Kara Krichman
Dramaturgy
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AugusT: Osage County
August: Osage County surrounds a dysfunctional family that is affected by drug use, alcohol abuse, cancer, and suicide (to name a few). While Beverly suffers from alcoholism, Violet struggles with prescription drug addiction from her cancer medications.
In Violet’s case, she is mixing her opiates and benzo’s to find some form of relief. “Opiates” are high intensity pain killer drugs; they are commonly used for chronic pain from arthritis and cancer. “Benzo’s” are commonly prescribed for alcohol withdrawal, nervousness, muscle tension, and sleeping issues. However, there are incredibly high risks involved with mixing prescriptions because a patient can begin to develop a tolerance for these drugs and they are highly addictive.
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New research conducted in 2016 shows that many doctor over prescribe patients.
The problem has reached the point where these highly addictive painkillers, which include commonly prescribed drugs such as Oxycontin, Percocet and Vicodin, now account for more drug overdose deaths than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the report.
There are two ways to fight cancer:
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Cut out the cancer
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Kill the cancer with prescription drugs
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In many cases, a combination of these approaches is used. Drugs that are developed to kill cancer tend to be lethal – they kill cancer cells and healthy cells indiscriminately. This approach seems harsh, but cancer can be devastating, so it is important to go after it aggressively.
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When it comes to controlling cancer pain, opioids are considered safe and effective however the possibility of overdose or addiction is a commonality in American due to over prescribing.
People affected by cancer commonly deal with physical, emotional, and social effects of the disease to be highly stressful. The stresses associated with cancer can affect an entire family rather then just the patient.
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​ -Forms of violence in Family :
1) Power and control: controlling behavior and psychological abuse (usually one family member controlling another)
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2) Resistive Violence: a victim of power and control violence using violence as self-defense
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3) Situational / ‘Common-Couple’ Violence: adults using violence to resolve conflict
-Men and use this form of violence equally
-Although negatively affects children/others
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4) Less common forms of family violence: anti-social violence (people who are violence toward everyone) or pathological violence (direct result of mental illness or injury)
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