Hooked on prescription drugs

David Smalhvood explains why, like Michael Jackson, his addiction had its roots in childhood

What happened to Michael Jackson was heartbreaking. I think that he was frightened all his life and took prescription drugs to deal with it. I did the same. I was addicted to an anti-anxiety drug − as was Jackson, reportedly − and they can be more addictive and harder to come off than heroin.

Why do ordinary people like me become addicted to prescription drugs? It’s for the same reason that celebrities get hooked on painkillers, antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs. Something in their childhood − trauma, shame, a sense of inadequacy − makes them feel that they can’t cope with life.

I was shy and frightened as a child. I knew that I was different. My dad wanted me to play football, but I hated sports, and thought the other boys were rough and scary. I refused to take the route that Dad saw as normal and stayed at home making pastry with Mum. This was in a Warwickshire mining community in the 1960s. At school I was the one in the perfect uniform while the other boys had their bums hanging out of their shorts. I was picked on and beaten up.

You realize that other people don’t think you’re quite right, and you are ashamed. You feel you are less than you should be. Some react by becoming super achievers and others by becoming withdrawn− as I did, until drugs changed everything.

I got a job in a factory. Working with 4,000 homophobic Coventry City supporters at the age of 16 I became even more anxious, went to a doctor, and said to him: “I can't cope with life.” He kept his eyes on his pad and prescribed Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug. I took it every day for 16 years. Pain and anxiety went far away. I was able to deal with the world. When I went to apprentices hip college soon afterwards I discovered alcohol, and this seemed to increase the effect of the drug. It was like a grey world became colorful.

I had a repeat prescription card and I just kept handing it in. If I was taking the pills and drinking I felt more able to communicate with people, and that took me into new avenues, such as local politics. But the more responsibilities I had the more dependent I became on my props.

I kept trying to become “normal”. In my mid-20s I got a suit and became a salesman. I refused to acknowledge my feelings for men, married a wonderful woman and had a lovely daughter. I got a big house, a Range Rover and two labradors. But this “normality” created new stresses and I took more and more alcohol and Ativan. I got kicked out of my last job, started to run pubs, and began to get blackouts during which − so I'm told − I threatened and fought people, even policemen. I was taken to a psychiatric hospital and put on to Valium, to which I also became addicted.

I began to turn things around only when I started attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 1987 at 36, and I've been sober ever since. Getting off the Ativan and Valium was harder. I had to gradually reduce the dose. The night sweats were so bad that I had to surround myself with towels, and I got terrible panic attacks. Coming off heroin takes an average of two weeks. It takes nine months to come off Ativan.

As I began to recover, I came to recognize my attraction to men. Telling my wife that I was gay was one of the most painful things I've had to do. But seeing how I really am has been the key not being dependent on drugs any more.

I am now head of an addiction treatment programme at the Priory North London and I'd say that 40 per cent of the people who come to me with an addiction problem are dependent to a greater or lesser extend on prescription drugs. It's getting worse partly because such medicines are becoming so easy to get over the internet without prescription.

Реферат

The article “Hooked on prescription drugs” is taken from The Times July 4, 2009. The author David Smalhvood tells us about prescription drugs addiction. His story is the way of the man suffered from his inadequacy to the head of an addiction treatment programme at the Priory North London. According to D. Smalhvood addiction has its roots in childhood. The reason of it is trauma, shame and sense if inadequacy. Working in the Priory North London he realized that an addiction problem is depended to a greater or less extends on prescription drugs. The author gives the key to get off pain and addiction− to recognize who you really are and work on your personality.

 

Аннотация

The article “Hooked on prescription drugs” is taken from The Times July4, 2009. The author David Smalhvood tells us about prescription drugs addiction. His story is the way of the man suffered from his inadequacy to the head of an addiction treatment programme at the Priory North London. In this article the author gives the key to get off pain and addiction.

Globalization

Globalization is the growth and enactment of world culture. Since at least ^; the middle of the nineteenth century, a rationalized world institutional and cultural order has crystallized that consists of universally applicable models that shape states, organizations, and individual identities. Conceptions of progress, sovereignty, rights, and the like, have acquired great authority. After World War II international life gained a cultural structure. States at very different economic levels adopted common percepts and established common institutions. Far from being the prime movers on the international scene, states derived much of their structure and authority from being embedded in a larger system, a world polity consisting, of common legitimating models. But states are not the only globally enacted model. More and more organizations, from scientific associations to feminist groups, from standard-ting bodies to environmental movements, helped to elaborate and imple­ment this common world culture.

By the end of the twentieth century, world culture became the constitutive element in world society. But it cannot claim global consensus; regions differ, for example, in their interpretation of core notions such as individual rights. Nor is \ world culture free from contradiction; it contains values such as freedom equality that are necessarily in tension. Enacting global models will not to lead a completely homogeneous world, if only because institutionalization; different conditions will produce significant local variation. World actually produces new conflicts, for when many believe they live under universally valid principles, they become critical of state actions from global norms. Since the state of the world is always bound to fall short of high global standards, world culture actually encourages the discovery of new social problems. But the world-wide recognition of problems, ranging from global warming to corruption, is a sign of world culture’s current strength. In a diverse, conflictual, and decentralized world, it provides common models for thinking and acting.

 

Реферат

The article from student’s book by M.Beloruchev is about globalization as a growth and enactment of world culture. The author notes that the modern common world cannot claim global consensus. Common human values produce local variations which lead to conflicts. But the author concludes that conflictual and decentralized world provides common models for thinking and acting.

 

Аннотация

The article from student’s book by M.Beloruchev is about globalization as a growth and enactment of world culture. The author concludes that conflictual and decentralized world provides common models for thinking and acting.