Henrietta Murphy-Jones
Grand Canyon University
PCN 531
Family Issues and Addictive Disorders
- Abstract
The goal of this research paper is to look into the different reasons for HIV and substance abuse and the way that family therapy can help a person in need when it comes to the problems that the former places. It has been shown that family therapy helps solve problems when it comes to the social and psychological wellbeing of a person, two fields that is greatly affected by the contraction of HIV or the addition to an illegal drug.
Furthermore, the paper was able to find that there are many different reasons why a person would consider taking on illegal substances and the devolvement of the person taking it. More importantly, the paper was able to show clearly how the three are related as substance abuse can lead to HIV or vice versa.
- Introduction
- HIV/AIDS has been one of the greatest deliberating viruses in the history of mankind. While there have been many different sickness which have led to death in the history of man, none have been as life changing as HIV/AIDS. The reason behind it is the fact that the main (and most common) means of transmitting the disease is sexual in nature and the moment that a person has it, there is a great to almost absolute chance that he or she will never have sex again. Even worse, this deadly virus can be passed on from parent to child, thus rending the biological purpose of a sentient being irrelevant as there are no known cures for the virus to date.
This virus does not just ruin the capabilities of a person to reproduce, it also ruins a person’s ability to socialize as, while the virus is usually transmitted sexually, it can also be transmitted in a different form, namely in substance abuse. Substance abuse in turn is the consummation of a substance (usually an illegal drug) of a person in a way that is neither approved nor recommended by a medical professional.
As stated, the virus can be transmitted sexually by sexual fluids such as semen and vaginal fluid, but it can also be transmitted in blood or even breast milk where blood is the common factor in the transmission of the disease and substance abuse. Take for instance, two people are addicted to a certain type of drug that needs a syringe or any other paraphernalia that penetrates the skin and comes in contact with blood. If one of them has HIV/AIDS, uses the syringe for his addiction and then the syringe is shared with another person, there is a great likelihood that the other person will be infected as well.
- Substance abuse is not always limited to mood influencing or psycho-active drug abuse, but it is the most common; couple that with the fact that this abuse is usually psychological in nature and the fact that HIV/AIDS also has a great effect on the mindset of a person and one will be able to see how family therapy comes into this mixture.
- Family therapy in turn is a form of psychotherapy where the intimate relationship between family members is used to promote the psychological wellbeing of a person. The different forms of this therapy believe that regardless of whether or not the problem is considered as a personal problem or one that involves the entire family, the solution to the problem will be better and more productive if the family is involved in the solving process. More often than not, the therapy has approximately 5 to 20 sessions where the communication theory, reality therapy, relationship education and such is involved.
- This paper plans to examine the positive effect of family therapy on people with HIV/AIDS and/or substance abuse. While there are many ways to treat people with such problems, with the addiction to the drug in substance abuse being overcome and making the life of a person with HIV to be more comfortable (as there are no documented cures for the virus), family is the foundation of society and thus will likely have a great impact on the people with HIV/AIDS and substance abuse problems.
- HIV/AIDS
- The disease was first clinically documented in the United States back in 1981. At first, the virus had no name in itself and the term HIV was only introduced in 1982. The virus is believed to have originated from primates from Africa and was passed on to humans in the beginning of the 20th century. While the stories of it being passed on because someone had a sexual encounter with a primate and then had another sexual encounter with a human after are not unfounded, there is no real evidence to suggest that this is how the virus was passed on. However, there is evidence than people who have eaten bush meat (meat that comes from animals from some parts of both Africa and Asia) do sometimes get a similar virus known as SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus) .
Regardless of how the disease was transmitted to the human race, there is still no documented vaccine for the virus. The problem lies in the difficulty of introducing an antibody to the virus. As soon as antibodies are produced and introduced, the virus adapts rapidly to elude them . For the moment, there are a number of ways to prevent the disease and new technologies are being developed to create a cure and to detect the virus at an earlier stage.
- Currently, there are only preventive drugs and such that will hinder the virus from progressing or make the person’s life more comfortable to live despite the presence of the virus. However, as there is no cure yet, the best way to go is to detect the virus as early as possible or better yet, avoid it .
- The Cause, Signs and Symptoms of HIV and Preventive Measures
- HIV is passed on in many different ways; the first few of these are total myths. Most of these myths were born out of fear of the virus (thus the reason why family therapy plays a great role, but more on that later). Specifically, these myths are from causal contact with a HIV infected person such as hugging, shaking of hands, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and casual kissing.
- What can be the transmission of the virus is far more biological than social in nature. The most common is sexual transmission where one sexual passes it on to another in the form of sexual secretions and it contact with another person. This can be in oral, vaginal, anal sex or sharing a sex toy with a person who has HIV. Another is perinatal transmission where the mother passes on the disease to her child in pregnancy, childbirth or even breastfeeding. Finally, the virus can be passed on in blood transmissions. While this form of transmission is now very low in more developed countries, this form of transmission still exist in the form of the sharing of a syringe between drug users who have HIV (as the example in the introduction shows) .
- It may be easy to get be infected by the virus, but it is harder to diagnose the disease as it may take up to ten years before signs and symptoms may appear, by then, it is always too late. In early stages of the virus, symptoms usually appear within two weeks of getting the virus and will last about four weeks. These symptoms include tiredness, weakness, sore throat, fever, chills, enlarged glands, sweats, muscle ache, a red rash, weight loss and joint pain .
