Effects of Addiction

Effects of Addiction

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Effects of addiction

Addiction refers to a condition that occurs due to consumption of such substances as cocaine or alcohol by a person or involvement in a pleasurable activity that with time the continuous use turns to be compelling and thus affect a person’s normal life (Papa, 2007). Also, it can be used to refer to biological or physical effects that have occurred to an individual as a result of continually using a certain drug .The use of such a drug may result into brain overreaction on consumption or injection to the blood. When the body of an individual has adapted to the use of the drug, this state is biological. Antony in the case video is addicted to such hard drugs as cocaine. He uses the drug daily on arrival from work. This has resulted in a huge impact on personal life, family members and his health in general (Papa, 2007).

Effects of addiction on Antony’s life

Addiction to drugs by Antony has caused some effects such as health effects, social sanctions, pressure in order to quit abuse, failure to perform his normal roles and occasional blackouts (Matheson & Davidson, 2004). He gets pressure from his relatives to quit drug abuse on continual taking of drugs. Since Antony was addicted to injections up to five times in a single day, it proves to be hard for him to quit. He would continuously be told to quit by Sister Angelo and his brothers since they disliked the behavior. They told him to quit for his parents and for family’s sake (Matheson & Davidson, 2004).

Antony suffers from seizure, a serious ailment, and he nearly succumbs to it. His mother is told by the doctor that Antony could have been lost had he arrived at the hospital five minutes later. As a result of drug abuse, Antony risked his life due to injury. This is because after taking the drugs, he would get some injury by falling because he could not think well (Sheff, 2010).

Addiction makes Antony’s social life to be compromised. People to associate with and friends were no longer there. The society had as well rejected him. Antony also suffered from ‘blackouts’ due to drug abuse. After an injection, he would undergo a ‘blackout’ for up to fifteen minutes. In order to get some more drug money, Antony would think of involvement in such activity as stealing or robbery (Papa, 2007).

Moreover, Antony drug abuse directly affected his job. His father had hired him in one of his pizzerias. On some days, Antony would turn up late for his work and thus fail to properly execute his roles at the job. When Antony was at work, he would perfectly perform his duties. However, Antony would be late in the morning and his grandmother had a hard task of trying to make him clean his room or wake up. This was majorly attributed to the fact that Antony could spend most of his night hanging out and taking drugs in clubs (Matheson & Davidson, 2004).

Effects of Antony’s addiction on the life of his family.

Antony’s addiction to such drugs as cocaine caused a major impact not only to his life but also that of his family. For instance, family members would get sadder daily due to constant worrying about their son. Her mother rarely slept knowing that her son was spending his night out there. This made her to be awake till her son arrived home, which could sometimes be as late as 3am in the morning. After arrival that late, his mother would severally check him to make sure that he slept well. This made her initially happy life to be a stressful one. On top of that, her mother would feel the guilt that she failed to raise her children in a proper manner and that is why Antony is the way he is (Barnard, 2007).

Furthermore, the relationship that Antony enjoyed with his brothers is ruined due to his behavior. His brothers lost trust in him since he stealing $700 that belonged to his brother and later confesses. He stole the money to settle with his supplier of drugs. The supplier had threatened kill him on failure to pay him. Despite his brothers loving him, he brought some discomfort to them since they saw the possibility of losing him anytime (Barnard, 2007).

Antony is as well disowned by his sister Angelo owing to his bad behavior. According to her, continuous provision of everything needed by Antony from family members translated to supporting his behavior. He would get $40 on daily basis from his father to buy drugs. Family’s money was therefore being wasted on purchase of drugs and Angelo says that until he quit drug abuse, she wouldn’t have any association with him. Finally, Antony’s father risked getting a heart attack due to his son’s behavior. This is because his father got stressed each moment his son his son’s addiction worsened (Sheff, 2010).

Effects of Antony’s addiction to his community

The community was as well affected by Antony’s addiction. For instance, he promoted sale of drugs in the community due to his regular consumption. This had a risk of making other teenagers and youths join drug abuse (Sheff, 2010). The community as well was denied the contribution of Antony since he was no longer social and thus he could not participate in anything towards community service. His addiction also posed as a threat since he was under a temptation of stealing or robbing people to get money to buy more drugs. His conduct would therefore be seen as an insecurity to the people. Antony also acted as a bad role model to his peers who played baseball with him since they would easily adapt to the behavior (Sheff, 2010).

Furthermore, Antony’s addiction would have great impacts on the wellbeing of the public. This would be as a result of him causing an accident. This is especially if Antony drove under the influence of drugs he had injected himself with (Barnard, 2007).

Conclusion

In conclusion, addiction is a very bad menace that everyone should try not to be part of it. As observed, drug abuse may cause several impacts on lives of the family, the individual and the community as a whole. It is clear that addiction only brings negative effects and thus a bad behavior in general. It is therefore highly advisable for people to refer their addicted friends or relatives to rehabilitation centers and other support programs so that appropriate intervention measures can be done.

References

Barnard, M. (2007). Drug addiction and families . London: Jessica Kingsley.

Matheson, D., & Davidson, M. (2004). The behavioral effects of drugs. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Papa, S. (2007). Addiction. Woodbridge, Conn.: Blackbirch Press.

Sheff, D. (2010). Beautiful boy: A father’s journey through his son’s addiction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.