Beautiful Boy: A Father's Addiction

Beautiful Boy: A father’s Journey Though His Son’s Addiction, is a non-fictional story written by David Sheff describing the struggles he and his family go through because of the onset of his son’s, Nic, addiction to methamphetamine. The story starts out when Nic is a young boy living with his mother, Vicki, and father, David in San Francisco. David and Vicki are wonderful parents. They are both active in Nic’s life; they read to him, take him to the San Francisco Zoo, and when he is of age, attends preschool. Nic is happy and smart boy, but his parent’s relationship is struggling. Vicki moves to Los Angeles and remarries, David gets primary custody of Nic and Vicki gets Nic for holidays and summer vacation. David eventually remarries, Karen,

and adds two more children to the family, Jasper and Margarete (Daisy).
Nic’s twelve when David first finds marijuana in his possession. He admits to using it as well as trying a cigarette and to have drank alcohol. Year later, Nic is suspended from high school for buying marijuana on campus. David is astonished but tells himself that Nic is not a typical druggie, and that Nic is different. Nic meets with the school counselor, Don, and he encourages him to join the swim team and water polo. Nic seems to be doing great, he is active in his sports, his academics, and David feels like the drug issue has vanished. After doing so well, Nic admits to smoking marijuana again and David can tell he is losing his son.
Nic starts college, David notices that he seems distracted and stop returning calls. Nic admits that college isn’t working and David assumes that drugs are the cause of these feelings. He thinks he went to college too soon, that he needs some “me time” and he has been feeling depressed. Nic goes missing for several days. He comes home sick, frail, and spends three days shivering and curled up in bed. David insists on rehab, Nic declines and says that he just messed up and had learned his lesson. He admits to have been using crystal meth.
This begins Nic’s downward spiral of meth and alcohol addiction.

He goes to several rehab facilities which he reluctantly returns to after each relapse. David desperately wants his son to be his son again and in some cases forces him to go back to rehab. Each time ends up in relapse. In one instant he breaks into his family’s home and steals money from his younger siblings. After seemingly going through rehab and a half way house successfully, Nic has been sober for a year. He has his own apartment, a job, and bought himself a car, he is now 21 years old. Nic seems to be doing very well and makes frequent calls home until suddenly the phone calls stop. David cannot get ahold of Nic nor can his mother. They fear the worst. After several days with no sign of Nic, they file a missing person’s report. After several weeks, Nic finally returns. He was on a drug binge and goes back to rehab. Nic once again relapses and this time overdoses and almost dies in the hospital. Nic goes back to rehab by his own choice and meets with his counselor, Randy, again. Nic is sober for nearly two years until one night at a party, decided to do meth again with his girlfriend. He said it was a three day thing and that he is still sober, he denies that he still has a problem. Nic goes back to rehab, this time seems different. He is actually feeling remorsefully for all that he has done and cannot believe that this is his life. When the story is over, David explains that Nic has now been sober for a

year and now has an apartment, shared with his girlfriend, and a job.
Analysis
The main character is this memoir, Nic, has a substance abuse disorder. Although meth is his drug of choice, he will use and abuse anything he can get ahold of, including alcohol. There are several DSM-5 criteria listed in Abnormal Psychology that are relevant to Nic’s story. Failure to meet obligations is one of his first met criteria. He drop out of college because the addiction is too strong. He makes up excuses that it just wasn’t the right time, and that he will try again later, but he never follows though. David was so proud of him for making it to college, such a pristine college at that, and Nic did not meet his obligation to continue on with his education. Nic was continuously using controlled substances though out the entirety of the story/his life. He understood that using drugs was not good, he understood what the consequences were, he was a smart kid but nothing could stop him from using. Even after nearly two years of sobriety, one night at a party was all it took for his to start using continuously again. All of the efforts Nic, David, and the rest of the family exhumed towards Nic’s recovery were not useful. Each time Nic relapsed, David either encouraged or forced Nic to go back to treatment, weather is was rehab, a half-way house, or the hospital, but the desire for the drug was too much for Nic.
According to the article Methamphetamine Addiciton: A Review of the Literature (2012), methamphetamine is the second most used illicit drug worldwide after marijuana.

