Drug Addiction

Specific Purpose: To inform my audience of addiction in Philippines, and how addiction effects users, and Filipino.

Controlling Idea: Addiction has components that influence the behavior in addicts, there are scientific reasoning, warning signs, and treatment alternatives.

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse about half Filipino have a loved one, a friend, or an acquaintance who is addicted to drugs.

I. The definition of drug abuse is the compulsive use of drugs, to where the user has no effective choice but to continue.

II. A person who becomes enslaved in these addictions, can lose their livelihoods, friends, family, possessions, and their own lives. A. In the Philippines, in 2003, approximately 2 million people were admitted into treatment. B. In the city of Manila, during 2003, 1,500 people were admitted into treatment. C. Addiction is not only a problem for the user, but for the friends, family, and the entire country who contributes tax money that pay for criminals rehabilitation, and the clean up involved with the crimes they committed, to obtain the drugs they need.

III. Why does a user go to outstanding situations to seek these substances? A. Addiction generally refers to the situation where drug use appears to control the users behavior. B. Drugs become the number one priority of the user, and the other priorities are neglected. C. Addiction compared to other behaviors has a intense motivational drive to get the drug. 1. Many factors influence drug addiction, such as personality, characteristics, peer pressure, and psychological stress.

IV. Drug addiction varies from person to person, from drug to drug. A. Drugs such as cocaine and heroin can addict their users after a few uses, and in rare cases the first hit. B. Drugs such as codeine and alcohol require more uses to addict their users. C. A person who is predisposed hereditarily, by the influence of their parents addiction, is more likely to become and addict then a person who is not genetically predisposed.

V. Drug addiction has two components.
A. Physical Addiction
1. When the body becomes accustomed to the effects of the particular drug. B. Psychological addiction.
1. This occurs when a drug has been used habitually and the mind has become emotionally reliant on it’s effects.
a. To relieve emotional pain.
b. To have pleasure.

VI. Scientist and medical professionals believe that addictive substances create dependence in the user by changing the brains reward functions, located in the mesolimbic dopamine system. A. Drugs (through different degrees) cause the dopamine to flood the system in the brain, creating a brief rush of euphoria, known as the high. B. The addiction presents a situation where the chemical activation of the brain mechanism controls the users behavior.

VII. There are warning signs and changes in personality that a user presents while in their addiction, that may be obvious to others. A. Being aware of these warning signs could help the user. 1. Many users are in denial, and are unaware of their addictions. 2. If you become aware of their addiction before hand, you could plan a intervention, that could possibility prove to the user that they are addicted and need treatment. 3. A few of the most obvious signs are loss of interest in family and friends, verbally and emotionally abusive, disappearance of money and valuables, not telling anyone where they are going, constant excuses, lying, poor self image, and no concern for anything.

VIII. After a chronic user has been using for a long period of time their addiction, physical or psychological, change. A. One change the addict will experience is an adapted tolerance to the amount of substance the user had been consuming. B. Another is once the high wears off, the user becomes sober, and he is left feeling depressed and dissatisfied, and finds it difficult to find pleasure in activities he had once enjoyed before.

IX. There are different type of treatments available for different types of situations. A. There are Residential Rehabs.
1. They last approximately for 30 days.
B. Detoxification, either at a hospital or another facility. C. Ambulory, out patient, receiving treatment a few hours a day. D. There is the 12 Step Program, known as Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous.

In conclusion, understanding addiction is crucial aspect when it comes to prevention, treatment, and recovery. Many people of every type, are greatly effected by the impact of drug abuse. It’s ever bodies problem. Some may believe those who deal with an addiction, or a family members addiction, may be horrible people, liars, and criminals. Ultimately, the understanding, we will realize the physical, psychological, and scientific reasoning that motivates a user to use. Addiction is a disease……a preventable disease.

There is always hope for an addict, and if we were to all be open minded and truthful we could maybe save them. Which saves Philippines as a whole.

Introduction
There are many people and organizations in our culture who are trying very hard to make sure that Drug Addiction is NOT seen as a disease or as the result of genetic or biological predisposition. These people have a strong personal and social interest in an entirely nonphysiological model of addictive human behavior. Their perspective of social problems is based primarily on a philosophical orientation with a social perspective, heralding socio-political correctness as its goal. Throughout history, a great many people and institutions have tried to help alcoholics and addicts. Currently, there are thousands of different programs in the United States trying to help those people who have a social or personal problem with drugs or alcohol. Yet, the success rate for these programs is extraordinarily low considering the effort and investment made. There are countless reasons why these programs are not working, however the main reason is yet to be realized. Existing programs are not working because they’re based on false assumptions of philosophy and human nature.

