Childhood Abuse and Substance Abuse - Term Paper Example

Childhood abuse and substance abuse Substance abuse is one of the major social problems in this world. No country, irrespective of civilizedor uncivilized, seems to be free from the evil effect of substance abuse. Generally speaking, frustrations, dejections and unsatisfied needs are the reasons of substance abuse. However, modern studies have showed that substance abuse has deep roots in childhood experiences. Children, who faced some kind of abuse, may vulnerable to substance abuse more than children who do not faced such experience in the past. Childhood bitter experiences stay in the mind until the death of a person. It is difficult for a person to come out from the agonies of bitter childhood experience even during his adulthood. Such people use alcohol or narcotic drug to stay away from the painful memories. In short, the vulnerability of abused children towards substance abuse is more than other children. This paper analyses the relationship between childhood abuse and substance abuse. Childhood abuse and substance abuse Eighteen percent of the population experiences a substance use disorder at some point in their lives, and the cost of addictive illness to the public is calculated at $246 billion per year in health care and lost work. Furthermore, at least 20% of patients in general medical facilities and 30% in general psychiatric units present with such problems, many of which go undiagnosed -- in some settings, many more” (Division Of Alcoholism And Drug Abuse, 2009, p.2). Substance abuse is becoming a severe social problem all over the world. Current generation have too much personal, professional and social commitments. It is impossible for them to fulfill all such commitments. Failure to fulfill commitments often leads towards abusive behaviors. There are plenty of people who take shelter in alcohol and drugs to forget about their failures in life. “The 1996 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse estimated the number of users of illicit drugs in the United States to be about 13 million. In addition, the survey estimated that 10% of Americans abuse or are dependent on alcohol, and 25% of Americans smoke cigarettes” (Substance Abuse Overview, 2009). It is believed that one of the major reasons of substance abuse is the childhood abuse. It should be noted that the memories of childhood experience often stay in the minds of people for longer periods. When it comes to bitter experiences, childhood memories last until the death of a person. There are plenty of children in this world who were abused not only in the society but also in the family itself. Children often show weaker resistance when they face abusive behaviors from others. At the same time, such behaviors often create a permanent black mark in their minds. Frustrations and dejections slowly increase in the minds of children who face abusive behavior earlier in their lives. These frustrations and dejections often force the children to become drug or alcohol addicts later in their lives. How childhood abuses force children to practice substance abuse later in their lives? People with substance use disorder are more likely to have a childhood history of physical abuse, higher proclivity towards substance abuse and lower self esteem. The level of abuse increases the level of emotion-based coping while decreasing levels of problem-based coping. There is support for the view that that traumatic childhood  experiences are one of the psychosocial risk factors related to, although not specific to substance use (Toker et al., 2011, p.83). A person’s self esteem development is taking place during his childhood. Environment plays a vital role in the development of self esteem. A child brought up in a healthy environment always develops more self esteem than a child brought up in a troubled environment. Love and care from parents, relatives, friends and other beloved ones in the society are necessary for the development of self esteem. When a child faces abusive behavior from family members, relatives or antisocial elements, his ability to adjust with the surroundings will be damaged. He might think that this world is giving him only unpleasant experiences and hence there is no point in leading a moral or ethical life. He may develop vengeance towards the society which is giving him unhappy childhood. All these factors motivate him in one way or another to take shelter in drug addiction or alcohol addiction. It is important to consider the role that depression might play in the relationship between childhood trauma and nicotine dependence. Current models of addiction assign a central role to negative reinforcement of drug taking behavior that occurs when negative affective states motivate drug use as a means of escaping and/or avoiding distress (Blalock et al., 2011, p.653). In fact substance abuse is a defensive mechanism developed by a person to stay away from the unhappy memories of this world. It should be noted that both alcohol and narcotic drugs have the ability to affect the memories of a person. While taking shelter in these things, a person may lose his bad memories and develops a pleasant feeling. Pleasant feelings developed as a result of substance abuse may not last long. Whenever, the person comes out from the influence of drugs or alcohol, he might again come under the influence of his bitter childhood experiences. It is difficult for a person with low self esteem to stay with an agitated mind for longer periods. He will