D.A.A.P.E. Drug and Alcohol Addiction Prevention Education

L. Austin Dr. C.

Description

Working as the attending physician at the Home of Grace, a Christian rehabilitation center for addicts in Mississippi, Dr. C. L. Austin saw the devastating effects that addiction had on his patients there every day. Now he is on a mission to show young people the devastating effects of alcohol and drug addiction. His means of getting his message across to them is explained in detail in this new guide. To accomplish his goal, he developed a project called the DAAPE Mobile, a mobile art exhibit in a converted school bus that fully illustrates the devastating effects that addiction has on a persons appearance in shocking detail. Dr. Austin takes us through the process of developing the program and then bringing it to fruition with the help of many talented people, some of whom were volunteers from the Home of Grace. Fully operational in 2005, it was first viewed in 2006 by students in the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi, delayed due to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. It is Dr. Austins hope that Drug and Alcohol Addiction Prevention Education will open the eyes of teenage boys and girls to the ugly truth about becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol. Prevention is the best treatment, and education is the answer.

Sujets

• Reference work

Informations

• Publié par: Inspiring Voices
• Date de parution: 16 juillet 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781462402588
• Langue: English

Extrait

Drug and Alcohol Addiction Prevention Education
 
 
Dr. C. L. Austin

 
Copyright © 2012 Dr. C. L. Austin
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
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ISBN: 978-1-4624-0189-5 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-0258-8 (ebk)
 
Inspiring Voices rev. date: 7/10/2012
 
 

CONTENTS
Foreword  
Origin and Purpose of the D.A.A.P.E Mobile  
The battle against addiction  
Addicts are slaves  
Addicts are slaves unless  
No wall surrounds us  
Faces are mirrors  
Happiness is  
The anchor holds  
First no harm  
 
Foreword  
The blatant audacity of my ego to think that my life experiences are worthy of recording in a book for posterity to read makes me blush and then peep between the fingers of my upraised and in protest.
The 92 years of my life had indeed been eventful and covered the time that we changed from an agrarian society to one of sophisticated electrically transmitted messages, images and businesses dominated by computers and personal electronics. Perhaps through my years largely devoted to seeking the truth from the milieu that surrounded me, whether that be the bacterium causing my patient’s illness and the medication to overcome the same or the malfunctioning organ of his or her body that required surgical removal for recovery, it occurred.
The possibility that the reader may be aware of the terrible negative effects of addiction to drugs and alcohol sheds a gleam of approval to my efforts. Indeed if the reader already suffers the burden of addiction, let him or her search for the words of encouragement Brother Bill left with the Home of Grace that, “All things are possible with God.”
The main message of Drug and Alcohol Addiction Prevention Education is contained in the posters and paintings that illustrate the destructive effects to the mind and body of the addict. A fun activity that the individual explores for pleasure if pursued can become an addiction to the effects of chemical substance. Most addicts will say that he or she was not aware that one could be addicted to drugs or alcohol. Many, however, became addicts during medically prescribed addictive drugs under treatment for a painful injury or illness. The painful price the addict subsequently undergoes of selfish egocentricity and negative social behavior along with the denial of substance dependence becomes a lifestyle of misery.
Hopefully the reader will grasp the intended messages meant to be conveyed. The short intervals of mindless escape from reality afforded by addictive drugs and alcohol followed by grim realization of improper behavior and problems occasioned thereby can produce guilt feelings that are difficult to overcome. The human brain guides our thoughts and body actions best when it is not befuddled by the toxic effects of addictive drugs or alcohol. The additional writings are personal adventures and observations of a doctor’s notebook.
 
