Drug Abuse Amongst Women

Drug abuse is the illegal use of none prescribed or the over use of prescribed drugs in a fashion that can harm your body. Drug abuse is a very real situation in today's society. Many people know someone in their family or group of friends that is or has dealt with drug abuse. Or even themselves have struggled with the abuse of drugs. This is a problem that affects families across the United States. Men, women, and even children abuse drugs on an everyday basis. I myself feel that the group of people that struggle the most with drug abuse is women. Women are the foundation of families and if they are struggling the whole family struggles.

Drug abusing women are a very different group of abusers. They are also a group that is the most disadvantaged in the United States. Most people believe that substance abuse among women is very low but that couldn't be further from the truth. Alcohol and drug abuse among women occurs at similar rates among poor and non-poor people and among white people and people of color. Some of the things that women have or do face and cause them to abuse drugs are being physically or sexually abused as a child or even as an adult, being victimized as an adult by some sort of domestic violence, and having a spouse or partner that also partakes in abusing drugs. In todays world most recovery programs are designed for the male process of recovery and there are numerous problems with accessing programs for women; especially women with minor children. Although a study found that white women and women of color abuse substances at similar rates; women of color are disproportionately tested for drug use and receive more child protective services interventions. Prevention of substance abuse by women will take more than just education; it'll take a conscious effort to take control of this problem.

Women who abuse drugs usually abuse more then one. For example if a women abuses alcohol she probably abuses drugs such as marijuana or cocaine. People not just women that are addicted to drugs do this because they build such a tolerance for one thing that they want to keep there "high" going so they experiment with other drugs. There are a lot of differences between men and women pertaining to drug abuse. Such as patterns, consequences, and reasons that they abuse alcohol and other drugs, marijuana use, cocaine use, heroin and other opiate use, illicit drug use and crime. A big difference between men and women and substance abuse is that women neglect and abuse their children.

Little is known about the risks of mood and anxiety disorders among women with alcohol use disorders and the effect of illicit drug use in this population. All participants from the 2008 Women National Mental Health survey were assessed for current major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, and alcohol use disorders by using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and were interviewed for illicit drug use within one year prior to their assessment. Logistic regression modeling was used to determine whether alcohol use disorders were associated