Former Drug and Alcohol Addict Tells His Story

Alcohol and Drug Abuse in the Black Community

Last time, I discussed depression and its effects on the black community. This time my panel and I discuss how and why drug and alcohol abuse continues to be a major blight on the black community.

According to statistics by John Hopkins University School of Medicine:

African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives have higher death rates for cirrhosis of the liver relative to the total population.
Alcohol mortality rates are highest for African American men, even though alcohol use tends to be more moderate for African Americans than for whites or Hispanics.
African Americans are more likely to report using illegal drugs on a weekly basis than any other ethnic group.

But you don't need national statistics to know that drugs and alcohol are disproportionately present in black communities.

All you need to do is go to some of the low-end or discount liquor stores to see the disheveled and bruised alcoholics congregating outside before it opens.

Or take a walk in a poor black neighborhood, where the addicts are standing on the corner doing the heroine nod, while right across the street, female junkies are selling their bodies to support their drug habits.

There are many reasons why black men and women use drugs and why it continues to be a major problem in the black community. The top reasons are:

Poverty and Racism - The psychological pressure and stress from day-to-day poverty and racism results in depression, anxiety and rage. Drugs and alcohol offer an inappropriate self-medication of black pain.
Lack of Opportunities - Poverty and racism also offer fewer avenues for enlightenment, education, employment, success and achievement. Even worse, this lack of opportunity causes a frustration and anger that is soothed through drug abuse.
Economics - Yes, of course the pain of poverty will result in self-medication with drugs, but also the dealing of drugs is quite lucrative and requires no academic degree.
Abuse and Incest - Statistics show that an overwhelming number of incarcerated men and women have been subjected to some physical or emotional abuse as children. This abuse also contributes to chemical abuse or addictions.

In my own practice, I have discovered that nine out of 10 of my female patients started using drugs as a way to subdue the pain or even try to bury the memories of the horrible sexual abuse and incest they experienced at the hands of family members. Much of this abuse happened, by the way, when their fathers, cousins, uncles and so on were high on drugs or alcohol.

When you live in a family and community where chemical abuse is rampant and its use has been normalized by the sheer numbers of users, it becomes very easy to start or continue in one's addiction. In other words, you are just fitting in with the crowd.

Another point to know is that it is a scientific principle that alcoholism runs in families. This can happen through a passing down of genes or by watching parents who are alcoholics and or addicts act as poor role models. Thus, children in chemical-abusing families are more at risk of experimenting and later becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol.

Below and here one of my patients, Alonzo H., discuss what his life was like being addicted to alcohol and drugs:

Unfortunately, the impact of drug and alcohol addiction is twofold:

Physically, alcohol and drugs can ravage the body and result in poor health and hygiene, especially when the main consumption is illicit drugs and not food, as Alonzo experienced. In addition, sustained chemical addictions also result in risky sex practices, contaminated needles and instruments (i.e., straws for sniffing the drugs), which result in much higher incidences of cirrhosis of the liver, hepatitis B and C and, of course, HIV and AIDS.

Emotionally, as Alonzo also attested to, the addict begins to lead a disorganized and eventually a chaotic life, in which they spend all their time chasing that first high, usually through illegal means, such as boosting, selling drugs or even selling their own bodies. Quite often they become not just a menace to society but also menace their own families by constant stealing, for example.

Over the years, sustained use of the alcohol and drugs not only changes the brain chemistry, but also defines the addict's personality, experiences and struggles, resulting in deep psychological issues, mental illness and eventual insanity. Of course, the final result is usually jail, institutionalism or even death.

Here, Alonzo continues to discuss his experience and how he finally broke his addiction: