HLTH-1050

Alex Titus
Application Paper

Drugs, behavior and modern society is a part of our culture that I wasnt very familiar

with, and taking this class has helped change my perspective and understanding of a variety of

things. Understanding the subjects this class taught has helped me except and understand my past

much better than before while also preparing me for parts of my future. Understanding the way

certain drugs react in the human body and how it can change the mind permanently was

enlightening and interesting. I learned about an assortment of drugs and how they differ from one

another. I learned how they affect parts of society and ways to help prevent types of substance

abuse. So with these things, I want to explain part of my past and what changed my perspective

of it from taking this class. I want to express some of the main points I took form this class and I

want to talk about how knowing these things will change the outcome of my future.

First I want to start by explaining my history with drugs. My first life changing

experience I had with any drugs was when I was around 12 years old. I started noticing changes

happening with my mom and wasnt able to really grasp the concept of what was perspiring until

I felt threatened by it. My mom was an addict before giving birth to me and ended up turning

things around once I was born prematurely. She was doing great until she relapsed 12 years later

on pain and sleeping medication. She would clean peoples houses and steal their medication.

When I first was really effected by her using was one day when she was driving me home from

school. We were on the freeway and she started to pass out at the wheel and every time I tried to

wake her up she would end up yelling at me and told me everything was fine. I finally just
grabbed the wheel until we were close to our exit and then woke her up before we missed it. The

situation couldve been a lot worse if I wasnt paying attention to how weird she was acting. It

only went downhill from there. Long story short, even after all these years I had a lot of

resentment built up for the things she did, but once I took this class and really understood just

how much drugs can permanently alter someones brain, I now have a new perspective. Looking

at my past from this point I can understand what and why a lot of those things happened. I guess

you dont really consider some things until you look at them from a different angle.

Understanding why people react the way they do on certain drugs and how it changes there needs

and desires really helped me grasp the change of my mom from all those years ago and except it

in a whole new way.

Going forward with life after this class will be quite different than before. It was easy to

judge and disconnect form people with addictions and issues with drugs, but being able to see the

factual side of what is going on with these individuals will help me interact and potentially help

them better then I couldve before. My relationship with my mother has changed and will

continue to get better, especially being able to let go of a lot of the hurt of what she did because I

understand why she changed and wasnt the same as the mother that raised me. I will now be

able to interact with some of the friends Ive lost due to addiction and pursue ways to help them

out of their trials rather than turning my head the other way because I didnt quite understand

what was happening. This is not to say I have been a cold heartless person to these people in my

life, but I wasnt warm or as understanding as I couldve been. I also have a new respect for the

people in this industry that are making their life work to help these people out of the addiction

ways of life.
 Taking this class was a beneficial decision that Im happy I made. I wasnt sure what to

expect and am pleased with the change it has made on my viewpoint of this part of society. It

helped me appreciate and accept my past with a clearer more precise understanding of the

addiction side of society which has made me more aware of addiction and ways to help prevent

it. I now have a new respect for this kind of work with helping people out of these situations. I

will also take this knowledge for when Im ready to raise my own family and help my children

live a better life growing up then the one I experienced.