Alcohol and Substance Abuse

Alcohol and Substance Abuse in Vulnerable Populations Your Name Professor; Naire HCA 430 Submitted; July 23, 2012 1128

Alcohol and Substance Abuse

This is an analysis on individual that are suffering from drug related abuse and alcohol connected difficulties. This critical thought exercise will focus on the intake of alcohol as well as those abusive substances such as tobacco, marijuana, cocaine and the likes. Further, this analysis will cover the areas and places with these types of individuals and correlate the same with those individuals who are non-addictive. Being alcoholic is one common problem people usually suffer from. Alcohol is a product that you can buy in an instant and the implementation of banning this product is quite slack. These reasons usually justifies why college students and teenagers are hooked in such a young age to alcohol problems. Products that contain caffeine, nicotine and sugars are usually products that cause addiction and harm to an individual. Taking in sugar in excessive amount can cause diabetes and obesity. Taking in a lot of flavorings and additives, on the other hand, can cause liver diseases and internal organ failures (Newsweek, 2001). Americans today have increased their consumption of harmful and additive substances from different products. Not long ago, they are still cautious of taking in dangerous substances that are harmful to their bodies. Now, individuals who are taking abusive substances have larger number than those who have non-abusive conditions. This is a clear indication of change and of continuous change. Studies will support this observation for it showed that high school students are already using alcohol and marijuana and people 30 years old and above are into opiates (Newsweek, 2001). Poor people usually are hooked with amphetamines because it is not costly. One can observe that being hooked with an abusive drug is sometimes correlated with the age bracket of the individual. This is due to the power to decide of the person that is dictated by his or her age or maturity. Peer pressure is another element in the persons abusive scenario because

Alcohol and Substance Abuse what his or her peer will think is important element to an individual. Thus, high school and college history of a person is related with his or her ability to tolerate and get addicted with a substance. Also, once a person is hooked with a certain substance, it will also follow that he or she will develop an addiction over another substance. Example, those addicted with tobacco is usually hooked with caffeine. Likewise with addicted to marijuana, they are also into alcohol drinking. Imposed with this is the fact that as one addict matures, his or her addiction will also

take it into another level. Usually addiction is seen to people with low income and belongs to the last social strata. Exception is the addiction with expensive substances that only the rich individuals can afford. This is a category of abuse that is tailored to the social belongingness of the person. Take for instance cocaine. This is a costly substance that even the middle class people find it hard to buy. It is costly as much as it has high addiction effect; which entails cure to the addiction to this substance as expensive as one can imagine. People that belong to this kind of addiction usually show signs of being not interested to function as an individual and being not interested to be productive. Cocaine addicted individuals are most of the time absent on their work and schools 30% retire after 6 months of work, 13% needs support in day-to-day activities and 3% usually goes bankrupt after quite some time of being hooked with this substance (Newsweek, 2001). Amphetamines, crack cocaine and heroin are observed to create damage in the users body in the first three years of use (Verdichevski et. al., 2011). Those affected, most of the time, needs longer recovery period and therapy sessions and medication such as methadone in order to recuperate from the addiction. On the other hand, it is observed that there are more men compared to women who are into drug abuse. And they are seen more often in ethnic groups. For instance,

Alcohol and Substance Abuse there are more African American male drug users imprisoned. Aside from race and gender, studies also revealed that educational background has a bearing to drug abuse related cases. People who are hooked with abusive drugs are commonly those who have not finished their studies, not even their high school. Trying to connect drug abusers around the globe with categories is quite a difficult task to do because of their various differences and classifications. Take for instance the fact that there are more men than women who are into drug addiction; however, this is not always the case since there have been studies that shows that the type of substance has a bearing to the level of addiction of the person (Peltan et. al., 2011). Also, even though men are into drug abuse, it is revealed that they can fairly manage their personal lives compared to women. This field of drug addiction and substance abuse has a quite large following; thus, there are numerous accounts, studies and researches revolving around this topic, the extent of the damage and dynamics of the abuse. For example, in school the abuse roots from peer influences and curiosity. For young professionals on the other hand, the abuse comes from the stress over their works in order to attain success. These young adults believed that use of cocaine and other stimulants might bring up their individualities. Alcohol, meanwhile, is the substance most

common to mid class and adults (Morgan et. al., 2011) since it is believed to bring relaxation and inhibition to a person. This substance when consumed with other drugs can bring about accidents, death and illnesses and abuse with alcohol is most of the time seen in developed countries and is said to be a social cancer of the modern era.

Alcohol and Substance Abuse References Aday, L.A. (2003). At risk in America: The health and health care needs of vulnerable populations in the United States. (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. ISBN: 9780787949860 MAPPING ADDICTION. (2001). Newsweek, 137(7), 43. Morgan, M. L., Brosi, W. A., & Brosi, M. W. (2011). Restorying Older Adults' Narratives About Self and Substance Abuse. American Journal Of Family Therapy, 39(5), 444-455. Peltan, J. R., & Cellucci, T. (2011). Childhood sexual abuse and substance abuse treatment

utilization among substance-dependent incarcerated women. Journal Of Substance Abuse Treatment, 41(3), 215-224. Verdichevski, M., Burns, R., Cunningham, J. K., Tavares, J., & Callaghan, R. C. (2011). Trends in Primary Methamphetamine-Related Admissions to Youth Residential Substance Abuse Treatment Facilities in Canada, 2005-2006 and 2009-2010. Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 56(11), 696-700.