Habits Summary

        Throughout the semester I have been trying to break my habit with the social media site, pinterest.  When assigned the project at the beginning of the semester I had a very hard time coming up with a habit that I had.  I don't do anything like smoking, biting my nails, drinking excessive amounts of coffee or soda, so it was difficult to think of something that was a habit for me.  One day, while procrastinating studying for a test, it dawned on me that I tend to get onto pinterest when I want to procrastinate.  Due to the amount of pins on pinterest one could spend hours on the site looking at all of the different clothes, recipes, houses, etc.  It was then that I realized that I had a habit of getting onto pinterest and that it could be used for the assignment ahead of me.  At first it was difficult to limit my habit.  Most of the time it wasn't that I was going through withdrawal and felt I had to get on  the site, it was that I forgot I was trying to avoid the site.  A lot of the times I'll have logged on the site for a few minutes before I realized that I was suppose to stay away.  Most of the time I would log off, but sometimes I stayed on being that I hadn't been on in a while.  As the semester progressed it became easier and easier to stay away from the site or even just keep track of how often I logged on.  Weeks where I had a lot of down time, it was harder to stay away because when sitting in my room I didn't have much else to do.  The weeks though where I had tons of papers, tests, or presentations it was very easy to stay away from pinterest, because I knew how much of an impact going on the site would have on getting my work done.
       Being that both of my roommates are also in the Addiction and Society class, we all helped each other to stay away from our habits.  I would tell my roommates that if they saw me on my computer for a long time and did not see any textbooks or papers around me, to ask what I was doing, because I was probably on pinterest.  By asking them to do this I was able to be reminded of when I was logging on the site and that I should get off of it or limit my time on the site.  Throughout this assignment I knew that I would not be able to not get on the website for the entire semester and so my main goal was to just limit the amount of times and length of time that I visited the site.  Since having a habit of going on pinterest is not dangerous and does not interfere that much with my life, I knew that just working to limit the amount and not abstain from the site was a safe way to go.
         From this assignment I was able to learn a few different things about myself.   First off, I learned that I spent a lot more time on pinterest than I should and that I typically only got on the site when I did not want to do my schoolwork.  I always knew that I would get on when wanting to avoid work but never really realized that that was about the only time I did log onto the site, besides late at night when I could not fall asleep.  Secondly, I learned that I am not addicted to pinterest.  Throughout the whole semester I never had feelings of withdrawal and felt that I just had to get onto the website.  I could go an entire week without getting on and it wouldn't even cross my mind.  That was an important thing to learn because it showed me that there is no real threat to how much I get on pinterest, it's just my way of procrastinating.  And finally, I learned that when I am trying to get an important paper or project done that I should stay away from my computer.  Ever since I learned of the site, pinterest has been my biggest way to procrastinate, which can be a bit of a problem.  It was never so bad that I would not get my work done but it did lead to some stress and last minute completion of schoolwork.  By learning that pinterest was my outlet for procrastination I was able to learn that I needed to stay away from the internet while doing homework, or when I was on the site I learned how to limit my time so that I did not procrastinate too much.  Some of the times when I would work diligently for a few hours I would reward myself with a few minutes on pinterest.
          From doing this assignment and the concepts learned in class, I can see how it would be very hard for someone with an addiction to overcome it.  Although I did not experience any symptoms of withdrawal I could imagine the struggle that would come with those symptoms.  I was able to see symptoms of withdrawal in my one roommate who gave up doritos.  There would times where she would just be sitting in our room talking about how much she really wanted doritos but knew she had to stay away.   I also feel as though it would be hard for someone with an addiction to realize and admit that they had a problem.  I had a difficult time realizing that I got onto pinterest a lot more then I thought, and so I could easily see how someone addicted to any substance may not even realize that they have a problem.  When trying to overcome an addiction or habit the best support system would definitely, in my opinion, be friends and family.  By telling your friends and family what is going on and what you are trying to work towards, a person would have all the support they need in close distant.  My roommates were a major help in keeping me away from pinterest.  By having a support system like that a person has people that they can trust and know that they will always be there for them, even in their rough patches.  Also, from what I have learned through class and attending a meeting, I think that 12-step meetings are helpful to those trying to overcome an addiction.  These meetings kind of go along the same line of having a support system that is close to you, but without having to involve family members.  Certain people may have reasons as to why they don't want their family to know about their problem, or sometimes just having outside people can be comforting.  I also feel that 12-step meetings are helpful because the people there are going through the same thing or have already gone through it.  They know exactly how you are feeling and are able to give you pointers on how to deal with what you are feeling.  Having any type of support system from a group of people, whether family, friends or strangers, is the best type of support I can think of.
         Although habits are very hard to overcome and break, I do believe that they can be broken.  It is not an easy or a fast process but it can be done.  Trying to break a habit can be a very difficult, grueling process but as long as a person has dedication and is really motivated to break the habit, it can be done. Personally, I feel as though addictions cannot be cured.  It is definitely apparent that a person can quit an addiction and stay away from that substance or object forever but I feel as though that temptation is always there.   Through learning about the addiction cycle and even seeing first-hand addiction stories, I have learned that an addiction is never truly gone.  As Brittany, the guest speaker in our class, talked about she will forever have an addiction but just knows how to manage her addiction.  If a person is strong enough, and stays dedicated to staying away from their addiction, it is definitely a possibility to stay clean for life, but an addiction is never truly cured.  By doing this assignment I was able to connect so many of the concepts learned in class to real life situations.  Being a hands-on learned this made my learning experience that much better and helped me to even better understand all that was talked about in class.  This class gave me a greater appreciation for those struggling with an addiction.  I never was one to think that it was incredibly easy to overcome an addiction, but I did not realize how difficult it was and how many different factors went into it.  Addiction and habits are a hard thing to overcome but with dedication and motivation it is possible.