They do not address the motivations and emotions of addictions. Today, drug treatment and rehabilitation centers are typically operating on the belief that social or philosophical factors are causing the addictive behavior, and that if we could change an addict’s belief system, or his social support structure we could end his addictive behavior. And yet, the success an individual attains, typically doesn’t last as long as the treatment. This superficial view comes from our governmental and religious orientations which maintain that addiction is the result of bad personal choices, weak character, and anti-social or irreligious behaviors. These are not useless perspectives in our attempts to improve the human condition. However, in solving the pervasive problems which have deep roots in our human motivations and emotions, we must see that socially based perspectives have little to offer.

People do not destroy their families, careers, and love relationships, because they choose to, or because of their friends. They do not desire financial ruin, loss of self respect, being assaulted, or spending long and frequent periods of time incarcerated, just because its their chosen lifestyle. These are blind and ignorant attitudes. It is apparent that a motivation, or physiological drive stronger than our conscious concerns is at work fueling our addictive behaviors. Addiction means giving up conscious control. It is impulsive, unconscious behavior. As it is said in Alcoholics (or narcotics) anonymous, addicts are people who have lost all control of their lives, as well as their substance use and abuse. These people have tried many different times to stop using these substances, for their own personal, financial, or social reasons, and yet they couldn’t. They were able to stop for short periods, or curb use for longer periods, but true abstinence over an extended period of time is somewhat rare among true addictive personalities.

Also, addiction is a progressive disease. Twelve step programs learned 60 years ago what governmental, social, and religious institutions still refuse to accept. Most addicts will not stop using until they hit bottom, believing that they may not survive unless they get help. Grateful alcoholics and addicts are those lucky enough to survive long enough to have a sudden, radical, change in orientation, a kind of spiritual awakening. Here the individual comes to believe that he can no longer trust his conscious ability to direct his own behavior. He finally does what he could never do before, he admits defeat. Beaten down to his knees, he asks god for help, (even if he thought himself an atheist, or agnostic,) and finally turns to others. Twelve steppers say “Our best thinking is what got us here. It became necessary to lead a life of humility.” Addiction the only mental disorder that convinces the afflicted that its everyone else who is ill, not himself.

This is because of addictive denial. This is not a conscious act. In the grateful addict’s new reality, he realizes that this denial is the unconscious mind’s ability to completely block an addict’s conscious awareness of the nature of his addictive behavior, and personality, replacing it with vivid misconceptions, created to support the addictive behavior. Positive emotions and motivations are perverted, denied, or extinguished, An individual eventually becomes almost zombie-like, and running on automatic, very unlike his former self. Freud himself had tried to treat advanced alcoholics and had come to believe that they were hopeless, beyond treatment. However, he had heard of some having recovered after a spiritual or religious experience. He believed these instances to be miracles. What really happens is that the weight of unconscious motivations become inclined to stop the addictive behaviors rather than continue.

After survival or another very deep unconscious drive becomes the most primary concern, the addict has what twelve steppers call, a moment of clarity, which is a strong enough for change in conscious orientation. Some people believe that this is because conscious concerns and social pressures bring about a new choice in behavior. Actually, unconscious motivations save us from a threat which our denial had consciously hidden. Intellectuals are often good examples of some who are highly educated, well intentioned, and respected individuals, typically successful in their own careers, while teaching and counseling others. Yet, they have absolutely no idea what is going on within peoples hearts and minds. Sociologists and religious adherents are often, such intellectuals. Thus, they are unable to help addicts because of their lack of wisdom and practical experience pertaining to our basic emotional and motivational nature.

The real psychological basis of drug addiction has an intrinsic nature, and it is an intrinsic motivation which drives the addictive personality. There are many cultural factors and environmental or social influences which are closely related to addictive behaviors, yet when given the same social, economic, and environmental factors, one person becomes an addict, while others who are equally influenced become abstainers, or more commonly, will experiment with drugs but never have substance abuse problems or become addicts. This is the kind of awareness which ethical pontifications and statistical social research will never be able to uncover. They are looking in the wrong place, and from the wrong perspective. You could say that they are on solid ground, but chasing a wild goose, and barking up the wrong tree.

Outline

Controlling Idea : A person who may easily become addicted to drugs is said to have an addictive personality. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines drug addiction as a mental disorder. Drug addiction is often linked with other mental disorders.