Substance Abuse And Society Essay

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In the map I detailed several connections that were tied to the social issue of drug and alcohol abuse. These connections helped me to clarify the issue to better understand it and its impact on society. The first connection was cultural beliefs and biases; which based off old stereotypes it is thought that people who become addicted to drugs or alcohol are weak, immoral or tragically flawed. And many people believe that substance abuse only affects the user and doesn’t have a larger impact on society. Now the relationship between these beliefs and the social issue is a negative one as they are negative assumptions about lifestyles that include drugs and alcohol. When in reality substance abusers are just like everyone else. They are parents, children, friends, workmates, sisters and brothers. They hold down jobs, have friends, go to social functions and enjoy their weekends. Some fail to manage their addiction and do become entrenched in a lifestyle that the stereotypes embody, but many do not. An addiction does not discriminate between rich and poor, young or old. …show more content…

And notably there wasn’t a role in society they didn’t take part in; for instance, substance abusers are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, aunts, grandmothers, coworkers, friends, bosses, mayors, criminals…...etc. Addiction doesn’t differentiate. Race, sex, intelligence: no trait or set of characteristics exempts one from the possibility of addiction. (MFIRecovery.com, 2014) So by knowing this it showed me that it doesn’t matter where you have been or what you may have nobody is out of the reach of addiction. Which this relationship is strained due to stereotypes that depict substance abuser as criminals and not your everyday individuals. This removes the empathy that people need to relate to the social issue of substance abuse, therefore making it difficult for them to realize its

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