Addiction In Gabor Mate's 'Embraced By The Needle'

1135 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Peer pressure is said to be one of the major factor in teenage drug abuse

Can you remember a time you were unhappy? Of course you can. As many would say, being unhappy isn 't a pleasant experience and it 's not something one desires. Gabor Maté’s essay “Embraced by the needle” focuses a lot on how drug addictions always originate with unhappiness. Maté starts his essay by stating: “Addictions always originate with unhappiness, even if hidden” (288). Maté says this as if unhappiness was the only reason people get addicted to drugs when in reality that is simply not true. There has to be another way someone can get addicted to drugs right? It can 't just be being unhappy. I disagree with Maté when he mentions that addictions always originate with unhappiness. In this essay I want to argue that even though unhappiness …show more content…

Everyone who has been peer pressured to do something knows that it is quite difficult to say no because you risk losing a friend or maybe you 're friends might not see you as “cool” anymore. An article about peer pressure and drugs states that when making a decision, teens think about both the risks and rewards of their actions and behaviours. The teen’s decision might be influenced by who is around and if they think others will be impressed (Teens.drugabuse.gov) Being peer pressured to do drugs is like being little and having your parents tell you to try a food you thought was disgusting, but once you try it you automatically fall in love with it, one may or may not like what they are pressured to do. Maté doesn 't mention anything about peer pressure but he does mention people who were forced to have undesirable actions towards them, including a 36 year old native who had dishwashing liquid poured down his throat at age 5 for using foul language, these are the unhappy moments that can cause people to try drugs with hopes of easing the pain. As I said before, drugs give the user a very pleasing and satisfying experience but most people unfortunately forget about the negative outcomes that can result from doing drugs. Peer pressure leads to experimentation …show more content…

Maté never mentions anything about boredom as he has unhappiness as the central cause of drug addiction in his essay. I’m sure everyone has had an instance where they’ve found themselves bored and all of a sudden they want to do something to kill the boredom, everyone who has ever been bored has definitely had this experience. The same article about boredom and drugs has survey results conducted in the UK and 29% of the teenagers, that were used for the survey, said that they had turned to drugs as a means to relieve boredom. Not only can boredom cause addiction, many addicts said that they don 't want to give up drugs because they fear that their life in recovery will be boring and their life will not be focused on that one thing they really enjoy when in reality it 's the life of the addict that is boring and predictable. Boredom can cause problems before and after the addiction. Boredom is a huge cause of drug addiction and it shouldn 't be something taken lightly as some people live their lives in addiction to drugs because of boredom. Life is what people make of it but avoiding boredom required a bit of effort. It should be quite obvious

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Embraced By The Needle

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Con-Artist Named Addiction By Sally Satel

    962 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sally Satel, author of “Addiction Doesn’t Discriminate? Wrong,” leads us down a harrowing path of the causes and effects that lead people to addiction. It can be a choice, possibly subconscious, or a condition that leads a person left fighting a lifelong battle they did not intend to sign up for. Mental and emotional health/conditions, personality traits, attitudes, values, behaviors, choices, and perceived rewards are just a few of the supposed causes of becoming an addict.

    Read More

  • Drug Addiction In The Los Angeles Diaries By James Brown

    1120 Words  | 3 Pages

    Of course, feeling these emotions are all a standard part of life. Finding ways to address these feelings without doing drugs is a key to recover from addictions Being stressed out is the most important key for someone to have a drug addiction, and people find it very difficult to relieve stress without doing drugs, or even alcohol. Drug abuse often blocks from misplaced efforts to cope with stress. In the novel The Los Angeles Diaries by James Brown, the main character is explaining how he tried to relieve stress drinking. “I don’t know, but when I drink I often lose complete sense of time..” (11) Growing up, people usually would turn to alcohol or drugs to relax after a stressful event, or to hide painful memories or emotions. There are much more healthier, and safer ways people can keep stress levels in check, without looking back on your addiction. Different strategies to help stress may work, or not work out better for some people than another. The key for someone is to find which way of relieving stress works out the best for them. When someone finds themselves confident ability to de-stress without the use of drugs will not be as intimidating or

