My Contribution to The Fight Against Addiction

In my first You & The World blog post, I discussed the mental part of addiction, how it affects your brain, and what specifically in your brain causes you to fall into addiction. I also covered how addiction affects your whole life; relationships, friendships, and career. The last thing I addressed about addiction was how it directly relates to crime and the way addiction ruins your will to be a good citizen. You can find the link here if you missed it.

As I continued researching about the issue, I started digging deeper to understand the ways America is fighting addiction, and I formed my own opinions on each tactic.

The first source I came across was “10 Ways to Combat America’s Drug Abuse Problem”. In this source, the author focuses on ways to support recovering addicts, and also ways that America could prevent deaths at the hands of addiction. They start by listing ways to reduce addiction deaths by doing things such as: providing easier access to Naloxone (a nasal spray that blocks deadly respiratory suppression caused by many drugs) and identifying who is making these deadly drugs easy to access. The author then lists ways to prevent addiction in general: spreading awareness and education to people around the country. Some of the last tactics the author suggests consist of making access to rehab easier and bettering medical treatment for addiction. The author concludes with a reminder to keep hope and understand that recovery isn’t easy, but it’s possible.

I believe that this first article’s advice for combating addiction is incredibly helpful and very informative. I think addressing it in a way that would prevent addiction as well as supporting people who are already struggling with it is smart.

The second source I read is titled “Ways to Increase Awareness About Addiction and Rehab”. This article discusses ways to personally raise awareness about addiction on your own. It starts with suggesting education upon yourself and others. It also talks about getting involved with the community and helping spread the message. Following legislation surrounding addiction is suggested as well, and the article emphasizes that every voice counts when it comes to addiction and the government. The article concludes by explaining that sharing your story with addiction is incredibly helpful to yourself and others.

I think this article is also very useful when educating yourself on how to spread awareness about addiction. It mainly focuses on the idea that every person and every voice matters, which I totally agree with.

What I did for my agent of change was donating to an organization that directly helps people recovering from addiction. I gathered a good amount of necessities (suggested from the organization for donating), and I dropped it off. I chose to do this because I figured it was the most I could do that would actually mean something. I didn’t want to donate money because I wanted to ensure that the things I donated would be actually directly helping people and it would be more personal. The experience was pretty easy, but it was really fun and it felt like I was making some sort of change or difference, even if it was small.

I felt pretty good about doing this project. I think I chose a good topic and I believe that I did the most I could with the time given to fight the issue of addiction. I learned a lot about the way that addiction affects the brain and I definitely understand addiction on a deeper level than I previously did. I could’ve spread a little more awareness on social media, like maybe if I created an instagram page dedicated to spreading awareness about addiction. I can still do that though. I hope in the future I can collaborate with more people, like collecting donations from my friends and then donating to the organization, but I didn’t think of that very early, so I thought I wouldn’t have enough time/I wouldn’t have enough donations or any at all. I’m still very proud of myself and my project but there’s always room for improvement in the future.

Link to Annotated Bibliography