Addictive Behaviors

Abstract

Addictive behaviors have the potential to disrupt the life of the individual who possesses the addiction; however, these behaviors also tend to produce a negative and cascading effect on everyone who may come into contact with the individual. More specifically, not only does an addiction produce misery for the addicted, it also creates misery for those who care for the individual, those who depend on the individual, and those who may be victims of the addicted individual’s impaired judgment and behavior. As the foregoing suggests, addictive behaviors constitute a serious issue in mental health. For many addicts, their problems are chronic and complex; therefore, they have been long standing enough to produce a variety of related problems in a variety of contexts. By offering addicts treatment instead of jail, Drug Court was a conscious response by frustrated judges who were overwhelmed by the results of the ‘80s cocaine boom and felt that they were processing cases for the same drug-addicted criminals, again and again. (Yeung, 2008, p. 62).