Rat Park Essay

John Rolfe is an exemplary piece of history in the world today. Throughout his life, John accomplished many great things and his actions were known by most everyone. A quick example of his extraordinary work was the first successful cultivation of the crop tobacco. This was an export crop in Virginia.

Alexander believed that there is nothing addictive about drugs and the even constant exposure to addictive drugs does not lead to problems. In experiments on rats, narcotics were proven to be addictive since rats would suffer pain just so they can fulfill their need for drugs. However, Alexander disagreed that the rodents became addicted because of the environment they were kept in. He believed that if the rodents were kept in an environment that was comfortable and happy, the rats would not care for the drugs. So he created a “happy” environment calling it “Rat Park”, a park for rats with enough space and clean water, so he can conduct perform a narcotics experiment.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the three main learning objectives in chapters 5-10, brought out by David Sheff author of “Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America’s Greatest Tragedy”. The objectives are: (1) Discuss use becomes abuse and abuse becomes addiction, (2) Discuss the disease of addiction and, (3) Discuss Detoxification It is not unique when a person attends a party and gets introduced to a drug, they may try it for many reasons, relaxation, to fit in, or just to be sociable. Some who try a drug as the author states, will use once, some moderately and then occasionally. However, others will begin to increase use not realizing what is happening to their minds, bodies or lives. This is called recreational drug use, which

Addicts use drugs to overcome their feelings. If an addict is feeling sad, happy, or angry, they use. This leads to their addictions. After a while, the addict can’t hold a steady job,

Addiction is a condition people try keeping to himself or herself until the damage is done. Having an understanding of the reasons for addicts can help community members or neighbors help addicts. One major reason for addictive behavior is not having someone to connect with and share feeling in the early stages of life. In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts and in Tattoos on the heart, the major cause of addiction is because a person is isolated and alienated from society. Alienation and isolation affects three groups of people: people that do not know someone close but want to and people that do not have anyone close and do not care to.

Addiction. Addiction to alcohol and drugs is on the rise with a shocking number of 23.8 million of Americans. That is roughly about every ten Americans over the age of twelve who participate in activities involving alcohol and drugs. And only eleven percent receive treatment according to sources such as drugfree.org. Many alcoholics /drug users struggle to realize that doing alcohol and drugs has its toll, it is considered a disease. Yet, what is even worse is after treatment forty to sixty percent experience relapse. To avoid experiencing relapse it is suggested to patients to go outside to relieve stress and to resist that urge by doing activities such as hiking, swimming, and walking which has been proven effective. After treatment, the success rate is thirty percent if patients are willing to stay in the program. Which is not that high considering the other statistical numbers. This journey of addiction is a journey of denial, relapse, and recovery, however, not all recover. The fact that certain individuals learn to accept the truth of the consequences of such actions and that others do not should not be surprising. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” presented back in B.C. times represent the modern-day issue of addiction.

To understand addiction further, it is important to look at how drugs have neurological effects in a human body. Drugs can be ingested in various ways; while some are taken orally, some are smoked (cannabis) while others are injected directly into the blood stream (Heroin). Once in the body, they mainly affect the reward pathway in the brain, known as the dopaminergic pathway, which in turn gives pleasure. Even though all drugs affect the reward and motivation pathways in the brain, their speed depends on the way the drug has been consumed. Over constant use of drugs, the cognitive functions are impaired as the effects become more prominent in learning, memory

First of all, there is the Structural-Functional perspective way people view drug addiction as. The structural-functional perspective is the role the drugs do for the person or the weakening of the norms. It is the way they affect the person and what it does to them that makes them be addicted to drugs. For some people drugs relieves them. It takes them away from their problems from a while and they feel stress free and because of that feeling they receive from the drugs they like it and continue to take more and more. Those with this type of perspective well most likely disagree with this view of drug addiction and would want the problem to decrease.

Addiction is like most major diseases. Consider heart disease, the leading cause of death in the developed world. It's partly due to genes and partly due to poor life style choices such as bad diet, lack of exercise, and smoking. The same is true for other common diseases like adult-onset diabetes. Many forms of cancers are due to a combination of genes and life style. But if your doctor said that you had diabetes or heart disease, you wouldn't think you were bad person. You would think, "What can I do to overcome this disease?" That is how you should approach addiction.

Like most Americans, I expect to find in every city, every town, even in every village in the country, an outdoor recreation area or what is usually called a park; and I am seldom disappointed. No matter how new and unfinished a town may be, or however old and poor, I know that it will contain, wedged in among the crowded blocks of buildings, a rectangular space with grass and trees and meandering paths and perhaps a bandstand or a flagpole.

Addictions are a diverse set of common and complex diseases that are to some extent tied together by shared genetic and environmental factors. Addiction includes alcohol use disorders, cannabis and cocaine use disorders, nicotine dependence, as well as non-substance–related behaviors. Both genetic and environmental variables contribute to the use and abuse of addictive substances, which may eventually lead to addiction.

Age, by many, is considered as nothing more than a number. However, those who believe that it is a mere figure with no other significance do not factor in the problems that come with it. In terms of emotions such as happiness, age holds no value; one can feel that emotion at any time in his/her life. Yet, physical capabilities can reach a limit and begin to degrade as one becomes older and passes throughout his/her life. Curtain begins with Captain Arthur Hastings revisiting the Styles Court, the mansion that houses his first scene of crime, through a call of help from his old friend and fellow detective, Hercule Poirot. Poirot is plagued with limits to his physical capabilities due to old age; therefore needing Captain Hastings to act as his

Another contributor to developing addiction is the agent factors; this is the likelihood that a particular substance will be abused. Some substances are less likely to be abused, and may not be as addictive as others. Agent factors also take into consideration how the substance enters the body (Henderson 19). For example, if a substance is taken orally, the drug is usually less addictive than a drug that is injected into the vein. An inhaled substance can be more addictive than both oral and injected forms. The chosen method of use pertains to how quickly a drug reaches the brain. An inhaled substance can reach the brain in seconds, where as an injected substance will travel around the bloodstream, taking a much longer time to reach the brain. When we look at these three factors, psychiatric, social and agent, we discover that a person’s morality is not the reason individuals are becoming addicted. The underlying factors that lead to addictions are much more complex.

Rats are various medium sized rodents. "True rats" are members of the genus Rattus, the most important of which to humans are the black rat, Rattus rattus, and the brown rat, R. norvegicus. Many members of other rodent genera and families are also called rats and share many characteristics with true rats. A rat has an average life span of 2-3 years[1].

They assume addicts lack moral principles or self-discipline and that they can quit by simply deciding to. The reality is, people who have struggled with substance abuse have often found it extremely difficult to quit due to the physical and/or mental addiction. Drug have the ability to change the brain patterns and cause health complications, making things harder in the long-term and may determine life or death. Fortunately, because of more research, there are more ways to back out of an addiction and seek help through an enduring and extensive treatment. Factors that affect the likelihood and speed of developing an addiction are environmental and individual factors, including genetics and