again go back to drugs or alcohol to escape from unpleasant feeling or negative emotional states. Negative thinking is common among abused children. They may think that this world is not for them, but for some others. Such feeling forces them to take shelter in the imaginary world with the help of drugs or alcohol. Abused substances have the ability to produce some form of intoxication which may affect the sensations, perceptions and judgments. There are plenty of children who might have witnessed their parents engaged in substance abuse. Moreover, these children might have faced abusive behaviors from their parents. It should be noted that children take many lessons from the family or home. Parents are role models for the children. When children see their parents taking drugs or alcohol, they might think that there is nothing wrong in imitating such behavior. They may develop their personality and attitude based on such thoughts. They will think that such substance abuses are normal in the society and no need to refrain from it. All these factors encourage children to use drugs and alcohol when they grow up. Child abuse is indirectly related to substance use through mediating factors of negative family and social support, low esteem, avoidance coping, avoidance and affective beliefs, and health and risk behaviors. Sexual abuse and emotional neglect are directly related to alcohol and other drug use among women in residential treatment. These findings support the hypothesized paradigm in understanding the nature of substance use as an avoidance coping method for biopsychosocial factors promoted by childhood abuse (Simons, 2001, p. 202). Sexual exploitation of children is increasing day by day. Children face sexual exploitation even from their parents. There are plenty of incidents in which baby girls face sexual abuse by their fathers. It should be noted that such children may not know the consequences of such abusive behaviors from their father. They may not talk about such experience either to the mother or to their friends because of the fear of father. Such fathers often threaten the victim and force the victim to hide such experiences. “Brothers and sisters will sometimes experiment, exploring sexuality. In alcoholic families, where boundaries and roles aren’t clear, it’s much more likely to see brothers and sisters who have experimented” (Sexual Abuse / Trauma, 2012). Morality and ethics are rapidly exhausting subjects in the world. Religions have already lost prominence in social life. As a result of that fear of God and belief in God are decreasing gradually among people. It is often said that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. When people lose fear of God, they may start to develop foolish thoughts. They might think that the earthly life is meant for enjoyment and things like life after death are superstitions. Such thoughts force people to lead crazy life. Even brothers and sisters may not see anything wrong while experimenting sexual activities. At the same time, experimenting brothers and sisters may realize the consequences of their childhood behavior only when they grow up. They may develop frustrations and dejections over their childhood activities. They may also develop guilt feeling when they grow up. All these factors force them to take shelter in something which helps them to stay away from painful or sinful childhood memories. “Statistics involving men in New Jersey prisons convicted of sexual abuse, found that over 95% of the men, were in fact abused themselves” (Sexual Abuse / Trauma, 2012). It is not necessary that substance abuse develop among children who experienced sexual exploitation alone. In fact there are plenty of children who might have witnessed the illegal relationships of their parents. It should be noted that extramarital relationships are common in most of the countries. Children who witnessed illegal relationships of their parents may develop lot of frustrations and emotional problems. It is difficult for them to digest the fact that their parents are leading an immoral life. Such children may develop vengeance towards the society and family. Substance abuse is often selected as the mechanism by such children to suppress their feelings and emotions. Experiencing more types of sexual victimization were positively linked to more frequent marijuana usage. Age, age at first run, longest time away from home, sexual abuse, and trading sex had significant indirect effects on alcohol and/or marijuana use. Together, these factors accounted for 27% of the variance in alcohol use and 37% of the variance in marijuana use (Tyler et al., 2013, p.474). Many people believe sexual intercourse as a physical activity which gives physical pleasure. In fact, mental pleasure derived from sexual activities is more important than the physical pleasure. In other words, pleasant mood is necessary for the male as well as the female to enjoy sex as much as possible. However, when children face sexual exploitation, only one party gets physical as well as mental pleasure. Abused children will not get any physical or mental pleasure from such activities. In fact they experience physical and mental torture while undergoing sexual exploitation. Such children will try to forget these unpleasant memories at any cost. Marijuana is a narcotic drug which helps people to stay in an imaginary world for a temporary period of time. Marijuana use is increasing everywhere in the world and a substantial portion of marijuana users were victims of