Journal Review: Sexual Orientation and Substance Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults

       For this journal article review I decided to read an article titled "Sexual Orientation and Substance Use Among Adolescent and Young Adults."  After reading Chapter 11: Gender and Sexual Orientation Differences in the book Addiction Treatment I was very interested in the differences that occur in substance use due to a person's sexual orientation.  That difference is not one that most people would think about and so I wanted to learn more about it.
     The purpose of this article was to look at the impact that self-identity, sexual attraction and sexual experience have on substance abuse among adolescents and young people.  In order to see the association between these three traits and the use of tobacco, drugs and alcohol, the researchers used the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle 6, conducted in 2002.   This survey consisted of 2062 females and 1901 males, aged 15 to 24 years old.  The age range of 15 to 24 was chosen because this age range covers the primary sexual development and the time when adolescents are transitioning into adulthood and look towards coping strategies to help them with their problems.  Within the study the researchers developed specific definitions for sexual experience and sexual identity.  Sexual experience was split between males and females with specific criteria needed for a sexual experience to be considered in the study.  Sexual identity was spilt into three categories, those who identify as homosexual (gay, lesbian, or bisexual), heterosexual and those identifying as uncertain or something else.  With the specific criteria and the results from the National Survey of Family Growth Cycle 6 the researchers were able to come up with conclusions on the relation between substance use and sexual orientation.  It was concluded that substance use varied significantly between gender and across the dimensions of sexual orientation.  Researchers also concluded that sexual experience had a major impact on substance use.  Both females and males with no sexual experience had the lowest accounts of substance use, while those with sexual experiences with partners of either gender had the highest number of substance use cases.  The data in this study can show that there is less of an association between sexual orientation and substance use then there is sexual experience and substance use.  These results show that more testing is needed in order to show if sexual orientation has an effect on the rates of substance use.
        The information in this study can be related to facts talked about in the Gender and Sexual Orientation Differences chapter in Addiction Treatment.  The data in this study slightly contradicts the information described in the chapter.  The chapter talks about how substance use, like tobacco and alcohol, are seen to be higher in those of the homosexual orientation, while the study has inconclusive results as to if sexual orientation has an effect.  The difference of information could be due to the age range of the information in the book and the study.  Ages 15 to 24 were focused on in the study, while the book focuses more on the adult population.  These differences in age could be a major factor in the difference of content.  At a younger age sexual orientation may not have an effect on substance abuse for reasons such as there is not as much discrimination towards younger people who identify as homosexual, or people at that age range may still be figuring out what their sexual orientation is.  The older category looked at in the book may have been through more experiences of hatred or hard-times and so their orientation could have a major effect on their substance use.  This difference in information shows that more studies need to be conducted in order to determine the exact correlation between sexual orientation and substance use.



