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The lights were harsh as I opened my eyes. There was a large tube coming out of my stomach. My parents sat to my hospital bed. I turned to them and gave them as much of a smile as I could muster. They started to cry. My dad hugged me tight and it hurts, but I hugged him back. The doctor came in and explains that I “overdosed on Percocet and alcohol last night and am lucky to be alive.” I had been using drugs and alcohol since I was twelve. I am now seventeen. My use had gone up exponentially each year, at its peak I was using twice a day. I had been unable to see the downward spiral that had become my life; the poor grades I was receiving, losing relationships that had once been close, and my declining health. I had always been hard on myself, but with the my overdose, life started to become unbearable. I fell further into my addiction. …show more content…
Two large men loomed over my bedside. They took me to the mountains of Utah and dropped me off with a group of, then strangers. The first demon I faced during my time in treatment was the alcohol withdrawals. My first two days were spent lying down, vomiting into a hole that I had dug. The kids in the group looked like savages, hair matted and faces dirty with sweat and grime from the long weeks of hiking. Over the next three months, I would share things with these kids that I had never shared with anyone, my deepest fears and insecurities. For the first time in a long time, I cried, I laughed and most important I lived with this group of misfits in the mountains of Utah. I headed to a new school in Montana to continue the work I had started in Utah and finally face some struggle I had faced my whole
Life wasn’t always so bad, or at least that’s what they told me. From what I remember of my child hoods great memories my family speaks so highly of, if there were any at all, are all clouded in my mind by the what I can remember my life being. At times I find myself going thru old pictures of when I was a child and think to myself. Why can't I remember this day? I looked to be a happy healthy baby then my heart turns in a cold way. Growing up to a parent addicted to drugs and alcohol is no way for a child to be raised. I had to grow up at an early age and didn’t truly get to experience life the way a child should. My family tells me Marquise you were so loved by so many people and your Mom tried to do the best she
On my arrival in the United Kingdom from my native Zimbabwe, I had my first meeting with an individual with a serious heroin addiction when I found myself sharing a flat emergency accommodation at Lady Beck Close in Leeds. Items of value went missing until the person responsible approached me and accepted responsibility. He apologised for the thefts but explained at length the serious problem with substance misuse that he had. He explained how he dropped from University where he was studying dentistry because of drugs. He expressed his desire to quit but failed despite the care, support and help he received from so many professionals.
Substance abuse is the habitual use of mind altering substances (Substances). Addicts have a false or altered look on reality; they need help seeing what is wrong with the life style they are living. Nikki Sixx once said,” Addiction- When you can give something up at any time, as long as it’s next Tuesday!” Recovery is teaching a person to break old habits. Substance abuse counselors are very important, not only in the mental health field, but in society as well.
I started drinking when I was 16 years old. The reason of my drinking started because the father I had left me when I was 12 years of age. I felt an emptiness as a father figure because my father left and I “filled” that emptiness with alcohol. Alcohol made me feel complete. I did not know the downsides of being intoxicated until I experienced it myself. It all started when my dad left my mother for a hooker he found in a bar. My father left his wife and 3 kids for a women he had just met. A physical problem was when my father invited me and my sibling to his other daughters baptism. Getting there the women my father was with and I felt so much anger, hatred and sadness. I had a couple drinks and everything went downhill. I ended up fighting my father’s girl and ending my relationship with my father. Under the alcohol intoxication I beat my father’s girl up really bad and my adrenalin did not make me stop. I beat her up so bad that there was blood on the floor. My emotional experience was that I always felt alone. I always felt sad. Even though I used alcohol to “fill in” my emptiness is wasn't enough. I would cry myself to sleep when my father didn’t help financially. My family problem because alcohol was because me and sibling were depending on my mother to take care of all the house necessities. Alcohol makes me an aggressive person and that leads to family problems. I’m in
Substance abuse and addiction have become a social problem that afflicts millions of individuals and disrupts the lives of their families and friends. Just one example reveals the extent of the problem: in the United States each year, more women and men die of smoking related lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined (Kola & Kruszynski, 2010). In addition to the personal impact of so much illness and early death, there are dire social costs: huge expenses for medical and social services; millions of hours lost in the workplace; elevated rates of crime associated with illicit drugs; and scores of children who are damaged by their parents’ substance abuse behavior (Lee, 2010). This paper will look at the different theories used in understanding drug abuse and addiction as well as how it can be prevented and treated.
The problem of alcohol abuse has been recognized for thousands of years, but only more recently have we begun to see alcohol addiction as a treatable disorder. According to the Classical Disease Model of `Alcoholism,' habitual use of alcohol can be identified as a disease. Webster's Dictionary defines the concept of `disease' as follows: "Any departure from health presenting marked symptoms; malady; illness; disorder." Therefore, as many occurrences of alcohol excess provoke such symptoms, it is somewhat understandable that `alcoholism' is classified as a disease. The Classical Disease Model appears to offer a hopeful option. Treatment and sobriety can allow people to lead fulfilling lives. Adjacent to the notion of alcoholism as personal failure or moral deterioration, the Classical Disease Model appears to be a more desirable concept as it provides a motive for the alcoholic to seek treatment and gain sympathy, minimizing personal guilt. As alcoholism is seen as a progressive and, to an extent, hereditary illness for which those afflicted are not accountable, victims avoid being ostracized from society (Jellinek, 1960). Labeling the problem as a `disease' allows the medical profession to take responsibility for the treatment of alcoholism, which puts the problem in a more favourable light than if it were in the hands of psychologists or social workers, thus detaching the stigma connected with the problem while it is put on a par with other diseases such as diabetes or cancer. However, critics of the Classical Disease Model believe stigma helps reduce alcohol problems and aids the alcoholic. Any effort to reduce the stigma which is faced by the alcoholic will reduce pressures to moderate consumption and could have the additional ...
