Addiction in the Media

Addiction in the Media – Music

Media in general is a very influential source, especially for adolescents. On average, American teenagers listen to music and watch music videos for 4-5 hours each day (Substance Use). According to this study done by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 45% of music videos have drugs or alcohol appear either visually or verbally. The study included 258 music videos that varied in genre. The results of this study suggest that illicit drugs appear more often in the lyrics than in the video, and vice versa for alcohol (Substance Abuse).

While drugs and alcohol appear in many music videos, the portrayal of the substances varies. Some promote the use of it such as Liquor Store Blues by Bruno Mars, stating that alcohol is good for getting rid of “pain” and “sorrow” and that it won’t affect the user’s future. Other songs such as Cocaine by Jackson Brown, depict the physical and psychological changes that come with addiction. Similarly, Jack Daniels and Jesus by Chase Rice portrays the social consequences of alcoholism.

The influence that music has on adolescents can go either way. The media as a source for information on drugs could lead kids to believe that it is cool normal to use and abuse them. On the other hand, it could inform them about the problems that accompany drug abuse, making them see that drugs are harmful and dangerous. A big part of this is the view of the musical artist. If a famous musician sings about using drugs and alcohol, it gives them a positive connotation. The artist is probably well off and well known, and they accomplished this while living with substance abuse.

MusiCares is a foundation specifically for musicians living with addiction. It has been growing and expanding at a rapid rate, providing services for treatment as well as help getting back on the right track (The Fix). This is very beneficial because a big problem with recovering from addiction is getting back out into the real world, paying bills, getting a job, and supporting oneself and others. Providing services for these problems will help prevent relapse into substance abuse.

This foundation as a whole is a great idea and is something to learn from. It gives the client a sense of belonging and understanding that caters to an important part of their life. By creating more foundations such as this one, addicts will have more options for treatment and recovery that could be based off of their way of life (The Fix). In order to be eligible for assistance the foundation requires 5 years of documented, professional work in the music industry (The Fix). 

References

McGuiness, K. (2011, October 28). How the music industry helps its addicts. Retrieved from http://www.thefix.com/content/behind-music6126

Substance use in popular music videos. (2002, June). Retrieved from http://www.scenesmoking.org/research/SubstanceUseIinMusic.pdf

Habit Summary

Habit Summary

The habit I chose to change in the beginning of the semester was nail biting. This is a horrid habit that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Time and time again I tried to stop biting my nails but I was never successful in the long run. I would stop for a week or two and then cave in. The longest I had ever gone was probably a month. When we were presented with the challenge of changing a behavior in this class nail biting was the first thing that came to my mind. I had other options to choose from such as eating junk food, but nail biting was the only one I really wanted to change. In the beginning it was pretty easy to stop the habit. I had done it before for a couple of weeks so I knew I could do that again. The hard part came when I got to about a month. I would notice myself picking at my nails a lot or friends would catch me as I was about to start biting my nails. So far I had a few techniques for changing the behavior. I used a lot of nail polish and this stuff called NO BITE that tastes really bad. One of my roommates put sticky notes all over our room saying “stop biting your nails” and they both did their best to keep an eye out for the nail biting.

Having the support of my friends and family definitely helped. One of my biggest problems was that I rarely ever noticed when I was biting my nails. I have been doing it for so long and I didn't even think about it. Having my friends point out when they saw me doing it was a huge help. After the first month I was able to notice it a little more since I had gone so long without doing it but that was also the most difficult time so it was harder to stop myself. In accepting this challenge and attempting to change a behavior, I learned a lot about myself. I have the dedication and determination needed to stop a habit. The biggest problem is the motivation to start. Nail biting is something I have always wanted to stop so the motivation to try was there. However, if I had chosen to give up eating junk food I would not have been even slightly successful. It is not something I want to give up even though I know it is bad for me so the motivation to stat would not have been present.

While going through this process there were many ways in which I was able to connect my habit to an addiction based on what we learned in class. In order to treat an addiction the person must know they have a problem and be willing to make a change. I was able to connect to this because nail biting was something I have always wanted to stop. To make it possible to quit an addiction you must have a support group. This could be people in a 12 step meeting, a sponsor, friends, or family members. In my case it was friends. Without them I would not have been nearly as successful as I was. The most difficult part to overcome was the triggers. The worst one for me was more along the line of feelings than people, places, or things.  I was most tempted to bite my nails when I was nervous, anxious, or frustrated. In class we learned that the best way to handle these things is to avoid them; find new people to hang out with, don’t go to the places that remind you of it, and don’t do the things that trigger the addiction.

