Posts Tagged ‘teen addiction’

Drugs and Alcohol are Not the Only Addictions Looming Over US College Students' Heads

Friday, May 21st, 2010

Students fall prey to technological addictions without recourse to recovery

In the States Internet addiction is being investigated among college students. The “24 Hours: Unplugged” experiment among many US college students reveals withdrawal symptoms among participants who have removed themselves from the grasps of technology. Cut off from the Internet, social media, cell phones and devices like iPods and TVs. Students experienced agitation, aggression, slight depression and a sudden overabundance of time.

Having participated in this study myself while in college, I was surprised to find just how dependent on technology I really am. It’s become more than a helpful tool, transforming into the center of daily life and acting as an itch at the back of the mind whenever I tried to do something else, something productive. From our test group of 150 students, it also becomes apparent that college kids suffer from a loss of maintained concentration and may retain less information while attempting to focus on things like studying than previous generations.

With online social networking becoming a necessity of daily life, and with young people beginning to actually rely on checking things like Facebook and Twitter every five minutes, it seems like we’re fostering a youth culture devoted to their online lives rather than their unplugged ones. When forced to actually go see someone to ask a question, it seems like an insurmountable burden. We’re slowly losing the ability to communicate face to face, and in one of the more frightening unveilings of this study, researchers found that young people are less able to “read” people than older adults, leading to undue misunderstanding and unjust emotional responses.

This dependence has changed into a full-blown cultural addiction, one with little recourse to cure or compromise. Internet addiction has already become recognized as a legitimate condition, but what kind of treatment can we offer? In a society relying upon technology for every facet of life, there’s no abstinence treatment, as there is for alcoholism or drug abuse, so what’s left?

While definitive answers may be out of reach, the options do present themselves to offer students the support needed to cope and maintain a healthy level of wireless consciousness. Preventative measures, like those used in drug and alcohol prevention among youths could be the best options. By preparing those at risk we may be able to cut down the overwhelming dependency to get back to an interpersonal/in-person communication society.

Tags: college addiction, gaming addiction, internet addiction, teen addiction
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Michael Douglas and the Addiction of a Child

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Like father, like son?

Michael Douglas’ 31 year old son Cameron was sentenced to five years behind bars this week for heroin possession and intent to deal methamphetamines and cocaine in New York.

After his son’s sentencing, the world-famous actor commented on both his son’s incarceration and his addiction, saying on the Today Show “”I think the court recognized his drug addiction as well as the crime that he committed. It’s an adequate amount of time…to spend in jail, and the best part of it is he will be able to start his life afresh.”

Cameron has been an addict since age 13, and after failed attempts at recovery, remains slave to this disease. Cameron’s addiction is not the first among those in his family, as E! Online reports, “I was in rehab 20 years ago…” Michael Douglas explained, saying part of Cameron’s addiction lies in a genetic predisposition, “I lost a brother with an overdose four years ago. I have another brother who has been on the program for years. My ex-wife’s family has alcoholism running in it.” Genetic or not, decades’ long addictions aren’t lost causes, and though it often acts as a catalyst, jail is not the only option for lasting recovery.

In Cameron’s case, it appears the whole family would benefit from addiction education regarding how to support recovery while refusing to enable the addiction. Five years in jail should certainly help in the process by taking him out of the situation, but upon release, serious thought to initiating formal recovery in a lasting way could possibly lead to not only sobriety, but also improved family relations.

Aftercare programs like RAP offer families and people like Cameron the structure necessary to truly commit to sobriety. With this help, everyone involved learns to adequately react to and deal with the problems addiction brings and, in this case, has brought for nearly two decades. For people who have not dealt with accountability for actions done in the name of addiction, aftercare offers a continuing call to realization – with programs like this, addicts understand the whole spectrum of the effects of their disease on the wider community and how to overcome.

Having a child addicted to anything is never easy; having a child addicted in the public spotlight and feeling partially at fault can overwhelm. Recovery for the whole family is necessary to truly heal this pain and reunite what, from the outside, appears to be a fractured family.

Tags: addiction recovery, cocaine, drug addiction, heroin addiction, methamphetamine, teen addiction
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