Adoloscence and substance abuse Essay Example for Free

Adoloscence and substance abuse Essay Adolescence is a critical period in human development. It is the period during which individuals undergo biological, psychological and social transformations, as they become adults. These transformations occur simultaneously and without conscious awareness by youth going through these changes. Any transformation an adolescent goes through may have an impact on the introduction and progression of teenage substance use. Substance abuse is drug abuse. Most substance abusers globally are the adolescents. This is because their developmental stage is vulnerable to anything. The brain development of an adolescent is not fully developed. A teenager may physically resemble an adult but still lack the brain maturation to think like one. To expect adolescents to make adult like decisions in regard to substance use is an unlikely expectation for most teenagers. Adolescence is defined as those behavioral changes that take place between childhood and maturity or adulthood. It is the changing period from childhood to adulthood. Adolescence is viewed as a time where biological, psychological and social transitions take place. It is the most critical stage of human development. During adolescence, different behavior patterns become more frequent (Cobb, 2006). These behavioral trends include risk- taking behaviors, conflicts between the adolescence peers and parents and greater social development. Every individual adapts to their behavior depending on how they were brought up, their social interactions and adult influences. The physical development of adolescence is known as puberty. It is the stage a person is able to reproduce (Cobb, 2006). Adolescence Physical development is all about the body changes. It involves genital growth, changes in body odor. Voice changes, growth of pubic hair, breast development and menstruation in female. The psychosocial development of adolescence is complicated. It involves hormones, love interests and intellectual pursuits. All this complicates adolescence development. In this development, stress, depression, lack of sleep, and anxiety are common among teenagers (Johnston et al, 2006). It is during this psychosocial development that adolescent teenagers are at risk of bad behavior. This development mostly involves intellectual pursuits and social interactions. Adolescents’ brains are usually not fully developed. This plays a major role in immature emotional and cognitive development. It is during adolescence that teenagers adapt easily to different behaviors. How bad and well the behavior is depended on how an individual was brought up and the social interactions. Many risky behaviors such as substance abuse start at the adolescent stage of human development. Adolescence is also a time when young individuals take risks that can have a long time effects on their health and well being. Substance abuse is the misuse of drugs. Most adolescents are prone to drugs and substance abuse. This is because the adolescent brains are not fully developed, and this plays a role in the decisions they make. Immature brain sections may place teenagers at prominent risk to the effects of drugs. Misuse of drugs or substance abuse is mostly associated with the adolescents. Globally, it is estimated through research that five billion people who abuse or use substances are the adolescent (Johnston et al, 2006). Adolescence is a period of significant personal development. It is in this adolescent stage that teenagers are let to make their own decisions. They choose their friends and how they want to live their life. It is during this stage that they can adapt easily to certain behaviors due to influences. It is said that adolescence is the time of testing and novelty seeking. Curiosity on drugs is one way that makes young people abuse substances. Millions of young people try an illicit drug at least once during their adolescent years. The most common substance abuse among adolescents is alcohol and tobacco. Most of the teenagers will have tried either of the two or both. It is estimated that twelve years is the average age of children to take their first alcoholic drink. Nearly 20 percent of twelve to twenty year old is considered to be binge drinkers (Cobb, 2006). Tobacco smoking is also prone to adolescents. Most smokers globally start at their teenage years hence become addicted. It is said that teens are more vulnerable to addiction and receptive to nicotine than are those who start to smoke as adults. Causes of adolescence substance use vary. Peer selection processes, peer influences and cognitive biases play a major role in adolescents substance use. Parental influences also play a role in adolescence substance use. How the adolescent is raised and how the parents behave with them is important to their development. The parent teenage relationship plays major roles in adolescent substance use. Substance