Cf u03a1 COUN5108 Impact of Addiction.docx Running head: IMPACT OF ADDICTIONS

cf u03a1 COUN5108 Impact of Addiction.docx  Running head: IMPACT OF ADDICTIONS                                                                         1  COUN5108  Unit 3 Assignment: Impact of Addiction  COUN5108 - Foundations of Addiction and Addictive Behavior.  Addiction is a brain disease. Addiction affects how the brain processes reward, motivation and memory. Addiction can alter these motivations and replace healthy coping skills or behaviors (The Meth Project, n.d.). The brain is altered so much that memory of positive rewards such as food and sex craves that addictive behavior again regardless of the consequences (The Meth Project, n.d.).  This paper will discuss theories that explain the causation of addiction while examining the neurological and biological impacts of addiction. It will examine socio-cultural issues impacting legal and social consequences of addicion. This paper will look at how age, ethnicity, gender and socioeconomic status may differ in addiction. Last, it will discuss how addiction impacts intimate and family relationships.  Throughout this paper, there will be links to opioid use, specifically heroin. Heroin is a highly addictive drug. Heroin use in 2016 was reported by 948,000 Americans (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018). The age group heavily affected was young adults between ages 18-25 (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2018). The rise in heroin use is due to a shift in misuse of prescription drugs becoming harder to get and heroin was a cheap alternative (National Institute on D