Psychology Text Book Questions

Requirement

There are four (4) questions (attached) that need to be answered by Sunday, November 30th by 11:00 p.m. Also, as a reference, the following book can be used \”Fisher, G.L. & Harrison, T.C. (2013). Substance Abuse: Information for School Counselors, Social Workers, Therapists, and Counselors (5th Edition). Boston: Pearson. ISBN: 9780132613248.

Solution

1. Based on our reading of chapters 11 and 12 of your text, what might be the best way to assist members of a family who have experienced addiction in the family?  According to your text what are their needs and how best can these needs be met?

Even though many people tend to consider addiction to be similar to substance abuse, it is crucial to note that the two are totally different. Indeed, as expounded on by Fisher and Harrison (2013), addiction is a condition that emanates from ingests of a substance (such as alcohol and drugs ) or from involvement in various activities  such as sex and gambling)  that might be enjoyable even though their continued use could end up being compulsive and impede with  normal life responsibilities. Moreover, in most cases, those who are addicted are normally not conscious of the fact that they have become addicted.  

According to Fisher and Harrison (2013), when helping a family that is experiencing addiction, it is vital to first have a clear understanding of how the family stays in balance. What that implies is that it is crucial for the boundaries, roles , rules and values of the families to be examined so that a new balancing point can be established. In this case, boundaries implies that the family needs to have a better understanding of the different rules that are in place or are supposed to be guiding the family. On the other hand, the roles implies that the family needs to investigate where the addiction came from and what were the specific circumstances that resulted to substance abuse. In this situation, individuals involved needs to be assisted in making them have a clear understanding of the specific role that they played in the circumstances resulting to addiction in the family since by doing that, they will be well placed to make choices regarding their behaviors instead of automatically responding to the role that they have been assigned in the family. To do that, it is vital that the parents get to look at the family origin of issues. Thus, it is crucial that a family that is experiencing addiction is first made aware of the situation, thereafter, the family members need to have a clear understanding of their roles in the situation resulting to addiction and once that has been achieved, it will be easy to help the family members address the addiction issues. The therapies can involve, interventions that would involve engaging the substance user in treatment, couples therapy and family therapy.

As per the text by Fisher and Harrison (2013), those who happen to be addicted are specifically in need of making them aware of their situation as the might be in self denial and once they have been made to understand, they will be in a better position to take the necessary measures that will help address the situation.

2.Based on what you have learned in the course, design a prevention program for AOD use and describe it in an essay.  Assume you have no limits for funding or staff and use your course readings such as Chapter 15 to support your program.

The Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) prevention program will be aimed at promoting positive advancement of children, youth and families with the objectives been to prevent and delay the use of alcohol and other drugs while at the same time reducing the likelihood of potential future harm. The planned AOD will function rely on funding from the federal government and will involve staff that will promote prevention of substance abuse.

The AOD prevention program will specifically aim at minimizing the following risks; the community laws and norms that can be said to be making it easier to use drugs, the early first use of drugs, family issues management, and unlikely opposition towards initiatives to avoid drugs and other substance abuse in the community.

As far as the prevention practices are concerned, the AOD program will; conduct parenting classes and support for families in order to ensure that the kids that are brought up by the parents are healthy and free from alcohol and any other drug abuse, conduct group sessions for the kids, children and youths where the participants will be trained in life skills and offered support in order to ensure that they are drug free, offer culture specific programs that will be ideal for the children and youths who are from different backgrounds, and allocate some grants to youth groups so that they are able to plan and also execute drug free activities.

In order to ensure that the AOD prevention program will be effective, there will be a monitoring and evaluation officer whom specific role will be to evaluate the impact that the AOD prevention program is having on the youth and children who will be involved in the program. In addition, it can be explained that feedback and opinions will be collected on regular basis in order to ensure that when need be, necessary changes are made to the program so that the program is effective.   

3. As discussed in recent lectures and readings, there is some controversy in the field about whether we should consider non-substance addictions as similar to drug and alcohol addictions.  Give me your opinion on this topic, and support your arguments with course readings.  There is no right or wrong answer necessarily – I will grade you on how well you argue your case.

Even though it cannot be disputed that addiction is mainly caused by substance abuse and non-substance abuse, it is undeniable the addictions from substance abuse and non-substance abuse are not similar at all and they are very different hence the reason the two should be treated differently.

Nevertheless, that is not to dispute that substance addiction and non-substance addiction have some similarities.  For example, parents who are substance addicts and parents who are addicts of non-substances such as been involved in gambling are both likely not to fully fulfill their family roles as the resources that should have been spent in fulfilling the roles will end up being spent in caring for the addictions. Nevertheless, the  fact that the addictions are caused by different causes implies that the addictions should be considered differently.

One of the major difference between the two types of addiction is that non-substance abuse is mainly considered as being more cognitively based disorder that is the case with substance addiction.  Scholars such as Griffiths (1995) have carried out studies on non-substance addiction such as gambling and found that gambling addicts normally exhibit main cognitive distortions in their belief systems as they tend to be convinced that they can win all the bets. These specific beliefs tend to last even when the gambler is still losing the money. On the other hand, there are other gamblers who tend to be have cognitive distortions that not only entails their ability to win, but also entails their need to be excited to the extent that they are convinced that in order for them to be able to function well, they will need to have the excitement that comes from gambling. in that view, it is crucial that cognitive treatment administered in order to identify, challenge and change the cognitive distortions of the gambling addict.

4.Take some time to think about your ideas about alcohol and drug issues – before taking this course and afterwards, based on what you learned this semester, what information do you believe will be the most relevant information in your career and why. What do you think are the most important issues from the field moving forward?

This curse has been of great been of great benefit to me. Indeed, I am fully convinced that I am now well versed on how to address addiction unlike was  the case prior to the course. For example, before the course,  I was of the opinion that addiction is just an addiction. However, from the course, I have got to understand that there are different types of addiction and it is vital that one understands these differences since each type of addiction calls for a different intervention approach. For example, the approach that is used to an alcohol addict should be totally different to the approach that is used to gambling addict.

One of the major take away from the course is that in order to help an addict, it is crucial that the addict first understands his/her need for the assistance as there is no need for helping an individual who cannot in the first instance understood that there is an issue that needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, I also got to know that in order for the addict to have a clear understanding of the situation and the need for intervention, the approach that will be used should never be confrontational but engaging with the individual.

Moving forward, I am convinced that the most important issue in the field entails developing more approaches that would be more efficient and convincing since the fact that the existing approaches that have been used for many years have not been fully effective as the numbers of the addicts are constantly on the increase over the years. Thus, there is still need for more research to be carried out in the sector so that more effective measures are established. On the other hand, it can also be explained that there is a need for more funding so that the funding challenge that is common in most AOD prevention programs are addressed. 

References

Griffiths, M. (1995). Towards a risk factor model of fruit machine addiction: A brief note. Journal of Gambling Studies, 11 (3), 343-346.

Fisher, G.L, Harrison, T.C. (2013). Substance Abuse: Information for School Counselors, Social Workers, Therapists, and Counselors (5Th Edition). Boston: Pearson.