abuse has its effects to an individual. Adolescents who use substances frequently are at risk for healthy problems. Alcohol, tobacco and other drugs have certain effects that can cause mental and heath problems. Substance abuse adolescents are at a high risk for various issues that may disrupt with their development. The physical, psychological and social effects of adolescent substance or drug abuse can have lasting consequences for the individual. This may interfere with a successful transition from adolescence to adulthood. On-going adolescent substance abuse can make an individual be at a greater risk for addiction in adulthood (Cobb, 2006). The physical consequences of adolescent substance abuse affect an individual physical development. Physical injuries and illnesses occur as a result of drug related accidents and overdoses. The psychological consequences of adolescent substance abuse affect an individual psychological development. Psychological development is all about the brain. The Misuse and overdose of substances leads to mental health problems. Alcohol is one substance that affects an individual psychological development (Cobb, 2006). Tobacco misuse can lead to illnesses such as lung cancer. Other problems may also arise due to tobacco smoking. These illnesses caused by substance abuse can also lead to death. Prolonged substance abuse can cause depression an anxiety, which can disrupt an adolescent ability to function and develop in a productive manner. There are also social consequences due to adolescent substance abuse. Adolescents who frequently abuse substances are more likely to have issues with their social development. Most of them tend to isolate themselves from family and friends. They are also more likely to have troubles with the law and law enforcers. Due to this, the adolescent substance abuser can bring problems within the family. Adolescence is a critical stage. Parents, teachers and any other adult should be role models for healthy behaviors. This is because adolescents adapt certain behavior from their peers and adults. Substance abuse affects adolescents mostly, and this can be avoided if the child to adolescent development is proper. Substance abuse causes major risks to adolescence development. Due to this, it is important for adolescents to be taught good behavior and be corrected when they wrong. Parents, teachers or other adults are people who should play major roles in teenagers’ life. They are a great influence in adolescents hence should be well role models. References Cobb, N. (2006). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill. Johnston, L. D. , O’Malley, P. M. , Bachman, J. G. (2006). Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use. New York: National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Educational Philosophy :: Education Teaching Teachers Essays

Educational Philosophy In our society today, the demand for teachers is starting to increase. But today it's not only how good an education you have, but how you are going to conduct yourself and your classroom. The act of teaching has almost become an art these days, as to how you control your room to how you arrange the seats to how you decorate the bulletin boards. I will be talking about each of these topics and addressing my views and thoughts about each of them throughout this paper. By the end of this paper my views of teaching and ideas about my classroom should be apparent and ready for improvement for the day that will occur in the future. 1. I feel some of the most important people in our society today are our educators. Without teachers who would be there to influence and teach our future leaders. I think that in becoming an educator it is a responsibility like none other. You are in charge of a classroom full of kids that are ready to learn and it's completely up to you to teach them. I feel and think that I want to be an educator because I want to teach children about things they never knew about before. I want to influence and encourage children to be all that they can be. I think that each child has a spark inside of them and it's the responsibility of the teacher to ignite the spark into a flame and encourage them to do all that they can and much more. I think that teachers deserve the millions of dollars instead of the pro athletes because they do so much more for our society and for our future. 2. As you walk into my classroom, you will notice lots of work up on the walls. The seats will be in a circle with my desk up front included in the circle. I will have the seats like that to make sure we are in unity and everyone is in the class discussion and nobody is in the back being left out. Referring back to the papers on the walls, I will have numerous bulletin boards for all of the subjects, so that if one student excels in one subject but others excel in other subjects, everyone will have a paper up on the wall for recognition of good work in a subject.

