Substance Abuse in African American Women Essay

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The issue of substance abuse is widespread over the world. Various drug addictions became a vast ongoing problem among people over the globe (Blount, LaGuardia, & Fitzpatrick, 2021). Despite the fact that substance misapplication happens worldwide, there is a limited number of studies that scrutinize drug misuse by African Americans. In particular, there is a lack of investigations devoted to the substance abuse of African American women. It is interesting to examine what substances this minority group misuse, what the premises are for it, and to which consequences it may lead.

Over the recent period, African American scholars have started to be concerned about substance abuse in African American society. It has been reported that African Americans are more likely to misuse drugs and alcohol. In addition, they are more likely to have the highest rate of emergencies connected with drug overuse (Blount, LaGuardia, & Fitzpatrick, 2021). In particular, African American women tend to suffer from an increased rate of abusing drugs and alcoholic drinks. Moreover, according to the statistics, Black women are 2-4 times more involved in substance overuse in comparison to white women (Blount, LaGuardia, & Fitzpatrick, 2021). One of the reasons why African American women misuse different substances is discrimination. Black women start to be addicted to various drugs and alcohol because of personal traumas connected with race, racist issues, and discriminational violence (Allen et al., 2019).

It was also reported that most of the women who have substance addiction do not have a formal education (Blount, LaGuardia, & Fitzpatrick, 2021). Therefore, it leads to the higher consumption of multiple substances. Various private experiences also can matter in the investigation of this issue. For example, there are cases when parents of the current substance users were addicted to drugs or alcohol. Interestingly, it constitutes 73 percent of traumatic experiences in childhood. In addition, there are also high rates from 20 to 50 percent of childhood physical or sexual abuse for African American women (Blakey, 2016). One more finding is that 34.1 percent of African American women were subjected to adult sexual abuse compared with white women (Blakey, 2016). Later, this substance addiction can be transmitted from the mother to the child and may affect the kid as well.

Concerning treatment, it was reported that traditional substance abuse treatment methods showed poor results for African American women (Blount, LaGuardia, & Fitzpatrick, 2021). It can be connected to various issues, including public and personal. For instance, it may be social oppression, racial disparities, cultural backgrounds, and emotional traumas. Therefore, there is a strong need to use alternative ways of treatment. Many studies have proposed the appeal to spiritual methods, as African American nation is one of the most religious people involved in spirituality to a high degree (Blount, LaGuardia, & Fitzpatrick, 2021). In addition, many investigations informed that spiritual practices could help to leave abuse addictions (Blakey, 2016). Furthermore, the finding is that the African American women who relied on God and were highly impacted by belief managed to overcome psychological consequences and personal stress (Blakey, 2016).

To sum up, there are various premises and outcomes for African American women involved in substance abuse. It is clearly seen that different early experiences from parents, and racist issues influence the Black women who use drugs and alcohol. One possible solution may be the spiritual treatment and establishment of religious relationships because this method already manifested itself as one of the most effective ways to overcome various addictions, including substance abuse.

References

Allen, A. M., Wang, Y., Chae, D. H., Price, M. M., Powell, W., Steed, T. C.,… Woods‐Giscombe, C. L. (2019). Racial discrimination, the superwoman schema, and allostatic load: exploring an integrative stress‐coping model among African American women. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1457(1), 104–127. Web.

Blakey, J. M. (2016). The Role of Spirituality in Helping African American Women with Histories of Trauma and Substance Abuse Heal and Recover. Social Work & Christianity Journal of the North American Association of Christians in Social Work, 43(1), 1–5.

Blount, T. N., LaGuardia, A. C., & Fitzpatrick, D. C. (2021). African American Women’s Substance Use Recovery Experiences: A Phenomenological Inquiry. Counseling and Values, 66(1), 92–110. Web.

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