Addictions

Addictions are unfortunately very common in my family. My grandpop was an alcoholic and three of my cousins were addicted to heroin. Watching them suffer through their addictions was one of the hardest things I have ever had to witness. I am happy to say they have all recovered and doing well. Seeing them go through life with this illness and wanting so bad to help them has pushed me in the direction of Psychology.

Recently the amount of drug addicts have increased greatly. I don't think I have met a single person since I started college who hasn't tried or been addicted to a drug. I have a friend at work who is from Russia and she has expressed to me many times that she has never seen so many people addicted to some kind of substance. And she blames it mostly on prescribed medicine. According to my coworker, in Russia they treat diseases with herbal remedies and natural base drugs. They try to stay away from chemical drugs that can ultimately lead to an addiction. She thinks the hospitals here over do it with the medication but I guess it's just the different cultures.

I do sort of agree/understand where she is coming from because I have seen many people with aches and pains of all sorts and they end up get prescribed medicine like percocets and vicodin which cause a high for them and leads to their addiction. But then again without pain killers how will these doctors help to relieve their patients pain?