Requiem for a Dream: The Life of Drug Addicts

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discrimination Actions in the Movie
Ethical issues during the treatment of Harry and his Friends
Recommendations
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

Heroin being highly addictive, can lead to physical and psychological dependence. Therefore, heroin addiction is characterized by compulsive drug use, which can last for long periods despite the presence of harmful side effects.

Consequently, heroin addiction has both psychological and social implications on the users (Eisch & Harburg, 2006, p. 271). In the current case, Harry, the protagonist in the movie, ‘Requiem for a dream’, shows several psychosocial effects arising from his heroin addiction. First, because of his addiction, Harry joins criminal gangs selling heroin in the ‘black market’. Here, Harry and his friends live in a dreamland in which fulfilling their social responsibility is nothing but a dream revolving around earning more cash from the drug business to save their families (Watson & Parke, 2009, p. 1159).

As a result, Harry and his friends are ready to do anything that generates enough cash to buy drugs. Subsequently, Harry, his girlfriend, and his friend, Tyrone join criminal gangs involved in assassinating competitors in their drug market. Consequently, their business hits an all-time low forcing them to look for alternative means. The relationship between Harry and his girlfriend is adversely affected because of his decision to have her become a prostitute to generate enough cash for drugs (Darke & Hall, 2009, p. 189; Vlahov et al., 2002).

Moreover, when Harry’s friend is arrested for murder, most of the cash generated from their drug and prostitution businesses went into bailing him out. To begin a new life, Harry and his friend decided to move to another town oblivious of the consequences of violating the rules governing bails. Their lives change drastically after they are both arrested for a criminal offense.

Discrimination Actions in the Movie

Following the arrest of Harry and his friend, many discriminatory actions are notable in terms of the way the two convicts are treated. First, the two friends are not given the opportunity to seek better medical, psychiatric, and mental attention, which might have helped them in overcoming their addiction and undergoing normal drug withdrawal therapy. Instead, Harry’s friend is thrown into jail and left to recover from his drug addiction by himself.

On the other hand, Harry is taken to a prison hospital that lacks the necessary facilities or expertise, which could have considered the long-term implications of amputating Harry’s arm (Pang et al., 2004,). Instead of amputating Harry’s arm, the physicians should have considered any available alternatives.

Moreover, Harry and his friend discriminated against their female counterpart after their business fails because they decided to relocate from their hometown to another town and left her to fend for herself through prostitution. In addition, because of their desire to start a new drug business, they do not consider any possible consequences of leaving their friend in prostitution, an act that is discriminatory considering that she was in the business for the sole purpose of helping them to meet their drug needs (Antonilli et al., 2001, pp. 58-60).

Ethical issues during the treatment of Harry and his Friends

Many ethical issues are raised in the movie particularly after Harry and his friend are arrested. Considering that the two individuals are drug addicts, studies show that it is important for any person attending to drug addicts to consider both the motivations and the social changes that encourage these individuals to use drugs. Most of these issues are bound to recur in an addict’s day-to-day activities.

Here, the motivations and social changes that influence addiction are the childhood experiences, psychological changes, and other physiological factors in an individual’s life. Therefore, to achieve positive recovery from addiction, there is the need to end the cycle of motivations and social changes influencing addiction (Bell, 1999, p. 723). This factor is not considered in the treatment of Harry and his friend in prison.

Another ethical issue raised in the movie entails ethical decision-making in the prison healthcare industry. In most hospitals, a code of medical ethics is in place to govern the conduct of nurses and hospital management. Here, the protocols and policies in the code of medical ethics require that the interest of all stakeholders in the industry is considered during service delivery (Reed, 1997, p. 1420). For instance, before amputating the arm of a patient, it is ethical to seek his/her opinion or that of family members. Unfortunately, in the movie under review, this ethical provision is not considered because Harry’s arm was amputated without his consent.

