIDA referring to drugs and substance abuse and HIV/AIDS as linked epidemics and has opened avenues of research in the two epidemics ADDIN EN.CITE

As stated by Gluckman (2006), “Drug abuse is defined as the compulsive and habitual misuse of any drug for various purposes, such as achieving calming or euphoric effects, an escape from reality, dulling

This could well explain why most studies have concentrated on male drug use, and it partly explains the differences in drug use between the genders. It also begins to give an explanation of how these differences came about in the first place, and how they may be further changing in response to current social change (i.e., the social