Substance abuse is a very widely known public epidemic in today's society. Many people are unfortunately plagued by this issue. According to Emedicinehealth.com (2012), “People abuse substances such as alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs for varied and complicated reasons, but it is clear that our society pays a significant cost,” (para. 1). People that are affected by substance abuse includes a very different range of people. Many that abuse the substances end up having health-related problems which in turn increases the need for health care. Other people that are affected by substance abuse are the family members and friends of the abusers because they have to deal with the person abusing the substances. Things that can be abused are …show more content…

Since many soldiers are both male and female, substance abuse can affect both genders. Just on alcoholism alone, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that, “Women are more likely than men to face multiple barriers to accessing substance abuse treatment and are less likely to seek treatment,” (Green, n.d.). Unfortunately, this is very true. Women are less likely and men are usually forced to seek treatment over women, especially in the United States Army. Developmental issues that can affect someone having substance abuse problems are ones that live in one parent households growing up, or having parents with substance abuse problems. This is usually because of lack of supervision of a child growing up or the parent using substances with the child. There are many other factors that can affect a person and make them turn to substance abuse like peer pressure, past experiences that traumatized a person, and perhaps a personal loss. Just like every person's (military or not) health-related behavior from substance abusers tend to be the same. Substance abusers usually stay away from people that they know and only talk to people that they get drugs or alcohol from. It is unfortunate that it is like this, but the substance abuser knows that what they are doing is not good,