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Effects of drug addiction essay
Addiction childhood essay
Effects of drug addiction essay
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David’s Addiction What is wrong with a father saving his son? Do you really explain David’s reaction an addiction? Put yourself in his shoes. You wouldn’t sit back, and watch your son amount to nothing. No father should watch their own son or daughter do drugs. Society is so quick to judge when they have never had to deal with the issues themselves. I wouldn’t consider David trying to save his own son’s life an addiction, but as more of an obligation. I don’t believe there is anywhere in this book that David shows the inability to let go of his desire to help his son as an unhealthy practice. He does show his inability to watch his son throw his life away. He is very active in helping his son.
On page 119 David says, “I know that I must do everything possible to get him into a drug rehab program. I call counselors and other specialists for recommendations. Nic’s therapist now agrees that rehab is essential, and contacts some of his colleagues who specialize in drug and alcohol addiction. My friends call their friends who have been through this” (Sheff, 119).
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He was not being crazy or addictive he was doing what was best for his son in a time of need. Critics of Sheff’s memoir may blow up David’s actions, and make them seem as if he was doing only what he thought was best for himself. That was not the case, David was asking other parents how they reacted to their own experiences with their addictive kids. He was putting in the time to find the best ways to proceed with helping his son.
On the back cover of Sheff’s book, Beautiful Boy, it says, “But as a journalist, he instinctively researched every avenue of treatment that might save his son and refused to give up on Nic.” I would say that David was the biggest help to Nic. He did whatever he could do to help his son. Like the quote said he never gave up, and Nic needed someone to push him to be
His son Nic Sheff had methamphetamine addiction and the memoir explained the stages David went through to help and keep Nic alive. Sheff was trying to appeal to readers who faced a similar crisis. He wanted these readers to be able to connect and relate as much as they could. Everybody can empathize with the basic emotions of relief, depression, and fear. Hence, Sheff utilized pathos in his writing. His poignant tone was testified by phrases such as, “enormously painful” (Sheff 17), “excruciating” (Sheff 35), “fearful”(Sheff 5), and “I relive the hell” (Sheff 54). By representing the pain he felt, he aroused the feelings of regret and agony he assumed his reader would have. His variety of sentence lengths also portrayed his emotions. For example, his long, never-ending sentence reflected his frustration and helplessness. When Nic went missing one night, Sheff said, "it got so bad that I wanted to wipe out and delete and expunge every trace of him from my brain so that I would not have to worry about him anymore and I would not have to to be disappointed by him anymore and hurt by him and I would no longer have the restless and haunting slideshow of images..." (Sheff 241). He also repeated the phrase, “if only I had” (42). This revealed the guilt he had for Nic’s condition. Sheff, along with other countless parents, felt that he was responsible for his son’s
He lived a perfect life and was blessed with perfect parents. Everyday is a new adventure filled with fun. He loved his life and his family. After Abuse: a. David came to believe that there was no god because "No God would leave me like this" Pg.131. He had totally disconnected himself from all the physical pain.
is a fight just to survive for the next day . As a child David is taught a very harsh way of
Beautiful Boy is a well-written book in a sense that despite the heavy topic, it is easily read. This book is very personal and full of emotional load. This is a story, told by a father of a drug-addicted son, and this story does not differ from many other on the similar topic. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that such stories are the most honest, since stories about substance abuse are very often the same. In my personal opinion, this book is very precious for people who experience or had experienced the same problem as David Sheff, especially when it is read in tandem with Nic Sheff’s Tweak. These two books may give a good insight on the issue of drug abuse, and revel the perceptions of both family and addicted person.