- More often than not, the symptoms will disappear and will not come up again for years to come. This is usually the time when the virus starts to progress and by the time symptoms appear again, the person will most likely have AIDS. This late stage of HIV has its own symptoms which include blurred vision, dry cough, fever which exceeds 37 degrees Celsius, white spots on the tongue and mouth, permanent tiredness, dry cough, shortness of breath, weight loss and even diarrhea. It is also by this time when a person develops other diseases which will lead to death such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and different types of cancer .
- Preventive measure to be taken to avoid HIV infection is quite simple when compared to the symptoms it shows. The first is to practice protected sex. The best way to do this is to not change sexual partners on a very regular basis to decrease the chance of having a sexual partner with HIV, the condom is also another good way to do this and not sharing sex toys with people. Of course a more conservative person would also suggest abstinence from sex. In cases of pregnancies, there are treatments to ensure that the virus is not passed on from mother to child. Cesarean delivery may have to be endured and the mother may also have to bottle feed her baby instead of breast feeding .
- Finally, in drug abuse, the best way to avoid HIV is to avoid addition in the first place. However, if the person is already addicted to a certain substance, then the next way to prevent HIV infection is to not share needles. Most importantly, health education is also one of the best ways to avoid HIV as it reduces the risk of a person engaging in more destructive behavior .
- Substance Abuse
- Substance abuse is basically categorized as the harmful use psychoactive elements such as alcohol and more commonly, illicit drugs. While they not always be psychoactive substances (such as a solvent), the result is still the same where a person becomes dependent on the substance. This dependence is usually known as an addiction to said substance. Regardless, once one states the term “substance abuse’ it is still commonly associated to the addiction to an illegal drug as the only logical conclusion a person can come to is the fact that a drug is banned because of its hazardous nature .
- The reason why a person falls into substance abuse is numerous in nature. It can be because of social and psychological problems such as a broken family, a problem within the family, a biological problem in the person itself, and peer pressure which leads to dependence and many more. Regardless of the nature of the reason, soon enough, a person usually degrades more than they become better and instead of their problems solving, the addiction merely becomes an escape for them .
- The difference between USE and ABUSE of a substance
- The difference between the use of a drug and its abuse is one fine line. On one hand, there are those who do take illegal drugs for recreational purposes, on the other, there are those who have come to depend on the drug to move on with their lives. The line is drawn in the fact that the use of a substance usually leads to the abuse of the drug. In this instance, the most vocal of those who say that the use of drugs for recreational purposes is those who smoke marijuana.
Smokers have argued that the intake of marijuana for recreational purposes is not destructive and not addictive when taken sporadically, especially when compared to “harder drugs”. This may be true, but the fact that marijuana is addictive by its very nature (like nicotine) and the term “sporadically” is not clear cut on how many times a person takes the drug in a given amount of time, this use will more often than not, leads to abuse of the drug .
- Development of the addiction
- As stated, this usually starts with the use of the drug. This usually starts with the person wishing to feel good, or avoiding a problem that they are currently facing. The problem with this is the fact that the addiction is not noticeable until it is too late. From taking a certain drug once in a party to consuming the said drug a few times a week, to its slow but gradual process to becoming reliant on the drug .
- As the feeling of importance in taking the drug increases, reliance on it increases as well. Soon enough a person starts consuming the drug for activities when once he or she did not need it for the occasion. Such as a person needing a certain drug to calm them down, or to feel confident in a social situation where they feel shy or even to avoid depression and other more negative emotions.
- Another step in this downward spiral is when a person starts taking the drug to fill a sense of emptiness in their lives. This usually comes from a problem that a person is trying to avoid facing. Whether it is from losing their job, breaking up with someone, or any other problem, the abuse begins because the person refuses to confront the problem and the possible anguish it will bring and instead choose to “escape” to the feeling of happiness that they get from the drug .
- The final step of the addiction is when the person starts to avoid previous responsibilities to take the drug more regularly. This can usually be seen when a person starts to miss work or school, doing dangerous things while under the influence of the drug such as driving while intoxicated, having unprotected sex or sharing syringes. This stage of addiction can also be observed in the relationship of the person has towards his or her social circle. Regular fights with partners, family and friends and even getting into legal problems brought upon such as stealing to support the addiction .
- Family Therapy
- Family therapy is a type of psychological counseling where the problems of the family are aired out and resolved for the benefit of the psychological health of a family member, or the entire family itself. This thought is brought upon by the belief that the cornerstone of any society is a family; as such, family members are brought together to resolve a problem as a cohesive unit instead of looking for an outside source for the solution .
- This form of therapy is usually associated when a family member starts “acting out” or when the illness of one member of the family can be seen as merely a symptom of a larger problem in the family. This form of therapy is also used when the problem of the family has snowballed into a more complicated situation such as unclear or conflicting rules, expectations and roles of each family member .
- The Relationship of the three
- HIV/AIDS has a great effect on the mental and social health of a person, substance abuse problems also lie in the same field, while the point of family therapy is to answer problems in the same field. The rationale behind this is the fact that the three are connected in a sense that they all share the same fields of problems. Furthermore, substance abuse has been known to lead to the infection of HIV due to a number of reasons as stated above .
- As the problems of substance abuse and living with HIV will affect more than the person, family therapy can help in numerous ways such as creating a support group for the person trying to break out of the addiction (as one myth in substance abuse is that you can break out of it by willpower alone) or living with HIV. There are numerous other ways to treat a person with addiction or HIV, and family therapy is not the only answer, but it cannot be denied that family therapy does help the situation .
- Conclusion
- There are many ways to prevent or help a person who is abusing a certain drug or is either living with HIV or in a situation where the chances of getting the virus is great. While family therapy is not the only way to help the person, family therapy is still a good choice in the repertoire of solutions that a person should consider if they really wish to solve their problems.
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