From the self-reflection of the daily diary, the main emotions I experienced during those weeks are exhaustion and anxiety. From my tallying, exhaustion had a score of 36% while anxiety had a score of 25% for the entire semester. As such, the most dominant emotion was exhaustion that recurred for the highest number of days in the semester. In further analysis, a pattern can be established from the diary entries regarding the emotions. From the data, I was anxious during the morning due to the pending assignments and tasks. On the other hand, exhaustion occurred at night after the entire day’s work and from pushing the limits to achieve the day’s objective.
From the ratings, I have compiled averages for the intensity of the prominent emotions. For all the times I was tired and exhausted, the emotion was intense, averaging 7.9. On the other hand, when I was anxious, it was never quite intense, averaging 6.5. Regarding opposing emotions, when I was happy, it was significantly intense with an average of 7.6 whereas when I was sad, it was less intense, averaging 5.6. From the outlook of the emotional fluctuations, it is clear that exhaustion was due to class assignments. Other emotions such as happiness and sadness fluctuated with the turn of events along the course of the day. For instance, engagement in fights resulted in sadness while enjoying moments with friends and family resulted in happiness. On the side of disappointment, the fluctuation was due to failure to accomplish certain goals while excitement manifested in anticipation of attaining a day’s objective. On its part, anxiety fluctuated with the daily expectations or the events occurring. The environment played a major role in the presentation of loneliness where missing my close friends and family resulted in the manifestation of the emotion.
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Throughout the semester, I experienced varied emotions that came with varying situations. I think that I coped with the negative emotions such as sadness, loneliness and frustration by modifying the situation through positive thoughts. For those emotions that were beneficial in the situation such as excitement, I never regulated them. To some extent, I did not regulate the emotion of anger as I engaged in arguments and fights. Nevertheless, for the entire semester, I had much emotional stability and never lost control over the various situations. Progressively, I hope to make even more adjustments in coping with the stressful environment of learning.
In designing a hypothetical study, I came up with the research question that could be examined and tested. The research question is “Do negative emotions lead to drug abuse among people in a stressful environment?” My hypothesis is that in a stressful environment, people tend to look for various ways of overcoming negative emotions and as a result, they end up in drug abuse to feel better. Towards researching this hypothesis, the best approach could be the use of a survey to establish the correlation between negative emotions and drug abuse. The participants could be engaged in a survey on the various ways of coping with negative emotions in a stressful environment to lay out the various coping mechanisms. Another study could be conducted to establish the frequency of drug use in coping with negative emotions to show the correlation between drug abuse and coping with negative emotions. If the two aspects have a positive correlation, that is, the more they feel stressed and experience negative emotions, the more they engage in drug abuse, the hypothesis could be confirmed.
From various models and theories on drug abuse, stress and other negative emotions act as significant influences in enhancing drug abuse. The association has also been established through various clinical observations, epidemiological studies and data from surveys. Nevertheless, despite various studies pointing out that stress and negative emotions heighten the self-administration of drugs, Sinha, 2005 asserts that little evidence exists on human studies looking into the various roles played by negative emotions in enhancing the behavior. From his study, Sinha, 2005 found out that the susceptibility to drug abuse has a strong association with negative emotions and stress. In my study, the objective is to add to the body of knowledge on stress and negative emotions in perpetuating drug abuse.
In literature review, I established numerous facts relating to negative emotions and drug abuse. From one of the studies, I established that in a stressful environment, negative emotions are likely to manifests including fear, anger, loneliness and sadness ( Sinha, 2005) . These emotional responses rest on on the particular aspects of the state of affairs, and the available mechanisms for coping with the situation. Moreover, the preceding emotional state of the person determines the emotional manifestation of such stressful situations. In the face of threat, danger, or other unfavorable circumstances, people are motivated to develop various mechanisms of coping to reduce the stress levels ( Carver & Scheier, 1999) .
As such, the approach to handling the negative situation can take three dimensions. The first dimension is the problem-focused dimension and entails a combination of behavioral and cognitive strategies. For instance, behavioral mechanisms involve deliberate actions aiming at making alterations to the cause of stress. Alternatively, the person could make behavioral alterations pertaining their relationship to the cause of stress. On the other hand, cognitive mechanisms entail making plans in preparation for such an event in the future or restructuring their approach to such situations. The second dimension is the emotion-focused coping. In this dimension, people are concerned with managing the negative emotions that arise from encountering the stressing circumstances and are not concerned with the source of stress. In the third dimension, people use the avoidance coping which entails failing to acknowledge the stressful situation coupled with letting go of any effort towards addressing the stressing factor.
From such facts, individuals with poor coping resources are at increased risk for problematic use of addictive substances ( Carver & Scheier, 1999) . The widespread hypotheses on reduction of tension and drug abuse suggest that people engage in drug abuse to improve their mood and lessen emotional anguish. Further, Sinha, 2001 mentions that the various models of analyzing the mechanisms used to enhance mood point out that drug abuse is abundant in progressively stressful environments. At the beginning, a drug may well be used to control tension or reduce stress. Afterwards, with recurring success, it possibly becomes a more abundant response for relieving stress and enhancing one’s mood. Evidence from preclinical findings by Witkiewitz & Bowen,2010 suggest that stress and other negative emotions lead to changes in the reward circuits in the brain causing a superior sensitivity to the stimulating features of drugs, and in that way lead to an increase in the drive to engage in drug abuse. Research involving animal experiments submit that particular forms of experiences that are stressful in the early stages of life can escalate an individual’s vulnerability to abuse of drugs and substances ( Shaham & Stewart, 2000) .
In conclusion, from my diary entries for four weeks, I have gained significant insights on studies of emotions. This experience enabled me to form a hypothetical research with the research question, “Do negative emotions lead to drug abuse among people in a stressful environment?” My hypothesis is that in a stressful environment, people tend to look for various ways of overcoming negative emotions and end up in drug abuse to feel better. Towards researching this hypothesis, I could use surveys to establish the correlation between negative emotions and drug abuse.
References
Carver, C. S., & Scheier, M. F. (1999). Stress, coping, and self-regulatory processes .
Shaham, Y., Erb, S., & Stewart, J. (2000). Stress-induced relapse to heroin and cocaine seeking in rats: a review. Brain Research Reviews , 33(1), 13-33.
Sinha, R. (2001). How does stress increase risk of drug abuse and relapse?. Psychopharmacology , 158(4).
Sinha, R. (2005). Stress and drug abuse. Techniques in the Behavioral and Neural Sciences , 15, 333-356.
Witkiewitz, K., & Bowen, S. (2010). Depression, craving, and substance use following a randomized trial of mindfulness-based relapse prevention. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 78(3), 362.
