Leshner states, “As with many other brain diseases, addiction has embedded behavioral and social-context aspects that are important parts of the disorder itself” (Leshner). Recognizing addiction as a mental illness can help reduce the health and social costs that are directly related to treating addiction. Research has exposed that drug abuse is a severe health issue, as well as a social issue. Addicts become so obsessed with consuming the substance it causes their immune systems to shut down and causes the addict to be incapable of functioning properly in a social setting. Addiction has severe negative consequences affecting the addict’s mental and physical well being.
“All excess is ill, but drunkenness is of the worst sort. It spoils health, dismounts the mind, and unmans men”, (William Penn a preacher, minister, and missionary in the late seventeenth century). In The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexies shows us how alcohol abuse affects Junior's life, how painful it is to deal with the effect, and how it leads to violence and death of the ones he loves. Alcoholism is a disease that affects millions of people and it isn't different for Indians as we see in every other page of this novel. To understand why alcoholism is a disease, it's important to look up it's effects.
Social media helps teens advance socially in the world, but it seems a side effect of social media is depression. Lara Devgan, a plastic surgeon in New York City and writer of ABC news, writes in her article, “Facebook May Be Making You Sad,” that a study from the University of Michigan shows that the more people use Facebook, the more unhappy they become. The study showed that users of social media sites were dissatisfied with their lives after they got off their social media site. People may get more friends on social media sites, but the more they see their friend’s lives, the more they are unhappy with their own lives. This is just a natural human action.
Brian had no permanent home and no stable job to support himself. He had sex with people he did not know and did drugs at the same time. He stated that, “My life has been out of control and it hasn't been in control for a while.” Factors that might have triggered Brian's addiction could include the lack of success in his life and low self esteem. In the article I read about drug addiction it said that recent studies have shown methamphetamine abuses have shown that they perform poorly on decision making tasks that involve regions of the frontal cortex (Cobb, 2009). This explanation can be a possible trigger to his addiction to sex and his lack of decision making in terms of putting himself in danger for many risk for infections.
Without treatment or engagement in recovery treatment, addiction is progressive and can result in disability or premature death. The inherit problem with substance abuse is its relentless progression for those who become addicted. A progression that in most cases leads to one of three places: jail, institutions, or death. In between these outcomes the nature of addiction causes harm on society as a whole. Social neglect and criminal behavior are frequent companions of substance abuse.
In a similar way, Bobby’s reality show played a substantial effect on Whitney’s deterioration. According to TNZ news, the show aired during the worst years of the couple’s crumbling marriage; drug use, lifestyle excess and bad behavior were all caught on tape. This caused Whitney’s reputation to sink to new lows. However, much like a tragic hero, Whitney “remains passive in the face of what he conceives to be a challenge to his dignity, his image of his rightful status.” (Arthur Miller). Whitney Houston was on top of the world, until her relationship with Bobby Brown turned sour in eroding drug use and increasingly erratic behavior, which was in fact a result of the beginning of her deterioration.
The death rates that are caused by alcohol are presented in the article. The affects of alcohol on the brain are fatal. Some studies from the article can be used for the research. Consuelo Guerri, Jaime Renau-Piqueras, Alcohol, astroglia, and brain development, Humana Press, August 1, 1997, electronic. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02740616?LI=true The effects of alcohol of a pregnant woman are detrimental to the baby.
Were being an addict and having a mental illness both full under a medical problem. The reason being is that an addict is going to need help to be able to kick their addiction. The biggest issue to look at is that surveys show that some people are ashamed to admit that they know someone in their family that has an addiction problem. And if you are ashamed or scared to admit the problem then maybe this paper will help with that shame. Because if you are ashamed to admit the problem then the person can not get the help they need.
Many addicts believe they are the cause of their own addictions and put all the blame on themselves. Maté disagrees with this argument because he believes in the science of the brain and how it works. The fact that some addicts believe that all of the childhood abuse and punishment is because of their actions is absurd. Maté describes these feelings that the addicts feel as “being cut off from their natural self-compassion” (275). The drug addicts lose all respect for themselves and these addictions end up taking over their lives.
Too much of anything can produce an addiction whether its drugs, food, gambling, or even the internet. However the effect that alcohol and drugs produces can cause loss of productivity and physical dependence. Within addiction its primary feature is that the addict shows psychological dependence on the addiction and without the substance they are unable to maintain a normal life. When addicts become extremely dependant on drugs it causes loss of sense of reality and the withdrawal symptoms can cause a psychological change in the body resulting in pain or even medical