I grew up with an alcoholic and drug user father. Ever since I was little my father would drink and smoke pot when he came home from work to deal with his anxiety and depression. I only knew him as an angry, passive aggressive person, and when my mom sat me down at 12 and told me they were getting divorced, I didn’t understand why. In the next 2 years, I learned what addiction was. I learned why my father was so cold and detached from society. When my father finally hit rock bottom and went to rehab I was scared for him. Since then, I wanted to know what made my father act the way he did and how he developed his addiction. I wanted to know everything I could about life in rehab centers and what goes on behind closed doors. I wanted to understand
There are many American individuals, and families who suffer from substance abuse. Addiction and recovery are a lifelong process. This essay looks at the outcome of addiction and the recovery process as a whole. By identifying addiction we will eliminate the consideration that recovery is not possible.
In the United States today, drug use, substance abuse, and addiction are consistently growing dilemmas! At a young age we are asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Answers vary from doctor, police officer, astronaut, etc.; it is hard to image an individual saying, “I want to be addicted to drugs.” However, society witness’s individuals tumbling into drug addiction or other forms of addiction daily. This, in consequence, can cripple and prevent any person from accomplishing their childhood dreams.
The chances are that we all know or have loved ones with an addictions to either drugs or alcohol. Still today, one of the biggest challenges is being able to talk to that person about their addiction. Even though I personally have not had the opportunity to speak to a loved one or acquaintance about an addiction. Research shows when confronting a person with a problem; it takes preparation, patience, and being totally honest with that individual. Talking to someone with a dependency is something that most people avoid because people like myself would not want others mending in our lives; we, even, tend to believe that it is not our problem how much our f...
Most of the thousands and thousands of substance abusers in early recovery, that I have crossed paths with over the past four decades, have had a great deal of trouble understanding who they are early on in their sobriety. One common factor that all substance abusers share in early
My first memories of my father were what I now know as active addiction, I would watch the chaos in my house, the abuse, both mental and physical and at the time I didn’t understand but as time went on it was apparent, at the age of 11, my father hung himself, although he did not die he cut off oxygen to his brain long enough to render him blind and incompetent to care for himself and he was place in a nursing home where he would reside for the next 25 years of my life. I swore I would never do drugs because I saw firsthand the destruction, but my family addiction did not stop there. My aunt was a daily drinker, my uncle was addicted to heroin, another aunt addicted to crack
The problem of alcohol use is very relevant nowadays. Today alcohol consumption characterized by vast numbers in the world. All of society is suffering from this, but primarily jeopardized the younger generation: children, teenagers, young people, and the health of future mothers. Because alcohol is particularly active effect on the body that are not formed, gradually destroying it. The harm of alcohol abuse is evident. It is proved that when alcohol is ingested inside the body, it is carried by blood to all organs and has harmful effect on them until destruction. Systematic use of alcohol develops a dangerous disease such as alcoholism. Alcoholism is dangerous to human health, but it is curable as other diseases. The big problem is that most of the alcohol products which are made in private places contain many toxic substances, defective products often leads to poisoning and even death. All this has negative impact on society and its cultural values.
Drug addiction is a very big problem in today’s society. Many people have had their lives ruined due to drug addiction. The people that use the drugs don’t even realize that they have an addiction. They continue to use the drug not even realizing that their whole world is crashing down around them. Drug addicts normally lose their family and friends due to drug addiction.
Oh my God! TJ!“ It was just my mom.She was crying and calling my name again and again.I was so embarrassed and disappointed of my self.I had let her down. After, two of the EMT guys put us on an ambulance. Finally,we made our way to the hospital. My friend john and me were sent in palo alto medical center. It took us about fifteen minute to get there. My friend john was alright. He had a couple of stitches in his head and his arm. He got relieved after a couple of tests but, I was severely injured. I was lying on a hospital bed and thinking what I would have done in the past. Cause this terrible accident happened to me. I was sent to el camino hospital, where I went to the operation theater for my hipbones surgery.The doctor told me after surgery that my hipbones was fractured the reason they had to put a plate in hipbones to stay together.Although, my left arm was also fractured the reason I could not feel my arm. After surgery, they took me to the other room and gave me a couple of injections. Momentarily, I went to sleep. I woke up in the next day and thinking hopefully it was just a dream,but it’s not. I opened my eyes and saw a couple of relative looking me like a stranger. My dad came over my bed and gave me a hug and I literally started crying after thinking about the accident. I could not believe after a massive car accident I was still alive. Doctors kept in hospital couple of