Personal Narrative: My Experience In Drug Court

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Pages: 5

The experience I had this week was very interesting. We started the day with the staff meeting which seemed long, but it was also interesting listening to the conversations that the different members had about the people in the program. It was interesting to hear what they said before actual drug court and compare that to what Judge Tupper said during drug court in front of the participants. After the staff meeting was done and we moved to actual drug court, I had no idea what to expect. I have never been in court before so it was very interesting to me to watch everything come together. The drug court part of the day was very interesting to me, and it made the time fly by. Listening to the different participants and their struggles were …show more content…
I thought it was crazy how many people missed the drug test on President’s Day and how they reacted to having to go to jail. It was difficult for me to listen to one lady plead to go see her father who was on his deathbed. Judge Tupper handled it very professionally. If I were in his shoes, I would have had a difficult time not playing favorites, and I would have had a hard decision whether or not to grant her permission to go to her father. I thought the graduation portion of drug court was also very sad but in a much different way. Listening to the first lady’s speech was gut-wrenching to me because it makes me think what my life would have been like if my mother abused drugs and were in her place. However, I thought it was awesome that she had worked so hard during the program to repair her relationship with her daughters. After getting back home after clinical and getting to think more about what I had witnessed, I realized that I am very fortunate to be able to go into that setting and observe drug court. It has allowed me to gain a better understanding of people with addictions so I can better care for them now and down the road …show more content…
Some people are scared of those with mental illnesses and some do not think they have are actual illnesses. I remember reading somewhere that people view mental illnesses and addiction differently. Some of these people believe addiction could have been prevented and that mental illnesses occur without doing anything. They do not believe that mental illnesses encompass addiction. The two of them really go hand in hand. They have a very negative view of those with mental illnesses, especially those that have addictions. Society has derogatory names for those that struggle with mental illness, including “druggie”, “pot-head”, “schizo”, etc. Because I know that addicts are real people and that they have a mental illness, I can educate those that do not know those things so they can better understand and support that population. I feel like not understanding the population is a huge factor in the negative stigma that goes along with mental illnesses. This causes people with mental illnesses to not get help or realize that they have a problem before it puts the safety of others at risk. Because the public has such a negative view of mental illnesses, it affects relationships of people with addictions. Families, friends, and even their work are affected by their addiction which leads to them using drugs or alcohol to make everything better, which in turn fuels their addiction. They have no outlet