Englisch » Drugs - Spezialgebiet (auch Alkohol! ^^)

DRUGS:

What are drugs?
A drug is any substance, solid, liquid or gas that changes the functions or structures of the body in some way.
The drugs of most concern to the community are those that affect a person’s central nervous system. These are the psychoactive drugs. They act on the brain and can change the way a person thinks, feels or behaves.
There are three main types of drugs, classified by their effects on the central nervous system.
-depressants
-stimulants
-hallucinogens

Depressants:
Depressant drugs slow down or depress the central nervous system. They don’t necessarily make you feel depressed.
Depressant drugs include for example:
-alcohol
-opiates, including heroin, morphine, cannabis, etc.
-Tranquillizers and hypnotics (used to calm down the organism)
-barbiturates (sleeping drugs)
-some solvents and inhalants, including petrol, glue, paint thinners and lighter fluid

Stimulants:
Millions of people use stimulants every day.
Coffee, tea and cola drinks contain caffeine which is a mild stimulant.
The nicotine in tobacco is also a stimulant, despite many smokers using it to relax.
Stronger stimulant drugs include amphetamines, speed and cocaine, which are illegal.
Slimming tablets are also strong stimulants.
Stimulants speed up or stimulate the central nervous system and can make the user feel more awake or confident. Stimulants increase heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure. Other physical effects include reduced appetite, dilated pupils, talkativeness, agitation and sleep disturbance.
Higher doses of stimulants can over stimulate the user causing anxiety, panic, seizures, headaches, stomach cramps, aggression and paranoia.

Hallucinogens:
Hallucinogenic drugs distort the user as perceptions of reality. Including:
-LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide): trips, acid and microdots
-magic mushrooms (psilocybin): gold tops, mushies
-mescaline (peyote cactus)
-ecstasy (methylenedioxymethamphetamine): X, XTC, eccies




Reasons why people take drugs:
for pleasure - they like the feeling the drug gives
because friends and family use them
because they like the 'taste'
to relieve tension and relax
to be part of a religious ceremony
because they are lonely
to relieve boredom
for pain relief
to help cope with problems and forget worries
because they have grown dependent on the drug
because they feel ill if they stop
to do things that they usually could not or would not do - it gives them courage


Effects of drugs:
STIMULANTS: Sometimes called 'uppers', these substances stimulate the Central Nervous System. This category includes amphetamines, amyl nitrite, cocaine and crack and ecstasy

DEPRESSANTS: Sometimes called 'downers', these substances depress the Central Nervous System. This category includes alcohol, barbiturates, benzodiazepines like valium and temazepam, cannabis and GHB.

ANALGESICS: Powerful pain killers that may be derived from the opium poppy, or synthetically produced. This category includes morphine, diamorphine (heroin), methadone, pethidine and buprenorphine (temgesic).

HALLUCINOGENS: Sometimes called 'psychedelics', these substances dramatically alter perception. This category includes LSD, psilocyn and psilocybin (magic mushrooms), cannabis and ecstasy, a hallucinogenic stimulant.

Some of these drugs are listed in more than one category - they produce the effects of several different categories.


Influence of the peer groups:
If a teen surrounds themselves with peers who experiment with or abuse drugs, it’s only a matter of time before they decide to try, or worse, become a frequent abuser of the drugs themselves.

Teens experience a multitude of internal battles, from the struggles of fitting in and finding friends, peer pressure to the changes in their bodies, puberty, and questions about sexuality. These changes begin to take root during a vulnerable and impressionable time. This vulnerability creates an open door for drugs and alcohol to enter if a teen is exposed to them. Peer pressure is a very real problem that affects most kids at one time or another. Without a strong support system combined with structure and parental guidance, a teen can easily fall off track and find themselves hanging with the wrong pack.