Recommendations

From the discussions above, it is notable that several shortcomings are encountered as far as caring for Harry and his friends’ drug addiction is concerned. Therefore, there is a need to consider the most appropriate approaches towards caring for heroin addicts. First, before beginning medical interventions, it is important to encourage addicts to make rational decisions involving the importance of foregoing their addiction (Kalivas & Volkow, 2005). This marks the first step towards ensuring positive recovery. Decision-making by the addicts is achievable through the active participation of family members who can get the addict to see how his/her deteriorating life is affecting this individual and the family as a whole. Successful decision-making can aid an individual in joining a Rehab with a positive mindset.

Secondly, when an addict makes a rational decision, the caregivers are able to administer the most appropriate medical interventions that treat the addiction and to stabilize an individual’s emotional and mental abilities, which are necessary in the subsequent steps involving counseling interventions (Reed, 1997, p. 1435). In addition, this form of holistic healing entails ridding the patient of unnecessary physical discomfort and other opportunistic medical complications. Most studies note that holistic care-giving involves training, nutritional management, acupuncture, and therapeutic massage among other activities.

Lastly, the most important step in the process of recovering from addiction should involve individualized or group counseling. Here, an individual undertakes comprehensive rehabilitation and training sessions, which also include sharing life-time experiences with counselors and other group members. In so doing, one gets the opportunity to learn from colleagues besides obtaining different opinions on issues affecting his/her life from the perspective of counselors and group members (Khantzian, 2005, pp. 1259-1264). Overall, when a health institution or rehabilitation center achieves the afore-mentioned objectives, there is a high probability of achieving both the physical, mental, and emotional healing.

Conclusion

The essay presents an elaborate and descriptive review of the movie, ‘Requiem for a dream’, which entails the life of drug addicts struggling to survive through crime and selling drugs. Consequently, these characters face several psychological and social issues that completely change their lives. Finally, Harry, the protagonist in the movie, is arrested for violating the law governing bails.

In prison, several ethical issues are raised as discussed in the preceding discussions. These issues cause several shortcomings particularly during the hospitalization of Harry and his friend’s recovery from heroin addiction. Relative to these shortcomings, the essay recommends the most appropriate intervention mechanisms that can be employed in achieving positive results in providing care to the addicts.

Reference List

Antonilli, L., Petecchia, E., Caprioli, D., Badiani, A. & Nencini, P. (2001). Effects of repeated administration of heroin, naltrexone, methadone, and alcohol on morphine glucuronidation. Psychopharmacology, 10(1): 58-64.

Bell, D. (1999). Ethical issues in the prevention of suicide in prison. Victorian Institute of Forensic Mental Health, 33(5): 723-728.

Darke, S. & Hall, S. (2009). Heroin overdose: research and research-based intervention. Journal of Urban Health, 3(2): 189-200.

Eisch, A.J. & Harburg, G.C. (2006). Opiates, psychostimulants, and adult hippocampal neurogenesis: Insights for addiction and stem cell biology. Hippocampus, 16(3): 271–86.

Kalivas, P.W., & Volkow, N.D. (2005). The neural basis of addiction: A pathology of motivation and choice. Am J Psychiatry, 162(8): 1403–13.

Khantzian, E.J. (2005). The Self-medication hypothesis of addictive disorders: Focus on heroin and cocaine dependence. Am. L. Psychiatry, 142(3): 1259-1264.

Pang, P., Phoebe, L., Leung, W., Shui-shan, L. & Lin, H. (2004). A “Spatiotemporal Analysis of Heroin Addiction” System for Hong Kong. GIS for Health and the Environment, 5(1): 229-242.

Reed, J. (1997). The quality of health care in prison: results of a year’s programme of semistructured inspections. BMJ, 315(1): 1420-1435.

Vlahov, D., et al. (2002). Increased use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana among Manhattan, New York, residents after the September 11 terrorist attacks. American Journal of Epidemiology, 155(11): 988-996.

Watson, L. & Parke, A. (2009). Experience of recovery for female heroin addicts: An interpretative phenomenological analysis. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, 32(1): 1159-1164.

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