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Drugs and Sorrow
Have you ever dealt with the effects of drugs firsthand in your life? Drugs are a substance
that has a psychological effect when ingested or otherwise introduced into the body, in particular.
The causes of drugs can vary depending on the person whether it was caused by a rough
childhood or just a bad decision made with friends. According to “Causes and types of narcotic
addiction: A Psychosocial View” in the Psychiatric Quarterly it says, “The causes of drugs stem
from the manner of which you were introduced to it whether it be by abnormal curiosity, chance
encounters with addicts and narcotic peddlers, or prolonged illness” (Ausubel). So in other words
its somewhat bad luck if you become addicted. The effects of drugs can be different in certain
people as well whether it be for pleasure or to take away the pain. Most of the effects of drugs
occur in the brain, where it increases the level of dopamine at a specific site possibly giving the
addict the pleasure they were feigning for (Robbins). I believe I was around the age of six when I
started noticing the signs of my Aunty Wendy becoming extremely skinny and looking
somewhat unhealthy. As a child I didn’t know much about drugs except for what your parents
and teachers at school tell you which is,“Just Say No.”
The signs of a drug addiction consist of a high craving of drugs with no regard for the
way in which it is acquired (Plos). Those signs are exactly the signs she showed in the kitchen
that day besides how she physically looked. For awhile my aunt went missing due to drugs and
then one day she turned up at the backdoor of my grandpa’s home. As I was playing on the steps
of grandparents’ home I recognized my aunt. She was begging to come inside the house.
Conveniently, enough, my Aunty Sharon, her sister, was in the kitchen and let her in, but my
grandfather quickly put her back outside because he didn’t want her in his house if she was on
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drugs. Not too long after that day my Aunty Wendy got into trouble with drugs and was sent to
rehab. According to “Drug Addiction Treatment Methods” on Drug-rehabs.com it says, “There
are several types of drug abuse treatment programs. Short-term methods last less than 6 months
and include residential therapy, medication therapy, and drug-free outpatient therapy. Longer
term treatment may include, for example, methadone maintenance outpatient treatment for opiate
addicts and residential therapeutic community treatment” (Drug). I’m sure my aunt went through
one of these treatments. For a time things were looking up for her, but you never know how long
the good things might last.
Sadly, my Aunty Wendy eventually went back to drugs and got sentenced to deportation
back to Trinidad and Tobago, which is tropical country close to South America, her home
country where the drugs are the main cause of crime for 8 to 10 years. At the end of the sentence
she was to be tried again to see if she was fit to return to the United States, but it never happened
because of the physical and mental state she was and still possibly is in. Unfortunately, the
ending to this story isn’t a happy one because according to my Grandfather and family down in
Trinidad she’s constantly going missing for days while also appearing drugged up when seen and
lashing out due to her bipolar disorder. As you can see I have dealt with drugs and there are
many causes/effects of drugs as well as some cases of recidivism.
When someone says, “You get that laugh or that smile from your father or your mother.”
You don’t always believe them, but in some studies today it is said that if your parents or anyone
in your family has a history of a drug addiction those traits in their genes have a decent chance of
being passed down to the children causing problems for them later in life. According to the
Drugs and Addiction article in the 2009 Addiction Journal, “Family, twin and adoption studies
suggest that the heritability of substance use disorders is moderate to high (ranging from 0.30 to
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0.70), with shared and non-shared environmental factors also important” (Wong). I didn’t think it
was actually possible to inherit a trait that could cause me to be drug addict later on in life. Also
there have been studies done by the Genome-wide association that identified variants in a
chromosome that increase the risks of both lung cancer and nicotine dependence and associated
smoking behavior (Amos). This was astonishing to me, even though I had some idea that there
had to be some deeper cause to drug addiction besides the person getting hooked on it.
Drug addiction can cause many problems in a family, but most of all it can lead to a
record that the addict never thought they would have when they first started using. Essentially a
drug addiction is a disorder that causes the user to be helpless against the urge to keep using no
matter what the cost or outcomes may be (Durrant). I’m not really surprised by this information,
because in high school I learned a lot about Drug Addiction Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.).
