The Effect of Substance Abuse on the Family System

When someone decides to start a family, they have a certain picture in their head for how the future will plan out. Mom and dad will love their child and have their best interest at heart throughout their whole life. Most parents go into it, thinking nothing will break up their bond or make them less close to their son/daughter. They believe their child is to love, cherish, and respect their grandparents and elders. They will spend quality time with their aunts, uncles, cousins, and great-grandparents, etc.

As most of us have learned through life, that is how it is supposed to work out. What substance abusers don't realize is that their use is the root of the separation inside their family system. All relationships change, tension rises between everyone, and eventually most everyone just gives up on the user. There is no way to start the healing process in a family with a substance abuser unless the person wants to change and starts to do what is necessary to make that change. The family system can drastically change and their worlds can be flipped upside down by the simple use of drugs or alcohol. This discussion will explain the effect that substance abuse has on everything, involving the family system

Substance abuse is basically the continuing use of substances such as alcohol and other drugs as well as some other substances that aren't drugs at all. Someone who is a substance user can have their life affected in many ways. When a person becomes an addict or an alcoholic, it lowers their ability to raise a kid of their own or carry out their responsibilities that they should be as an adult. As a person continues to use drugs, the brain adapts by reducing the ability of cells in the ""reward circuit to respond to it. This reduces the high that they felt the first time using the drug, which is an effect known as tolerance. These brain adaptations often lead to the person becoming less and less able to seek pleasure from other things they once enjoyed like food, intimate activities, or social activities (Understanding Drug Use and Addiction, 2018). Using drugs also effects the body in many ways, such as weakening your immune system, causing problems with your memory, and potentially death (Effects of Drug Abuse and Addiction, 2018). A person will also have a change in their appearance such as weight loss, hair loss, acne, and rotten teeth. This is why pointing out a substance abuser can be very easy to do. The user then starts to develop a reputation that isn't so good just by looking at them and the way they act. Their relationships with others begin to weaken and they result back to the drug to make them feel better. A user also runs the risk of losing close relationships with family members due to them having no trust and losing all respect. Studies show they are more likely to relapse when families fail to maintain involvement in their treatment activities (Gruber, 2018). Most everyone also knows that drug abusers can be dangerous, so it creates a negative and uneasy feeling around them. People then start to distance themselves, including family members. The user usually doesn't realize that they lose the respect of their child, parents, and other close family members because they feel that what they are doing is something that they need to do.

In addition to the role that the family can play in helping the addict achieve recovery, it is vitally important to recognize the potential negative effect that substance abuse can have on children in the family. According to the Child Welfare League of American, substance abuse may be involved in as many as 80 percent of all substantiated cases of abuse and neglect (Gruber, 2018). Alcohol use in parents is associated with more disruptive behaviors, externalizing disorders, lower social competence, earlier onset of a substance use disorder, negative emotionality and low self-regulation in the children. It has also shown that not only has it been associated with externalizing disorders, but also internalizing disorders like depression and anxiety (Sakar, 2016). In a review of how substance abuse affects children, it was reported that studies of psychosocial functioning have found that children from substance-abusing families are prone to behavior problems involving hyperactivity and conduct disorder, drug and alcohol use, impaired intellectual and academic functioning, clinical levels, low levels of self-esteem, and perceived lack of environmental control (Gruber, 2018). Children are very desperate to have a good relationship with their parents but when they aren't being put first, payed attention to, or feeling loved, it could creates a lot of problems for them emotionally. If you use drugs when you are pregnant it can also have an effect on your child that they could potentially have to live with for the rest of their life. For example, methamphetamine, cocaine and crack cocaine use, and other stimulants such as amphetamine may be associated with irritability, agitation and aggression,and antisocial behavior as well as impaired parental patience, which has posed additional risks for physical and emotional abuse on the child ( Kimberly, 2010).

