Factors That Can Be Addressed As An Addiction Counselor

My greatest success is fighting my addiction. I suffered from addiction for fifteen years. I experienced several occurrences in rehab within two years. By the time, I turned twenty I endured two overdoses. First, I was sober for five years. Then, I relapsed after my twenty-fifth birthday. Finally, I have maintained my sobriety for two years. Meanwhile, I have no urges to consume drugs or alcohol. I struggled to overcome my addiction. My goal is to become a substance abuse counselor. One obstacle I faced in my sobriety occurred when working at a festival. DelFest is a music festival it comes to town once a year. Each person I waited on was drinking, doing drugs, or both. The booth I ended up working in, produced greasy fried food, hand-dipped

Research and psychological studies show that suicidal behavior stems from at least one or more mental disorders that are treatable. Individuals with suicidal behaviors often feel hopeless which contributes to these behaviors and can lead to suicide attempts or succession. Recognizing these behaviors can save someone’s life, being compassionate, empathetic, and proactive can greatly reduce an individual’s suicide behavior. The goal is to recognize these behaviors and get help for these individuals quickly.

Substance abuse as well as addiction is a topic many people choose to ignore or tend to believe that it does not affect them. Addiction itself does not seek out certain types of people but can affect anyone, at any time, for any reason. Stress, per pressure, financial trouble, even genetics all play a role in substance abuse and addiction. Unlike others, I don’t see substance abusers as weak willed but instead in need of guidance and someone to talk to about their problems. That is why, when I decided to go to school I was very interested in becoming an Addiction Counselor. I am one of those types of people who really enjoy learning new things and coming up with solutions for myself or others. The biggest reason that I decided to go to college was to find a job that I was actually fascinated with and wouldn’t dread going to work day in and day out. The biggest concern I have for my future job is stability and job availability. One area that I don’t really find high on my priority list is the money. I want to be able to make enough that I can survive and even thrive at times but I’m not looking for a job just for the financial gain. If I’m going to spend my life in a working profession it might as well be doing something I love.

Goal : To assess for suicidal, homicidal intent, to gather psychological history, family, educational and developmental history, to assess client and family needs and strengths, to formulate a clinical diagnosis and complete all necessary assessments tools in order to assist the family in developing and reaching the goals that have been identified.

The Global Criteria for the 12 Core Functions of the Substance Abuse Counselor, by John Herman, defines treatment planning as the process by which the counselor and client identify and rank problems, establish immediate and long-term goals, and decide on the treatment resources to be utilized.  Treatment planning begins as soon as initial assessments are completed.

A statistical piece of information that was interesting is that how the number of mental disorders increases as the number of substance abuse disorders increases as well. Services, U.D. (2005) states the likelihood of mental disorders rises alongside with substance abuse dependencies. With the rise of both abuses at the same time, it complicates treatment for the mental disorder patients that have drug use however, multiple drugs is normal for those who are substance abusers (Services, U.D., 2005). The reason this information is found to be interesting is because with the two disorders rising at the same level, it appears that the challenges will be harder and more co-occurring disorder patients are going to need help with their issues. As a counselor, one must be dually competent to treat these clients or have staff available to treat the clients who have co-occurring disorders to ensure an effective outcome.

This week clinical I felt better prepared than I did with my first week. I was able to focus a lot more on interpersonal skills and develop therapeutic relationship with my patients. In terms of Mental Status Examination (MSE), this assessment provided me with a helpful base of information from which to observe changes, progress, and monitor risks. Especially, suicide risk assessment is a gateway to patient treatment and management. The purpose of suicide risk assessment is to identify treatable and modifiable risks and protective factors that inform the patient’s treatment and safety management requirements. I got insight into how important it is to document suicide risk assessments with sufficient information. Documentation of suicide risk assessments facilitates continuity of care and promotes communication between staff members across changing shifts. It is easy for suicidal patients to “fall through the cracks” of a busy psychiatric unit that has rapid patient turnover of admissions and discharges, and mostly during shift change. Asking question such as “What is your view of the future?” or “Do you think things will get better or worse?” helped me to elicit important information regarding patients suicidal ideation. Additionally, how my patients expressed their hope about the future assisted me to identify, prioritize, and integrate risk and protective factors into an overall assessment of the patient’s suicide risk and include in MSE.