    Read More

  • Chasing The Scream Hari Summary

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hari’s inconsistent biased information neglects the possibility of the negative outcome if governments around the world decide to decriminalize all of the make major contraband drugs. Study after study that Hari has done has shown, is that incarcerating addicts does not rehabilitate them but instead increases the risk in making in repeating the same mistake again, and criminalizing drugs does not make these substances disappear, instead, it makes them more dangerous. Hari exaggerates more on the information that he has researched in the text instead of explaining the importance of what he has shared to the readers. He explains how and why addicts become addicted to their substances is that of the lack of “bonding” that he or she in their environment. Hari argues that this is why some people can use drugs and alcohol and not become addicted while others cannot. To the people who have a connection to their environment don’t become addicts. Those who don’t have that connection to their environment is part of the small percentage of the population that is addicted to drugs or alcohol. Hari does not provide the science within the text that examines the whole meaning of addiction. In a blog post written by Dr.Derek Simon, a neuroscientist and graduate from University of Michigan with a PhD, who is studying neurobiological basis for drug addiction at Rockefeller University, writes that “Hari’s argument makes no mention of the

    Read More

  • Two Absence Of Leadership Theory And Adaptive Leadership

    637 Words  | 2 Pages

    When the excitement in the lives of people recovering from addictions is considered, it becomes clear how important it is to keep a...

    Read More

  • Drug Problems in The U.S.

    802 Words  | 2 Pages

    The question I always ask my self is what brings people to want to do drugs? What makes them want to poison their body? When the person knows the health risks of doing drugs, I understand that doing drugs makes you high and feel good, but what in their life is so bad that makes them want to poison their body. In the article listening to boredom by Joseph Brodsky, he says that boredom is the cause of drug habits in people. Because he says that people are trying to escape from it by abusing drugs. I happen to disagree with this however. I feel like that boredom isn’t the cause of drug abuse because I then everyone would be a drug addict. I think it is because of people’s curiosities, and because of that it makes people want to try things ...

    Read More

  • Addiction In Norman Maclean's A River Runs Through It

    874 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Jeanna's Intervention

    1298 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Jeanna became addicted so young she disrupted the normal development of the part of the brain that handles the abilities to plan ahead, handle complex tasks, and inhibit inappropriate behavior (Buzzed intro and Brain basics ppt slide 22). Jeanna showed the positive incentive theory of addiction. The hedonic value she gets from the methamphetamine does not equal the anticipated feeling. She expects the meth to make her feel numb, but she continuously has to take more and more of the drug to feel the same effect. As stated in our addiction powerpoint, “In chronic addicts, positive-incentive value of drug is out of proportion with pleasure actually derived from it” (Addiction ppt slide 9). This is important pertaining to the class because she is feeding her addiction more as she gains tolerance to the dosage of drug she initially took. The episode did not explain how severe her withdrawal was when Jeanna stopped using, but they did emphasize that she was using because of the pain of losing her son. I find this important because there is an emotional aspect to her drug abuse. She is numbing her emotional pain and this drives her to take more and more of the drug in order to reach the initial feeling she felt when she took meth the first time after her son

    Read More

  • Neil Levy's Article: Addiction Is A Brain Disease?

    1019 Words  | 3 Pages

    He argues that addiction is a behavioral disorder caused by the person’s social environment and the lack of resources. Levy believes that, most of the time, an addict does not have services or resources available in order to remove herself from “the environment” where drugs are found constantly. He also stated that most of these addicts are physically unfit since they are poorly nourished, and they are struggling with their own personal stress. Levy, in his article, highlighted that a person’s environment, his health, and the resources he has, play a crucial role in determining whether or not the person will abuse drugs. Levy’s arguments seem to hold a strong position concerning addiction and its causes. However, his arguments seem to contain ambiguous words which can leave readers wandering about the actual definition of the word, and also interrupt their reading. For instance, Levy argues that addiction can be defined as a disease only if it includes pathological deviations from “norms of brain function” (Levy, 2013). He also mentions claims like addiction can lead to some deficits that are “relatively minor”, and addiction can cause impairment only in “certain” social environments (Levy, 2013). These words, norms, minor, certain, can be viewed as ambiguous words since it can have more than one meaning. In addition, Levy, in his article, seems to contradict some of his

