This paper will be concerned with the problem of crack cocaine addiction in adolescents.
The teen years present young people with many challenges which must be coped with in order to successfully make the transition to adulthood. Teenagers are searching for their own unique identity, and the process of finding the self is often painful and confusing. Adolescence is a time of accelerated growth which is characterized by physical changes in the body, the development of sexuality, and changes and developments on the cognitive level (Rubin and McNeil, 1981, p. 385). Because of this rapid growth, young people experience "what is probably the adolescent's central psychological challenge: the formation of a stable sense of identity" (p. 386). The psychologist Erik Erikson has added a great deal to the literature on identity formation in adolescence. According to Erikson, adolescence is a time to overcome and go beyond the roles of childhood and "emerge with a clearly defined sense of self" (p. 389). However, this search for identity is often very confusing and difficult:
The rapid physical changes and sexual awakening of adolescence may often lead young people to be confused about the continuity between their past and their present. And the rapid changes taking place in today's society only serve to compound the difficulty. It is no wonder, therefore, that many adolescents fail to establish a clear identity and instead suffer what Erikson calls role confusion. Many of the social, political, and religious causes that attract adolescents may hold their appeal because they seem to provide solutions to the adolescent identity crisis (p. 389).
Because adolescents are searching for their own unique sense of identity, it is common for them to rebel against the values of their parents, teachers and other authority figures. They may feel alienated and uncomfortable with former friends from the childhood period as well. To a confus...