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Impact of drug abuse on family
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The effects of addiction on family essay
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Throughout the story of David Sheff’s memoir Beautiful Boy, Sheff shows in depth his son Nic’s addiction to methamphetamine through his first person narrative. Sheff often describes his son 's addiction as a disease in that it never leaves Nic along with how it affects his thinking and decision making. What Sheff fails to realize is that he too has been affected by a disease, a disease that is in ways similar and different from his sons. Sheff becomes addicted to helping his son overcome his addiction. As Nic’s addiction grows worse, Sheff’s does as well. Sheff’s addiction progressively grows to a point where he begins to care more about Nic’s life and relationships than his own. Sheff’s addiction starts around the same time as Nics.
Sheff has a cerebral hemorrhage and loses almost all of his memory during the first couple days at the hospital. Even so, one of the few pieces of information Sheff can remember is his son’s name, Nic. Before he thinks of his wife and other children, Sheff tries his hardest to remember Nic’s phone number to make sure he is safe. Even when his own life is in danger Sheff is addicted to making sure his son is safe. Nic has the same symptoms with his addiction to methamphetamine. As he indulges more into meth, his physical health decreases; losing weight, muscle, and his skin tone. When Vicki, Nic’s mother, visits him at his apartment, Nic is described as looking nearly yellow. With Nic’s limbs trembling and black circles around vacant eyes. It is obvious Nic cares more about his addiction than he does his own well being. In that way, he is the same as his father. The majority of those who have read Beautiful Boy would say it’s a story about Nic and his addiction to methamphetamine. However, Sheff’s own addiction to helping his son is just as destructive. “I probably don’t have to tell you this is a disease that affects families, too. They don’t sleep, they don’t eat, they become ill. They blame themselves”(Sheff
From interviewing celebrities such as actress Kristen Johnston and politician Bill White, the film identified substance abuse can happen to anyone. I found more sympathy to those once I learned the facts, not opinions, of substance abuse users. It was interesting to find how the physiology of ones’ brain may change over time, thus proving it is not always a person’s free will of choice to use. People of addiction are like anyone else who may have fallen down the wrong path. Some who have found substance abuse for coping, did not realize they were becoming addicts. Others have found the media and advertisement placing pressure on them because it looks entertaining and fun. With limited outreach programs, it is crucial to increase the awareness among young groups for prevention. With fear of being judged, the stigma and health disparities of addiction cause many to not seek help. Equal opportunity should be available to everyone. As a future nurse, I find an important role for me is to lead in educating and being opened minded to the struggles of each one of my patients. My job is to refrain from stereotyping and being an advocate. As healthcare is always evolving to provide the most adequate care, I look forward towards the future as more people are educating and trying to eliminate those struggling through addiction
Donna has quit working as a prostitute and is currently on the road to recovery from years of addiction and abuse. As a child she suffered from years of neglect and sexual abuse from her immediate family members. Donna admits to using drugs when pregnant with her youngest child and suspects that he may have fetal alcohol syndrome as he is unable to control his emotions and has a difficult time in forming social bonds.
Gabor Mate 's essay “Embraced by the Needle” addresses important issues on the negative effects that childhood experiences have on the development of addictions, and the long term effects that drugs play throughout an addict 's life. The author states that addictions originate from unhappiness and pain that is often inflicted upon addicts at early age such as infancy. In Mate essay, he uses many patients past childhood experiences to help create a picture of the trauma that an addict faced as child and the link it plays with who they are today. Mate builds an impressive argument based on the way he organizes his ideas on what addiction is, and how it corresponds to a person 's childhood experience. The author does this effectively
In the short story “a demotic dilemma” written by Carson Mccullers deals with how a parent has to be responsible and must sacrifice their wants and need to take care and provide for their family. As well as the negative effects of a dysfunctional family on a young child. Therefore, it talks about a woman by the name of Emily's that has two children a boy named Andy and a girl named Marianna. Moreover, in the short story Emily's husband Martin has his job translocated by the company he works for to a big city away from the southern life away from family and friends. Which, resulted in Emily losing her stability and social life causing her to relieve this stress and life of isolation by drinking her sorrows away causing her to stumbles down
Throughout “Chasing the Scream” many intriguing stories are told from individuals involved in the drug war, those on the outside of the drug war, and stories about those who got abused by the drug war. Addiction has many social causes that address drug use and the different effects that it has on different people. In our previous history we would see a tremendous amount of individuals able to work and live satisfying lives after consuming a drug. After the Harrison Act, drugs were abolished all at once, but it lead to human desperation so instead of improving our society, we are often the reason to the problem. We constantly look at addicts as the bad guys when other individuals are often the reasons and influences to someone’s decision in
In the reality of the postmodern world, where nature is gone and has been replaced by technology, where the world and humankind have become fused with the machine, and the existence of morality and reality are uncertain, it is difficult to find hope for a better existence or motivation to attempt to change one's existence. Addiction then becomes a logical avenue of escape from these bleak circumstances--not affecting reality, but transforming it into something bearable. The addictions that Case turns to allow him to escape from the hard reality of his life th...