Origin and Purpose of the D.A.A.P.E Mobile  
By Dr. C.L. Austin
 
 
 
D.A.A.P.E initials stand for Drug and Alcohol Addiction Prevention Education. These large letters boldly proclaim, in shouting letters on a pristine white bus, the purpose of the contents of the vehicle. Those who enter the bus and hold on to the handrail that extends in a circle around the paintings and posters exhibited under strong floodlights on both sides of a center partition will get the message.
Exhibited are nine posters that portray in vivid color the terrible physical effects of addiction to individual drugs such as cocaine, crack, heroin and crystal meth as well as alcohol. After each poster, paintings by a local artist show in colorful detail the degrading degenerative effects addiction can have upon the human body and lifestyle. The desired effect upon the viewer is hopefully one of total revulsion and automatic rejection of the idea that such a miserable event could ever happen to the viewer. The psychological goal is termed aversion conditioning to the subject illustrated by the posters and paintings.
The age group in question, to display the portable unit of the D.A.A.P.E. Mobile, consist mainly of boys and girls in the twelve to twenty years of age group. Though addiction to drugs and alcohol to persons of any age group, the twelve to twenty groups are undergoing their initial exposure to the subject and may well be swayed to be negative to the idea of addiction prior to more than casual exposure thereto.
My motivation to originate the D.A.A.P.E Mobile occurred from repeated testimonies by addicts to drugs and alcohol who were interviewed upon entering the three months treatment program at the Christian Rehabilitation Center of the Home of Grace. As a volunteer physician at the Home of Grace, my role included obtaining a medical history of the onset of each person’s addiction. Almost invariably the addict would indicate that their earliest exposure to addictive marijuana and beer occurred at about the year they were in the seventh or eighth grade. Some variation in age occurred dependent upon the lifestyle of family origin. Addiction to harmful substances has no regard for intellect. Save for the fact that cognitive excellence can assist the motivated individual to rationalize his defense against addiction more efficiently.
Unfortunately, a family history of addiction of a parent, grandparent or older relative can cast an ominous shadow threatening to the boy or girl exposed to addictive substances. Evidence seems to point to the possibility of an inherited gene or other biologically transmitted factor that could make the subject more susceptible to the threat of addiction.
The repeated stories of these young addicts, some less than twenty five years of age, doomed to a lifetime of addiction so impressed me that I felt impelled to seek an answer to the problem. At least society should make available to the impressionable young mind some alert to the horror of addiction that could destroy their minds and body. And thus the concept of the Drug and Alcohol Addiction Prevention Education Mobile originated. If I could create some graphic means to expose to the eyes of teenage boys and girls the end results of becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol, my dedication to preventive medicine would be achieved.
Innovation is not for the faint of heart. However, the choice of method and material is unlimited because it has never been done before. My concept at first was much bigger than my budget. I priced a forty-foot motor home and abandoned that possibility as not available. A large trailered mobile home was my next choice but was quickly nullified because the lack of mobility to take easily to schools and churches for display. Ultimately, my penchant for economy settled on a used forty foot yellow school bus as something I surely could afford. I tried to rationalize my cheap choice as something that would be familiar to the targeted age group and might therefore be more acceptable. My scotch ancestors would have been pleased. Innovation requires constant attendance of the originator to the project at hand.
I obtained nine large posters illustrating the effects of drugs and alcohol. To enhance the viewer impact, of the poster, I elected to obtain paintings from local art associations to signify the ill effects of each addiction upon the victim.
Can you imagine the shock to the sensitivities of an artist who wants to paint the successor to Mona Lisa when I asked him or her to paint an ugly addictive human being? Early on I adjudged the project impossible. Nevertheless, I underwent the cold stares and sharp tongues of some lovely artistic partisans. Even when I offered to pay one hundred dollars for each acceptable painting or to obtain tax credit from the Home of Grace for income tax, I was viewed as hardly acceptable. Finally I was blessed by several outstanding artists understanding my purpose with the D.A.A.P.E Mobile. I collected the paintings one by one over a period of about a year and am still grateful to some lovely individuals for their artwork. I hope that they view the D.A.A.P.E Mobile as part of their creation toward the welfare of our youth.