Importance of family life:
Parents and siblings play a key role in whether teens get involved in alcohol, tobacco and other drugs because the family is the social and primary responsible for modeling communication behavior and teaching social skills. Family interactions should also provide models for competencies related to drug resistance and use.
It is the attitudes and behaviors of parents, the quality of family life and the relationship between the parents and the child that play the most crucial role in initiation and experimentation with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
Some protective factors are:
- Parent education
- Availability of school, family and community resources
- Positive, warm and caring parenting
- Clear parental expectations
- Given family responsibilities
- Good parenting skills and supervision
- Family traditions and rituals
- Extended family support networks


Reasons for relapses:
Relapse is usually caused by a combination of factors. Possible factors and warning signs in the prevention of a relapse might be:
-Stopping medications on one's own or against the advice of medical professionals
-Hanging around old drinking haunts and drug using friends - slippery places
-Isolating - not attending meetings - not using the telephone for support
-Keeping alcohol, drugs, and paraphernalia around the house for any reason
-Obsessive thinking about using drugs or drinking
-Failing to follow ones treatment plan - quitting therapy - skipping doctors' appointments
-Feeling overconfident - that you no longer need support
-Relationship difficulties - ongoing serious conflicts - a spouse who still uses
-Setting unrealistic goals - perfectionism - being too hard on ourselves
-Changes in eating and sleeping patterns, personal hygiene, or energy levels
-Feeling overwhelmed - confused - useless - stressed out
-Constant boredom - irritability - lack of routine and structure in life
-Sudden changes in psychiatric symptoms
-Dwelling on resentments and past hurts - anger - unresolved conflicts
-Avoidance - refusing to deal with personal issues and other problems of daily living
-Major life changes - loss - grief - trauma - painful emotions - winning the lottery
-Ignoring relapse warning signs and triggers


Melvin Burgess – Junk:
Tar’s life is not that easy. Both his parents are addicted to alcohol and his father beats him up regularly. He decides to run away and leave everything behind. After a clash with her parents his girlfriend, Gemma, decides to run away too. She doesn’t want to leave her family forever, she just wants to teach them a lesson.
Tar gets to know some squatters who help them to get an accommodation. They are also ready to provide them with food until they get old enough to land a job.
On a party they get to know Lily and Rob. This is when they get confronted with heroin for the first time. They start takings drugs regularly thinking they could stop at any time.
Getting addicted Gemma and Lily start to prostitute themselves to get some money. Lily gets pregnant and they all decide to stop taking drugs, but they can’t manage it and that is ehwn they realize how addicted they have become.
After giving birth to her child, Lily gets more and more addicted. Gemma realizes that Lily is not able to raise a child in this condition and she calls the cops.
Tar takes the rap and gets arrested. Lily and Rob have to go to rehab centers and Gemma finds out that she is pregnant. After talking to Vonny, a friend of her, she decides to return to her parents after four years. After getting out of jail Tar and Gemma separate but they stay friends and Tar helps her with the child. After all Gemma manages to get clean and so does Tar.

James Frey - A Million Little Pieces:
A badly tattered James awakens on an airplane to Chicago with no recollection of his injuries or of how he ended up on the plane. He is met by his parents at the airport, who take him to a rehabilitation clinic. We find out that James is 23 years old and he has been an alcoholic for ten years and a crack addict for three. He is also wanted by the police in three different states on several charges.
As he checks into the rehab clinic, he is forced to quit his substance abuse, a transition that we find out later probably saves his life, but it is also an incredibly agonizing event. As part of this, he is forced to undergo a series of painful root canals, without any anesthesia because of possible negative reactions to the drugs. He copes with the pain by squeezing tennis balls until his nails crack. Throughout his stay, he refuses to buy into the notion of his victimhood and instead chooses to blame his misfortunes solely on himself and as the result of his own decisions. Because of this view he rejects the concept of the Twelve Steps that is recommended to him at the clinic and chooses to proceed with his recovery without complaint or blame on others and also with the knowledge that he will die if he begins his substance abuse again.
Frey meets many interesting people in the clinic, whom he forms relationships with and who play an important role in his life both during and after his time in the clinic. These people include a mafia boss who plays a vital role in his recovery and a woman drug addict with whom he falls in love, despite strict rules forbidding contact between men and women at the clinic.
James finally recovers and never relapses!