Getting past this part of the behavior change was difficult because I can’t avoid feelings or the things that cause them. The stress, anxiety, and frustration mostly came from school or soccer. These are not things that I can just stop. I can now understand how difficult it could be for someone who can’t afford to move away from the problem, or can’t get away from their bad group of friends easily. In my opinion habits can definitely be broken; however, I don’t think that addictions can be cured. If you work on it long enough a behavior can be changed, almost like forming a new habit of not doing whatever the bad habit was before. Depending on the habit or behavior it may take a very long time but I believe it can be done. On the other hand I do not believe that an addiction can be cured. It can be treated on a day by day basis but it will never fully go away. There is a reason that 12 step meetings require you to introduce yourself as an addict every time you join the discussion. The addiction never goes away, it will always be there but it can be treated one day at a time.

Article Summary

Gender Differences Among In- and Out-of-Treatment Opioid-Addicted Individuals

Article Summary:

This article covers a study done to detect differences among both genders and treatment options for drugs addicts. The sample used for this test had 355 participants; 154 (43%) women and 201 (57%) men. About 69% of the participants were entering into treatment, 43% women and 57% men. That leaves 111 participants left that were not entering into treatment. Of the total number of participants, 74% were African American/ other, and 24% were married. The average age was 41 years old and the average amount of education completed was 11 years.

                Of the total women participants, those that were in-treatment women were more likely to be African American and more educated than those that were out-off-treatment women. Other factors such as age, marital status, etc. did not affect this sample. Compared to in-treatment women, out-of treatment women used their drug of choice more, were involved in more illegal ways of earning money, and almost doubled the amount spent on drugs in the 30 days leading up to the study.

                Not many factors affected the differences between out-of-treatment men and women; however, women were significantly younger than the men. Out-of-treatment women used their substance of choice more times in the 30 days leading up to the study than out-of-treatment men did. There were no significant findings for differences between in-treatment men and in-treatment women.

                This study also looked at the number of days worked in the 30 days leading up to the study. Major differences were found between men and women. Women work much less in those 30 days than men did. No difference was found between in-treatment women and out-of-treatment women.

          

Connection to Reading:    

One reason that the number of men entering treatment was higher than women could be due to obligation of children. Fear of losing their child or inability to receive help raising the child may lead women away from treatment options. Another reason may be that substance using women are more likely to have a substance using partner than substance using men are. If this is the case than they may not see that they have a problem if they don’t think their partner does.

                According to the study, the majority of in-treatment women were African American. In our book it states that African American women are much better at abstaining from drugs than African American males or White women. This holds true in the study because African American women were more likely to receive treatment.

               

Reflection:

  Overall I think this study covers many of the critical gender differences that arise with addiction. If it is this obvious that women are much less likely to receive treatment than something must be done about it. Efforts are being made to make treatment options available to pregnant or parenting women but that is not enough. All possible reasons for women’s lower treatment rates must be taken into consideration when planning treatment options to cater towards them.

References 

Kelly, S. M., Schwartz, R. P., O'Grady, K. E., Mitchell, S., Reisinger, H., Peterson, J. A., & ... Brown, B. S.    (2009). Gender Differences Among In- and Out-of-Treatment Opioid-Addicted Individuals.         American Journal Of Drug & Alcohol Abuse, 35(1), 38-42. doi:10.1080/00952990802342915

Van Wormer, K. Addiction Treatment: A Strengths Perspective.

Asian Americans

Tobacco use and dependence in Asian Americans: A review of the literature

Culture, race, and ethnic groups strongly contribute to differences in substance use and dependence. Research on addiction in certain groups, however, needs to be improved. The group I researched was Asian Americans. The source I looked at mostly discussed the amount of information that currently exists for this specific group of people and how accurate the existing research is. A detailed search was done to find literature from various years that relates to the topic being studied (Asian Americans and specific subgroups). Results showed that, although the amount of research being done on addiction in Asian Americans has increased over the past 30 years, most of the studies were done on males. There was also a biased towards which subgroups had more research. Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese Americans have been the main focus of existing research and studies, leaving groups such as Filipino, Pakistani, and Thai Americans under reported. Even worse is the gender bias. While men are understudied in select subgroups of Asian Americans, women are understudied in all of them (Kim).  

