How are men affected by substance abuse?

Statistics

Men are more likely than women to abuse drugs and alcohol. This has been a stable finding throughout many decades of research. A study by the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) in 1997 showed that 8.5 percent of male participants admitted to using illicit substances, while only 4.5 percent of female participants responded similarly.

In that same survey, a higher number of men than women admitted to using cocaine and alcohol during a twelve-month period. Twenty-three percent of men surveyed said they regularly participated in binge drinking, while only 8 percent of women said the same. Finally, 8.7 percent of male and 2.1 percent of female participants admitted to frequent heavy drinking.

In 2010 the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) surveyed 67,500 people and discovered that previous findings received further support: 11.6 of male participants age twelve years and older said they had abused drugs or alcohol in the past year while only 5.9 percent of female participants said the same. The same survey found that in participants age twelve to seventeen years, a slightly higher percentage of females than males said they had become dependent on drugs or alcohol in the past year (7.7 percent to 6.9 percent). Analyzing responses from participants age eighteen years and older, however, produced findings that matched the history of all other surveys: 12.2 percent of men had identified themselves as dependent either on drugs or alcohol while only 5.8 percent of women had done the same.

Additionally, studies have shown that gay, bisexual, and transgender (GBT) men abuse drugs and alcohol more often than do heterosexual men and women. Also, GBT men are more likely to experiment with drugs and alcohol and are also more likely to continue using drugs and alcohol throughout their lives. Research has shown that this is often how GBT men respond to or cope with instances of homophobia, discrimination, or violence experienced because of their sexual orientation or gender expression.

Surveys also have found that men are more likely than women to start using drugs and alcohol earlier in their lives. Men also are more likely to continue using drugs and alcohol throughout their lives, often in larger doses than most women. The duration and frequency of use typically leads to the body’s ability to tolerate small dosages. This means that most men will increase the amount of drugs or alcohol they consume so they can experience a better high. This behavior often leads to substance abuse and addiction. Men are more likely than women to overdose from illicit drug use but women are more likely to die from an overdose of prescription medications, such as antidepressants.

Risk Factors

People abuse drugs and alcohol for a variety of reasons. Many of these reasons—stress at work, social pressures, and escape from traumatic memories of the past—are shared between genders.

Women who abuse drugs and alcohol have been found to do so if they are in a mentally, physically, or sexually abusive relationship. Women also are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol to calm anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and eating disorders. Women tend to develop addictions to drugs or alcohol after having sought comfort in their drug of choice; that is, they wish to numb their feelings and avoid the effects of these situations.

Men, however, appear to turn to drugs and alcohol after they have experienced an unfortunate event, typically one that has occurred at their own hands. Men may drink alcohol or use drugs to avoid the consequences of their own aggressive or violent behaviors, for example.

Men who drink frequently and in large amounts are at a higher risk of developing heart disease, various types of cancers, and other health problems, such as human immunodeficiency virus infection. The additional risks of abusing drugs or alcohol include developing depression or anxiety, contemplating or committing suicide, and forming an addiction to the drug of choice. Men with substance abuse problems also are more likely to participate in risky sexual behaviors, such as having unprotected sex with multiple partners. In this case, men may unintentionally impregnate women they do not know or they may become infected with a sexually transmitted disease.

Men and women both risk developing problems at work if they form an addiction to drugs or alcohol; their need to use the substance may become so strong that they arrive at work drunk or high or may simply not show up for shifts to become drunk or high instead. This lack of dependability also may affect their relationships with friends and family members, as the substance abuser may forget plans or neglect responsibilities to acquire or take drugs.

Men also risk becoming aggressive and violent when they abuse drugs and alcohol. Though medical professionals have not proven a direct causal relationship between the use of drugs and alcohol and domestic violence, studies have consistently shown that the two factors are directly related. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that 61 percent of domestic violence offenders have drug and alcohol abuse problems. The DOJ also found that 50 percent of all spousal murders were committed while the offender was intoxicated.

