Throughout chapters six, seven, and eight I learned that majority of people who abuse CNS depressants are already dependent on other drugs. They combine depressants with alcohol and heroin, and if you keep using the CNS depressants you can build a tolerance and it will lead to dependence. I also learned that alcohol is the most commonly used drug in the world. I enjoyed reading these chapters and coming to the conclusion of how opinionated people are about the use of alcohol, weather its including teens and under age drinking or different stereotypes with drinking involving culture beliefs. I learned peoples opinions on underage drinking and the drinking age during the discussion period! I find the statics interesting that 75% of students who consume alcohol, 50% of them have been drunk before they even graduate high school. I also learned how much of your body is really damaged when alcohol enters your body. Not only does it effect your liver and kidneys, but it also effects your endocrine system and cardiovascular system. There are so many different types of alcoholic's, I didn't think there are as many terms as there actually are... Its so much more complex to treat someone with alcoholism because of both physical withdrawal and denial.
New additions to my vocabulary!!
Diuretic: A drug or substance that increases the production of urine. -- I didn't know you can get dehydrated from alcohols diuretic action!
Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy: Congestive heart failure due to the replacement of heart muscle with a fat and fiber. -- This made me understand the heart failure process from drinking too much alcohol.
I feel like my questions are improving in this module but my grades are not. Maybe I don't fully understand how the discussion works. I really do put a lot of effort into the discussions but then I see the score I got and I get discouraged, and I don't want to do it anymore. As I said the past two weeks, I will continue to do my best and keep trying until I get it right!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Chapter 3&5 overview
During this learning module I learned about drug use along with the law, and also how the drugs work. I learned about the Pure food and Drug Act on 1906, it wasn't the strongest of acts, but it required manufactures to write on the label about how much alcohol and drugs are in each product and this led to OTC drugs that passed the federal food, drug, and cosmetic Act in 1938. Also the demand reduction aimed to reduce the overall demand for drugs by working with kids and teaching them the negatives about drugs. In chapter five, I learned about the placebo effect. Placebo means " I shall please" in Latin. A placebo substance can have a very powerful outcome on a person. There are two kinds of drug dependencies, psychical and psychological. Psychical is when you keep depending on the drug and when you don't have the drug you will feel the complete opposite through the withdrawal stages. Where psychological is a feeling of satisfaction and it creates a positive effect on your brain, like your living in a utopia.
Prior to learning this content two terms that I didn't know or I wasn't clear about would be pharmacokinetics, and Thalidomide.
Pharmacokinetics: The study of factors that influence the distribution and concentration of drugs in the body.-- depending on how the drug is formed depends on how fast the drug enters the blood stream.
Thalidomide: A sedative drug that, when used during pregnancy, can cause severe development damage to a fetus. -- Using this drug can cause your baby to have impaired development with arms or legs, this is known as phocomelia.
In this learning module I feel like I did better than last week. I posted my question on time and I feel like I'm doing better with responding to peoples questions in the discussion area. I do feel like I put in the time and effort into this module but there is always room for improvement. I'm still working on how to correctly post a question for the discussions, and I feel like I will get the hang of it next time, I just need to put in more time and effort. But other than that I feel like I'm doing a good job!
Prior to learning this content two terms that I didn't know or I wasn't clear about would be pharmacokinetics, and Thalidomide.
Pharmacokinetics: The study of factors that influence the distribution and concentration of drugs in the body.-- depending on how the drug is formed depends on how fast the drug enters the blood stream.
Thalidomide: A sedative drug that, when used during pregnancy, can cause severe development damage to a fetus. -- Using this drug can cause your baby to have impaired development with arms or legs, this is known as phocomelia.
In this learning module I feel like I did better than last week. I posted my question on time and I feel like I'm doing better with responding to peoples questions in the discussion area. I do feel like I put in the time and effort into this module but there is always room for improvement. I'm still working on how to correctly post a question for the discussions, and I feel like I will get the hang of it next time, I just need to put in more time and effort. But other than that I feel like I'm doing a good job!