At first, David cares that his mother treats him badly. After awhile, he doesn’t care and becomes apathetic.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
Child abuse was still on the verge of emerging like mental illness, there were no laws or rights being enforced to protect those against neglect or abuse. Furthermore, all the marks that were present of David’s body had to be cause by more than he was admitting being no one else witnessed the abuse. For instance, when Catherine tried to have David eat the defecated diaper, the abuse stopped when Ron, Stan, and David 's father came back to the vacation cabin (Pelzer, 1995, pp. 57). It was a risky long drawn out rescue mission, but if Catherine had assumed a social case was being built on David’s behalf she may have killed him before he had a chance to realize it. I could not envision myself in a situation of that nature, yet as a person concerned about the well-being of a child, I would have done my own personal questioning to David. I understand teachers have to adhere to protocol, but if you notice everyday your student smells or looks unhealthy, you have to investigate as too why, especially if the mother looks glamorous during a parent teacher conference while the child dresses like a hobo. You may want to question why? Stephen, David 's father was the main person in authority with an opportunity to prevent maltreatment. David 's father stood by watching his son use a five-gallon bucket to relieve his diarrhea. When David was forced to eat
Nic struggles so much why attempting to satisfy his need for the drug. This is the most important part of the book where I expected to know how drug users handle their addiction. The book narrates that Nic became a nuisance and a big problem both in the society and the family. Drug addiction erodes the morals of the users. Nic Sheff occasionally stole from everyone in the household. He took money from her mother, stole her sister 's diary, raided her brother’s little bank. In result, he was so much hated by her family. Again what increased the level of hatred towards him is his behavior of encouraging others into relapse. He regularly claims that the substances took away his values and morals leaving him caring less for his family. Addiction can be blamed largely for changing Nic Sheff into an immoral monster. However, we cannot quantify whether the family has an obligation of accepting his apology and forgiving him or whether she should be told off
Once these individuals in rehab serve there sentence the majority of them, won’t look straight to the next opportunity to get high, but the next opportunity for a better future after being encouraged in rehab to accomplish something in life, compared to someone’s attitude coming out of prison. One story involved a man named Richard with his wife Marcia. She was an addict who was often jailed for it, but Anthony believed like many others that “addiction can be overcome with proper help. He believed that the solution was to get her into a mental hospital [and] get her whatever she needs – Xanax, morphine, to get her chemical imbalance right. Show her some respect. (114)” Give her some working skills, so once she gets out she is capable of being successful but instead she kept getting “kicked down the steps” by the criminal justice system. The jailing and torture of addicts is routine to people serving cases for drug related offenses, who are often not built to endure prison, let alone jail. “The Justice Department estimates that 216,000 people are raped in these prisons every year. (This is the number of rapes, not the number of rapes – that is much higher.) (109)” This is ultimately shows the simple fact that many people are not built to endure
He has extremely low confidence and belief in himself which is to be expected since he is in unfamiliar territory. His father tries to teach David the ways his grandfather taught him. David’s father is a responsible hunter, he only hunts what is legal and not threatening them, “Are we going to shoot him? […] We don’t have a permit” (Quammen 420). One of the steps to adulthood is learning to be responsible when others are not around, at the age of 11, David learns young but rather unfortunately in the end. Morals and values are an important step to adulthood, like Albert Einstein once said “Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value.” Having a solid set of values and good morals could be the difference in many of David’s future choices, and his father set him on the right path from an early age even though their relationship had several issues. This starts the journey to David’s mental strength shown throughout the story because it brings the right versus wrong to the center of attention. Taking care of family, taking care of the environment and the animals that inhabit the environment and not taking life for granted as he might have before tragedy struck are all part of the journey to adulthood. David’s father was extremely bothered by the moose that had been shot many times by a small caliber hand gun and the scene showed no signs of an attack; a senseless killing of an animal that was left to rot in a pond. David’s father wanted to teach him that if you were going to kill an animal, at least take the meat and use what you can from the
By making that decision to send his daughter away based on his past experience with his sick sister and an assumption about how the future will be. This connects to the ethical topic of techniques of neutralization by Joseph Heath. He uses an excuse to prove that his decision wasn’t unethical when it really was. According to the Denial of responsibility technique, he believed that he had no choice in sending Phoebe away, David saw it as the only option because he was so focused on his past experience. He imagined what Phoebe’s life would be like and the likely toll she would have on the family.
All throughout the true story, Beautiful Boy, David Sheff displays unhealthy addictive tendencies for his son and his son’s addiction to meth. Because of Sheff’s addiction to Nic, he became unable to trust his son, unable to care for himself when he got ill, and made it impossible for himself to enjoy time with his other children because the thought of past memories with Nic haunted him. Although it is normal that parents worry about their children, Sheff went further than many parents would to try and get through to his
The author uses his knowledge of the human brain to emphasize the importance of “Endorphins” when growing up and how the lack of the chemicals “in infancy and early childhood,[creates a greater need] for external sources” (289) such as drugs. Along with his scientific evidence, Mate also uses many of his patients traumatic childhood experiences such as having “dishwashing liquid poured down his throat . . . and was tied to a chair in a dark room to control to his hyperactivity” (289). These patients help create an image for the readers to be able to understand the feelings and the pain addict 's often face in their childhood, that leaves them feeling abandoned and neglected from the rest of the world. Mate even analysis the fact that addict 's can come from home where there is no abuse and the parents try their best to provide a loving and nurturing home. The problem in families like this is often a parent is the one who faced traumatic experience as a child and are not able to transmit the proper love to their child, because they lack the feeling themselves. The author uses the strategy of looking at both the child and the parent experiences to show that the root problem originates from the same outcome, wanting to feel “unconditionally [loved and be] fully accepted even when most ornery”
David growing up as a child lived in a house where there was no love shown or caring relationships. He grew up not knowing what good relationships looked like or felt like. David did not think too highly of his dad or aunt and always had
In the film, Bob entered himself into a methadone treatment for 21 days, and got a job working in a machine shop. There he runs into a character by the name of Father Murphy, he too was an addict. It just goes to show no matter what our occupations are, addiction can happen to anybody. When Dianne comes to town to visit, she seems to be somewhat in disbelief about his choice to remain sober. The life choice that Bob made was the right choice he made, yet that still did not stop Dianne from gifting him some drugs for old time’s sake. In some case the environment that we subject ourselves to can keep us from completing our goals in