This article strongly relates to our reading because the book specifically mentions the difficulties that exist with research for this group and why these problems exist. Research cannot be done on just Asians as a whole because that group encompasses way too many different cultures that are truly very different from each other. In total there are 30 different Asian ethnic groups and on top of that there are 21 different Pacific Islander ethnic groups. Each group comes from a different origin and therefore each subgroup is affected by addiction in different ways. When it comes to these groups being under researched the book agrees with the article I found on many points (Van Wormer). Some of the main reasons for the lack of information on substance dependence among these groups include

·         These groups have been ignored and overlooked when studies were being completed.

·         Services are not directed towards these cultures, which leads to lack of treatment.

·         Research that has been conducted on these groups may be inaccurate.

·         Assumptions are often made without and support or evidence regarding drug use by Asian Americans.

-(Van Wormer)

References

Kim, S. S., Ziedonis, D., & Chen, K. W. (2007). Tobacco use and dependence in Asian Americans: A review of the literature. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 9(2), 169-184. doi:10.1080/14622200601080323

Van Wormer, Katherine. Addiction Treatment: a Strengths Perspective.

In the Movies

In the Movies: Confessions of a Shopaholic

There are many movies containing characters suffering from an addiction. They portray the addictions is many different ways and can be either accurate or inaccurate. The movie I recently saw was Confessions of a Shopaholic starring Isla Fisher. I chose to watch this movie because I am in no way a shopaholic. Shopping is not one of my many hobbies so I find it very difficult to understand such a behavioral addiction. By the time the movie ended I had gained much more insight to the addiction, both positive and negative.

Confessions of a Shopaholic was released in 2009. It is a comedy/ romance movie. This made it very entertaining for me to watch but it also lacked the seriousness of having a behavioral addiction. Isla Fisher plays the role of Rebecca Bloomwood, a journalist currently switching jobs with high hopes of obtaining her dream job. She ends up picking up a job for a finance magazine in which she has a column advising readers on how to save money. This is ironic because she is a shopaholic and is horrible at saving her money. She is 1000s of dollars in debt and is avoiding the debt collector. She has support from her friend/roommate, but other than that she keeps her problem from everyone else.

I think the movie did a good job of portraying the triggers for addiction, however they didn't focus much on the treatment and recovery which made it seem fairly simple compared to what I have learned in class. Throughout the movie I felt both anger and sympathy towards Rebecca Bloomwood. When the debt collector was trying to get a hold of her and when buying a bridesmaid dress seemed difficult I had a lot of sympathy for her. This is when she was in the guilt/ shame stage. You could see that she knew there was a problem but she was also trying to deny it. She was lying to herself. However, since shopping isn't my area of expertise, I found it hard not to get angry when she made horrible choices (either buying something she couldn't afford or buying what she wanted and not what she needed). This feeling of anger is exactly the lack of support than many addicts experience. It comes from a lack of knowledge and understanding of addictions.

Rebecca’s best friend was supportive but was not necessarily pushing her enough to get help until the end. She was the only one who knew her level of debt and she did her best to help her with it. In the end she forced her to go to a Shopaholics Anonymous meeting. Rebecca’s family was what pushed her to become so materialistic. Her parents could have afforded to buy her nicer things but instead they were very cheap which made her feel excluded from peers. Because of this she did not want them to know about her debt problem. However, when they found out they were there for her to count on which is very important for recovery.

As I said before, I think this movie did a good job of representing triggers of an addiction. With her job and home area there was no way for her to go about her daily life without walking past shops she constantly wanted to go in. Whenever she had a meeting, interview, or event for work she felt the need to get a new outfit for it and once it was on her mind she believed it was necessary. I do not think that the recovery/treatment part of the movie was accurately portrayed. She went to Shopaholics Anonymous and she took steps towards recovery that we have learned about but much of it was skipped over making recovery seem easy. It is important for people to know that recovery from an addiction is difficult and is a day by day process. Triggers and cravings will always be there.

I could see a direct connection between discussions in class and Confessions of a Shopaholic. Triggers were one, but I also recognized the importance of “people, places, and things.” I saw this movie as very informative and I really enjoyed it.

