User:Daniellak

=Analytical Writing=

Personal Essay
I have had a lot of experience being around people who abused perscription drugs. Recently I had a friend of mine explain the pain he went through when he found himself addicted to pain killers. At an average of $80 a day, he would use everyday. He gave me an extimate of about $10,000 for the whole time he was using. His mom had also been addicted to "Oxys" but has now been clean for 6 years. My friend elaborated how every morning he would wake up and pop his pills, just like a person with a real need for them. After years of wasted money and losing friends he fianlly got the courage to send himself to rehab where he stayed for 23 days. He cried, screamed and was sick for most of the time but he knew that if he didnt force himself to stay he would ruin any chance he had of a future. After the nightmare was over he realized what he had lost and made a promise to himself never to use again, and to this day he has kept that promise.

I didnt know this friend when he was abusing but the way he is now I could never imagine that he would ever do things like that. Most of the time I can tell who has and has not used before but with him, I feel like it changed his life so much that his personality pushes out the thought of how he was when he was using. I have also had some personal experience with perscription drug use, none that I want to explain much. But something that i have learned from it is the feeling that you need something or that a object that is not living can control you which is a very bad feeling. Its strange to give your life away to a pill, your bigger then it, smarter then it, but it has full control over your life, financially and personally.

Today teenagers are not using as much cocaine, crack, LSD, and ecstasy as the teenagers of the 1960’s. Kids have found other ways and means to get high; painkillers and other prescription drugs are being abused at record levels. This up coming generation of teens has been given the name “Generation Rx.”Teens are often getting caught raiding their parent’s or grandparent’s medicine cabinets in order to get high. For the first time, national studies show that today’s teens are more likely to have abused a prescription painkiller than any illicit drug.(http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/drugs/prescription_drug_abuse.html)

Most if not all of the people I know that have used or still use have also experimented with other drugs. Only recently have I noticed that perscription drugs are starting to be a persons first and maybe only drug of choice. Either way I can tell the difference in some of my friends with how they are now compared to how they used to be. Rapid talking and movement and the most common. Hense the term tweeker or twack, I know a couple people who have earned those nicknames permanently. Conversations that should be normal have become a struggle for me and also for them. Especially when we come to the subject of why they are such tweekers. All the people know why they are like that but the control that the pills have over them is too much for them to escape from.

Long-term use of opioids or central nervous system depressants can lead to physical dependence and addiction. Opioids can produce drowsiness, constipation and, depending on amount taken, can depress breathing. Central nervous system depressants slow down brain function; if combined with other medications that cause drowsiness or with alcohol, heart rate and respiration can slow down dangerously. Taken repeatedly or in high doses, stimulants can cause anxiety, paranoia, dangerously high body temperatures, irregular heartbeat, or seizures.

Self Assessment
This class was fun sometimes but most of the time i feel like ive done it all before. I like the work we had to do because i feel like it was considerate of the other classes we have so it wasnt that much work.