More specifically what we call hard or soft drugs. Addiction is a prevalent problem in the United States, a large percentage of people suffer from addiction, which raises the question on how it is perceived in the social context. (McGinty et al., 2014) studied how drug usage affected the likelihood of others to interact with them in different scenarios. The results showed that individuals were less willing to have someone who was an untreated addict be a co-worker, neighbor, or associate than if they were a treated addict. (McGinty et al., 2014) believed that a large portion of this is caused by how the media portrays drug usage and that stigma would decrease towards addicts if more recovered ones were portrayed (McGinty et al., 2014). This stigma has a perceived effect to create more hardships for addicts in everyday life, such as negative interactions in work and home.
(Palamar et al.,2012) examined how stigma on various illicit drugs results in feelings of rejection and secrecy in drug users. (Palamar et al.,2012) found that there was a positive correlation between perceived public stigma and feelings of rejection and stigma. He suggested that public stigma towards drug use could be a roadblock in some addicts coming forward for help (Palamar et al. ,2012). Negative interactions in everyday life could reinforce severe public stigma, thus provoking more secrecy in use and less willingness …show more content…
Research shows successful treatment of addiction shows less stigmatization of that individual. In addition to reducing stigma, treatment improves public perception (McGinty et al., 2014). College students present the highest risk for becoming addicted to substances. While the stress of college and managing family life increases, so does the odds for using substances. The risk of becoming addicted to substances is also more prevalent. A majority of substances used in college include cocaine, lsd, marijuana and drinking alcohol. According to the national drug institute on drug abuse, because potential for abuse is at its highest, there needs to be increased resources available to combat this problem (Mackert et al.,