Summary Of Erikson's Eight Stages Of Development

Alcohol, opioids, and other substances use, misuse, and abuse are a growing epidemic within the United States of America and have become a major theme of discussion and research. Rising death rates, increased illicit drug use, overdosing, substance abuse disorders, divorce, children being neglected and/or introduced from an early age to substance use, homelessness, and unemployment are some direct results of substance abuse. Nic’s story is very intriguing, exciting, sad, moving, powerful, frustrating and powerful. Nic first drank alcohol at the age of eleven (11) and felt like he could not stop himself from drinking until the bottle was empty. He then started using mushrooms, marijuana, and this escalated to use of other substances such as
He believed that there are eight critical developmental issues during life and each issue becomes the central focus of attention at a specific period. He highlighted the complexity of the individual while they moved through the stages and posits that each stage involves conflict between an adaptive and maladaptive approach. Each conflict may or may not be successfully resolved at that stage. His eight stages of psychosocial development are, trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority and identity versus role confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation and ego integrity versus despair. Industry versus inferiority, 5 – 12years is the fourth stage where children start to take initiative, develop peer relationships, and show skills valued by the public and develop a sense of pride. Nic was five years old when his parents divorced. Nic always wanted to make everyone happy. Nic had more of a friend relationship with his dad and his dad often time exposed him to adult material and topics. Nic was often left unsupervised and was able to explore with a number of substances consequently. Nic did not express the pain and fear he felt from his parent’s separation and Nic also struggled with being rejected by others and instead focus on trying to make everyone around him
This study postulates adolescent years as being a critical period in the development of substance use disorders and also supports the view that genetic factors influence substance use. According to Merikangas et al, adolescent in the US, approximately one-fourth reports illicit drug exposure and approximately more than half report alcohol use. Alcohol and other substance abuse inevitably lead to social, physical and mental health problems. "Substance abuse and dependence result from a combination of factors, including biochemical, genetic, familial, environmental, and cultural ones, as well as personality dynamics" (Straussner, 2013, p.14). Nic’s grandfather died from substance overdose and it was mentioned that Nic looked like his grandfather. Nic started using when he 11 years old. He witnessed his dad and other adults using alcohol and other substances when he was younger. He travelled a lot with his dad around the country and to other countries. This exposure along with genetic influences may have impacted his addiction. Volkow, (2014), highlighted increases in prescriptions written and dispensed, the society being more accepting of medication use, and intense marketing has contributing factors to the drug abuse problem. Similarly, opioid abuse has increase and individuals who abuse opioid drugs have a tendency to move to using