Question by candigal: What comes to mind when you think of a “drug addict”?
Are “drug addicts ” bad people? Is drug use a choice? What is the eccomomic status of most people who use drug? What are some of the names people have for drug addicts? Do you think treatment works? How are “addicts” different then “non-addicts”? This is for an essay I am writing. Thanks for your help. Also do you think that there is a certain eithnic group that has a higher rate of substance abuse?

Best answer:

Answer by Hell’s Own Harlot
Drug addicts are not necessarily bad people. They lack self control and are under a notion that what they want must be gratified RIGHT NOW. They lack any type of concern for how their behavior effects others and personally, I consider it a slow suicide. Treatment only works if you want it to. You have to be motivated and most drug users aren’t. There are not any particular ethnic groups that are more prone to use than any other. You have losers in every race of people.

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VHS Red Ribbon Week Essay_8

Image by USAG Vicenza
Vicenza High School Adolescence Substance Abuse Counselor Rosana Zapata together with Global Credit Union Branch Manager Sharon Black present cash awards to the three winners selected for the Red Ribbon Week Essay Contest. The event took place at the VHS Cafeteria Nov. 8.
About 35 VHS students submitted essays on this year’s theme “The Best Me Is Drug Free”.

Learn more on www.usag.vicenza.army.mil or www.facebook.com/USAGVicenza.

Photo by Laura Kreider, USAG Vicenza Public Affairs Office.

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by Thomas Hawk

Question by Michael Brian: What addictions does the APA recognize as actual addiction disorders?
I know technically anything can be an “addiction” but I’m trying to find a list that the APA has put out that lists the actual addictions someone can be diagnosed with.

Best answer:

Answer by Peachy Perfect
Depends on what you count as an addiction. The DSM-IV (current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) doesn’t have a definition for the word “addiction” and doesn’t use it.

As far as what *you* might classify as an “addiction”, you can be diagnosed with either Substance Abuse or Substance Dependence, depending on the severity of the addiction. This involves either the dependence on or abuse of substances, like alcohol, heroin, caffeine –yes, I said caffeine–, cocaine, nicotine, etc.

As far as other “addictions” to non-substances go, the ones found under the “Impulse Control Disorders” category include:
– Pathological Gambling (people addicted to gambling)
– Kleptomania (people addicted to stealing)
– Pyromania (people addicted to setting fires)
– Trichotillomania (people addicted to pulling their hair out — yes, I’m serious)

There are lots of other disorders, including but definitely not limited to pedophilia and hypochondriasis, which you might consider addictions (pedophilia being when you are “addicted” to sexual endeavors with children, hypochondriasis being when you are “addicted” to being sick), but I don’t really count those under the “addictions” category, personally.

However, in the DSM-5, which is set to come out in May 2013, they are going to add a ton more disorders involving addictions under the category “Substance Use and Addictive Disorders”. But mostly the only change that will be made is specifying the type of substance that one is abusing, dependent on, and/or suffering withdrawals from. For example, instead of being diagnosed with plain “Substance Abuse” with alcohol listed as a side note, an alcoholic would be diagnosed with “Alcohol Use Disorder”, “Alcohol Intoxication”, and/or “Alcohol Withdrawal”.

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