An Investigation of Vibrio Cholera

I chose to investigate Vibrio cholerae from the genus Vibrio because I found that V. cholerae was a very interesting bacteria. According to our textbook, (Prescott's Principles of Microbiology by Willey Joanne, Woolverton Chris, Sherwood Linda), V. cholerae has caused seven pandemics in various parts of the world, especially Asia, the Middle East and Africa. According to the 2009 Cholera annual report from the World Health Organization, (Weekly Epidemiological Record, 2010, 85(31):293-308), the US experienced less than 20 cases while around the world 45 countries experienced 221226 cases including 4946 deaths. In 1883 Robert Koch, who is considered by our text and many others to be one of the founders of microbiology identified the Vibrio bacterium that caused cholera. Koch believed that the key to prevention was to improve hygiene and in sanitary drinking water. This is the reason that there are so few cases in the United States per year, because we have a high degree of sanitary drinking water throughout the United States. Our textbook describes its taxonomy as being one of many serogroups, the textbook identifies V. cholerae O1 and 0139 to be one of two serogroups that cause epidemics. V. cholerae O1 also has two sterotypes and two biotypes. In 1992, the new strain, 0139 was discovered in Asia, but for the first time in recorded history, the 0139 strain actually displaced the 01 serogroup in India. Some of the genus Vibrio characteristics are that they are capable of fermentative and oxidative metabolism. According to Bergey’s Manual, they are related to enteric bacteria and Pseudomonadaceae and they are considered to be â€Å"Facultatively Anaerobic Gram-negative Rods† and on the level with the Family Enterobacteriaceae. Read Chapter 8 Microbial Genetics Vibrios are distinguished from enterics by being oxidase-positive and motile by means of polar flagella. V. cholerae as infectious bacteria, have the same goals as any other organism, to invade and infect the hose, to replicate and to transfer to another host. There are only a few ways that V. cholerae invade the human body. First, according to our text, it is transmitted through contaminated water that has been contaminated with fecal material containing V. cholerae from infected individuals. Such an outbreak is occurring right now in Haiti. The source of the contamination can be from other cholera sufferer’s untreated diarrheal discharge into waterways or into groundwater or drinking water supplies. Because of the earthquake that occurred in Haiti the sanitary conditions of the water is probably the main source of transmission. A second way for transmission of V. cholerae to individuals is through contaminated food, either from fecal matter on the food from an infected individual or perhaps an infected individual that does not have good hygiene handling food and infecting others. The third way that an individual can be exposed to V. cholerae, is through eating raw improperly cooked shellfish that were harvested in fecal-polluted coastal waters or even from shellfish that were harvested from non fecal-polluted waters and either undercooked or re-contaminated after cooking. In the United States this is usually how individuals are infected, this is because V. cholera is one of the most common bacteria found in surface waters. Strains have been found in marine coastal areas and in warmer estuaries in the United States. According to the FDA, â€Å"The Bad Bug Book†, (www. fda. gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodborneIllness/FoodborneIllnessFoodbornePathogensNaturalToxins/BadBugBook/default. htm). Once an individual has been infected and the bacteria is now inside the host, it has to survive the upper GI tract, which usually is very good at defending against invasion. Unfortunately for the host, cholera can grow very well in a high salt and low pH environment. The bacterial incubation period is usually from 12 to 72 hours. When the bacteria get past the upper GI tract, they avoid the immune system by using their polysaccharide capsule which makes phagocytosis by the host immune system very difficult and will allow the bacteria to continue to replicate. It colonizes the small intestine The bacteria are not harmed by the strong stomach acid of the infected individual because of the polysaccharide capsule and attach themselves to the intestinal wall of the small intestine. They secrete a cholera toxin, called choleragen. The bacteria are not invasive and the toxin that is secreted enters the intestinal epithelial cells, adding an ADP-ribosyl group, like pertussis toxin does which activated the enzyme adenylate cyclase which triggers the hypersectretion of water and choride ions and preventing sodium ions from being absorbed. The results are that the infected individual starts to lose large amounts of fluids, through vomiting, and a high amount of watery diarrhea. The individual will have painful stomach cramps and nausea and may lose up to 10 to 15 litres of fluid during the course of the infection. The large amounts of fluid loss, is usually referred to as â€Å"rice-water,† and the diarrhea fluid contaminates water used by other individuals causing others to be infected as well. The amount of fluid loss that the individual loses can be large enough that the individual may have high levels of blood proteins and can lead to death from circulatory shock. In the intestinal tract V. cholerae can stimulate bacterial genes that can increase infectivity of subsequent hosts. The process is not well known, but the stimulated genes prepare the bacteria to be better, more infective colonizers in subsequent hosts. his process may be integral to fueling future epidemics. According to a paper published in Proc Natl Acad Sci USA in September 2006, that V. cholera cells will adjust to the host they invaded. They will â€Å"rearrange their transcriptional profile†, to adjust to the human host from the aquatic environment. It’s ability to infect and multiply within a host re gardless of the range of environmental conditions. In studies on bacterial pathogenesis, virulence genes are usually the focus which is essential for pathogenesis. The findings of this paper showed that the repression of MSHA pilus production suggested that not only is it critical for colonization but is also critical to the role in bacterial pathogenesis. It appears from the article that MSHA repression is critical in the early stages of the infection, to evade the host’s innate immune response. so when you think of V. cholera it is a very successful human pathogen because of transcriptional regulation and using a set of wide responses that are flexible so that the bacteria can respond to a wide ranging environment.

