The novel Tweak is the unyielding confessions of a young man named Nic Sheff and his struggle with addictions. He has rapid cycling bipolar disorder. Rapid cycling is having four or more manic or hypomanic or depressive episodes in any 12 month period. Their mood swings rise and fall without reason. He is, as mentioned, a drug addict of various drugs.
Like any addict the road to recovery for Nic was a tough one. Many times through his journey of addiction, he fell upon various distractions: Zelda, Lauren, and Gack. The constant push from his parents was also issues clouding his judgment to become and remain drug free. Nick was confronted with a straight forward approach. This made him feel very uncomfortable. In the world of his addiction he
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Grief came from wanting him to receive assistance. Drugs consumed an abundance of his life and ripped him from his family. The delight derived from him finally stepping up and agreeing to accept support; allowing his family to express their love for him and be a part of his healing process. Anyone who repeatedly drives themselves and their families through such turmoil is very unsettling for me, which is in part where my anger rears from. Furthermore, the sensation of being overwhelmed originates from all the gruesome things that Nic participated in. The manner in which that lifestyle effected …show more content…
Even though they may want to other factors are usually at play. It takes a team in this instant to work through and accomplish the goal of sobriety. This novel has aided me in understanding the world of an addict better. It gave the insight that only a person in the addiction can give you. It helped me to see that whatever the driving force is in an addict, it can sometimes consume you. Some people can fight the urge to use, while others give in to the temptation. The most important task in addiction is to surround yourself with positive people and positive activity. Correspondingly, loss or drastic change should always be handled with caution. The divorce of his parents and going between his dad and mom’s house was upsetting. Nic not feeling like a part of his dad’s new family was depressing
The book I chose to read for this assignment is called “Stay Close: A Mother’s Story of Her Son’s Addiction”. The target audience can be parents, adolescents, recovering addicts, college students and mental health professionals.
The author uses his knowledge of the human brain to emphasize the importance of “Endorphins” when growing up and how the lack of the chemicals “in infancy and early childhood,[creates a greater need] for external sources” (289) such as drugs. Along with his scientific evidence, Mate also uses many of his patients traumatic childhood experiences such as having “dishwashing liquid poured down his throat . . . and was tied to a chair in a dark room to control to his hyperactivity” (289). These patients help create an image for the readers to be able to understand the feelings and the pain addict 's often face in their childhood, that leaves them feeling abandoned and neglected from the rest of the world. Mate even analysis the fact that addict 's can come from home where there is no abuse and the parents try their best to provide a loving and nurturing home. The problem in families like this is often a parent is the one who faced traumatic experience as a child and are not able to transmit the proper love to their child, because they lack the feeling themselves. The author uses the strategy of looking at both the child and the parent experiences to show that the root problem originates from the same outcome, wanting to feel “unconditionally [loved and be] fully accepted even when most ornery”
In the later chapters, Diets covers the finer details about children and grief, losses in later life, and a more detailed look at points covered earlier. This book reveals close similarities to addiction recovery, including building motivation, coping with stress, managing thoughts and feelings, and transitioning into a more “normal” life. It also includes valuable instructions on how to start support groups.
Finally, Nick’s inability to involve himself emotional with anyone is also a problem. He is more of a bystander than a participant. He fears of being close to anyone, and mostly just gets along with everything. That is a problem. He needs to find someone to listen to, instead of him always being the listener. This emotional distance, which he has, is not a healthy thing for him and can cause him to end being a loner.
Nic struggles so much why attempting to satisfy his need for the drug. This is the most important part of the book where I expected to know how drug users handle their addiction. The book narrates that Nic became a nuisance and a big problem both in the society and the family. Drug addiction erodes the morals of the users. Nic Sheff occasionally stole from everyone in the household. He took money from her mother, stole her sister 's diary, raided her brother’s little bank. In result, he was so much hated by her family. Again what increased the level of hatred towards him is his behavior of encouraging others into relapse. He regularly claims that the substances took away his values and morals leaving him caring less for his family. Addiction can be blamed largely for changing Nic Sheff into an immoral monster. However, we cannot quantify whether the family has an obligation of accepting his apology and forgiving him or whether she should be told off
In the book Nic would hang out with another addict named Gack who would take things apart such as a stereo or Nic taking apart his computer, but not being able to put it back together. I remember speaking about this in class, its called getting “hung up” in which they have repetitive thoughts and do something for hours on end. Throughout the story Nic was constantly hung up, whether it was having sex with Lauren or Zelda for hours as he described or having the same thoughts of how he’s not good enough to be with Zelda, or his family, or even his friend Spencer. He constantly worried about people liking him and didn’t take the time to actually like himself. All the characters throughout this book that were addicts were constantly paranoid, irritable, self-conscious and always suspicious of other people or police. For instance, Zelda went into a psychosis from taking meth and would attack Nic and yell at him thinking that he was hiding drugs. In class we learned that this kind of behavior happens when drugs are taken in high doses all the time. Also, I learned from class that people who are depressed they use stimulants instead of anti-depressants and anyone that is reading this story can definitely tell early on that Nic is depressed. He has a lot of issues with himself, his family, and relationships with people throughout the book. Towards the end of the book when Nic was in the Safe Passage Center rehab in Arizona he felt bugs crawling all over him as he lay in his bed and at first I thought they were real insects crawling on him. Then I remembered from class when we were talking about “Cocaine Bugs” and how an addict will think there are bugs on them but there isn’t anything actually there. Being that Nic was taking a lot of different
He was put in a coma and when he woke up, weeks later, He barely had any recollection of what happened or why he was in the hospital. The article states “He never stops fighting… he has that strong spirit that keeps him moving forward. No matter the roadblock he ends up coming across in his life he finds a way around it (Lewis 7)”. This piece of evidence speaks about how Nick had to relearn how to speak, walk, and do other everyday tasks. Nick was determined to make progress in rehabilitation.
This is then followed by insightfully examining the treatment process, specifically through grace as a key focus of overcoming addiction. May focus heavily on desire as the main cause of addiction. He sees addiction as a way to fulfill a universal need that all people have. The text focuses on how we all have this need we want met and that we desire to have more in life. The author looks at how through our desire we all fall victims to addiction because of the fall.
Throughout the memoir Nic Sheff follows a cycle of using drugs and then going to countless rehabilitation centers. Before Nic’s first relapse he
Dr. Hart argues that social support systems shape how a person deals with their addiction. He brings in the story
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.
Nick is more of a spectator than an actor in the story. He is just an
All throughout the true story, Beautiful Boy, David Sheff displays unhealthy addictive tendencies for his son and his son’s addiction to meth. Because of Sheff’s addiction to Nic, he became unable to trust his son, unable to care for himself when he got ill, and made it impossible for himself to enjoy time with his other children because the thought of past memories with Nic haunted him. Although it is normal that parents worry about their children, Sheff went further than many parents would to try and get through to his
Many addicted people tried to quit addiction their own, some of them [very less in numbers] get success in quitting their drug addiction but most of them failed to quit the addiction. If we think over the issue of quitting addiction, a comprehensive treatment will be helpful than any single treatment. Because the drug addiction has it’s effect on many aspects of person’s life, not only his or her physical and mental health, but also h...
In conclusion drug addiction is a very terrible and challenging problem. It affects individuals, families, and the people around them. It is important that drug addicts realize that they must want to stop and seek help for the problem. The drug addict needs the support of friends and family, so they can make it through this process. The process to recover from drug addiction can take a lifetime. There is hope for a drug addict who wants to change their life for the better.