Literature and English

Language SBA Portfolio

By Marvell Service
 Treatments for Drug Abuse
How could we cure people who suffer from drug abuse, also known as
Substance use Disorder (SUD)? Drug Abuse is a serious issue that
affects 25% (twenty-five percent) of drug abusers (drug users who have
a drug addiction). There are many ways to treat those who abuse drugs
and help rehabilitate them. These methods do not work as well for every
individual and depends on the person, but most methods at least help to
alleviate the patient’s symptoms. There are three main type of
treatments of drug abuse, which are therapy, medication and
rehabilitation programs (services).
Therapy is one of the many ways to treat drug addictions also known as
SUD (Substance Use Disorder). Addiction therapy is a group of
evidence based therapeutic tools that is mainly focused on aiding people
with addictions. It is aimed at significantly reducing or stopping
substance abuse, achieve long term abstinence, identifying triggers,
coping methods and help them to integrate back into society. The
different types of therapies are Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT),
including Rational-Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), Dialectical
Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing and Contingency
Management (CM). Addictions therapy treatments is different
depending on your needs, circumstances and your treatment center.
Medication is another of the many ways to treat addiction to illicit
substances. Medications are really helpful against treating withdrawal
symptoms that come from substance abuse abstinence. Medications
used to treat opioid abuse are methadone, buprenorphine, extended
release naltrexone and lofexidine. Medications to cure nicotine
addictions are bupropion, varenicline and nicotine replacement therapies
in the form of gum, inhalers or patches. Medications used to help
alleviate alcohol overuse are naltrexone, disulfiram and acamprosate.
Different types of medications may be useful at different stages of
treatment to help a patient stop overusing illicit substances, stay in
treatment and avoid relapse.
Rehabilitation programs or facilities are other ways to help treat
addictions and substance abuse. Detoxification rehabilitation facilities is
one of the most often used interventions in the recovery process. Three
essential parts of every rehabilitation programs include initial
evaluation, medical and psychosocial stabilization and fostering patient
readiness for addiction treatment. In the evaluation stage they assess the
patient’s mental and physical health, to provide a basis for the patient’s
treatment plan. During the stabilization stage they assist the patient
through intoxication and withdrawal to achieve a drug free and
medically stable state. These programs help in every form of recovery
for drug abuse patients.
To sum up everything that was previously said there are three main
types of SUD (Substance Use Disorder) treatment which are therapy,
medication and rehabilitation programs (services). Therapy helps to
reduce or stop the addiction such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
(CBT), including Rational-Emotive Behavioral Therapy (REBT), etc.
Medication alleviates withdrawal symptoms such as methadone for
opioids, bupropion for nicotine, naltrexone for alcohol, etc.
Rehabilitation programs are useful for individually customized
interventions. These different types of treatments for SUD (Substance
Use Disorder) are not perfect and are continuously being improved
upon, they are still worth it taking.
 Supporting Artifacts
Three pieces of data (artifacts) that help to support and further explain the theme:
Cleveland Clinic, 2022 October 20, Substance Use Disorder (SUD), My
Cleveland Clinic,
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/16652-drug-addiction-substance-us
e-disorder-sud

Medical Centric, 2019 April 30, Drug Abuse, Causes, Signs and Symptoms,
Diagnosis and Treatment, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6Dte96WdqM
National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2020 July 10, The Science of Addiction
Treatment and Recovery, Drugs, Brains, and Behavior,
https://nida.nih.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/treatm
ent-recovery
 Plan of Investigation

The topic that this SBA portfolio will be collecting research information
on is Drug Abuse also known as Substance Use Disorder (SUD), more
specifically the treatments for Drug Abuse.

Why did you choose this topic/theme/issue/event?

The reason to which I have chosen this topic is for the purpose of
acquiring more knowledge on the serious issue of drug abuse and
mainly for the reason of learning more about how to adequately treat
those who suffer from drug abuse.
What are the expected benefits to you as a student of English?
Conducting this kind of research will aid me to express myself well as a
English Student. It will allow me to become better acquainted with the
issues associated with this topic which will allow me to share my
knowledge and help spread awareness on this particular social issue. My
conducting such research as an English Student I am able to develop
close reading and writing skills and strategies. One skill in particular is
my ability to critically think about what I am reading and writing as I
seek to broaden my knowledge on this controversial topic. I am also
required to make an oral presentation before an audience of my peers
and English mentor.
How do you intend to collect relevant information on your
issues/topics/themes/event and use this in your presentation?
I plan to collect information by reading articles and watching videos on
the internet that is relevant to the chosen topic. I intend to use the
acquired information to help me write and script my presentation.

What are you going to do with the research material/information?

I will utilize this information to create my presentation that will be used
to help bring more light to my selected topic and offer reliable
information on my topic.
 Reflections
The first artifact is an article, after reading it, it made feel more empathy towards people
who suffer from drug abuse. Thus making me realize that it is hard for drug abusers to quit
abusing substances. This is because the drug releases dopamine in the brain which is
responsible for pleasure or happiness and when they stop using the drugs they get severe
withdrawal symptoms. The second artifact is a video, when I finished watching the video, I
noticed that the term drug abuse is often correlated with drugs that are often shown in a
negative light such a cocaine, cannabis, etc. The correlation makes people fail to recognize
that most over the counter or prescription drugs can also lead to drug addictions. This
makes it much harder for people to notice that their family members, friends or even they
themselves are addicted to drugs or illicit substances. The third artifact is another article,
reading this article showed me that some people might have a genetic predisposition to
drug addictions making it much harder for the normal person to quit. It also shows that
there are different levels of SUD (Substance Use Disorder). All in all these artifact has
made me grateful to know that I do not know anyone with SUD (Substance Use Disorder).
In all of the artifacts there was not a lot of technical jargon or slang that
would impede one’s understanding of these pieces of data. All of the
information was presented in a formal tone that made it easily digestible
for someone who would be reading or watching these artifacts. The use
of language in these pieces of data left little to the imagination with
brief but precise descriptions and no noticeable mistakes or issues.

The theme has helped me have more sympathy and empathy about
people who are in controllable situations such as those who have
substance addictions. It made me want to bring more attention to the
people who suffer from drug addictions and made me thankful for the
fact that I do not have anyone who suffers from illicit substance abuse.
 Oral Presentation
It will be a poem.
That will be themed around the sea.
It will have a rhyming scheme that ends with the sound “ite” or “ight”.