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.