In this episode of intervention they follow Dallas, a twenty-one year old heroin addict. At the time of the documentary, Dallas had been living on the streets for four years with her boyfriend, Jason, who was also a heroin addict. Dallas had been addicted to heroin for five years – with this many years of abuse the veins in her arms and hands had become overused, they were sore and leaky. Because of this Dallas had moved to injecting heroin into her femoral vein, a very dangerous act. With one slip of her needle she could hit the femoral artery and bleed out. But most of all there was the danger of her enduring addiction; chronic heroin use can lead to liver disease, respiratory failure and death.
Although she and Jason had no home to live
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One of the main things that I learned was how a lot of the reason people do drugs is not because they’re bored or simply curious, but to escape tragic events and stressors they had experienced in their lives. Another fact that I hadn’t known before watching this intervention was how all-consuming an addiction is. A lot of addicts don’t just do drugs every day, but many, many times a day. It’s hard to imagine how an addiction where you’re shooting heroin seven times a day would leave time for anything else. Lastly, I learned how important relationships are in the progression of addictions. From the beginning, Dallas’ relationship with her mother was not a healthy one. Having to be your mother’s emotional support at such a young age is not an easy task for anyone. Now their relationship has evolved, but not into any significantly better one. Now Dallas and her mother have done heroin together and are more of friends than mother and daughter. This relationship not only enables Dallas, but encourages …show more content…
One is that drug use, or experimenting with drugs as an adolescent, have become a normative part of the teenage culture. Declines in the number of teens who view substance use as harmful and increases in peer approval for getting high are associated with increased use of substances in social situations and party environments. There are also media factors that expose adolescents to positive drug and alcohol messages, such as on the internet, are increasing. Also Dallas’, a female from European decent, is more likely to use alcohol or illicit drugs than African American
The documentary states that over 27,000 deaths a year are due to overdose from heroin and other opioids. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in 2015 prescription pain relievers account for 20,101 overdose deaths, and 12,990 overdose deaths are related to heroin (Rudd et al., 2010-2015). The documentary’s investigation gives the history of how the heroin epidemic started, with a great focus on the hospice movement. We are presented with the idea that once someone is addicted to painkillers, the difficulty in obtaining the drug over a long period of time becomes too expensive and too difficult. This often leads people to use heroin. This idea is true as a 2014 survey found that 94% of respondents who were being treated for opioid addiction said they chose to use heroin because prescription opioids were “more expensive and harder to obtain (Cicero et al., 2014).” Four in five heroin users actually started out using prescription painkillers (Johns, 2013). This correlation between heroin and prescription painkiller use supports the idea presented in the documentary that “prescription opiates are heroin prep school.”
Jovan is a 23year-old African-American male, who has voluntarily admitted himself for inpatient treatment at a local non-profit agency due to abuse of alcohol and other drugs. Jovan has been unemployed for the past 9 months; his employment position with Dollar General was terminated due to charges of embezzlement. He admits that he took money from the register but planned to replace it when he got paid. So, Jovan is currently unemployed, homeless, and has charges pending due to embezzlement and for writing a number of "bounced" checks written over the past year.
The cognitive behavioral models say that incentives make way for the right conditions for the need for drug abuse. Drug use is associated with experiences such as self-exploration, religious insights, altering moods, escaping boredom or despair, enhancing creativity, performance, sensory experience or pleasure, and so on (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2012). Cognitive behaviorism has brought in appreciated data at the same time refining theories and treatments. This model stands out from other addiction models because it stands out from the expressive, organic or public causes for addiction. Because it focuses on the patient's own beliefs rather than the influence is the primary focus. The mental process of cognition is related to perception, judgment and reasoning. Cognitive behaviorism affects a person mentally as well as their physical reaction to stimuli. Example, if a person is depressed, the depression is mental but when a person cannot get out of bed, doesn’t want to eat or don’t want to partake in other activities that they usually do is the physical. The factor that can cause a person to use are become a victim to substance abuse and began drug addiction by using drugs to get away from or numb themselves from their depression.
