I know a girl named Katie. She is not a drug addict. She is a wife, a mother, a positive part of our community. But before she was happily married, before she was lovingly called Mommy, she was addicted to heroin. Her friends were all addicts and many died. She stopped breathing once too, when she was 21 years old. Her boyfriend gave her CPR. She was even arrested; court mandated outpatient counseling, once a week for three months, NA meetings, one year probation. It did nothing for her. She drank the whole time. The traditional treatments used to treat drug and alcohol addiction was not effective then, nor is it effective now, for the new generation of drug addicts. Heroin and every other drug is readily available in Erie …show more content…
Author of the book, Inside Rehab, Anne Fletcher states, “Only 1 out of 10 people go for any sort of help each year. There are all kinds of reasons why the other 9 don 't get help, but it 's my impression that they don 't get help because they are not happy with the treatment options” (Szalavitz). Outpatient counselors in some states can often be undereducated or often too overloaded to give the proper individualized treatment. While inpatient
Chelsea Pappas
Page 2 centers often consist of 8 hours each day of group therapy sessions or watching videos, attending lectures. These are often 12 step based, which can also be attended through AA and NA meetings. 12 step programs say one must acknowledge that they have a disease in which they are powerless against. The “once an addict, always an addict” motto stigmatizes people to refer to themselves negatively. What positive psychological reinforcement is achieved by telling an addict that they have a permanent disease that they are powerless against? It can not only lower motivation, but can also be used as an excuse. A self-fulfilling prophecy. 12 step members must pray and be ready for God to remove all “defects of Character”, remove all shortcomings. This can immediately set one up for failure. When God doe not remove their defects, where does that leave the addict? Spirituality is a
A question that I was curious about asking dealt with how individuals in recovery function as substance abuse counselors. From experience, I have noticed that most substance abuse counselors are themselves in recovery. When I was in treatment, I related much better to
The 12-step program gives the impression that it has the capability of helping clients through alcohol abuse in its systematic, recovery-focused, and empathetic approach. AA’s 12 steps, from having “admitted we were powerless over alcohol…” to “having a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps” helps guide a person from alcoholism to sobriety (Alcoholics Anonymous [AA], 2001, pp. 59-60). The steps are easy-to-follow ‘checkpoints’ in the steps to sobriety, and because they are verbalized at every meeting, they reinforce a recovery mindset from alcoholism. This recovery approach emphasized in AA minimizes any particular focus on past struggles and magnifies progress, and as a member described, the group’s positivity and numerous success stories encouraged them to continue being sober (Personal communication, November 15,
Getting help for drug addiction is often such an intimidating idea that many addicts continue to use rather than expose themselves to the embarrassment or pain that they have associated with reaching out to someone for help. This is in large part due to the fact that television, books and movies have portrayed drug rehab centers in such a negative light that the reality is actually quite incomprehensibly different than these depictions. Millions of people have gotten help for addiction and gone on to lead productive and fulfilling lives free from the bonds of substance abuse. However, there are plenty still who delayed treatment for one reason or another and suffered severe consequences by doing so. Because addiction is a progressive and
Outpatient treatment has four stages the client will work through during their treatment: Stage 1- treatment engagement; stage 2 – early recovery; stage 3- maintenance; and stage 4 - community support. The intensity of treatment services varies the will decrease as the client progresses through treatment. Furthermore, the Center of Substance Abuse Treatment (2006) lists the core features and services of intensive outpatient programs: comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment; individualized treatment planning, group/individual/family counseling; psycho educational programs; case management; 24-hour crisis coverage; medical treatment; substance use screening; medication management; medical treatment; psychiatric evaluation; vocational and educational services; integration of clients into community-based support groups; and transition management and discharge planning. Additionally, depending on the population served there are enhanced services such as transportation, child-care, housing, parent skills training, as well as varying treatment
Clients want counseling to focus on them, instead of focusing on their addictions. Motivational interviewing
The society we all live in today is unforgiving and vicious when it comes to opinions on a person. Labeling a person an addict has a negative connotation and in a result negatively affects the mental status of any person who is battling with addiction. Mr. Leshner once again enlightens us by stating that society already has preconceived notions on what type of person an addict really is. Which are that addicts are simply “too weak willed” to stop. (Leshner, “Addiction…”). When someone is told negative things about oneself, she will eventually believe in the false words spoken. Our society is always chastising addicts and saying how they are blemishes in our world. This is an unforgivable wrong, instead of persecuting addicts and making them believe that they can never get clean or that they are too weak to get clean is wrong. We, as a society, need to offer them a safe haven. A person who is in, what they feel, a safe, comfortable, and relaxing environment will not go and look for drugs. An individual in a stressful, unsafe, and chaotic situation; where one feels out of control, is when a person looks for relief in any form, even drugs. Kevin McCauley, a nationally recognized author and speaker on the subject of addiction medicine, indicated in an article that the amount of stress an individual endures in their environment is a primary cause to drug abuse (McCauley). When under intense amounts of
My freshman year of highschool I had a teacher who taught my honors biology class. During one of our units we touched on the subject of addiction and he shared a story about his brothers struggle with addiction. Kevin Rand states, “Addiction completely changed who my brother was. The little brother I once grew up with was not the same person I was checking on every day to see if he was still alive. And one day you think you’re making progress and then the next day you’re back to square one. That is why it is so incredibly important for those who are struggling with addiction to have a support system. They can’t do it by themselves, they need our help, and they need people to understand.” Like Mr Rand I have also witnessed people close to
I have also come to realize there are a lot of people out there who don’t have a lot of money to spend on expensive rehab centers. And, if the twenty-eight day programs are so successful then why are so many people going in and out of them so often, like revolving doors? It is common practice for someone to be in rehab for the second, third, fourth, and fifth time. There was even one person I worked with that had been in rehabs over eight times.
