Alexander England

 One tends to find that when looking into a subject as damaging as addiction there are things that take one by surprise. It changes a person, no matter how focused on the research or ready to write they are it will alter the idea of not only the paper but the person. That is precisely what will be discussed in this writing project. How primary research is not only conducted and concluded but how it changes how a writer thinks about their given subject. Specifically, the CRQ that was proposed for this project was “What caused addiction during the pandemic and how can society prevent it.” After the primary research was done, of course, that being multiple interviews, the CRQ changed. It became “What factors contributed to the increase of addiction rates in the pandemic, and how can it be prevented.” The primary research discussed in this paper will be two interviews. Both interviewees are anonymous as the discussion of addiction is a sensitive topic and they requested their names remain confidential. The first interview was with a member of the Arizona Addiction Treatment Center who discussed the increase in addiction rates and how the center has adapted to the pandemic. The second was with a recent former addict themselves. It is notable that this person was not a patient at the Arizona Addiction Treatment Center, and got clean on their own.

The first thing that must be discussed is simply how the primary research was decided upon and what was done to create it. Interestingly enough a survey was created for this project but after consideration of how valid and useful the data would be it was decided that interviewing would produce more first-hand experience that would seem more fit. An audience is more likely to resonate with an interview of first-hand accounts than a survey of anonymous people who may or may not be answering honestly. This being said, who was to be interviewed was an interesting process. The easiest one was a call to the Arizona Addiction Treatment Center where all the questions that will be discussed in more detail later were answered. However, an interview with a former addict was more challenging. Luckily enough the fortune and favor with a friend who had recently got clean were able to help. The relationship between the interviewer and the interviewee was personal, which produced the most honest and clear responses during the interview process. Each person was asked a series of questions about addiction and the pandemic, their responses were written down as each question was answered.

Now that how these interviews were conducted is clear it's time to understand the content of the interviews themselves. Each interview will be shortened for clarity, however, all data relevant to the subject of the project will be presented. The first interview was with the Arizona Addiction Treatment Center. The first question was “how has your operation during the pandemic changed.” They said that “Like anything during the pandemic is adapted, the health and safety of our patients has and always will be our top priority.” The next question was what has happened to the addiction recovery programs over the past year, to which the person replied “There have been alarming increases in Arizona, especially with opioid addictions and overdoses. Our efforts are on recovery and rehabilitation, but there is a serious problem here that is being missed.” The follow-up question was what was that problem? They discussed essentially that the imbalance of stress and uncertainty in people's lives in the pandemic has caused grave concern among healthcare professionals as people resort to “quick fixes” to solve their issues. Another notable thing to add was that the person also talked about how some people who used drugs before the pandemic lost their dealers when COVID-19 hit, thus they resorted to other means that lead to addiction. Notably, drug use and addiction are two very different concepts. For example, a drug user that has a consistent dealer might not be addicted. However, when that is changed, another dealer might have more quantity of the drug than the user can take. Thus, addiction and overdose become more of an issue.

The second interview was shorter, as the interviewee got emotional and the interviewer decided that they had enough information and didn't want to make the interviewee uncomfortable. Instead of a Q and A type of interview the former addict that was being interviewed was asked to tell his story, and how the pandemic affected their drug use. The response was well put, and interesting. They talked of how they got into drugs to “try it” and that it became more of a habit after the pandemic hit. They emphasized that the feeling of getting high was far more appealing than dealing with the hardships of the pandemic. That when they look back on what they did and what those around them did they were not all too surprised. They said, “People will always do something to make them feel better now than face the pain and feel better later.” It is safe to say that many people during the pandemic have gone through a tremendous amount of pain, and coping with that pain is not always easy.

After all this what does it mean, and how do these two interviews relate? The interviews paint a picture of desperation. That the pandemic has caused people to be backed into corners they don't know how to get out of. That resorting to drugs has become a band-aid solution to a large deep-cut problem. Centers like the Arizona Addiction Treatment Center have the means to treat people if they are given a chance, and they can turn broken lives into reborn ones. These results from the interviews are important because they give perspective on a problem that to some is a mystery to be solved. This primary research serves to help understand a problem that goes unnoticed and untreated at times. It helps to gain a better understanding of what is in the minds of those who experience this problem first hand, and it betters this project because of it.