Drug Addiction Argumentative Essay - 977 Words

Natalee Sweet Comp. #1 Mr. Yates 7-22-2012 Argumentative Essay: Addiction is a choice Alcohol and illicit drug consumption are all too prevalent today in high schools, colleges, and all across the globe. Students seeking to fit in or forget about the repetitiveness of school and homework have a tendency to experiment. Drug addiction is known by the scientific community to be a psychological condition based on excessive, obsessive, and compulsive actions. Once that regular user crosses the line into addiction their only concern is their self and their life revolves around the getting, using, and finding ways and means to get and use more. Most people start using drugs and alcohol occasionally, which is a voluntary decision,†¦show more content†¦At this point, drug use does not raise dopamine levels or produce a â€Å"high†; instead, the user keeps taking the drug to stave off painful withdrawal symptoms. Addiction is a choice and by classifying addiction as a disease, we are just enabling drug addicts to t ake no responsibility for their own actions in their lives. By labeling addiction as a medical condition it creates a false assumption that addicts have no control over their own behavior. People become addicts because of their behavior, not their brain chemistry. The disease concept is so popular because it gives people an easy way out; if they inherited their addiction they can’t be responsible for their own behavior. The disease model of addiction is flawed for a number of reasons; first, most people who take drugs do not become addicted, but may take drugs for a period of time, then stop when they choose to do so. Many well respected professors and scientist claim addiction is a scapegoat behavior that has been incorrectly identified as a physical or mental illness, an addict is only a victim of bad science and misguided policy. No one would choose to wake up sick every day, having to worry about how they are going to get their next fix just to feel normal. People c hoose to try drugs every day but they don’t try drugs with the intention of becoming addicted or to incur any of the negative consequences or effects, they try them to feel good or escapeShow MoreRelatedArgumentative Essay On Drug Addiction799 Words   |  4 Pagessoul-sucking monsters, a woman who introduced him to methamphetamine.The past ten years have consisted of my uncle down spiraling due to his addiction of methamphetamine. As of now, he is fourteen months clean due to his arrest last June. Because of his methamphetamine addiction, he is now facing thirty years in prison rather than going to rehab to beat his addiction. Today’s society would rather overpopulate our prisons with addicts, who need help, rather than sending them to rehab. 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For example there are games, such as ‘Second Life’ (a virtual imaginary world similar to the real world) that may lead to the user’s strong addiction to it and there is a high probability of the user cutting himself/herself off from the real society. ‘The overpowering stimulation and excitement that VirtualRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesown conclusion, then its your responsibility to give them reasons they can appreciate. Lets examine that last remark. A conclusion backed up by one or more reasons in any order is called an argument, even when the reasoner is not being argumentative or disagreeable. The word â€Å"argument† is a technical term we will be using frequently in this course. Being logical means, among other things, that you should give an argument to support your conclusion if you expect other people to accept it