References

Brewster, K. L., & Tillman, K. (2012).  Sexual orientation and substance use among adolescents and young adults.  American Journal of Public Health, 102(6), 1168-1176.  doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300261

Wormer, K. S. V., & Davis, D. R. (2009). Addiction treatment, a strengths perspective. (2nd ed.). Brooks/Cole Pub Co.

Journal Article: Culture Influence on Substance Abuse

        For this journal article review I used an article titled "Mexican/Mexican American Adolescents and keepin' it REAL: An Evidence-Based Substance Use Prevention Program."  The main point of this article was to address the process that social workers go through in order to develop prevention models for youth populations.  Federal, state, county, and municipal levels require that prevention curriculums be chosen from pre-approved evidence based approaches, but it is not always the case that specific settings have set programs.  And so this article goes into the steps that social workers took in order to test an evidence-based practice with the Mexican and Mexican American adolescent population.  The study consisted of 3,402 students of Mexican heritage at 35 different Arizona schools.  There were also 11 control sites involved in the study.  The study was conducted by performing pre and post questionnaires completed by the students at the beginning and the end of the school year.  The test were split up into two groups of Latino and multicultural versions.  Throughout the school year the students participated in prevention programs that were administered during the school day.  At the end of the study, from the results of the pre and post questionnaires, it was determined that those from the Latino version reported less marijuana, alcohol, and substance abuse then those in the control group.  The study also determined that those in the Latino version had higher confidence in staying away from substance use, as well as stronger intentions to stay away from drugs.  It was found that those in the multicultural version reported less substance use as well.  Even though the two versions, when compared with control groups, had a lower use of substances, there were no significant differences when the results were compared with a non-Latino version.  This article teaches the reader that prevention programs created specifically for those with a mexican heritage are very effective.  There are not many preventions developed specifically for this population and so this article shows that there would be a benefit from creating more prevention programs.  Although the study was very successful in its finding it is important for more research to be conducted.
          This article applies to concepts developed in Chapter 10: Racial, Ethnic, And Cultural Issues, from the book Addiction Treatment.  Within the chapter it discussed how there is a high substance use rate within the mexican heritage and so this article describes how it is important to target this specific population.  Due to the fact that education levels have historically been low for this population it is important to work on educating the youth about the effects of drugs and alcohol so that they can stay away from the substances before they follow in the same path of many of those before them.  The content in both the article and the book show it is important to focus on specific prevention programs for different heritages because of the differences in cultures.  By creating specific prevention programs, professionals can better apply the information to concepts that are meaningful and hit home with this population of youth.

References

Kulis, S., Marsiglia, F. F., Elek, E., Dustman, P., Wagstaff, D. A., & Hecht, M. L. (2005).  Mexican/Mexican american adolescents and keepin' it real: An evidence-based substance use prevention program.  Children & Schools, 27(3), 133-145.

Wormer, K. S. V., & Davis, D. R. (2009). Addiction treatment, a strengths perspective. (2nd ed.). Brooks/Cole Pub Co.