    Read More

  • Substance Abuse and Addiction

    1946 Words  | 4 Pages

    Any comprehensive theory (model) of substance abuse has to answer several difficult questions: What environmental and social factors in an individual’s life cause them to start abusing a drug? What factors cause them to continue? What physiological mechanisms make a drug rewarding? What is addiction, behaviorally and physiologically, and why is it so hard to quit? These questions can be answered in the major theories (models) that are described below using an integrative approach that addresses the problem of substance abuse and addiction as an urgent but elusive goal (Kauffman & Poulin, 1996).

    Read More

  • Poverty And Homelessness In Canada

    2469 Words  | 5 Pages

    Of the main reason teenagers use drugs because of something they have seen, heard or being influenced by others. Teenagers are easy influenced. When one of their friend get a hold of some kinds of drugs he or she peer pressures others on doing it. Teenage life is when a person tries to figure out their life. At that time they take influence from everyone. Even if the influence is doing drugs. A lot of teenagers also do drugs just so they can seem friendly or outgoing. While being peer pressured by others they can easily say no. However, by saying so they think it will make them less friendly or they might lose their friend. Therefore they do it just so they can maintain the friend

    Read More

  • Why Juveniles Get Into Trouble With The Law

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    Peer pressure in adolescents or young adults is really high. It can cause bad decisions or it can also cause good decisions. In a recent survey of nearly 1,000 teenagers, only 10% said that they had not been influenced by peer pressure. http://criminology.regis.edu/criminology-programs/resources/crim-articles/contributing-factors-to-juvenile-crime

    Read More

  • The Biopsychosocial Model and Research in Mental Health

    1009 Words  | 3 Pages

    Toates, F. (2010) ‘The nature of addictions: scientific evidence and personal accounts’ in SDK228 The science of the mind: investigating mental health, Book 3, Addictions, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 1-30.

    Read More

  • Angie Bachmann's Article: The Power Of Addiction

    1482 Words  | 3 Pages

    Same problem was with Angie, she was preoccupied with gambling and so spent a lot of money and wasted her time on it, despite serious consequences. “The rat park residents, however, resisted drinking the narcotic solution, no matter how sweet the researchers made it. While they occasionally imbibe(females more than males), they consistently showed a preference for straight water, And when the groups were compared, the caged isolated rats drank up to sixteen times more than the park residents.” (pg 167, Lauren One of them was to overcome her loneliness, second was to numb unpleasant feelings, third was to get rid of the isolation that she felt when she was at home and lastly that feeling that developed when she visited the casino, it gave her happiness which was as a result of rush of dopamine in her brain. “Addiction in Alexander’s world is a lifestyle strategy, and like all human-constructed strategies, it’s malleable to education, diversion, opportunity.

    Read More

  • An Essay About Drug Addiction

    1114 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many addictions in the world, and drug addiction is the biggest. People may experiment with the drug for many reasons. “If your drug use is causing problems in your life, then you likely have a drug abuse or addiction problem”.(Lawrence Robinson pg.1) Many people start out using drugs by peer pressure or out of their own curiosity. Stress, anxiety, lows self-esteem and depression could be another factor to start using drugs. The drug takes over your body and gives you a good feeling that many people tend to enjoy. The urge to use the drug can keep increasing rapidly after the first use. The urge can become so severe that your mind can find many other ways to deny the factor of addiction. Very few drug addicts can feel and realize when they have crossed the line with drugs. A drug addicts mind can build up a very large tolerance for the drug that they start to abandon the activities they used to do on a daily basis like showering, hobbies, socializing and even being associated with family members. The person with the addiction will continue to use the drug knowing that it is harming there body, but they don’t have any remorse. A drug addict will often try to hide their problem, so they can continue to use without anyone’s input. Family and friends may try to use preaching methods or tell the user that they need to stop using the drug. This method is not ...

    Read More

More about Addiction In Gabor Mate's 'Embraced By The Needle'

Open Document