EYSKUBE SIMULATION EXERCISE (25%)
Purpose
The following active learning exercise will give you a safe, effective, firsthand experience with some biological, psychological, and sociological aspects of drug addiction. Although, of course, there is no way to simulate the addictive experience accurately, the more seriously you follow the rules of the simulation, the more likely you are to experience some of the thoughts and feelings of addiction. No laws or morals should be broken to fulfill the requirements of the simulation. If the simulation becomes too intense, you may terminate it… but please share why you stopped when we processed your experiences in class.
Method
You will suffer from addiction for this simulation’s 120 hours (5 full days). Your drug of choice will be “EYSKUBE” (frozen water). You used to dabble with the simpler forms of your drug (water), but now you NEED the “hard stuff.” For 120 hours, I hope you will agree to live this addiction, doing everything you can to abide by the following rules:
The craving you have for EYSKUBE is powerful. The only way to satisfy this need is to put it (ice cubes) in EVERY SINGLE LIQUID SUBSTANCE YOU CONSUME during the 120 hours. That is, whether you are drinking soda, milk, coffee, beer, cocoa, etc., you must have EYSKUBE in it to keep from going into withdrawal. Even water from the drinking fountain or a drink when you wake up during the night must have an accompanying dose of EYSKUBE. This will take a tremendous amount of advanced planning. No drinking without EYSKUBE! If you don’t have EYSKUBE, you can’t drink, and you will eventually start to experience withdrawal symptoms (1st symptom is usually dry mouth and thirst, but you may encounter others).
If you are serious about this simulation and wish to earn some bonus points, decide to use only tinted EYSKUBE (e.g., only red EYSKUBE or blue EYSKUBE can be used). After all, with actual drug addiction, the drug would not be available in every restaurant, fast food place, or refrigerator – you would only be able to buy your drug at certain spots. You would have to plan your life around finding your dealer regularly. Being addicted to tinted EYSKUBE means you will have to plan how to access that particular red or blue “drug” every time you want to drink during the day. Will you keep a “stash” in a cooler in your car or backpack? Or will a friend be your “dealer,” and you’ll have to keep touching base with them to get your stuff? In addition, addictive drugs like cocaine or heroin are not something you would usually want to be seen with at school or on the job – you would have to hide your drug. Making EYSKUBE colored means you’ll have to hide it more – be more discrete – or folks will surely ask you why you have a blue cube in your beer. That leads us to the following rule.
You must not talk to anyone outside the EYSKUBE culture (our class) about your situation for 120 hours. The only people who know about your addiction are other EYSKUBE addicts or dealers. Society condemns dependence on EYSKUBE – you could be expelled, fired, ostracized, or arrested if your addictive use of EYSKUBE is discovered. If they notice your unusual behavior, do not tell them it is a simulation or class project. Deception is part of the life of most addicts. To put yourself in the role of the addict, you are going to have to deceive friends, family, and employers – come up with some excuse for your behavior other than the truth – just as an addict would probably lie about why they have a syringe, or needle tracks, or that glassine bag full of white powder.
You must be very discreet and secretive. 3. No one should see you adding your drug (EYSKUBE) to your drinks. Think of it as your way of “shooting up” – you wouldn’t do that in public. Sometimes you may have to slip into the bathroom to administer EYSKUBE to your beverage without being noticed.
You must wear an odd, non-jewelry “bracelet” – perhaps masking tape or oddly colored yarn – on your body for the exercise duration. This is a sign of your EYSKUBE addiction (like needle tracks) that I, a disgrace and something else you should conceal. You also might find it an annoyance (like the runny nose or infected injection sites other types of addicts might experience). It would be best if you tried to keep those outside the EYSKUBE culture from noticing this sign – they might ask embarrassing questions, and then you would probably have to make up some story to hide your addiction.
You must keep a log throughout the exercise (e.g., where you are, what you are doing), recording the following every 4 hours:
Are you thirsty now?
When and where do you expect your next dose of EYSKUBE?
What is your plan to satisfy your cravings?
What are you feeling and thinking?
Submit your log as well as a 4-pg. Double-spaced, full APA formatted essay answering the following questions, and come to class prepared to discuss your experiences and reaction to the simulation. Provide at least 2 peer-reviewed articles as references.
The introduction of the Eyskube essay should be broken up into two parts: what addiction is and the purpose of the Eyskube stimulation. For the introduction, you should address at least TWO of the following questions in your first paragraph (a minimum of five sentences) using at least ONE academic journal article:
What is addiction or substance use disorder?
Are there different types of addiction? Specify if there are.
Provide a statistic about addiction within a specific population. You are free to focus on the following: sex, gender, race, nationality, sexuality, and age. Let’s say you wanted to focus on gender differences regarding addiction. You would say the following: According to NIH (2020), “Men are more likely than women to use almost all types of illicit drugs” (p.1).
In your second paragraph, answer the following questions regarding the Eyskube stimulation objectively:
1. What is the Eyskube stimulation about?
2. Why is this stimulation performed?
3. Who is partaking in the stimulation?
4. How will the Eyskube stimulation be conducted?
In the discussion portion of your paper, please answer the following discussion question, dedicating at least ONE paragraph (a minimum of 5-7 sentences) for EACH.
Be able to describe the who, what, where, and when of the experience as objectively as possible.
In what ways, if any, do you think you felt like, had experiences like, or behaved like an addict?
How did you feel about altering many of your daily activities to accommodate your addiction?
What was the most challenging part of the simulation?
Choose one or two lessons you learned and describe how they will inform your work.
MAKE SURE NO PLAGARISM