Scientists, criminologists, and medical professionals cannot say, however, whether becoming intoxicated leads men to physically, verbally, or sexually abuse their spouses or children—or if the relationship works the other way. For example, is it possible that most men who abuse drugs and alcohol do so to deal with the guilt they feel after they acted violently or abusively toward their family? One thing all medical professionals agree on, though, is that substance abuse is never an excuse for violence. Men who are violent, and those who witness such violence, should not attempt to blame their behavior on the substance in question.

Treatment

Treating drug and alcohol abuse is difficult, regardless of the patient’s gender. One of the most important tasks to complete while diagnosing a patient with a substance abuse problem or addiction is determining whether the abuse or addiction exists with another disease or disorder.

Many men who abuse drugs and alcohol may also have a conduct disorder or antisocial personality disorder. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is common in men who abuse cocaine. Although women have higher rates of anxiety and depressive disorders than men, both men and women are commonly diagnosed with depressive disorders when they also abuse drugs or alcohol.

In addition to diagnosing any personality disorders or mental illnesses that may be underlying causes or results of substance abuse, medical professionals also must determine whether the patient also needs treatment for aggressive behavior, domestic violence, or past cases of sexual, physical, or emotional abuse. When all underlying conditions are documented, medical professionals then decide how to best treat their patients. In an ideal world, one therapist or group would be able to address all the patient’s issues. However, this is often not the case. A man who is both a drug addict and a domestic violence offender most likely needs to attend one session to talk about his violent behavior with domestic violence counselors and another session to discuss his substance use with drug and alcohol counselors. He may also need to visit another location to be treated for withdrawal symptoms.

In 2010, the NSDUH reported that of the 23.1 million people in the United States who needed treatment for illicit drug or alcohol use, 20.5 million of those persons did not get help. A mere 1.7 percent of people who needed assistance were able to get it. Another 3.3 percent felt they needed help dealing with their substance abuse issues but did not take any action, citing reasons such as a lack of health insurance, transportation, time, and finances. The remaining 95 percent did not feel they had a problem that needed to be treated.

The majority of the 1.7 percent surveyed who received treatment in 2010 were men. Women are often uncomfortable seeking treatment or admitting they have a substance abuse problem. When seeking treatment, they often do not wish to share their most intimate details in a group of both men and women. For this reason, women often seek women-only support groups or female therapists if they wish to receive help for their condition.

Another reason that keeps women from seeking treatment is child care. Most men do not have this problem, as they are typically not the primary child-care providers in their household. If women cannot find a caretaker, they may have to skip meetings and appointments. Men, in general, do not have the same childcare responsibilities and thus have fewer barriers to attending therapy and doctors’ visits.

Bibliography

Brady, Kathleen T., and Carrie L. Randoll. “Gender Differences in Substance Use Disorders.” Addictive Disorders 22.2 (1999): 241–52. Print.

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. Substance Abuse Treatment and Domestic Violence. Rockville, MD: SAMHSA, 1997. Print.

McCabe, Sean, James Cranford, and Brady West. “Trends in Prescription Drug Abuse and Dependence, Co-Occurrence with Other Substance Use Disorders, and Treatment Utilization: Results from Two National Surveys.” Addictive Behaviors 33 (2008): 1297–1305. Print.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Assessing Alcohol Problems: A Guide for Clinicians and Researchers. 2nd ed. Washington: DHHS, 2003. Print.

Shelton, Michael. Gay Men and Substance Abuse: A Basic Guide for Addicts and Those Who Care for Them. Center City: Hazelden, 2011. Print.

US Department of Health and Human Services. Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings. 2011. Web. 23 Apr. 2012. http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k10Results/Web/HTML/2k10Results.htm#7.1.

In Eveline, what is Mr. Hill's reaction to the relationship between Frank and his daughter?

Mr. Hill is angry when he finds out about the relationship between Frank and his daughter, Eveline. He forbids Eveline to see Frank, and he warns her about 'sailor chaps.' Shortly after, Mr. Hill quarrels with Frank, which prompts the young lovers to meet each other in secret. In short, Mr. Hill's reaction to Frank is antagonistic and combative.

