Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse

  • Submitted By: pizzurroj
  • Date Submitted: 12/02/2013 5:56 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1139
  • Page: 5
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Substance Abuse: What is the Addiction?

Joanna Pizzurro
April 10, 2013
Research Paper

Substance Abuse: What is the Addiction?

            “Although the term substance can refer to any physical matter, substance abuse has come to refer to the overindulgence in and dependence of a drug or other chemical leading to effects that are detrimental to the individual's physical and mental health, or the welfare of others.” In today’s society approval of substance abuse is somewhat common, and encouraged. The media gives a great deal of publicity to a celebrity whom has had a substance abuse episode(s), but what about someone who has recently become clean? Advertisements, movies, TV shows, and other forms of media conveniently skip over those who have made a great change and tend to glorify the abuse of substances. Substance abuse becomes more complex when combined with mental illness. The research article reviewed for this paper addresses intervention for clients with dual diagnoses of substance abuse and mental disorder. The actor, Charlie Sheen, is a prime example of a person with both substance abuse and mental illness. His abuse and manic behavior has escalated resulting in him losing his job, having his children taken away, and engaging in more self-destructive behavior. Although the reasons in which a majority of people become addicted to substances varies, ongoing abuse has deep physical and emotional costs to the client, their family and society.
I am interested in the topic of substance abusers with mental illness. I would like to further explore a person’s motivation and drive that brings them to abuse drugs to the extent that they end up ruining, and harming themselves. I choose this topic in psychology because of my firsthand account of a person’s physical and emotional behavior due to substance abuse and overdoses. This person also has an additional diagnosis of Bipolar disorder. Along with these problems she has of her own, she has...

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