sexual exploitation during their childhood. “There must be 100 studies showing a genetic basis for abusive personalities and for many of the disorders” (MedicineNet, 2010). Along with environment, heredity also play a vital role in the development of substance abusive behavior. It is difficult for the parents with substance abusive behavior to have children without such behavior. This is because of the fact that the children get the character and behavior of their parents through gene transfer. Most of the traits or behavioral characteristics of the parents will be transferred to the offspring through genes and hence the children unknowingly develop such abusive behaviors. There is an established link between childhood trauma and psychiatric symptoms in adulthood, and recent evidence to suggest a link between such early life experiences and substance misuse. Contemporary psychoanalytic theories of addiction also emphasize the relationship between experience of early life trauma and later substance misuse, proposing that drug use is an attempt at self-medication, or a chemical means of inducing a dissociative state, so often apparent in victims of child abuse. Substance misuse offers an external means of discharging painful internal states, through immediate action (Charnaud and Griffiths, 2013). It is easy to treat physical injuries with the help of medicines; however, it is difficult to treat mental injuries with the help of normal medicines. Human body has the ability to develop certain mechanisms to treat physical and mental injuries. Substance abuse is one such treatment mechanisms developed by human body to treat mental traumas. According to a study conducted by Charnaud and Griffiths (2013), among 111 randomly selected patients seen by the drug team, “46% of males and 73% of females reported childhood abuse to a degree that would have placed them on the at-risk register. Child sexual abuse was reported by 1.85% of males and 43% of females”(Charnaud and Griffiths, 2013). Baby girls are more vulnerable to sexual abuse than baby boys. Since girls are comparatively weaker in mental power, they may struggle to adjust with the childhood bitter experiences when they grow up. Such girls quite often use substance abused as a measure to treat their mental injuries. The AOD (Alcohol Or Drug) literature contains a substantial body of work documenting that many AOD clients seeking treatment report a history of child sexual abuse (CSA). There is a corresponding argument in the sexual assault literature that substance use by abused children and adults may be an effect of and/or a response to abuse experiences and painful memories. In this context, AOD use by adults with histories of abuse and trauma is often referred to as ‘self-soothing’ or ‘self-medicating’. The reported strength of association between CSA and adult substance use in both literatures is striking. This section will therefore present a focused discussion of the extent, nature and effects of CSA in turn, to better understand how such a history may influence an adults’ use/abuse of drugs and alcohol (Breckenridge et al., 2010, p.12). Conclusions Child abuse and substance abuse have direct relationships. In other words, substance abuse behavior is seen more among people who are victims of childhood exploitations. Sexual exploitations or other forms of abuse generate mental injuries in the minds of children. Such children take shelter in substance abuse to avoid the unpleasant memories of childhood trauma. In fact many abused children us substance abuse as a treatment option to treat their mental injuries. Substance abuse helps them to stay in an imaginary world, at least for a temporary period of time. Heredity and environment play a vital role in the development of a child. A child who brought up in abusive environment may not develop his personality properly. Such children often develop negative thoughts. They may experience lot of frustrations and dejections because of their bitter childhood memories. It is difficult for such children to think about morality and ethics when they were under the influence of painful memories. Alcohol and narcotic drugs have the ability to change the moods of a person. Nobody wants to stay under painful memories for longer periods. All these factors force the abused children to use alcohol or narcotic drugs when they grow up as a defensive mechanism against the intrusion of painful memories. References Blalock, J.A., Nayak,N., Wetter, D.W., Schreindorfer, L., Minnix, J.A., Canul, J and Cinciripini, P.M. (2011). The Relationship of Childhood Trauma to Nicotine Dependence in Pregnant Smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors © 2011 American Psychological Association 2011, Vol. 25, No. 4, 652– 663. Breckenridge, J. Salter M and Shaw E. (2010). Use and abuse. Retrieved from http://cgrvs.arts.unsw.edu.au/assets/files/use_and_abuse.pdf Charnaud B and Griffiths V. (2013). Drug dependence and child abuse. Retrieved from http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/177/1/84.2 Division Of Alcoholism And Drug Abuse. (2009). Department of Psychiatry New York University Medical Center 2009-2011. Retrieved from http://www.med.nyu.edu/substanceabuse/assets/DivBro_2009.pdf MedicineNet. (2010). Sins of the Father- Is Abuse Hereditary? 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The Relationship Between Victimization and Substance Use Among Homeless and Runaway Female Adolescents..Journal of Interpersonal Violence. Feb2013, Vol. 28 Issue 3, p474-493. Read More