I have learned through reading and personal experience that drugs and alcohol are strong motivating source in many peoples lives. My grandmother was an alcoholic and consequently most of her children were drug addicts, including my father. Drug abuse has been a large part of my family heritage and I always wondered how they could chose the streets over their families. From other research and reading this chapter I have come to understand that the dynamics of addiction. I believe that my uncles and my father had a genetic disposition to drugs and alcohol because of their mother. Unfortunately, I don't know why my grandmother became an alcoholic,but it played a huge part in the way she lived her life. I know that my father has felt like he was unwanted, and not good enough from an early age. Seeing his mother put herself and her children in bad situations because the alcohol wouldn't let her be the nurturing mother he has always wanted. I think that he wanted to feel better and he soon found that certain chemicals/drugs could do that for him. I'm sure he wasn't aware that it was a lack of Dopamine in his brain. In order to combat these feelings as a child he was a risk taker. He would hang off the back of truck with a towel wrapped around his neck pretending to be Batman, jump off the roofs of tall buildings, and throw rocks at the nearby trains. It was in his personality to try new things as he got older as well when he joined the army for a short while. Although he is drug free now, drugs brought him some of the best short term pleasure, and some of the worst long term pain. He lost the one women he cared about the most and missed out on a lot of my sister and my childhood. He is full of regret now, but at the time the craving were to much from him to bare, and because he refused detox and rehab, if he tried to quit the withdrawal symptoms were to much to handle. We re all thankful that those days are over now, but unfortunately that is not a case for all of my family members. Maybe one day they will seek help and even try some of the antagonists that were described in this chapter to help them get their live in order.
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This was a really interesting post to read, especially considering addictions is something I tend to take quite an interest in. I didn't know that substance abuse was due to a lack of Dopamine in the brain, that is pretty interesting. A friend of mine's mother also had an addictive personality and struggled with the same issues, it's pretty tough. Good post!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Kourtney i really enjoyed it. Although you said the substance abuse was due to lack of Dopamine in the brain i also believe it could be a learned behavior for your family members because if growing up in a household with a mother as an alcoholic then siblings picking up the behavior slowly but shortly the others tend to follow. Some make it out and try to make a difference with their lives but sometimes they aren't socially accepted as fast due to a possible relapse. I do like how you never gave up on your father you as his daughter was the motivator.
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