Perspectives are often prejudiced by preconceived notions. Society has historically communicated that addicts are morally negligent people without any inclination to cease their destructive behavior and that the addiction itself is produced because of a character flaw or a weakness. Citing the addict’s seemingly careless attitude toward the financial burden and pain and suffering they arbitrarily cause others as proof of their imagined personality imperfections. As with numerous other things, unfortunately, experience is the best teacher. Before my personal journey with a drug-addicted child, I also held to the belief that an addict was an addict by choice and could stop the abuse by simply making the decision to. After all, I had used alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana and didn’t have any problem discontinuing either one of those when I elected to.
Caffeine is an addictive, mood-altering stimulant that is acceptable in our culture even though it is in the same category as amphetamines and cocaine and is often more readily abused; Myers and Dewall (2015) observe that “People use stimulants to feel alert, lose weight, or boost mood or athletic performance” (p. 121). There are establishments solely
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Retrospectively, certain aspects of the biopsychosocial model are evident. Out of the four of my children who experimented with drugs and alcohol only one became addicted. It makes sense that he has some sort of biological predisposition to addiction that the others do not have. Parental divorce and remarriage preceded an early withdrawal from the family unit which brought about psychological issues such as loneliness, depression, and anxiety. And finally, a social circle of alcohol and drug abusing companions allowed him easy access to his drug of choice. A person’s backstory is always relevant; it’s what shapes us into who we