Understanding psychology essay

Methadone, Nicotine, Drugs Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous

Excerpt from Article:

Mindset: Alcohol Drug Abuse

The total focus of this kind of paper is to show how alcohol, medication addictions and abuse is fundamentally a condition of the brain. It will focus on various internal aspects of habit, such as a few theories as to why people receive addicted to prescription drugs or liquor in the first place, plus some theories for treatments of these addictions; some psychological operations of how specific drugs job; how these drugs form addiction through their techniques; and finally inspecting the knowledge of addiction within the brain.

A few major hypotheses for so why people start to use substance such as prescription drugs (legal or not), and alcohol would be the reward and reinforcement theory, recreational make use of, and the stress-reduction theory. A few theories for treatments consist of using mixtures of cognitive/social support therapy, or applying some form of treatment with medications as well. The types of drugs and the effects that will be discussed consist of stimulants, depressants (including alcohol), and drugs. Finally, this kind of paper is going to analyze the mechanisms inside the brain that allow the disease of dependence on grab hold of a person, and what medication treatment options are being used to take care of addiction as being a brain-based disease.

Psychological Theories

Many people may ponder (this author included), why a person decides to use drugs or perhaps alcohol in a fashion that is not really considered “normal, ” or perhaps “social. ” Some causes may be which a younger population of users find medications being glamorized in jobs like modeling or professional sports; several may give into peer demands in order to interact socially with specific groups for school, a few may just be interested and find the experience more than that they bargained intended for; and still a lot of may possess stress related happenings in their background that they only rather ignore (Feldman, 2009). More often than not this boils down to two reasons just how addicts obtain start: the first is they were only curious which will activates the reward and reinforcement paths within their mind (more with this later), or perhaps they are very susceptible to pressure and start self-medicating to cope (Anton, 2010). The idea of prize and support will be completely explained the in the Head Pathways section later in this paper, but to basically formulate the premise with the theory we can begin with a cigarette example. Let’s say a person might smoke a cigarette for the first time and notice any time their initial inhalation they will feel a fantastic sense of relaxation and stress-reduction, typically because nicotine has stimulated the brain’s “pleasure centre, ” (the reward) also because of that they will seek out cigarette’s again to be able to feel relaxed and stress-free once more (reinforcement) (Drummond, 2001; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). This type of addiction is likewise known as a “biologically based” structured addiction, because the body is virtually craving a similar feeling/substance repeatedly and are unable to perform normally without that (Feldman, 2009).

Stress-reduction ideas are equated to layman’s term including “self-medicating, ” and “using drugs to escape one’s challenges. ” (Anton, 2010). Indeed, in Raymond Anton’s content on drug abuse he declares that there is an increasing amount of research completed on hereditary and developmentally at risk persons for reduce levels of stress tolerance, which might induce certain people to use drugs or alcohol without notice during their lives. Some events in a individual’s history can be too much to enable them to take, such as past sexual abuse, warfare (especially for soldiers in Iraq), and childhood injury (Anton, 2010). What usually happens for the person who is usually self-medicating is the fact there is some stress, possibly from the above mentioned reasons, or maybe daily life generally, and a person is going to turn to alcoholic beverages to help them rest, or to help them forget (Feldman, 2009). Of course , after several drinks the strain is gone, the person feels happier, looser and continues this kind of nightly habit until the person can no longer feel relaxed or perhaps forget the haunting memories normally and now needs alcohol to do this for them, in ever increasing amounts. This is also referred to as “psychologically based addiction, ” where the person feels that they can need the substance of choice to be able to cope with the tension because they feel they cannot cope with this normally (Feldman, 2009). Substance used for pressure coping can be something legal, including cigarettes, alcohol, or prescribed drugs; to anything illegal like cocaine or marijuana.

Both the main types of therapy that can be provided for an hooked person is rehabilitation, possibly inpatient or perhaps outpatient, and medication coupled with rehab; recently treatment is hovering towards the latter due to the even more accepted notion that habit should be classified as a disease (Anton, 2010). Inpatient therapy treatment usually occurs each time a patient using a substance craving is delivered to a residential-type home furnished with doctors and therapists specializing in substance abuse, where the patient usually goes thru detoxification, attends counseling classes, group sessions, and gets medication for the certain time period (Anton, 2009; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010).