As the story continues, we discover that Eveline has been contemplating an elopement with Frank. The prospect of becoming Frank's wife and of finally becoming a respectable member of society is extremely attractive to Eveline. With her mother and brother (Ernest) deceased, Eveline looks forward to a new life away from her mercurial father. In earlier years, Eveline's brothers had borne the brunt of her father's violent abuse. Now, Eveline frequently finds herself in the cross-hairs of her father's explosive temper.

Knowing that her father distrusts and dislikes Frank, Eveline does not tell her father about her plans. Instead, she writes a letter to both her father and her brother, Harry. In the end, however, Eveline finds it difficult to leave the only home she has ever known.

are there any poetic devices in this poem e.g simile, metaphor and personification?

There are many poetic devices in Emily Dickinson's "A Bird come down the Walk-" including metaphor, simile, personification, and alliteration.

Metaphor is present in the third stanza.

He stirred his Velvet Head.

This is a metaphor because the narrator compares the bird's head to velvet without the use of "like" or "as." This emphasizes the texture of the bird's head and creates an idea of softness.

Simile is present in the third stanza.

He glanced with rapid eyes
That hurried all around-
They looked like frightened Beads, I thought-

This is a simile because the narrator compares the bird's eyes to beads. This is also personification because the beads are "frightened," and as we know, beads are inanimate objects and cannot be frightened.

Another simile extends through the fourth and fifth stanzas.

And he unrolled his feathers
And rowed him softer home

Than Oars divide the Ocean

That simile compares the feathers to oars dividing the ocean. We can then imagine the motion of the wings and the slickness of the feathers.

Alliteration is also present throughout the poem. Alliteration is the repetition of the beginning sound of a word. 

Too silver for a seam-
Or Butterflies, off Banks of Noon

This quote contains two different moments of alliteration - in the first line with the letter "s" and in the second line with the letter "b."

Hope this helps!

Why does Diana call the threading of the bobbin "The kiss of death" in Katherine Paterson's Lyddie?

There is an interesting bit of history regarding Diana's "kiss of death."  In Lyddie, Diana puts in a new bobbin of weft thread into the shuttle.  In order to feed the thread through the final part of the shuttle, Diana places her mouth on the end of the shuttle and sucks out the end of the weft thread with her breath.  Then she tells Lyddie that it's called the "kiss of death."  

It's called "the kiss of death" because many more textile mill workers were dying from a strange lung disease than those in other forms of work.  It wasn't until 1882 that Robert Koch successfully isolated the tuberculosis bacteria in the saliva of patients.  The connection to the textile mills was quickly made.  A single weaver with tuberculosis could contaminate many shuttles simply by placing his/her mouth on it in order to suck the weft thread through.  Then any other weaver that did the same thing to that shuttle would contract the tuberculosis bacteria.  At the time, tuberculosis was a death sentence.  Hence the name, "kiss of death."  

What plans does Holden make with Sally in The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger?

The only plans Holden makes with Sally Hayes are for him to come to her house and help her decorate her family's Christmas tree. When they are sitting at a table by the skating rink in Chapter 17, she says,

"Look. I have to know. Are you or aren't you coming over to help me trim the tree Christmas Eve? I have to know."

Holden replies,

"I wrote you I would. You've asked me that about twenty times. Sure, I am."

Then Holden comes up with a truly wild plan. He wants Sally to run away with him immediately. It is not too different from his fantasy about being a catcher in the rye.

"We'll stay in these cabin camps until the dough runs out. I could get a job somewhere, and we could live somewhere with a brook and all and, later on, we could get married or something."

Holden has assets in the bank of about $180. Sally would not for a moment consider such a wild suggestion. Holden himself realizes that he doesn't even like this girl, and he can't understand why he is saying what he says. holden and Sally end up quarreling, and it looks as if he won't even be coming to her house to help trim her Christmas tree. 