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Shockers from chapter 1 & 2
I learned a lot from the first two chapters of this textbook; also a lot of things surprised me. I didn’t know there was such a thing as "Mobil meth labs" that surprised me and it made me realize how easy it is to get some of the most powerful drugs today. In the introduction on the second page, they opened my mind to the idea on the complexity and the process is on the making of new drugs and expanding them. Also how serious it is today because of the increase since 1960. I would have never compared it to the change of the telephone. Another thing I didn’t know was the different types of cannabis. It's interesting to know that cannabis can be harmful. Many people only know it as marijuana not spice or K2, which can actually result in serious harm as in overdoses or even suicide.
On page 44, in figure 1.9, referring to the millions of users between 2007 and 2008. In 2008 9.8 million employed people abuse drugs vs. 1.8 million unemployed people. I guess there’s a positive to being unemployed, staying away from drugs! Knowing that you cant get a good steady paying job these days without getting drug tested keeps people away from drugs and harmful things that can stop them from getting employed, where employed people just don’t care because they don’t have to go through that process of getting drug tested all over again. Towards the end of the second chapter I learned that drug addiction was a mental illness. After reading about it, it makes since because of how it changes your perspective on certain mental processes while you're under the influence.
This brings me to three vocabulary words that I didn’t know prior to reading these chapters.
1. Comorbidity - Two or more disorders or illnesses occurring in the same person.
From this I learned that for as long as the symptoms of both disorder overlap in the time period, they are considered to be comorbid. But they also don’t have to start or end at the same time.
2. Subculture Theory - Explains drug use as a peer- generated activity.
This taught me the depth of peer pressure, and how effective it can be.
3. Drug Cartels - Highly sophisticated organizations composed of multiple drug trafficking organizations and cells with specific assignments.
I learned how the whole drug traffic works, the moment from where it stops to the moment the money gets back from the originator (most likely outside of the US)
Over all I honestly had every intension to put all my effort into this learning module, but my computer had problems and the wifi was always down and I didn’t want to go all the way home. Now that I have had the time to read all of the discussion posts and respond to them I feel like I am putting more effort into my work. For next week network problems will not be an excuse, and my work will have all my time and effort put into it. Your comments have helped me a lot over this week. In the beginning I wasn’t understanding how I should be responding to the discussions and I hope to get better at it as weeks go on.
On page 44, in figure 1.9, referring to the millions of users between 2007 and 2008. In 2008 9.8 million employed people abuse drugs vs. 1.8 million unemployed people. I guess there’s a positive to being unemployed, staying away from drugs! Knowing that you cant get a good steady paying job these days without getting drug tested keeps people away from drugs and harmful things that can stop them from getting employed, where employed people just don’t care because they don’t have to go through that process of getting drug tested all over again. Towards the end of the second chapter I learned that drug addiction was a mental illness. After reading about it, it makes since because of how it changes your perspective on certain mental processes while you're under the influence.
This brings me to three vocabulary words that I didn’t know prior to reading these chapters.
1. Comorbidity - Two or more disorders or illnesses occurring in the same person.
From this I learned that for as long as the symptoms of both disorder overlap in the time period, they are considered to be comorbid. But they also don’t have to start or end at the same time.
2. Subculture Theory - Explains drug use as a peer- generated activity.
This taught me the depth of peer pressure, and how effective it can be.
3. Drug Cartels - Highly sophisticated organizations composed of multiple drug trafficking organizations and cells with specific assignments.
I learned how the whole drug traffic works, the moment from where it stops to the moment the money gets back from the originator (most likely outside of the US)
Over all I honestly had every intension to put all my effort into this learning module, but my computer had problems and the wifi was always down and I didn’t want to go all the way home. Now that I have had the time to read all of the discussion posts and respond to them I feel like I am putting more effort into my work. For next week network problems will not be an excuse, and my work will have all my time and effort put into it. Your comments have helped me a lot over this week. In the beginning I wasn’t understanding how I should be responding to the discussions and I hope to get better at it as weeks go on.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
New Post
Hi, I'm Cassandra Banas and this is my first year at NCCC, and I'm currently studying chemical dependency counseling. I am very excited to try this online course, I hope I do well and I know I'll learn a lot.
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