Addiction

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“Addiction” by Nancy A. Piotrowski, Ph.D

        Addiction is when the human body becomes dependent on a substance.  Prolonged use of any psychoactive drug will determine a persons dependency.  The addiction can affect a person psychologically and physiologically; this will show in an addicts tolerance and withdrawal symptoms from a drug.          

        Tolerance will involve the biological system such as the human body, changes in the body after a drug is present, and environmental or behavioral conditioning. The way the human body processes a drug is by absorbing a drug through the bloodstream.  Once in the bloodstream it will be delivered to different organs and they will metabolize the drug and eliminate it from the body.  After frequent use of a drug, the way the body processes a drug may change.  When this occurs the body is able to rid itself of the drug more efficiently.  This leads to reduced effects from the drug than when it was initially consumed.  When this happens an increase to the dose will be required to get the desired effect.

        Many changes will occur in the body once a drug is present.  It will change the sensitivity in specific areas of the body where the drug has an impact.  For instance, there may be a direct or indirect impact on different areas of the brain.  A direct impact may lead to a change in the brains receptors.  When there is an indirect impact it will show in tissue tolerance and functional tolerance.

        Environmental and behavioral conditioning will also play a role in the development of a persons tolerance.  When a drug is consumed repetitively in a particular physical or emotional environment, this is an example of being conditioned.  So when exposed to an environment that a person was frequently in while using a drug will trigger repetitive behavior.  Tolerance will also depend on the specific drug itself and how it was used.  When consuming large doses it may cause the person to become tolerant more quickly.  The fastest way to consume a drug is through intravenous and inhalation routes.  When taking this route the drug is rapidly put into the bloodstream.  Tolerance also depends on the pattern of which a drug is used.  If you have two people who use the same drug but at different rates, their tolerance will develop differently.  A person who consumes two large doses in a weeks time frame will develop a tolerance before someone who consumes one small dose daily for a week.

        Withdrawal symptoms will take place when a person substantially decreases the use of a substance or completely stops.  The symptoms will vary depending on the substance that is being abused.  Symptoms can be severe, minor or sometimes nonexistent; this will depend on the drug from which withdrawal is occurring from.  Some serious symptoms that can a person can experience are seizures, convulsions, high blood pressure and rapid heartbeat. Minor symptoms can include anxiety, tension, insomnia, restlessness and irritability.  Addicts will sometimes consume their drug of choice to alleviate the symptoms.

        Not every person who consumes drugs will become dependent on them.  To develop an addiction a person will need to repetitively consume the drug; they will also have the biological and environmental factors that will expose the behavior.  

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“Family Functioning In Families With Alcohol And Other Drug Addiction” by Gabriele Schäfer

        Drug addiction is on a constant rise.  It plays a role in the destruction of individuals, families, local communities and large cities around the world.  It holds responsibility for a number of premature deaths, violent crimes, automobile accidents and many other things.  

        Gabriele Shäfer performed a research study to collect data that would find contributing factors and the effects of drug abuse.  There were four themes that she was able to identify in the interview process.

        The first theme was finding that the participants had past childhood experiences of neglect, physical and sexual abuse.  There were participants who were disowned from being sexually molested by stepparents,  while others were left abandoned by their parents, or never meeting their mothers and fathers at all.  There was one participant who was traumatized by their parents.  They had a church perform an exorcism on him when he revealed his homosexuality.  All of the participants felt there was a strong connection between their abuse of drugs and past childhood experiences.

        Another finding was the participants still had difficult relationships with their families in adulthood.  One relationship difficulty in particular was having an emotionally unavailable parent.  Their parent was exposed to a bad upbringing which led them to be unable to maintain a healthy relationship with their child.  There was another participant who expressed that his family was “littered” with addiction and that he had lost a family member to an overdose.  Not only that, he also had a mother who was an enabler.  Several participants had acknowledged they went to lengths as far as stealing, dealing drugs and assaulting people to support their addiction.  This all had a negative impact on their relationships with family members.  Most participants had little or no self esteem while they were actively abusing drugs, some even became suicidal.  Other participant found it very difficult for them to discuss their addiction with their families which led them to distance themselves.  They were ashamed of who they became and always felt like they had to disguise themselves to hide their addiction.

        The third finding was problems in intimate relationships.  The majority of the participants  expressed bringing negative relationship patterns into their personal relationships.  They did not learn how to express themselves or handle conflict in a positive manner.  Most of the relationships failed due to the addicts drug use.  Other relationships were maintained because the addict hid their addiction or the significant other would be in denial.  A lot of the participants ran into financial difficulties after losing their jobs and it put a direct strain on their relationships.

        Finally, their were participants who claim they used negative parenting techniques.  They carried on the neglect and abuse to their children from their past childhood experiences.  The addicts worry that their actions will be followed by their children after witnessing the behavior for years.  Some of the participants felt extreme guilt about the abuse their children received while abusing drugs.

        After the research was complete it was clear that the most consistent finding was the participants had a difficult time creating functional relationships with past and current family members.  It was confirmed that there was a strong connection between negative family relations and their drug addiction.