I decided to look at an article that I could relate to addiction and the elderly. The article I chose is Gender Differences in Seven-Year Alcohol and Drug Treatment Outcomes among Older Adults. This article discusses substance addiction among older adults as well as differences in addiction and treatment between older men and women. The study was conducted on men and women over the age of 55. It used an outpatient program and explored the outcomes of a seven year follow-up assessment. It concluded that women, on average, stuck with the program longer and were more successful at the seven year follow-up. A direct connection was made between the length the participant stayed in the program and the success rates.

This article directly relates to chapter 6 in our books as well as our discussions in class. The article discusses the problem of low awareness when it comes to substance misuse and dependence among older adults. There are not many studies or programs, nor is there much education on older adults suffering from addiction. Other things we discussed in class were reasons for addictions among the elderly going unnoticed. Most older adults keep their substance abuse hidden by only doing it when they are alone or at home. Addictions among the elderly are also ignored because they have used the substance their entire life so it is natural to them, however, as they get older their tolerance goes down making the effects stronger. Because of the baby boomer generation as well as advances in medicine, the number of older adults is increasing. This makes the problem of addiction among the elderly a rising priority.

References

Satre, D. D., Blow, F. C., Chi, F. W., & Weisner, C. (2007). Gender Differences in Seven-Year Alcohol and Drug Treatment Outcomes among Older Adults. American Journal On Addictions, 16(3), 216- 221. doi:10.1080/10550490701375673

Van Wormer, Katherine. Addiction Treatment: a Strengths Perspective.

Recovery Group Meeting

Recovery Group Meeting

This week I attended an Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting that took place in a Methodist Church. From people discussing their experiences with the 12 step meetings in class, I expected the group to be varied. While they did seem to vary in age and race, there were no women present. The number of alcoholics that were at the meeting was around 10. Some were there from the beginning but a few arrived late. Although it was clear that a majority of the members were religious in some way, none of them specifically mentioned their ties to that specific church. My best guess would be that there was a mixture of both church members and community members attending the meeting.

The meeting was led by an alcoholic from the area who has been attending those meetings for a few years. It was a newcomers meeting so there were a couple of people that have never been there before, or at least not very many times. However, a majority of the participants seemed to be familiar with the meetings held there and knew one another from past meetings. They started by giving everyone a chance to introduce themselves if they desired and then left the floor open to anyone who had an AA related announcement to make. From there the leader chose a topic, “Just for Today,” and the attendees took turns sharing their thoughts and experiences and how they related to the topic of the night. Most of the people spoke but not everyone.

Everybody at the meeting seemed to be relatively relaxed. When someone was telling their story everyone paid attention and was very supportive. There was coffee in the back of the room being offered to everyone which made the meeting seem even more relaxed since everyone could get up and move around as they pleased. They were all very open with me and the other students observing and were happy to share their stories with us. One man shared his story with the specific purpose of helping us understand that it could happen to anyone. I was very grateful that they were so open with me.

The leader and other members of the meeting gave us the option of reading the 12 steps in the beginning but I chose not to. When the participants were sharing their stories I gave them my undivided attention. At the end of the meeting they stood in a circle and said a prayer which I took part in. Afterwards a few of them stuck around to talk to us some more about their stories and to encourage us to stay clean and in school. They were very interested to hear what we thought of the meeting. I was happy to tell them that I found it very powerful and meaningful. I can now see why those programs are so helpful to those involved and I am glad that they that opportunity.

Each participant that shared had a very different story; however, they did have a few things in common. Almost all of them spoke of a higher power, and many of them mentioned how grateful they are to have the AA meetings and how helpful they have been to them in there process of recovery. They were happy to be there, one felt as though he was being drawn to that specific meeting even though he already attended one that morning. It was very clear that the AA meetings were helpful to each of the members.

I recognized a lot of what we have discussed and learned being put into action at the AA meeting I attended. Many of them spoke about relapse and their stories related back to the cycle we discussed in class. They also focused on a higher power, as well as living in the present. From listening to the stories, I heard firsthand the effects that we read about and discussed in class. Some of them couldn't hold on to relationships that were important to them, others couldn't hold on to dreams. One man also mentioned a rehab facility he went to before attending these meetings.

I found the meeting to be very insightful and full of positive energy. Everyone laughed and smiled and was 100% supportive. I think this is very important for people recovering from an addiction because knowing that there will always be a group of people who have shared your pain and went through your struggle can be very encouraging.