Drug addiction is a condition that plagues a significant number of members in our society. Researchers prove that it is caused by a variety of factors like poverty, depression and peer pressure. Those affected effect note only themselves but also their immediate family members. In the text ‘Embraced by the Needle’, Mate uses a scientific approach to support his claim, that drug addiction always instigates from emotional deprivation and is not as a result of physiological predispositions or individual moral failures. This essay will discuss Mate’s argument by regarding the main pieces of evidence he provided in his essay. It will also succinctly highlight some of his patients’ opinions on the topic. Drug addiction is solely based on emotional grounds and those who are most affected have a history of inadequate care and love while in their childhood.
Mate begins by mentioning the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver, the region with the highest number of drug addicts in Canada. He takes note of the fact that the majority of the people living in the area also suffer from mental illness. One of his clients admits that the first time he partook in heroin usage, felt like a warm hug (273). Scientific findings back up the patient’s description as they related the feeling of a warm hug to some endorphins produced by the brain while young. Koob and George (770) highlight that particular neurotransmitters are essential in controlling the pain and comforting an individual. For these transmitters to fully develop, then the person ought to experience enough endorphin-stimulating activities while young. These neurotransmitters are responsible for producing endorphins, hormones released by the brain whenever the person feels happy and cared for. For that reason, the less the infant receives stimulation that triggers the release, the greater the chances to drug addiction, since they will be unable to control their pain and will need comfort in drug use.
Mate (305) clearly states that unhappiness always stems from despondency, even when it is not known. By using one of the patient’s personal experiences, Mate shows how lack of parental support and involvement affect the child in future. Criss and Michael (670) agree with his hypothesis as they further explain that the reported cases of those involved in drug misuse normally include lack of parental interaction with the child. These children eventually end up as sad and to some extent become anxious. This is because the lack of parental nurturing will lead to slower brain development thus the neurotransmitters will not be developed. This causes them to be constantly unsure of themselves and their actions. In the end, these children are more prone to drug addiction.
According to Mate (274), men and women who suffered from a serious of abandonment or severe psychological abuse during their childhood would be easily involved in drug use while at an older age. He elucidates that drugs act as an emotional sedative to numb the pain that they underwent as children and maybe forget it just for a little while. Scientists Wilde and Elisabeth (2000) clarify that drug overdose or abuse leads to either a loss of consciousness or the user gets to a state of mind where they are not necessarily proactive.
It is at this stage where they can cause self-harm without feeling pain, as in the case of Carl (274), a thirty-six-year-old male native, who was one of Mate's patient. Carl injured himself with a knife as a form of punishment for using cocaine. Washing detergent was also shoved down his throat at a young age for using foul language and was tied to a chair in a dark room for being too hyperactive. His action to punish himself caused him bodily harm. Mate had to convince him that he wasn't like his foster parents, therefore, he was not obliged to punish himself. The emotional trauma experienced by Carl led him to seek consolation in cocaine.
Furthermore, addiction cases are also reported from families where there was only a lot of love and no record of abuse. In these circumstances, the unseen factor is the stress the parents lived under while in their childhood years. As a result, these parents are saddled with emotional baggage that even they are unaware of. Mate clearly states that at times we are not aware of what we pass on to our children. Parents with depressing histories experience great difficulty in initiating endorphin-stimulating interactions with their children. Consequently, in their adult life, their children become addicts. One of his patients is recorded to have said that what they couldn't get enough of, they could inject, thus get the feeling of a warm soft hug (Mate 273).
According to Alexandra and Cook (395), parents with histories of either abuse or lack of parental nurturing are likely to have children who end up as drug addicts. This is because most of them simply do not know how to make their children feel safe as they were not taught by their parents. Mate describes that despite the fact that these parents will assure their children of their love, they will be unable to make them safe enough for them to open up whenever they feel angry or unhappy. Addicts express that the sense of unconditional love and safety is foreign to them. Wayne, a patient, bitterly says that he was bitten whenever he asked for it since it was his stupid decisions that caused it. However, Mate wonders if Wayne would blame his child for his actions and if he too would beat him just because he asks.
Mate successfully defends his opinion. Drug addiction stems from unhappiness, whether or not it is known to us. Individuals with happier childhoods are less prone to the plague of addiction compared to those who had calamitous moments as they grew up. Endorphin-liberating activities ensure that the neurotransmitters fully develop and therefore persons are able to self-soothe and control their pain without suffering from anxiety, as is the case of many drug addicts. Many addicts describe their experience as feeling a warm soft hug, it can, therefore, be concluded that these individuals either felt little or no love while in their childhood. Hence the need to feel cared for through uncivilised means.
Works cited
Cook, Alexandra, et al. "Complex trauma in children and adolescents." Psychiatric Annals 35.5 (2017): 390-398.
Criss, Michael M., et al. "Link between monitoring behaviour and adolescent adjustment: An analysis of direct and indirect effects." Journal of Child and Family Studies 24.3 (2015): 668-678.
Koob, George F., and Nora D. Volkow. "Neurobiology of addiction: a neurocircuitry analysis." The Lancet Psychiatry3.8 (2016): 760-773.
Wilde, Elisabeth A., et al. "Loss of consciousness is related to white matter injury in mild traumatic brain injury." Journal of Neurotrauma 33.22 (2016): 2000-2010.
