Drugs, Society And Human Behavior

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Recommended: Family roles in drug abuse

Everyone knows how tempting it is to grab a piece of chocolate cake or a nice brownie sundae from the local friendly’s when you’re trying to eat healthy, or just in general, but for some people the temptation isn’t towards junk food, its towards drugs and alcohol. There are many different reasons that one may have that could lead up to the unhealthy decision of using either drugs or alcohol.
For the last seven weeks or so when taking this class, I have been introduced to the topics of substance abuse. I attended a local AA meeting, read articles, visited websites and read the required textbook to learn what alcohol and drugs can do to you and everyone around you. I have noticed multiple connections between the required textbook “Drugs, Society and Human Behavior”, the provided article “A problematic drinker in the family: Variations in the level of negative impact experienced by sex, relationship and living status”, the link including the articles “Why is Alcoholism Called a Family Disease?, Enabling- When ‘Helping’ Doesn’t Really Help, 10 Things to Stop Doing If You Love an Alcoholic” and the AA meeting I attended. The biggest link that all resources mentioned numerous times is how the alcoholic who you love becomes abusive, physically, emotionally or verbally, they blame their problems on everyone but themselves and that the children of the abusive adult have extreme emotional difficulties. At the AA meeting, one recovering alcoholic admitted that he became verbally abusive, he blamed his problems on his family and began using the money they had set aside for bills for his drinking habits because he didn’t work.
In the article “A problematic drinker in the family…”, it was said that “…findings suggest that problematic drinkers ...

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...stances themselves or they might not care and continue on with their life.
I believe it is important to examine how alcohol/drugs affect a family because now a day’s substance abuse is so common and you never know if someone you care for could become addicted to alcohol or drugs. Hopefully it will never happen, but in case it does you will be able to better understand the steps that are needed to take in order to reach sobriety. You would know that the first thing you must understand what the alcoholic/addict is feeling and why they feel the need to turn to drugs/alcohol. I think the greatest way to do that is by attending a local AA meeting yourself, to hear other people’s stories. Then once you are aware of how things go you can bring your loved one and start from there. You must be patient and always stay positive when sobriety is the topic of your conversation.

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