Substance abuse in Veterans Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Substance abuse in Veterans - Research Paper Example These drugs provide relief for a short lifespan. However, this can in turn bring a heavy aftermath after the lapse. Its effects include nightmares, addiction, anxiety, flashbacks, suicide, overdose, sleeplessness, depression, aggressiveness, loneliness and even in the worst scenario; death (Lewis, Dana & Blevins, 2011) Stress forms a greater influence than any other cause and it greatly hinders a person’s mentality. The soldiers especially those from Iraq and Afghanistan, tend to overuse opioids a lot as a way of relieving stress. Most of them don’t use it because of physical injury, but because they want to erase the painful memories of their lost ones in the army. Hence, they misuse these drugs to relieve dark memories. Some veterans also use excessive hard drugs as a supplement of the opiates in case they don’t manage to get one. One of the majorly abused illegal drugs was heroin. This was because of fear from war tensions .Heroin abuse was largely used by Vietnam veterans. Battles needed courage and bravery; and that is why a huge number of soldiers used these drugs to boost their confidence. Injured soldiers especially those with severe cases were prescribed powerful painkillers which provided pleasure in return. The most prescribed painkillers included hydrocodone, oxycodone and meperidine. These drugs were commonly abused by being injected or sniffed in the blood system by the patients. These painkillers provided a similar feeling like the heroin. Excessive opioids brought about addiction which made most of them captive. The patients later turned to the abuse of painkillers which served as alternative opioids, having been controlled by the Department of Veteran Affairs. Opioids also caused anxiety and sleeplessness. Flashbacks were also recorded by the veterans causing them to scream or cry when sleeping. The patients sometimes took huge amounts of the painkillers whether prescribed or not, and