Essay: Edie Bass
ESSAY: EDIE BASS HALO MISSIONS RESEARCH
The agency I decided to work with is Halo Missions, “a non-profit, vocational rehabilitation service located here in Nashville, Tennessee, [where] women in different stages of addiction recovery are taught how to handcraft jewelry made from recycled and reused guitar strings as a form of art therapy” (HALO Missions). Halo Missions addresses addiction as a whole, but more specifically in women. Halo Missions addresses addiction and sustainability in efforts to decrease the carbon footprint of themselves and others. Preceding my work with Halo Missions, I had several research questions I wanted to answer regarding addiction and sustainability, locally and nationally. What are the primary causes of addiction? Before working with those in addiction, I felt I had to understand the causes of addiction to become educated before discussing addiction. In addition, I wanted to be sensitive to what I was speaking about with the women as we discussed our stories, whether it be our own or something experienced with someone we know. There is no single cause of addiction. It is vital to acknowledge that several different factors cause addiction to understand addiction. Through my research, I have determined three primary causes of addiction; genetics, our environment, and the brain and body. The Nature vs. Nurture debate is highly relevant to understanding addiction as well. The atmosphere in which people are raised affects mental health and physical wellbeing. Therefore, the reasoning for someone’s addiction can be explained by what they have experienced and/or the environment they were raised in. For example, if drug and/or substance abuse is common in a home, it becomes normalized. The socalled “positive” effects can be observed from a child’s perspective, such as euphoria, partying, and having fun. In turn, the child’s brain creates a link between happiness and substance use, giving an incentive to mimic the behavior(The Dawn). Next, the brain and body play a vital role in the disease of addiction, specifically regarding dopamine. This neurotransmitter signals happiness to your brain and tells it to be repeated. Eating, shopping, and being with loved ones all trigger dopamine release due to the pleasure it brings. Drugs and alcohol similarly release dopamine. However, it is unnatural. When an individual continues to take a drug, the brain becomes overwhelmed with dopamine surges and, in turn, starts producing less of it on its own. At this point, physical dependence becomes present. This occurs when users have overridden their natural dopamine factory and now need to continue drinking alcohol to produce dopamine. Regrding staying hooked on a drug, withdrawal is another bodily effect of drug use. It is the body’s way of communicating that drugs and alcohol are needed for survival which is entirely untrue. Withdrawal occurs differently in everybody, which I will discuss later. (The Dawn).
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