Another challenge of working with substance users occurs when clients arrive intoxicated for a session. This may at times be a way of testing the counsellor, and although from the outside the client may seem impaired, being intoxicated may be their more familiar, functioning state. If the client is still able to engage, it is possible and often beneficial to continue with the session, if only in a limited way, Helen says.

Because I work in an hospital that cares for populations at great risk for substance abuse and untreated mental issues and disorders, I get to see patients that have, or at some time will try to commit suicide, I would like to take this opportunity to learn how to properly assess the community, to help those in need, and to educate their families and friends to look for, and recognize signs that can prevent suicides, toward this end, it is important that I have the necessary knowledge to assimilate the information in this study, in a manner that will provide greater benefit not only to my

The first factor to consider is that psychiatric disorders are common amongst individuals with a substance abuse disorder, which can negatively impact the effectiveness of treatment (Frances, Miller and Mack, 2005). This can be problematic and difficult for a clinician to pinpoint if the client is unable or unwilling to provide an honest feedback or assessment of the self. Another important factor in regards to this special population that should be taken into consideration is that mental health professionals should be cognizant that the admission of a substance abuse disorder could negatively impact the self. The reason why this is problematic for the patient is that admitting that they have an issue with substance abuse does not only validate they have an addiction, but it could also result in loss of employment. Therefore it is imperative that the clinician builds report with the client in order to guide him or her in the right direction. Another critical piece of information about co-occurring mental illness is that a potential cause of this phenomenon is that people with the psychiatric disorder utilize substances as a method to self-medicate or alleviate their psychosis. Interestingly, this framework is considered controversial due to the lack of empirical research supporting the assertion. A method to treat individuals with a dual diagnosis is relapse prevention therapy. The premise of this therapy is to treat psychological disorders in conjunction with

Residential treatment (RT), which is currently recommended, actually places the substance abuser in a facility where care staff and experts who oversee their treatment monitor them. For Levi, this is a combination of medication, psychotherapy, physical activities, social activities, and counseling. The target is to support, guide, and monitor the client in completing this treatment plan, wherein the target is for the client to be rid of said addiction through the course of the plan. The continuum of care for addictive and compulsive behavior will be an important element in the plan. Additionally, the plan will take consideration of the particulars of the client to fit the plan to the client 's needs, situation, and personality. Wenzel, Brown and Beck (2009) suggest that "in the first session of counseling with suicidal patients, the following strategies should be used: (1) discuss structure and process of treatment, (2) emphasize compliance by the

1. Which theory of addiction or counseling is most attractive to you and why? My favorite theory of addiction from the video (#5 from the video) is the Mental Health Theory of Addiction. The existence of trauma in the history of most addicts personal lives and in their family systems contributes most heavily to the initial motivation for substance use - it is self medication - masking internal fears, emotional pain, shame, low-self esteem, and the follow-on manifestations:  anxiety, anger, depression.

I completely agree with the importance of the therapist understanding the signs and what to do about resistance. Resistance as you said is “the tendency for an individual to resist change or act in a way that undermines the therapeutic process,” this factor unfortunately is something therapists experience all too well in a counseling session. For example, as I am hoping to go into addiction counseling I will have to expect resistance on a daily basis. Most people in these situations don’t want to be there because their counseling was mandatory by a court order or used as an ultimatum from their families. Resistance however, can be expected in every aspect and type of counseling as it is hard for some to open up to a complete stranger and talk

In Addiction Training in Clinical Psychology: Are We Keeping up With the Rising Epidemic?, the authors and researchers discuss clinical psychology and its effectiveness when dealing with addiction. Clinical psychologists have always had an interest in addiction and its treatments. With treatments being focused into evidence-based aspects, the American Psychological Association and the Nation Institutes of Health formed programs such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Programs like the NIAAA and NIDA focused on alcohol and substance abuse and how different treatments worked and their effectiveness. Grants had been offered for psychology graduate students in

The basis for addiction can be assigned to a combination of social, physiological and psychological aspects. Social factors highlight the fundamental tendency for humans to interact and form social groups which contributes to the commencement of addiction. The intricacy of the human brain has slowed the understanding of physiological and psychological factors, however experts agree the neurotransmitter dopamine is instrumental to explaining the cause of addiction and ascertaining successful pathways to assist addicted individuals. Analysing addiction within the domain of methamphetamine use provides an insight to the causes and potential treatment strategies for these individuals. There is no single treatment for methamphetamine addiction,