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Is Substance Abuse A Product Of Genetics Or Personal Choice Essay

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Is substance abuse a product of genetics or environment or personal choice? While ideally, substance abuse should be considered a product of genetics, environment, and personal choice, I will argue that environment plays a very significant role. The interaction between the effects of some drugs and the physical machinery of decision-making system has been studied extensively. As discussed in class, the failure of the decision making system can be seen in changing needs, mimicking euphoric reward signals, overvaluations of actions or expectancies, overfast discounting processes, changing learning rates, mismatch in balance planning/habit decision systems, etc. We make decisions using our brains, the process of which can be altered by drugs, affecting future decision making; a personal choice …show more content…

This is an environmental change. Strategies for staying sober almost always include staying away from places and people an addict associated with drug use, a literal change in environment. A person’s environment includes social, economic, and personal forces influencing their behavior.
There is a parallel to the criminalization of drugs, I think, in that prison time often leaves addicts with a felony on their record, time in prison that negatively affects their emotional state, and often no other option but to turn to illegal methods for survival. I have seen this cycle of drug charge, prison, drug charge repeat for years in my family until any real progress was made.
Risk factors in the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model include dispositions (e.g. aspd), bad developmental history, and demographics (Ward & Marula, 46). Psychiatric disorders are also considered a risk factor, especially with the high rates of substance abuse in personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality

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Addiction has been found to be multifaceted, and most agree that recovery must focus on the many “underlying” psychological, emotional, physical, spiritual and social issues that cause drug and alcohol abuse. Solomon’s book attempts to present why traditional treatment does not work and to provide resources for alternative methods. Some of the alternatives focus on specific aspects of recovery, while others address numerous factors tailored to fit an individual’s needs. People struggling to succeed in AA or other 12-step programs will find the information in this book

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Traits that are loosely dependent on the environment include addiction ability and education level. Addiction is a strange trait, some people can start smoking and quit whenever they want while other people can start smoking and just cannot stop. This could be dependent upon social conditions, for instance, they are encouraged to continue smoking by their friends; however, it is far more likely that this trait is genetic. This is not only true of smoking though, it is true of any drug: alcoholism is one of the more common ones and more easily related to genetics. The thing that makes addiction partially due to the environment is that the will to start doing a drug has to come from somewhere and most often, it is due to the environment.

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1.6 Alcohol relapse Alcohol relapse is the situation in which the person is returning to the previous pattern of alcohol use usually followed by the period of abstinence. Many studies have documented high rates of relapse upto 65-80 percent in the first year of treatment among substance dependents(Vyas and Ahuja 2008).It is a perplexing situation among the substance abusers. Eventhough there are dramatic advancements in the treatment modalities, client compliance is generally poor and response to a drug or alcoholic use is a common occurrence (Kumar, 2014). The major research finding of substance dependence treatment outcome is relapse with approximately 66 percent returning to drinking by the 90th day follow-up assessment. However a variety

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Losing a battle to illness is devastating and utterly heartbreaking. With addiction, it is quite often that people fail and fall into their old habits. Others simply don’t want to be sober. In How to Help Someone with an Opioid Addiction, published by the Chicago Sun Times, the author lists ways for friends and family members to assist in the process of sobriety. But, what if it doesn’t work?

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White (2007) describes this process as being transient, with previous researchers Matza (1964) and Waldorf (1983) referring to it as ‘drift’, rather than a conscious experience. “Drift” suggests that there is little in-depth involvement in treatment with no personal change having taken place (Matza, 1964; Waldorf, 1983; White; 2007). It is often found that recovery leaves no lasting mark on the individual’s personal identity is left. For others, recovering from substance use may become a defining feature of their lives as it is a process of growth and change (Laudet, 2007; White & Kurtz,

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A student in university for example has the weekend off work, after writing all their midterms attends a party where drugs and alcohol are available, easily accessible, and consumed because of factors like social acceptance or to fit in and to avoid the feeling of being an outcast while everyone else is under the influence. They reflect on the stressful week they just had with work and school so they seek alternative routes to happiness and try to cope with their stress and problems by temporarily being in a different state of mind because society projects that partying and substance abuse brings happiness. Later on it becomes a regret once addiction takes its roll. The problem with drugs and alcohol is that for many people it is acceptable. For many years,

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