Substance Abuse and Women
Substance Abuse is the number one health problem in the United States according to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Worley, Conners, Crone, Williams and Bokony, 105). Research from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health reports that 3% of pregnant women used illicit drugs and 3% reported binging on alcohol and after giving birth these numbers increased to 9% and 15% respectively (105).
Substance Abuse has plagued human society from time in memorial. Humans have used intoxicants for reasons ranging from recreation, to emotional escapism. Almost every culture in the world has some form of intoxicant use, thus making substance use, and sometimes abuse, a universal phenomenon. In recent years as we have witnessed changes in society in terms of economics, immigration patterns, politics, religion, reports of substance abuse have seemed to become more prevalent. Substance abuse affects all individuals across the board regardless of age, culture, gender, sexual orientation, origin, nationality, race, community, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Substance abuse has a rippling affect, not only does it affect the individual consuming the substance but others around him or her. This paper will discuss the problem of substance abuse specifically in women and problems encountered while treating it. The literature on substance abuse and women so far has two basic themes (Finkelstein, 8). Firstly, addicted women have been the target for blame and anger, and secondly continuing neglect of the problem has resulted in a lack of treatment facilities for women. The treatment needs of women for substance abuse have been “historically obscured” (Grella, and Greenwell, 367) “The 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that 34.3% of white women, 19.2% of Latinas, and 24.9% of African-American women reported using an illegal drug in their lifetime. This survey, presents an incomplete assessment of total drug use since it did not include women who were homeless,
Substance Abuse has plagued human society from time in memorial. Humans have used intoxicants for reasons ranging from recreation, to emotional escapism. Almost every culture in the world has some form of intoxicant use, thus making substance use, and sometimes abuse, a universal phenomenon. In recent years as we have witnessed changes in society in terms of economics, immigration patterns, politics, religion, reports of substance abuse have seemed to become more prevalent. Substance abuse affects all individuals across the board regardless of age, culture, gender, sexual orientation, origin, nationality, race, community, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity. Substance abuse has a rippling affect, not only does it affect the individual consuming the substance but others around him or her. This paper will discuss the problem of substance abuse specifically in women and problems encountered while treating it. The literature on substance abuse and women so far has two basic themes (Finkelstein, 8). Firstly, addicted women have been the target for blame and anger, and secondly continuing neglect of the problem has resulted in a lack of treatment facilities for women. The treatment needs of women for substance abuse have been “historically obscured” (Grella, and Greenwell, 367) “The 1997 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse found that 34.3% of white women, 19.2% of Latinas, and 24.9% of African-American women reported using an illegal drug in their lifetime. This survey, presents an incomplete assessment of total drug use since it did not include women who were homeless,