Personal Experience with Drug Addiction

Social Issue: Drug Addiction

Introduction

Drug addiction is a serious social issue that can have a major impact on people's lives. I have seen this firsthand through a close friend who has struggled with addiction. Addiction can cause people to lose their jobs, their homes, and even their families. It can also lead to health problems, financial problems, and even death. Drug addiction is a major problem in our society, and we need to do something about it. We need to provide treatment and support for those who are struggling with addiction, and we need to educate people about the risks of drug use. If we don't do something about drug addiction, it will continue to destroy lives and tear families apart.

I think that one of the reasons drug addiction is such a problem in our society is that it is glorified in popular media. It may start off small with marijuana use, but people who get hooked to the high might then begin exploring other drugs and soon enough it is controlling their lives. It is a really issue, and I actually have multiple friends who are negatively affected by it. I even know someone who has died from overdosing on opioids. So it is not something that we should be taking lightly.

Another factor in this issue, I think, is the role of the family. I do not think it is a coincidence that many of my friends who have tried drugs and gotten hooked on them also come from homes where they have bad family problems—either too controlling parents, unloving parents, or absent fathers. I think that in a lot of ways, one social issue bleeds into the next, so that a lot of issues could be solved if we just get back to basics as a society. The big basic for me would be answering this question: how do we teach parents to love their kids? How do we teach kids to mind their parents? Everything we see and hear today seems to be about embracing a “me me me” type of culture or ideal. It is a lot of what is called Ethical Egoism, in my opinion. Everyone is trying to find something for himself and make it his and forget about everyone and everything else—and I do not see how any society can last when so many people are like that.

And then there is the factor that drugs are an escape. So what are people escaping from? What were my friends trying to escape from when they got hooked? I think they were trying to escape from the pressures that are put on us—the expectations. It used to be that people could mess up and make mistakes, and all would be forgiven. Nowadays, if you mess up once, or make one mistake it is like your life is ruined so you might as well go all in and jump down the drain feeling good, i.e., while high. I think there is definite level of despair attached to what is going on with people who turn to drugs. It might start off as liking the feeling of getting high, but then it turns into a way to escape from the unpleasant side of reality. I don’t really know what the solution there is, but if only there was some way for families to realize that they need to band together—not come apart. Even in my own family, when there is tension, it is tempting to want to go and fly and jump into some easy way out—but I have always been glad when that tension is resolved and I can see and feel and recognize that love and respect are still there in my family and between me and my parents.

Overcoming and Dealing with Drug Addiction

Since no one I know has ever really quit using drugs, I don’t know what the answer here is. I don’t know how a person can overcome addiction. I know that there are places people can go if they are serious. But one has to really want to get help in those cases, and the people I know do not want to quit using drugs. They like drugs, they like getting high, and they want to escape, even if it is ruining their lives. I know one family that tried an intervention for their son who was using heroin, and he ran away to live in the city and they never saw him again. He ended up dying on the streets. So maybe there are some people for whom an intervention would work, but in that family’s case it did not work at all.

As hard as it is, I think the best way to deal with the issue is just to start living virtuously—because virtue is just as contagious as any type of vice—and maybe there is a spiritual component that we need to recognize, too. I don’t know how God works but I think that people are awfully quick to shoot down the idea of God existing—yet if you go to an AA program or something like that, they always make it a point to emphasize that you cannot quit alone: you need God’s help. It is almost like even if you don’t believe in God up to that point, you have to start believing because it is the only way you will overcome the addiction. So I think that we as a society should be more open to that. After all, it is not like AA doesn’t work: if it didn’t work, no one would use that program. But people do, and it must be working for some. It is just a really hard thing to do: to watch people struggle and to not be able to support them in some way. So maybe that is a solution to think about—putting our trust, and prayers, in God. Like I said, I don’t know how God works—and a lot of people don’t believe in God—but I’d be willing to try if it could help my friends.

Solutions

I think to remove this problem it is going to take a lot of work, but we have to think big. First, I think we have to stop glorifying drug use in the media. Why do we bother censoring things on Social Media if we aren’t going to censor really harmful stuff like drug use in popular music, TV, and movies? It makes no sense to me. Drug addiction is a bigger problem in this country than COVID, yet all anybody on Social could bother over for all of 2020 was who was saying what about the nature of infectious disease! Meanwhile, kids are literally killing themselves with drugs because of all the lockdowns and isolation and loneliness and despair. Our society definitely has its priorities all mixed up.