“Narcotics Anonymous is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs have become a major problem.” Addiction is one of the leading cause of death all over the world but for some reason no one has a solution to help these suffering addicts, they’re seen as a lost cause. Most people suffering in active addiction are sent to jails or institutions to be locked up until the drugs wear off then are released into society again. What people don't realize is that once an addict is released from these facilities, they’ll go right back to using because they don’t know how to live and deal with life on life's terms, this is where Narcotics Anonymous or other various other 12 step programs come in. They help the suffering addict by
Coley is a timber cutter that is addicted to crystal meth. He has three young children, two girls and a boy and a wife that he affects everyday with his crystal meth abuse. Throughout the episode Coley locks himself in the garage, so he can snort powder form of crystal meth without his children being directly in front of it. Coley thinks that if he locks himself in the garage his children do not see his behaviors. Coley's addiction stemmed from his childhood where his mother was a speed addict and alcoholic and allowed Coley to do drugs and drink with her throughout his young teens and late adult hood. After Coley married his wife and his wife recognized the problem was connected to when he was at his mother's home she asked that he not be involved with his mother. Coley does this and shortly after his mother dies. This leads Coley to more drug abuse and his addiction becomes worse, due to the guilt he feels for hurting his mother and the guilt from the fact that she died alone. Coley somewhat blames his wife for this. Coley put his family in great danger with the bills not being paid and him putting off jobs for something he thinks will become his gold mine and turns out not to.
Simons-Morton, B.. (2007). Social Influences on Adolescent Substance Use. American Journal of Health Behavior, 31(6), 672-84. Retrieved May 5, 2011, from ProQuest Psychology Journals. (Document ID: 1390074281).
I once read in an article “Some teens use alcohol or drugs to dull the pain in their lives. When they are given a choice to take something to make them temporarily feel better, many cannot resist” (Look). The use of drugs will [affect] the everyday lives of many teenagers today. Throughout history more and more teenagers have turned to the use of drugs to help them through their everyday struggle.
The video pertained to individuals who struggled with addictions. This video helped me understand what those individuals dealt with once they began their usage of drugs and alcohol and what it does to them over a period of time. The video gave an overview of the individuals discussing their first time using either drugs or alcohol and the struggle of their addictions for several years. They discussed what they had to go through and experience while using, falling in love, and the ending point of their struggle. Majority of the individuals began using as young adults due to peer pressure.
...olescences to abuse drugs depending on the influencing stimuli. We must educate the adolescences on respectable behavior and consequences to drug seeking behaviors and addiction.
In 1914, the Harrison Narcotic Act outlawed cocaine in the United States and usage decline throughout the 1940’s through the 1960’s. In the 1970’s cocaine regained popularity as a recreational drug and was glamorized in the US popular media. It is also said that kids with weak bonds to their families and schools, as in how close they feel to their parents or teachers are more likely to experiment/use drugs than kids with stronger bonds. The reason behind this is kids with weak bonds are more likely to fall into conventional norms or delinquent behavior. Social pressure also plays a large role in this time in our lives, many of the people we surround ourselves with drink,smoke, or are using drugs, and because many of us have a fear of being left out and want to “fit in” and because of this we often find ourselves
It has been discovered that most people who struggle with drug addiction began experimenting with drugs in their teens. Teenage drug abuse is one of the largest problems in society today and the problem grows and larger every year. Drugs are a pervasive force in our culture today. To expect kids not to be influenced by the culture of their time is as unrealistic as believing in the tooth fairy (Bauman 140). Teens may feel pressured by their friends to try drugs, they may have easy access to drugs, they may use drugs to rebel against their family or society, or they may take an illegal drug because they are curious about it or the pleasure that it gives them.
The survey we conducted showed that most people believed it was more common for youths in the 14 to 22 age group to use recreational drugs. This was closely followed by the 23 to 30 age group, while the 13 and under age group was considerably further behind. The survey question that followed indicated that people also believed that drug users were irresponsible and inconsiderate. This slightly supports the misconception that teens are more likely to be involved with recreational drugs.
There are a myriad of cultural and societal risk factors that contribute adolescent alcohol and drug use. A risk factor is defined as “any attribute, characteristic or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or injury”. These risk factors can be identified through family history of substance use disorder, sense of inferiority, pleasure seeking, low self-esteem, unemployment, poor social support, desire to experiment and poor social support (Thomas, N. L., Naregal, P. M., Mohite, V. R., Tata, S. H., Karale, R. B., & Kakade, S. V. (2015).) Risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition, such as changing schools, moving, or divorce. Additional peer risk factors include gang involvement or the reinforcement of negative norms and expectations within peer group, the lack of academic...
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.
Few people deny the dangers of drug use, while many teens are curious about drugs. They should stay away from drugs because drugs affect our health, lead to academic failure, and jeopardizes safety. Drugs are used from a long period of time in many countries. The concentration of drugs has increased from late 1960’s and 1970’s. Drugs can quickly takeover our lives. Friends and acquaintance have the greatest influence of using drugs during adolescence.