Meth use has serious consequences including dental diseases, cardiovascular impairment, pulmonary diseases, and death. In Nic’s story, we did not lean much about the consequences his body went through because of his chronic addiction. David speaks about how frail his once muscular body has turned into and his sunken in face, but never goes into much more detail than this. Nic does overdose and ends up in the hospital and nearly dies, but this is the only known experience though out his many years of use. Methamphetamine dependence also causes serious cognitive impairments that can still be apparent though time of sobriety. Ever since Nic was a young boy, he was very intelligent. He did very well in school and got accepted to several pristine colleges. Though he dropped out after becoming several addicted to meth, it was not because he was not smart enough but rather the meth was now more important to him than a quality education. David never makes note of how Nic’s cognitive functions change. Nic does not make very wise decisions, but this is because of the impairment caused by the drug. Nic goes through several instances of relapse, in some cases it is because he cannot handle the symptoms of withdrawal. The symptoms of withdrawals have been linked to relapse for drug abuse. These symptoms can include

unpleasant dreams, insomnia, fatigue, and increases appetite. During Nic’s withdrawal period he had intense cases of night sweats and tremors. He was quick to blame these symptoms on using again.
Methamphetamine abuse takes an extreme toll on one’s oral health (Rommel, Rohleder, Koerdt, Wagenpfeil, Hartel-Petri, Kaluse, Wolff, Kesting,, 2016). A study was conducted to assess their oral health as it pertains to saliva dysfunctions, jaw clenching, and pain in the temporomandibular joint. One-hundred chronic methamphetamine abusers along with 100 comparison participants were evaluated in these three criteria. Most of the meth users, 72%, reported a dry mouth, 68% reported jaw clenching, and half of the participants experience pain in the temporomandibular joint. “The researchers conclude that the regular use of meth may lead to dry mouth which can result in dental carries, lesions, and tooth wear. The damage meth does on an abusers mouth is what most people are aware of when it comes to this addition, but in Nic’s case, his oral health was not mentioned. With his extreme use of meth, Nic must have not had the best of oral health and would have taken a toll on his physical appearance, self-esteem, and well-being. David does not mention damage done to a once beaming young smile Nic must have had as the child we first read about.
A study conducted to examine the characteristics of adolescents with substance abuse resulted in conclusions similar to that of Nic. The study used 34 adolescents with a substance abuse or dependence between the ages of 14 and 18. Comparative to the control group of adolescents, those who are not abusing drugs, the clinical group reported a lower level of positive affectivity and higher levels of sad negative affectivity. The researchers concluded that low positive affectivity and low effortful control were the temperament dimensions that best predicted substance abuse (Willem, Bijttebier, Claes, Sools, Vandenbussche, & Nigg, 2011). Nic always seemed to act so much more differently when he was using drugs versus when we was not. He was such a happy, smart, and joyful little boy before he started experimenting with drugs and alcohol. After he first started using marijuana, his attitudes changed; he started listening to more depressing music, he was making bad choices at school, and spent his time with not so good influences. More into his addiction, he was negative towards his family members, even stole money from his young brother, he couldn’t hold a romantic relationship, and couldn’t hold a job without relapse. In between relapses he was physically active, was part of the swim and polo teams and enjoyed bike riding with his sponsor. When the drugs took over, all of these characteristics changed. Nic was not Nic when he was on drugs.
Throughout his years of drug abuse, Nic went through several forms of treatment. It took several attempts before Nic was sober for his longest amount of time, which was only followed by relapse again. According to the memoir, this is normal for addicts and treatment may be needed numerous of times before sobriety is obtainable. A study was done to examine the outcome of drug counseling for cocaine dependence (Crits-Christoph, Johnson, Connolly Gibbons & Gallop, 2012). This study concluded that a positive relationship between an addict and their counselor was associated with a reduction of drug use per month. If advice from counselors and fellow group members were overwhelming, then poorer outcomes were reported. This relates to the relationship that Nic had with his sponsor, Randy. When this relationship formed he was making the most progress in his recovery and getting back into his old life. Even after Nic relapsed, David encouraged Nic to call Randy and see what he had to say. Randy did not provide an overwhelming amount of advice, but rather treated him like a person who mattered and that he cared about. This relationship with Randy, along with support from fellow users in his rehab programs, may have been the greatest factor that contributed to his recovery. Because of this research and Nic’s situation, ongoing one-on-one counseling and treatment with a counselor and/sponsor along with group sessions with other addicts should be used as a treatment plan for substance abuse.
Reflection
This author has never been personally involved with or intensively read about substance abuse. This author enjoyed reading about Nic’s life because is induced a lot of thoughts about those who struggle with substance abuse. The story of Nic’s life depicted by his father changed that way that this author views substance abuse. The most surprising aspect of this story was that Nic, although grew up in a divided home, had a seemingly healthy childhood and loving parents and siblings. There was no way anyone could have predicted that his life would have ended up being the way it was. This is something that most, including this author, do not understand, substance abuse of any kind can come at any time in someone’s life and for a variety of reasons. Past assumptions about substance abusers has now been changed to not be so judgmental because no one is every aware of what another person is going though and what they think is going to solve their problems. The best thing we can do is to help those who are in need and inform that they are still loved and cared about.