Outpatient rehabilitation treatment is if a patient would not stay for a home center, yet goes through programs like Alcoholics-Anonymous, seeks away a cognitive-behavioral therapist specializing in addiction, or may head to some other kind of group support therapy (Anton, 2009; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). Alcoholics-Anonymous, and also other similar support-based self-help organizations, are thought to help addicts depending on the “personal growth method, ” dealing strategies, plus the social support and motivation that is offered by individuals who attend and also have remained dry for a long time (Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). Cognitive-Behavior therapy helps junkies recognize thoughts, feelings, circumstances, or manners that bring on substance abuse; and teaches all of them coping skills to deal with those issues within a healthy method (Oltmanns, Emery, 2010).

Procedures Effects of Substances

This section can illustrate means of effects, drawback symptoms, and adverse reactions brought on by certain chemicals that are mistreated. First, let us start off with substances that are considered legal, but are non-etheless abused and still have high rates of addictiveness. Caffeine is one of the most common legal stimulant chemicals used by most of the people in America, as well as its effects happen to be feeling alert, increased feelings elevation, and decreased effect time (Feldman, 2009). Revulsion symptoms may include headaches, frustration, and even despression symptoms; adverse effects can easily most likely express in “nervousness and insomnia. ” (Feldman, 2009).

Another two the majority of used legal substances will be alcohol and cigarettes, or perhaps nicotine. Alcohol is a depressant, and its effects, adverse or perhaps not, relies on the number of drinks a person has got within a selected period of time; generally between several drinks the individual will feel much less anxious, more relaxed, and the inhibitions weakened (Feldman, 2009). However , several or more drinks can cause slurred conversation, clumsy walking, emotional changes in mood, and poor impulse control; which can quickly give way to hassle breathing, coma or even death, depending on the sum consumed previously (Feldman, 2009; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). Revulsion symptoms range from, depending on how severe the addiction, throwing up, headaches, hallucinations, tremors, seizures, and death (Feldman, 2009). Nicotine can be described as stimulant, nevertheless effects mimic that of antidepressants, in that an individual feels quickly relaxed and stress-free (Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). Withdrawal symptoms consist of tremors, headaches, irritability, nausea, trouble sleeping, and serious mood swings; adverse effects of smoking abuse happen to be attributed to many serious diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease (Oltmanns, Emery, 2010).

Two significant illegal drugs that are of major concern for those working with youth in America are methamphetamine and cocaine (Feldman, 2009). Both are regarded stimulants, and are also abused together with the same intentions of caffeine, usually with students or those functioning long hours planning to stay warn and fruitful to get more performed throughout the day (Feldman, 2009; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). Methamphetamine is actually a synthetic medicine that is simple to make, no problem finding, and inexpensive in comparison to some medications, which makes increased feelings elevation, alertness, energy, and “heightened assurance. ” (Feldman, 2009) Yet , withdrawal can be characterized as being a crash, with all the user feeling very exhausted, lethargic, irritated, and with prolonged employ suicidal (Feldman, 2009). Side effects with repeated use includes a range of physical symptoms just like high blood pressure, and high physique temperatures; with a range of bizarre symptoms just like self-mutilation, systematisierter wahn, hallucinations, seizures, psychosis, and death (Feldman, 2009). Nevertheless cocaine features similar procedures as methamphetamine, if different, and its adverse reactions when mistreated can be twice as likely to trigger overdose and death (Feldman, 2009; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010).

The widespread use of heroin is significantly alarming due to its rapid degeneration of a individual’s normal existence functions; it is considered a narcotic or an opiate due to its synthetic derivation via morphine, which can be made from the poppy seedling pod (Feldman, 2009; Oltmanns, Emery, 2010). The effects of heroin are pain relief, comfort, delight, and a form of euphoria when injected into the blood stream that lasts for a period of time (Feldman, 2009). Heroin is definitely the most dangerous drug to be addicted

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