Not only does substance abuse have an effect on your child, but it also has an effect on the parents, friends, and the people around the user. Some of the studies have evaluated caregiver burden of substance use disorder among family members. Substance use has been reported to be associated with a considerable burden on the family members. The burden on the family members has been found to be higher where the substance user has a greater severity of the substance use disorder or has polysubstance abuse (Sakar, 2018). This all may also create an economic burden for the family because of the money spent on substances or the money spent on resources to help the user. Families may also experience high rates of tension and conflict related to the substance abuse disorder and the problems it causes in the family. The effects of a SUD on a specific family or a concerned significant other are influenced by the severity of the disorder, the presence of other serious problems (e.g., psychiatric illness), the behaviors exhibited by the family member with an SUD, the available support for the family, and the family members' coping strategies. Some family members are more resilient than others and are less prone to the adverse effects of it (Daley, 2013). Substance use disorders also impact the social functioning of individuals and create a burden for society. These disorders contribute to medical or psychiatric conditions, disability, death resulting from accidents, diseases caused by or worsened by substance use, and higher rates of suicidality all of which affect society. Other social problems associated with SUDs include housing instability, homelessness, criminal behaviors and incarceration, transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) associated with intravenous drug use or high-risk sexual behaviors, and unemployment or dependence on welfare. The price for these problems are very expensive and create an economic burden (Daley, 2013).

Substance abuse effects not only those as a person, but also affects the body in many different ways. People with addiction often have one or more associated health issues, which could include lung and heart disease, stroke, cancer, or health conditions. (NIDA, 2018) Drug use can affect short and long health issues, whether they are serious and irreversible or not as bad and they can be fixed with help. Drugs can lead to risky behaviors as well, such as being more vulnerable to sexual assault, find it hard to think about problems or how to resolve them, and/or have trouble sleeping. Long term issues with drugs can lead to organ mishaps in the throat, stomach, lungs, liver, pancreas, heart, brain, and the nervous system. This can also cause cancer or infectious diseases from shared ejecting equipment. If the drug you're using causes you to itch or pick at your skin, acne is most likely going to become a problem. Needle marks and clasped veins, jaw and teeth issues happened when clenching the mouth closed. Or together. Erratic behavior or losing touch with reality while on certain drugs is a common thing as well due to psychosis. One of the worst symptoms are accidental overdose, depression, suicide attempt, or death. ( Dept. of Health, 2018 )

Peer pressure has big effects on children and the other people this happens to. People tend to do things to ""act cool or to ""fit in and then begin to get addicted. Peer pressure tends to be with drugs or alcohol. When people see their friends doing this, their risks of doing it is very high, higher than someone who is never around it. The nature of peer pressure could be used in a positive way for people on drugs too. When people see their friends doing the right thing, and they realize they aren't doing the right thing they change their ways to fit in with her friends and do the right thing. Hanging around people that do good things, influence others to do good things as well. People with addictions need to take friends peer pressures into consideration because when people with addiction start to see others change, their path to changing and becoming a better person has a higher rate. (NOVA recovery, 2016)

The recovery process for people who abuse drugs can be a very hard path on everyone, but in the end it's the best way to change for the better. The definition of ""recovery is the process of initiating and maintaining abstinence from alcohol and other drugs as well as making interpersonal changes. Recovering from alcoholism is or drug abuse involves gaining information, increasing self awareness, developing coping skills, and following a program of change. The goal of this recovery process is to have the recovering individual begin to understand the responsibilities of a clean and drug free lifestyle. (Social work, 2001). It is said that most continuing care programs fail to help clients completely become clean because of a failure to teach coping skills that clients need so that they don't relapse and fall back into their bad habits during their times of recovery. ( Dejong, 1994) Substance abuse disorders are associated with social and family problems. These problems create problems with the individual with the abuse disorder who is in treatment and / or recovery, the family, and society. There are many treatments and support groups that are there to help individuals and their families that have to deal with these issues. Families can help their loved one in many different ways, everyone just has to put in the effort. Some family members often notice the effect the disorder has not only the individual bu on the family members as well. ( Daley, 2013 ).

As the years go on, the use of drugs and alcohol still continue to rise each year. Users do not fully understand the effects and consequences that will come out of their drugs use, or how it will change them, along with their family members around them. They won't realize it until they're too late and they are already facing the punishments. Their willpower to quit usually isn't very high which continues to affect them until they want to change and better themselves. Substance abuse has a huge effect on the children around the users as well, whether it be their social, emotional, or physical health. This matter is very serious and the correct precautions need to be made or nothing will change for the user and their family. No matter how much the users struggle with these life changing issues, not will help them until they come to realize it effects not only them, but everyone else around them as well.

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