Substance Abuse and Families Affected

For instance, opioid crisis that has become a significant public concern led to the death of about 64,000 Americans in 2016 alone. The overdose and addiction was rampant as the drug was readily available as a prescription drug in all drug stores across the United States. There are a number of reasons why people result to using drugs that eventually destroy their livelihood. Notably, most victims of substance abuse resolve to use drugs as a way of having fun or one way through which they can cope with the various situations they are experiencing. Although such individuals are fully aware of the implications of abusing drugs, they prefer to spend the last coin they have on facilitating the addictive e behavior. Thus, these children have the likelihood of developing behavioral, emotional, or substance use problems while young as a way of coping with the environment subjected to them.

Furthermore, families with SUD problems influence the development of children in a slightly negative way (Kelley et al. In such cases, these children have a higher likelihood of failing to develop attachment, develop communication problems, or become antisocial. Other ways that the family can be affected include changed roles and financial difficulties. An environment filled with violence, emotional chaos, secrecy, fear, and conflicting interests mostly characterizes these families. 1 percent from 2002 to 2014. Measures such as strong parental control and improvement in youth engagement programs such as sports played an instrumental role in helping most young people avoid engaging in substance abuse. There was also increased awareness on the dangers of substance abuse and strengthening of the rehabilitation facilities. However, the measures have not completely solved the problems given the growing crisis especially with opioid.

Parents Parents are the first role models that children see. Family Relationship The nature of the relationship in the family may also influence an individual's behavior. Healthy relationships are supposed to enhance communication, which connects family members to each other. Thus, an environment that promotes distance among family member is more likely to encourage the development of anti-social behaviors like substance use among individuals who feel the need to break the monotony. Uncaring nature leaves room for family members to find other social groups that they feel more connected to and welcomed. In such cases, either children or parents tend to confide in other persons outside the family without factoring the second party's behavior. Individual Factors Even more, individuals will always be more than willing to engage in an activity that balances the family system.

Such actions may be pursued in as much as they do not favor the wellbeing of other family members. For example, children who feel loved by their parents tend to cover for their parent's activities that they feel may put the family in compromising situations. A child may find him or herself covering up for his or her parent's drinking habits by cleaning up the mess they have made while drunk, getting them to bed, covering them when they have passed out, or fail to report any unusual behavior of the particular parent to older siblings or the other parent. Such efforts are likely to encourage the SUD parent to continue with such behavior attribute to the fact that they see nothing wrong with the same since they feel that the other family members are okay with the same.

They tend to reject substances given to them at a higher rate than children coming from non-SUD families do. Besides feeling that smoking could put their lives at risk, they think that they could be developing a disobedient attitude by becoming habitual users of substances. Disobedience and Defiance Disobedience is a characteristic that indicates defiance. There are those children that do not want to be ordered around by their parents. They like to experience and have the thrill of life as they like a mentor that will guide them through life. For instance, cost of housing has increased significantly making it impossible for most families to own houses. For this reason, they are in constant economic pressure to pay up the bills as well as social pressure to keep up with the social class.

Everyday is often a struggle that requires both parents to be out of their homes working more than one job to make ends meet. A majority of individuals who encounter unwelcoming environments in their homes have higher chances of developing poor ways of coping with such challenges, with children being the most affected. Furthermore, the tender age of these children when they are exposed to family violence may witness them fail to comprehend and process the violent encounters more positively (Lorenzo-Blanco & Unger, 2015). Among the implications of substance abuse to the family, include unmet primary needs, emotional stress, impaired attachment, economic hardships, violence, and other legal problems. Even more, children are the more affected since they have a higher risk of developing SUD if their parents or older siblings are addicts.

Therefore, treating only individuals affected may fail to be useful in the long term. Thus, a lot of focus should be put on assessing individual personalities in the context of the environment that they are exposed to each day of his or her life. A strategic intervention would be involving the entire family in the treatment of the individual(s) suffering from SUD, which would help other family members and the victim(s) to develop the required behaviors. , Blaustein, M. , Cloitre, M. , & Mallah, K. Complex trauma in children and adolescents. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), 390-398. , & Ünalan, P. C. Factors associated with adolescents' smoking experience and staying tobacco free.  Mental health in family medicine, 7(3), 145. Kelley, M. Child abuse & neglect, 43, 42-52. Khurshid, F. , & Ansari, U.