Drug Addiction

I chose this topic because I work in the field of addiction. Alcohol and drug addiction questions why a person chooses to put a substance in their body knowing that it is harmful to them and to continue this behavior. Drugs do not discriminate, or have a preference of gender. On a daily basis, I see people between the ages of 18 and 70 come into detox for help. When a person is addicted to drugs/alcohol, they cannot control how they use it, and become dependent on it to cope with daily life. With addiction, there is a psychological or physical component. A person is unable to control the aspects of the addiction without help. If it is a habit, then you are doing it by choice and can choose to stop at any time.

Very few contemporary approaches on addiction specifically aim to address the question of why people who are well-aware of harmful consequences continue to perform addictive behaviors (Kovac, n.d.). I feel that if people have the knowledge of, “Oh it is okay to relapse, it is part of recovery,” I disagree. As long as that statement is present in that sense, people will continue to relapse and continue to think that it is okay to use drugs/alcohol over and over again. An overdose does not have a name on it. It is recognized that the consequences of drug/alcohol use represent a huge problem to contemporary society inflicting dame to individuals as well as to society at large. In terms of health related issues, it is clear that the research community and policymakers are exceptionally motivated to learn about and understand the causes of drug use in order to develop effective social policies, suitable health protection strategies and treatments which will reduce the problems associated with this philosophy, sociology, medicine, political science, economics and psychology are in constant pursuit of the process and underlying mechanisms which could improve our ability to understand drug use which leads to development of addictive behaviors...