Harm Reduction
Harm reduction is a set of strategies for reducing the negative consequences of drug use. The main principle behind harm reduction is that services that support people who have used drugs are a natural right. Proponents of harm reduction believe that support systems should be in place in general health to help those who may be struggling with drug withdrawal symptoms, overdoses, or other negative effects of drug use.
Harm reduction doesn’t stop at just helping people recover after negative effects occur; it is also a movement that provides instruction on safe use, abstinence, and post-withdrawal recovery. The main proponents of the harm reduction movement is the National Harm Reduction Coalition, an American organization dedicated to removing the barriers to healthcare that many people who use drugs face. In their mission statement, they acknowledge the inevitability of drug use and hope to mitigate the life-threatening effects as best they can.
Histrionic Personality Disorder
Histrionic personality disorder is a mental health condition characterized by emotional instability and a strong desire to be noticed. People with histrionic personality disorder will often act in extreme ways to gain attention. This is because people with histrionic personality disorder tend to hinge their self-esteem on others’ opinions of them. This causes a distorted self-image that requires attention from others to sustain itself.
People with histrionic personality disorder may act in excessively inappropriate or promiscuous ways to maintain attention on themselves. At first, this behavior may appear as charming or flirtatious, but it isn’t based on true feelings or a genuine desire to be promiscuous. People with histrionic personality disorder may not even be aware that they are doing this; it may seem normal for them to act on shallow or nonexistent emotions because of the relief generated by the attention they garner.
Homophobia
Homophobia is the fear, hatred, discomfort with, or mistrust of people who are bisexual, gay, or lesbian. Initially, homophobia was only used to describe negative feelings towards homosexual men, but it has more recently become an umbrella term to describe fear or hatred of anyone with the capacity to be attracted to the same gender. Homophobia can manifest as legal hostility, verbal and physical bullying, or violence against queer folk.
There is evidence to support that homophobia is a relatively modern invention. It is believed that homosexual relationships among men were common and perceived as normal in ancient civilizations. It was only during the middle ages that the stigma around homosexuality began to develop. It was only within the 20th century that homosexuality returned from being classified as a mental illness to a natural sexual attraction in the West.