Substance Abuse and Domestic Violence: A Correlation

This essay discusses the correlation between substance abuse and domestic violence, the impact of substance abuse on the abusers and the victims, and the need for rehabilitation programs and psychological treatments to address the issue. The essay also highlights the symptoms of domestic abuse and the emotional upheavals experienced by the victims of substance abuse, as portrayed in the story 'Tongue' by Nick Labriola.

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Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESAY 1
Substance abuse includes the excessive intake of alcohol and drugs that leads to the
exhibition of addictive behaviour and elicits emotional upheaval in the abusers who practice
violence on their intimate partner in order to gain a dominating control in the relationship.
Substance abuse and domestic violence have been correlated in the form of response elicited
by virtue of an adverse effect. Statistical evidences show that 1 out of 4 women and 1 out of 7
men have been victims of acute substance abuse (Ellsberg et al.). Drug or alcohol abuse leads
to domestic violence as it is observed that tremendous amount of substance abuse elicits
tremendous fluctuations in the mood, resulting in the onset of emotions such as anger and
agony which the abusers tend to dissipate on their loved ones by inflicting pain through
domestic violence. Domestic violence is not restricted to targeting women only but it can also
be targeted to children and the elderly and any one in the family who is not capable of
offering a string resistance. Research studies reveal that in most of the developing nations, the
victims of drug abuse are primarily women. Domestic violence is extremely destructive and a
serious scenario and in order to address the same, rehabilitation programs and psychological
treatments are available which can help in reducing problems related to domestic violence.
Domestic violence is not restricted only to physical abuse but can also affect the
psychological or the emotional wellness of the family members staying in association with
the substance abuser.
Studies reveal that nearly 80% of the domestic crimes globally are caused primarily
due to substance abuse. However it is critical to note here that as is evident from the research
studies, substance abuse is mostly co-related with domestic violence but exhibiting a violent
behaviour is a matter of choice rather than being an outcome of over-abuse of drugs. It can be
admitted that abusing drugs or drinking excessively can elicit a negative reflection in the
behaviour of individuals but it has been seen that abusers often blame it entirely on the

Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESAY 2
addictive sub substance rather than associating it to be a negative influence of their
personality. Addiction is often related to exhibition of a loss of control in the behaviour rather
than gain of control over the intimate partner forcibly using violence as tool to attain a
position. Hence, it can be said, in light of the problem that substance abuse gives rise to
dangerous situations that can arise due to the destructive pattern of behaviour put up by the
abusers and blamed entirely on the uptake of alcohol and other substances of drug abuse.
Therefore, any scenario of domestic violence pertaining to alcohol or drug abuse must not be
tolerated in any form and the victims facing the ill-effect of the same, must raise their
concern and seek help for protection against the drastic effect and also place the abusers into
professional care in order to rehabilitate them.
In context of statistical evidences, it has been seen that one incidence of acute
domestic violence takes place in every 24 minutes in the United States of America (Ellsberg
et al.). The destructive behaviour exhibited by the abuser on the family members leads to
hampering the physical, emotional and mental health of the family members thereby,
exposing the family members to threats of developing post-traumatic stress disorder and
vulnerability to increased risks of developing cardiac arrest. The effect of substance-abuse
and domestic violence are far reaching, in terms of the children who witness the scenario of
regular violence in context of their father returning home drunk and beating up their mother
or them to vent out their stress and anger, leads to development of severe mental disturbance
in them in the form of poor academic performance, depression and even early death in some
scenarios. It also affects the upbringing and the development of the children and studies
reveal that on growing up, these children often become aggressive and are end up developing
an intolerable approach towards their peer group (Ellsberg et al.). Domestic violence does not
always involve physical abuse and can also involve emotional or mental abuse in the form of

Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESAY 3
sexual abuse, abusing with inappropriate words and economic abuse (Garcia et al.). It is
important to identify the initial symptoms in relation to domestic abuse which is not easily
detectable if there is a lack of physical violence. Scientific literatures associate certain traits
of the abusers with mental abuse inflicted by the drug abusers on the counterparts, such traits
include, tremendous jealousy, cruelty towards animal or children, deliberate isolation of the
partner from their loved ones and exercising an extreme controlling behaviour and being
extremely angry over little issues. The victims also display certain detectable symptoms that
verify the fact that they have been subjected to violence which includes, drastic changes in
their appearance, becoming socially aloof, dark bruises all over the body that signify being
tortured physically and readily accepting the blame for trivial conflicts in order to avoid a
scenario of conflict (Haynie et al.). Studies also reveal that 21% of the students globally have
been a victim of mental or physical violence during dating in their student life (Garcia et al.).
On an average both men and women survivors of the domestic violence prefer silence on the
issue of domestic abuse due to two important reasons, the first being their embarrassment and
the second fearing a nasty break-up with their partner and the pain of suffering a heart-break
(Stuart et al).
According to the story ‘Tongue’ by Nick Labriola, it can be said that the protagonist of the
story had been a victim of domestic abuse practiced by her loved one and had a hard time in
dealing with the emotional turmoil that had followed. She had tried her best to fight, rebel
protest and when nothing worked, escape from the destructive scenario in order to help
herself.
The story proceeds with the way she had described about her torturous boyfriend who
had inflicted immense physical and mental torture on her which is evident through the way
she describes her boyfriend in the very first paragraph ‘Caught……a bed’ (Labriola). She also

Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESAY 4
states that, ‘I made……………..inside my mouth’ (Labriola) which indicates how difficult it
was for her to escape. However, an enormous giant of a person whom she called tongue and
described as ‘his tongue ………..operatic reptile talk’ (Labriola) rescued her from her
boyfriend and arranged her stay with him. She is a victim of substance abuse and had resorted
to addiction in order to combat the pain inflicted by substance abuse. The story proceeds with
the protagonist finding out about the death of her father and her helplessness as she had not
been in touch with her family members for a long time and did not share an affectionate bond
with her family members. On top of that addiction and heart-break plays a major role in
making it all the more difficult to manage her existence. The story proceeds with her and
Tongue trying to reach the burial ceremony of her father and finding out where her mother
was and along with a lost mother.
There are various emotional upheavals experienced by the protagonist that portrays
the complications related to the constant uptake of addictive substance and the psychological
impact that it elicits on the victims experiencing the effect of it (Labriola). Hence, it is
important to identify the initial symptoms of addictive behaviour and seek treatment or if any
victim is seen to endure the ill-effect of addictive behaviour then, peers or neighbours
witnessing it must come and extend a hand of help in order to provide support to the victim.

Running head: ARGUMENTATIVE ESAY 5
References:
Ellsberg, Mary, et al. "Prevention of violence against women and girls: what does the
evidence say?." The Lancet 385.9977 (2015): 1555-1566.
García-Moreno, Claudia, et al. "Addressing violence against women: a call to action." The
Lancet 385.9978 (2015): 1685-1695.
García-Moreno, Claudia, et al. Global and regional estimates of violence against women:
prevalence and health effects of intimate partner violence and non-partner sexual violence.
World Health Organization, 2013.
Haynie, Denise L., et al. "Dating violence perpetration and victimization among US
adolescents: Prevalence, patterns, and associations with health complaints and substance
use." Journal of Adolescent Health 53.2 (2013): 194-201.
Labriola, N. (2015). Winnie's tongue. Toronto: Insomniac Press, pp.175-216.
Stuart, Gregory L., et al. "The temporal association between substance use and intimate
partner violence among women arrested for domestic violence." Journal of consulting and
clinical psychology 81.4 (2013): 681.