Drugs is one of the themes in this story that shows the impact of both the user and their loved ones. There is no doubt that heroin destroys lives and families, but it offers a momentary escape from the characters ' oppressive environment and serves as a coping mechanism to help deal with the human suffering that is all around him. Suffering is seen as a contributing factor of his drug addiction and the suffering is linked to the narrator’s daughter loss of Grace. The story opens with the narrator feeling ice in his veins when he read about Sonny’s arrest for possession of heroin. The two brothers are able to patch things up and knowing that his younger brother has an addiction.
His son Nic Sheff had methamphetamine addiction and the memoir explained the stages David went through to help and keep Nic alive. Sheff was trying to appeal to readers who faced a similar crisis. He wanted these readers to be able to connect and relate as much as they could. Everybody can empathize with the basic emotions of relief, depression, and fear. Hence, Sheff utilized pathos in his writing. His poignant tone was testified by phrases such as, “enormously painful” (Sheff 17), “excruciating” (Sheff 35), “fearful”(Sheff 5), and “I relive the hell” (Sheff 54). By representing the pain he felt, he aroused the feelings of regret and agony he assumed his reader would have. His variety of sentence lengths also portrayed his emotions. For example, his long, never-ending sentence reflected his frustration and helplessness. When Nic went missing one night, Sheff said, "it got so bad that I wanted to wipe out and delete and expunge every trace of him from my brain so that I would not have to worry about him anymore and I would not have to to be disappointed by him anymore and hurt by him and I would no longer have the restless and haunting slideshow of images..." (Sheff 241). He also repeated the phrase, “if only I had” (42). This revealed the guilt he had for Nic’s condition. Sheff, along with other countless parents, felt that he was responsible for his son’s
Addiction controls people in many ways. Some addictions can even lead to death if not stopped early on. Addiction to any kind of substance or drug is not an easy thing to quit. It is hard to quit because it is not physically hard but also mentally hard to end an addiction. Addiction controls people by making them lose control of their actions and cravings. Also addiction controls people by changing their circadian rhythms which make it hard to stay away from what they are addicted to.
Everyone’s lives are affected by the decisions they have made and past experiences they have had. In the novel A River Runs Through It, author Norman Maclean uses the theme of experiences to portray the difficulties a person can face throughout life. Although Norman and Paul are brothers and bond through fly fishing, they are two different people who have different life paths. Norman chose to get a stable job and live a domestic life, whereas Paul chose to become a bachelor and a lower class reporter. The main character is Norman himself, and he also experiences the difficulties his troubled brother Paul is faced with. Unlike his brother, Paul has chosen a different route in life, and he has an addiction problem. As a result of Paul’s alcoholism, his life is destroyed by financial issues, family disconnects and gambling.
It has become one of the major social problems of our day, leaving a great number of families and communities within our country devastated and without hope of recuperation for any of their afflicted members and loved ones. Growing to become a big social challenge affecting all aspects of the American society, addiction rates have escalated to enormous proportions within the country as reported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Addiction has been described as a chronic brain disorder,” resulting from adaptations in the brain that leads to changes in behavior”, according to Dr. Nora Volkow, who also assert that it can be treated (NIDA 2006).
Drugs are used to escape the real and move into the surreal world of one’s own imaginations, where the pain is gone and one believes one can be happy. People look on their life, their world, their own reality, and feel sickened by the uncaringly blunt vision. Those too weak to stand up to this hard life seek their escape. They believe this escape may be found in chemicals that can alter the mind, placing a delusional peace in the place of their own depression: “Euphoric, narcotic, pleasantly halucinant,” (52). They do this with alcohol, acid, crack, cocaine, heroine, opium, even marijuana for the commoner economy. These people would rather hide behind the haze than deal with real problems. “...A gramme is better than a damn.” (55).
Beautiful Boy was released in 2008 and approximately at the same time another book Tweak: Growing Up on Methamphetamines was published. The second book is written by Nic Sheff, the addicted son who gives reader different perspective on the same events that were described by his father. These two books are unique in their own way, since they give two different perspectives on the same, very widespread and so difficult issue - the struggle with substance abuse.
While reading the short story “Clean” by Amy Reed I came to a better understanding on substance abuse, and what causes it to start. In her novel Reed portrays ordinary teenagers, then demonstrates how drugs and/or alcohol becomes such a factor in an average teenager’s life. In the beginning of the s...
Drug abuse and addiction not only has negative effects in the lives of the people involved, but also in the lives of their close relatives, friends and immediate society. It leads to disintegration, failure in school, loss of employment and violence. Although intake of drugs is a voluntary and conscious decision initially, continuous intake of drugs changes the brain and challenges the self-control of the “addicted person” and inhibits the ability to resist extreme desire for drug intake.