Good point, group therapy forms a bond like a link or chain for unity for the individuals in rehab to keep one another strong, and when a person believes they’re at their weakest a member from the group who can relate and understand may help them reinforce their mission to sustain sobriety. Even though the alternative programs that are not 12-step programs have treatment plans and use various techniques, and sometimes more than one at a time the reason for that is to connect or reach a person’s conscious and unconscious mental and physical area of their thoughts. I believe that’s why the programs continue to make continuous modifications.
As an addictions counselor and a person with family members addicted to heroin I have mixed feelings with my thoughts on Drug and Alcohol addiction. To being with the counselor in me knows that addiction is a disease of the mind and that it causes individuals to suffer uncontrollable urges. Urges that cause people to do things that they would not normally do if they did not suffer the addiction. Additionally, some substances not only cause urges but physical dependency as well. This physical dependency could potentially kill the individual depending on the substance they are addicted too and may require medical attention to withdrawal. In other instances, the withdrawal may feel as if they are dying, therefore, making the addict fearful
Specialized Services: professional rehab experts assist the wide range of mental health issues and complex addictions. In order to offer highly specialized services, rehab centers partner with
Traditionally speaking, alcoholism is an addiction to consuming alcohol. There are some organizations and people out there that would combat that widely accepted thought, and consider it a disease over an addiction. What is the difference between a disease and an addiction? To determine the appropriate label, both definitions and the actions that give them that specific definition must be examined. There is a line that separates what is a disease and what is an addiction and there are many different forms of each. Alcoholism is one that is categorized as both, but often it falls into the category of an addiction.
Drug addictions are a very complicated subject to explain due to the fcact that there is so many types of addictions that we may not have the sufficient information to sustain the facts. People underestimate the effects of something so simple as drinking a beer or even smoking cigarette but in fact it is more dangerous than you think. Alcohol and Nicotine are the most common type of addiction that is a slowly but deadly killer. This paper should give you a more extend amount of information on to what people are at risk of ingesting substances that are highly addictive and the dangers people face when taking prescribed medications.
In today’s society, it is now normal to know somebody who has a drug addiction especially to opiates. A drug addiction is a mental disorder that the person can no longer control their actions. The person addicted to the drug will no longer care about the outcome of their actions as long as they can get that high they are seeking. **from textbook pg. 303** “Opioids are classified as narcotics- strongly addictive drugs that have pain relieving and sleep-inducing properties. Opioids include both naturally occurring opiates (morphine, heroin, codeine) derived from the poppy plant and synthetic drugs (Demerol, Vicodin) that have opiate-like effects.” A person who is addicted to a drug, especially opiates, may try to cut back or even stop
Drug addiction is one of society 's biggest problems and it is rampant among teenagers and young adults and one of the most abused drugs is marijuana. Cannabis sativa or marijuana usually grows throughout tropical and temperate climates and then plant 's stems, leaves, flowers, and seeds are then dried. What attracts to most users is the mind altering effect these parts produce which is addictive to some extent. It is usually smoked as cigarette, or in a pipe. It is also smoked in blunts, in which cigars will be emptied of tobacco and refill with marijuana or sometimes it is combined with another drug. It can also be brewed as tea or mixed in food. Hashis is a more concentrated, resinous form which is sticky black liquid, hash oil. The