Alondra Hernandez

Health 1020

Paul Roberts

April 3, 2019

Addiction

An addiction is the physical and psychological inability to stop taking a chemical, drug,

activity, or substance, even when it is causing harm to you. It is important to say that an

addiction not only refers to drugs. This can be anything from food, exercise, to shopping. For

the case being however, I decided to focus on drugs. I unfortunately learned the hard way that as

soon as someone becomes addicted, they become dependent on the substance to help them cope

with everyday life. Most people start partaking in these activities voluntarily and addiction is

something they can’t control from the beginning. I am choosing to write about addiction because

I want to learn more about what my dad experienced. He passed away in 2008 when I was too

young to understand what was going on, but he was addicted to Cocaine. Finally, after 10 years,

I feel at peace about what happened. For a long time I felt anger about what he had done to

himself and my family. I questions whether he just didn’t care about us or he just couldn’t help

it. Now that I am an adult I do understand more about life and maybe the reasons why he chose

to make those decisions. I am researching this topic to better understand addicts, and eventually

pass along the information to someone who needs it.

The life on an addict is horrible, you become obsessed with the drug and getting it that

everything else is on the back burner. It almost feels like the only time you are at peace is when

you are consuming the drug. Moments leading up to consuming the drug people again, people
experience some indicators that may let you know you are an addict. People become so

dependent that they are willing to put themselves in harm’s way to get it, they start hiding their

actions, and their appearance starts to change. Another huge indicator is when you start having

relationship difficulties. Especially with the people who love you and try to help you. Often

addicts aren’t able to accept it and instead lash out at the people who love them as a defense

mechanism. Growing up I never understood what was going on but I always knew my parents

weren’t happy. Nothing was ever done in front me and they would fake being content, but I think

it’s important for all people to know that children are very intuitive. Kids know when there

household is not okay.

When someone is on drugs, it effects their brain and causes then to feel euphoric because

it the brain is being flooded with dopamine. This feeling is what keeps people coming back, an

addict gets the drug to feel that same way over and over. It is dangerous though because the body

with eventually gain tolerance and it will need more of the drug to feel just as good. It just

becomes a bigger and bigger cycle the longer you are on drugs. Another issue they run into is

because the high is so big, they begin to not enjoy other normal activities like food, sex, and

social activities. Long term use can effect learning, decision making, stress, memory, and

behavior. Despite the horrible effects people still keep coming back, which is the nature of

addiction.

As soon as or if they are able to get clean, it get really hard to cope with because of their

symptoms. I think this is why it is so hard for people to quit. They know they want to be clean,

but aren’t willing to put themselves though the withdrawal process. For most people who choose

sobriety, it doesn’t happen on the first attempt either. In fact, I have a coworker who had to go to

a sobriety home 5 times for the last 10 years in order to successfully become sober. Some
symptoms people may experience are anxiety, irritability, tremors, shaking, nausea, vomiting,

fatigue, and loos in appetite. They need to be monitored because when it is done cold turkey, it

can become fatal. There are a few different options available to solve addiction, but they either

fall into a medical or behavioral therapy category. There are some drug based therapy that can

help someone become sober, but in my opinion people need behavioral and mental therapy. They

are in the situation they are in because of a “fun” thing they wanted to try or to try and forget

what they have been though. Behavioral therapy could help someone who was just trying things

for fun and happened to fall into addiction. Mental therapy could help someone who got into

drugs to try and forget what they have been though in their life’s. I think this is the main reason

why people choose drugs. They aren’t able to cope with the things they have been though and

choose to instead ignore it. Every person that I know that is an addict has been through some

pretty serious situations. In my father’s case, He was raped as a young kid by his brother and

because this was in Mexico, that is something you don’t talk about. You instead forget about it

because it is all about family even if they are harming you. It is sad but that is the culture Latinos

grow up in. Family is everything to you and you do anything for your family. Also, it my

coworkers situation, she was raped by her father as a young girl and she told me about a time

where her mother walked in on it an looked at her, but instead of helping her she walked back

out an shut the door. To this day her mother hasn’t admitted to knowing that ever happened, even

though she clearly saw it. I couldn’t imagine that pain. The one person who is supposed to

protect you isn’t doing that. Just like in my father’s situation, she didn’t have a place to go and

instead decided to try and forget about it with the use of drugs. Treatment can take a really long

time and is a complicated road. Each situation has to be treated differently, but it is important for

people to know that it is treatable.

 In conclusion, I feel like my questions were answered. I came into this assignment,

mostly wondering why some people experience with drugs and become addicted and others do it

at parties and nothing happened to them. It all depends on the person biology environment, and

development. Over all on how strong a person is to say no. My father was very weak and was a

people pleaser which is why I think he was an addict. I feel understanding more about it even

fathers my grieving process because it’s unfair to hold anger towards him now. As I’ve gotten

older I now understand there were reasons behind his addiction. He just didn’t have anyone to

talk to about his problems.

 Citation

Vara Saripalli, P. (2019). Addiction: Definition, symptoms, withdrawal, and treatment. [online]

Medical News Today. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323465.php

[Accessed 3 Apr. 2019].

Drugabuse.gov. (2019). Understanding Drug Use and Addiction. [online] Available at:

https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/understanding-drug-use-addiction [Accessed

3 Apr. 2019].

Where Families Find Answers on Substance Use | Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. (2019). 9

Facts About Addiction People Usually Get Wrong. [online] Available at:

https://drugfree.org/parent-blog/9-facts-about-addiction-people-usually-get-wrong/ [Accessed 3

Apr. 2019].