Is Substance Abuse A Product Of Genetics Or Personal Choice Essay

Is substance abuse a product of genetics or environment or personal choice? While ideally, substance abuse should be considered a product of genetics, environment, and personal choice, I will argue that environment plays a very significant role. The interaction between the effects of some drugs and the physical machinery of decision-making system has been studied extensively. As discussed in class, the failure of the decision making system can be seen in changing needs, mimicking euphoric reward signals, overvaluations of actions or expectancies, overfast discounting processes, changing learning rates, mismatch in balance planning/habit decision systems, etc. We make decisions using our brains, the process of which can be altered by drugs, affecting future decision making; a personal choice

This is an environmental change. Strategies for staying sober almost always include staying away from places and people an addict associated with drug use, a literal change in environment. A person’s environment includes social, economic, and personal forces influencing their behavior.

There is a parallel to the criminalization of drugs, I think, in that prison time often leaves addicts with a felony on their record, time in prison that negatively affects their emotional state, and often no other option but to turn to illegal methods for survival. I have seen this cycle of drug charge, prison, drug charge repeat for years in my family until any real progress was made.

Risk factors in the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model include dispositions (e.g. aspd), bad developmental history, and demographics (Ward & Marula, 46). Psychiatric disorders are also considered a risk factor, especially with the high rates of substance abuse in personality disorders such as borderline personality disorder and antisocial personality