UC Personal Statement: Substance Abuse Throughout My Life

Binge drinking and consumption of alcohol by minors has long been a problem on college campuses. According to the 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 59.4% of college students between the ages of 18-22 consumed alcohol within the past month (Prevalence. The same survey found that 39% of students in the same age group reported binge drinking (five or more drinks in a short period of time) within the past month. Given these numbers, institutions have created many programs to both deter drinking and encourage safer drinking. This literature review will analyse and discuss current literature regarding prevention programs, professional standards, and statistics about college age drinkers.

It was my senior year in high school when my mom told me that my cousin, Mayra, had given birth to a baby girl. However, child protective services decided that Mayra wasn’t adequate to take care of the child; due to her drug abuse. Child protective services from Mexico were trying to place the baby with close relatives. Sadly, there was only three choices, her grandma, my aunt Gloria, and myself. The choices were few and the family small.

Ever since I was a little girl I have always aspired to follow in my grandfather’s footsteps and become a prosperous attorney like him. He exerted himself strenuously, graduated from Northeastern Law School and was one of the founding partners of the Morrison, Mahoney and Miller Law firm currently located in Boston. It has been an arduous journey for me to verbally express the least endeavoring to follow my grandfather’s legacy. Shortly after graduating high school, my life consummately spiraled out of control and I was faced with adversity that seemed insurmountable. It is paramount to take a moment and apportion some brief history considering that I my past has molded me into the strenuously exertive, goal oriented student I have always aspired to be.

I have recently begun my internship, which is scheduled to last one year. In this year I am expected to complete at least one thousand hours. I received a sheet of paper with three suggested internship sites. I was very distressed to learn none of these sites had any substance abuse. I went back to the administration which distributed the sheet and asked for an internship site with substance abuse. I received the information for CSEDNY. I was a little shocked to learn I would be mostly working with court mandated substance abuse; however I did not want to cause the administration distributing the internship sites too much of a headache so I accepted the internship. I have met my supervisor. I honestly like my supervisor so far. She seems very nice and excited to work with me.

The issue of substance abuse in the United States is quickly reaching epidemic proportions. The steady increase in abuse of prescription medications has been one of the largest factors in this recent trend. Opiates in particularly have come under quite a bit of scrutiny due to the over prescribing of the medications by clinicians. Along with this epidemic has been the increased knowledge of addiction and its various forms of treatment. While society is becoming more aware of the problems associated with substance abuse, it still is seen by many as a moral defect or lack of individual will-power. With the vast impact substance abuse has on the health care system, it is imperative this issue is addressed and discussed in ways to best treat those who suffer from addiction and substance abuse problems.

When I was younger my biggest passion was helping animals and the ones that I was closest too. If I did not put my effort into school, maintaining my grades and school work I was not allowed to leave the house. Which meant I would not be able to find animals who needed my attention and spend time with my friends or family. As I continue my education, school work was becoming more than just an everyday need in life but it became a passion to me. To learn so much about the things I loved I had to learn to do them. The different emotion I felt is what captured my attention, I was thrilled to learn about the emotional state. As I continue my undergraduate work and I progressed with it, I found I had bigger interests in Counseling. I begin motivating myself in my psychology work not only at school but at home too.

However for as long as I can remember I thought about my biological parents. Always wondering about them and wondering if they ever thought about me. My parents had no information that could help me fill in these gaps. Questions began to form that I wanted answered desperately. I would make up elaborate stories in my head about what I thought led to my mother leaving me at the police station. Sometimes the story was because she was a single mom and knew we were going to be adopted and loved us enough to give us a better life. Sometimes, in my mind, it was

I have recently graduated from Texas Tech University with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a minor in Addictive Disorders and Recovery Studies. I have also recently been accepted to University of Houston – Clear Lake’s Clinical Psychology Master’s program. My main areas of interest are mental health issues and substance abuse issues. Therefore, my educational and career goal is to be able to help people with these types of issues.

Before I was born my parents had broken up and decided things between them would not work. When I was born my mother had custody of me, and my father was unsure that I was his child until they had gotten the results of the paternity test. My father fought for custody of me from the day he found out that I was his child because he knew he could provide a safer and more stable life for me than my mother. While living with my birth mother I was exposed to drugs and I was frequently left at strangers houses because my mother was either working or

Substance abuse treatment this aids in helping the offender because some offender go into jail with a drug habit and some develop drug habits in prison and is necessary to help the offender in maintaining his freedom of drugs and is apart of the release process. GED/ABE/ESL or comparable educational component this aids the offender in getting the necessary schooling they are lacking and gain new educational information. Sexual transmitted disease prevention education which educating the offender on all diesases and how to practice safe sex, how to properly use birth control. Job training and placement this teaches the offender how to write a resume' how to conduct themselves helping in applying for jobs. Department of Public Health or Mental Health service providers (by

I was born and raised in the wonderful and populous city of Houston. At first I possessed a young and carefree attitude,but slowly my thoughts started to revolve around the real world in different ways. Not always was I able to get the things I desired due to various circumstances, such as not enough money. This started to pave way to my deeper thoughts about the world, and how I wished to become someone who would take care of my parents. Slowly, I started to witness the problems and worries of my parents concerning monetary issues and so forth. My parents always smile brightly and did not show any signs of pain, because they did not want to worry a small child like me.After witnessing some of their occasional pain, this also hurt me and made

Substance misuse behaviour is the use of psychoactive substances in a manner that is harmful to the drug user, which often leads to addiction and thus the perpetuation of the substance misuse behaviour itself, the resulting substance dependence is a facet of substance misuse behaviour characterised by a strong desire to continually take the drug in uncontrolled manner, which leads to withdrawal symptoms once the dosage of the drug is discontinued (Koob, Sanna & Bloom, 1998). This disorder has its roots in both neurobiological and social processes (Galizio & Maisto, 2013), this essay will critically discuss both the biological and social catalysts in which substance misuse initiates and leads to substance misuse behaviour, with reference to the psychopharmacology of individual substances, biological processes as well as specific examples of social and psychosocial theories.

into tender eyes that had not yet adjusted to the outside world. Had he not been the car's owner, he might have considered puncturing its tires, but deciding upon a lesser (cheaper) form of objection, he fished around in the breast pocket of his jacket for sunglasses, before entering the street behind it.

As a biracial gay teenager, in what is now a dystopian Euro-America. The world can be relatively cruel to a kid like me. Not to mention, I have been orphaned twice and homeless due to my adopted parents untimely death in the past month. I’d say I miss them but they didn’t leave anything to me in their will, everything either went to my sister or other relative that i have never heard of. Also, I don’t miss them on the sheer fact that I may or may not be responsible for their untimely disappearance. We’ll return to that statement later for now my tragic life story

Substance abuse and addiction have become a social problem that afflicts millions of individuals and disrupts the lives of their families and friends. Just one example reveals the extent of the problem: in the United States each year, more women and men die of smoking related lung cancer than of colon, breast and prostate cancers combined (Kola & Kruszynski, 2010). In addition to the personal impact of so much illness and early death, there are dire social costs: huge expenses for medical and social services; millions of hours lost in the workplace; elevated rates of crime associated with illicit drugs; and scores of children who are damaged by their parents’ substance abuse behavior (Lee, 2010). This paper will look at