Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence: Comprehensive Discussion

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Outline

This paper takes a comprehensive discussion on the topic of substance abuse and domestic violence, how they are related and proposed remedies. It begins by taking on the background of the two problems with a keen emphasis on the corresponding characteristics particularly for substance abusers and how they cause domestic violence.

Introduction

Substance abuse refers to the misuse of a drug or any other chemical resulting in its dependence, leading to harmful mental and physical effects to the individual and the wellbeing of the society (Berry, 1998). The drugs or substance being abused may either be legal or illegal but their abusers keep pursuing a different state of mind. Dependence to the drug leads to addiction that essentially involves a craving to continue abusing the drug despite its negative consequences. Substance abuse may occur without dependence, especially at the onset as an individual gets hooked on the drug (Berry, 1998). Dependence involves physiological processes that engage body systems to accommodate the drug resulting in withdrawal symptoms. This takes sometime and may include behavioral changes as well, but substance abuse is a reflection of how the individual, the substance and society interact to sustain the habit.

An individual hooked on substance abuse will most likely fail to accomplish social responsibilities in the family, at school and also at work. Domestic violence at home may involve battering between couples and lead to neglect of both matrimonial and parental responsibilities including abandonment of children. Abusers performance at school gets progressively diminished due to lack of concentration resulting from hangovers or the effects of the substances abused. Children born out of homes experiencing domestic violence ostensibly arising from substance abuse may adopt violent traits to deal with the problem including predisposition to taking up the habit altogether (Nicholls, 2007). Employees who abuse drugs neglect their duties and constantly not motivated leading to chronic absenteeism, boredom and rebellion. This could be attributed to the physiological consequences of the abused substances. These in the end affect their families financially and even morally as peace does not prevail and basic needs cannot be met.

Substance abuse is usually characterized by the following; development of tolerance where an individual requires a continuous increase in dosage in order to have the same feeling (Winkel, 2007). There is also the withdrawal process that entails the procedure to withdraw from the substance often by taking another drug to suppress the withdrawal symptoms. In addition, the prolonged usage of the drug in excessive amounts occurs which actually defines addiction. A recurrent relapse to the habit of abusing the substance is a regular phenomenon to the addict who could be just trying to relieve the painful withdrawal symptoms. The tendency to continue abusing the drug even in higher doses despite experiencing adverse physical and psychological consequences is the ultimate state of desperation to the abuser (Winkel, 2007). This is basically the hallmark of substance abuse which ultimately yields to chemical dependence, a form of preoccupation and obsession to the drug.

Finally, there is family involvement with abusers lacking control over their behavior such as anger, frequently resulting in outbursts. Domestic violence can be defined as the physical, mental, emotional, psychological or verbal abuse of a partner in an intimate relationship (Winkel, 2007). One of the couples tries to take charge of the partner using intimidation and force. Domestic violence and substance abuse are closely related. For instance, men who abuse alcohol in order to cope with frustrations, depression, fear, and stress may be found to abuse their wives particularly sexually. They cause stress to the family, isolate themselves, engage in sexual assaults and generally do not provide for the family since they need to finance the addiction. Wife battering and beating is also common but children can as well be abused in the process.

This eventually may be extended to other family members, friends and even neighbors. Domestic violence can also be done to men by their wives or girlfriends in some isolated cases.Gay and lesbian relationships are also not an exception (Berry, 1998). Generally, violence can occur even in sobriety but worsens in the case of acute intoxication and overindulgence in substance abuse. That notwithstanding, battering is a socially acquired behavior and may not be necessarily originating from substance abuse such as in alcohol abuse. Alcoholics essentially use alcohol as an excuse when domestic violence occurs which is a clear sign of irresponsibility since this often takes place when they are not heavily drunk (Berry, 1998). This could have been conceived beforehand supposedly to settle scores. This kind of violence can actually be done by sober guys including abusers before they get intoxicated. However, a battering incident that accompanies alcohol for instance may end up being severe in magnitude causing injuries due to the combined effects of the drug and emotive feelings of violence.

The interrelationship between the two social disorders compounds the problem and further complicates interventions to treat the addiction or prevent a relapse of each behavior. In both of conditions, the behavior recurs with almost no concern over their severe consequences (Nicholls, 2007). Domestic violence continues even though physical injuries may have been sustained, loss of self esteem, psychological trauma, intimidation and even emotional pain. Loss of control on anger also exists in domestic violence which also progresses without much provocation, but with increasing amounts of violence. The blame game continues with each partner shifting either way and even to the mood altering drugs.

Substance abuse therefore triggers domestic violence in many occasions, with the abuser being at the mercy of the drugs. However, immense pressure constantly coming from the close family members to overcome the habit develops feelings of worthlessness in the abuser, who in many occasions is overwhelmed by emotions such as anger resulting in physical confrontations. This eventually may provoke the abuser to continue taking the drugs somehow to obtain the peace of mind resulting in dependence. If domestic violence existed before a spouse took on substance abuse, then the addiction that follows will even propel the crisis to chronic levels that may ultimately cause death (Nicholls, 2007).

As a long-term remedy to the two problems, counseling must be done to the couple with a one sided approach to the issues. Domestic violence should be handled independently of substance abuse even if the two occur simultaneously within the same family in order to interrogate the underlying factors in each case. In the event that the two problems have similar backgrounds, then couples can be counseled from a common perspective. For instance, if an alcoholic husband became violent after losing his job, then the alcohol could not be main factor leading to the violence but the unemployment which may have resulted in low self esteem. What preceded the other between the two problems is key in the overall approach to solve both of them. Substance abuse in many cases is the precursor to domestic violence which must be avoided.

Reference List

Berry D. B. (1998). Domestic violence, Lowell House.
Nicholls L. T, Hamel J. (2007). Family interventions in domestic violence: a handbook of Gender-inclusive theory and treatment, Springer Publishing Company.
Winkel F. W, Bakdry C. A. (2007). Intimate Partner Violence Prevention and Intervention: The Risk Assessment and Management, Nova Publishers.

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Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence: Comprehensive Discussion

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