Most addicts find pleasure in the use of drugs when they first start out, but as time goes on the
only reason that they use is to keep from feeling the pain of withdrawal (Kemp). This
information was new to me because I didn’t know that withdrawal was such a problem with
addicts. According to the “Familial Risk Factors Favoring Drug Addiction Onset”, “The evergrowing prevalence of opiate drug abuse has eventually led to crises in modern society and
traditional family ways; it has jeopardized fundamental social virtues and values and led to a rise
in criminal behavior” (Zimić). I can really empathize with this source because of the problems
that my family dealt with my Aunty Wendy and still deal with these days when they go looking
for her.
If drugs can give you pleasure then why isn’t everyone addicted to drugs? Well the
answer is simple most people are aware of what harmful drugs can do to their system. If
someone doesn’t know about harmful drugs it’s due to a lack of information given by the person
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distributing the drugs whether it be a friend, family member, or a drug dealer. In a sense this is
probably the reason most kids today are targeted by people soliciting drugs, because they don’t
know much about drugs and can sometimes be easily coaxed into using.
Drugs can affect us in many other ways besides making us drug addicts. According to
“Drug Addiction and Its Underlying Neurobiological Basis: Neuroimaging Evidence for the
Involvement of the Frontal Cortex” in the article of National Institute of Health, “The Frontal
Cortical (front of the brain) are affected in addicted subjects during intoxication, craving, and
bingeing, and they are deactivated during withdrawal” (Goldstein). When I first read that article I
was bombarded by technical words about parts of the brain that I had to look up to further
understand it. In the end I learned a lot about the brain in an addicts’ skull. Many drugs as well
as alcohol have influenced several different chemical neurotransmitter systems in the brain
affecting them in a manner where the dopamine level is increased or decreased (Zimić). I
understand why this is true, because when I was younger in health class they would always say
that drugs and alcohol have negative effects on your brain.
Drugs show different effects in everyone whether it be a man/woman. Both have exhibit
different effects. According to Gender Differences in Crime, Drug Addiction, Abstinence,
Personality Characteristics, and Negative Emotions article in Journal of Psychoactive Drugs,
“‘Research demonstrates that female drug addicts exhibit effects where they rarely have an urge
to participate in violent crimes compared to males who exhibit negative crime like mannerisms,”
(Chen). In some ways this made sense because men are naturally have aggressive nature even if
its not constantly showing. Another side effect of drugs is destructive behavior that is seen most
in children that have been neglected at a young age (Zimić). I can see the destructive behavior
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being possible in children because the relationship between children and their parents can be
damaged easily at a young age.
So I hope from this information you’re able to understand how drugs can cause people to
become addicts whether the reason they began using was due to it being passed from a family
member or because of a bad relationship between the parents and their child. Even though we
may turn a blind eye to it drugs will always be a problem in societies today whether we like it or
not, but the most important thing is how we deal with it when it confronts us. All in all drugs
aren’t a problem unless you make it one so take care of yourself and make the right choices.
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Works Cited
Chen, Gila. "Gender Differences in Crime, Drug Addiction, Abstinence,
Personality Characteristics, and Negative Emotions." Journal of
Psychoactive Drugs 41.3 (2009): 255-66. Academic Search Complete. Web. 17
Feb. 2013.
Durrant, Russil, et al. "Drug Use and Addiction: Evolutionary Perspective."
Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 43 (2009): 1049-56.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.
Kemp, Ryan. "The Lived-Body of Drug Addiction."Existential Analysis: Journal of
the Society for Existential Analysis 20.1 (2009):120-32. Academic Search
Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.
Wong, Chloe C.Y., Jonathan Mill, and Cathy Fernandes. "Drugs and Addiction: An
Introduction to Epigenetics." Addiction 106.3 (2011): 480-89. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.
Zimić, Jadranka Ivandić, and Vlado Jukić. "Familial Risk Factors Favoring Drug
Addiction Onset." Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 44.2 (2012): 173-85.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 16 Feb. 2013.