In Chapter 17, more than anywhere else, Holden vents his hatred and disgust with everything. Perhaps he knows Sally better than most of the other people he deals with in the book. They appear to have known each other for a long time and to have some sort of very fragile bond because they have done a lot of necking and have been on a number of dates. Despite the time she has spent with Holden, Sally is a million miles away from sympathizing with Holden's feelings about the world they live in. She is fairly content with things the way they are. She is far from being a rebel like Holden. She is truly admirable in the sensitive way she listens to him and handles his tantrum. She may be a phony, but she has some very good qualities, which Holden may appreciate on some unconscious level. It may be because he knows she cares for him a little that he confides in her and makes his wildly impractical proposal to run away together and get married on $180, especially when he is only sixteen and she is similar in age.

We can sympathize with Holden for wanting to break free, but we can also sympathize with Sally, who not only has more sense than Holden but also handles him so diplomatically. In the end, they have not really planned anything. It was his plan to go see Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne. It was her plan to go ice-skating at Radio City. It was his plan to run away together to Massachusetts or Vermont. Holden seems to get along better with Sally Hayes than he does with most of the characters in the book, yet they end up hating each other. Much of The Catcher in the Rye is about Holden's disappointing encounters with other people. The only person with whom he seems to relate successfully is with his little sister Phoebe. 

What is a quote from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird that depicts Atticus treating his children like adults while he teaches them a lesson?

In Chapter 23, Scout asks Atticus what will happen if Tom Robinson loses his appeal. Atticus tells Scout that Tom will go to the electric chair unless the Governor "commutes his sentence." Jem comments that it isn't right to sentence Tom to death, and Atticus tells him that rape is considered a capital offense in Alabama. When Jem mentions that the jury could have given Tom twenty years, Atticus explains that because Tom is black, it was either straight acquittal or nothing. Jem then says that he thinks rape shouldn't be a capital offense, and Atticus disagrees with him. Atticus tells his children that he doesn't have any "quarrel" with the rape statute, but does have deep misgivings about the state administering the death penalty based on purely circumstantial evidence. He looks at Scout, and reiterates his statement in simpler terms by saying, "before a man is sentenced to death for murder, say, there should be one or two eye-witnesses" (Lee 294). Atticus goes on to say that without an eye-witness there is always a doubt. Jem gets upset and comments that the state ought to do away with juries. Atticus responds by explaining that the men on the jury were typically reasonable men, but their prejudice would not allow them to be fair even if they tried. He goes on to say,

"you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it---whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash" (Lee 295).

This conversation that Atticus has with his children depicts how he speaks to them as adults by discussing serious subjects regarding the penalty for rape, the justice system and racial prejudice in a straightforward manner. He explains the intricacies of the judicial process with Jem and Scout, as well as how the jury's prejudice affected their decision. The children learn that the death sentence should not be granted based on circumstantial evidence alone and that individuals who treat African Americans unfairly are essentially immoral people.

What are 5 differences between pig and human kidneys?

Kidneys are part of the urinary system and are found in pairs located in the abdomens of mammals, birds and reptiles. These organs are responsible for removing metabolic, nitrogen-based wastes by filtering blood plasma. Nitrogenous wastes combine with other molecules and form toxic ammonia. The kidney metabolizes the ammonia to urea and then stores it in the bladder as urine.

Between some mammal species, the kidneys are quite similar. In pig kidneys, the renal size and collecting systems are remarkably similar to human kidneys. Because of the similarities, they are commonly used for human kidney studies and for use with human transplants, utilizing a technique known as "scaffolding."

Some differences between the pig and human kidneys include:

1. The distribution and size of the renal arterial segments are not similar to those in humans.

2. The veins on the dorsal surface of the renal pelvis are smaller than in human kidneys.

3. The length and/or thickness of ureters and urethra are not similar to those in humans.

4. The kidneys of pigs produce different proteins and hormones than human kidneys.

5. Pigs only have one renal papilla, a cone shaped projection of the medulla. Humans have many.

Although the pig kidney is physically and functionally different than the human kidney, it is similar enough for researchers. Pigs have been used for over 30 years in many medical fields, including cardiology, dermatology and more. Pig bladder tissue has even been used to re-grow human leg muscles!