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Michelle Maldonado

Joanne Robinson

HLTH 1050

April 23, 2020

Reflection Paper

Joining this class, I didn’t really know what I was going to learn or take away, sure I had

an idea that we would learn about the different types of drugs and how they can affect others. My

approach was inaccurate. I was blown away by some of the stories I heard, from my classmates

and also the speakers. People go through so much pain day to day everyone handles it differently

and that’s okay. I’ll be honest I had a different mindset or interpretation of an addict, I thought

they had the will to stop and could stop, that they just wanted to continue ruining their lives.

Boy was I wrong, and hey that’s what this class is about. This is very personal a family

member of mine was addict for a long time no one ever knew. You probably would never know

unless I told you he’s what you would call and active addict. He could go on his day to day job

with no issues. He ran a successful business for years until he finally couldn’t I never blamed I

wanted to always help to come from a loving place.

Not everyone thinks the same they play the blame game; I think that is why he never told

anyone or sought out help. I wanted to help, I wanted to help him get back to his regular self and

he has been clean for years now. Every now and then someone calls him a user or that he is using

when in fact he’s clean. I just want to say that we don’t ever know anyone’s trials or how they

interact with drugs, we don’t even know how their body handles it as everyone’s body is

different. This class taught me to listen before judging or assuming that everyone has a mean to

stop when in fact some may not be able to, it’s life or death.
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There are drugs that I have never even heard of that are crazy dangerous like Krokodil. If

drugs could kill, well they do this would be probably one of the worst! You skin deteriorates

from the inside. I can’t imagine how painful that must be who knew eye drops could be so

dangerous! It’s funny I love to tell my coworkers all that I’ve learned by being in this class I

think my Government or History class could have taught me half the things in this course. I

actually learned about it in this class instead.

I noticed after learning how you can become an alcoholic, I’ve been scared to even drink.

I still do just socially I never really cared to drink, but with friends I do for fun. I have been

influenced to even count my boyfriend’s drink and I never really cared before. We both don’t

really drink, but this makes me not even want to and I shouldn’t have to decide that for someone

else. I’ll continue to hopefully drink responsibly, never do drugs. I will also continue to

encourage others about choices they make. I really love to help others I would wish more people

would take that leap of faith and open their arms to a user.

People need a support group whether they do drugs or not it’s good for everyone to have

someone to lean on every now and then. Having a support group for me has made me that more

blessed and I haven’t felt that way in a long time. Everyone goes through trauma at some point in

their lives we just need someone to be there and help us through it. I really liked our latest

speaker he still has an amazing support group till this day. Sadly, he has gone through so much

and he still hasn’t gone back to those old habits. I applaud him for continuing to be so strong

after his son’s death. He still goes out and tells his story to help others. His story will stay with

me probably forever and for me to continue to tell it to others. This doesn’t really have a tie in

with my math class aside from the amount of money that goes into the drug prevention and also
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all the money cartels continue to make. I also really wanted to thank my professor for making

this class entertaining and fun to learn about.