Psychology

The Class Required book is attached below..

Ebook: https://easyupload.io/sqmfn9

Paper 2 (Clinical Experience).  Each student is required to write a 5-7 page double-spaced paper on one clinical experience to complement the academic aspects of the course. There are several experiences that could satisfy this requirement, so just choose one:

• Self-help group observation. There are several different self-help groups for persons with substance use disorders and for their family members include: Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous S.M.A.R.T., Moderation Management, Women for Sobriety, and Al Anon. You may attend online self-help group meetings as an alternative clinical experience. You must attend at least 3 hours of meetings of one type of self-help group in order to obtain a good picture of the structure and function of these groups. Make sure before attending that the meetings are open to all (e.g. many AA meetings have a C next to them on the website schedule, indicating they are closed to people who are not alcoholics).

OR

• Interviews with persons who have overcome drinking/drug problems. Another alternative is to conduct interviews with a person who has resolved a previous drinking/drug problem. You should conduct at least three hours of online interviews that cover the following topics (at a minimum): development of the problem, signs and symptoms of the problem, how the problem was recognized, unsuccessful attempts at change, how successful change happened, and perspectives on how the person’s life is different.

The format for the write up will vary with the type of experience, but should include (1) objective information, (2) your subjective appraisal of the person, program, or experience, and (3) how you assess the relationship between what you observed or experienced and the theoretical/research literature on the topic. At least one excellent research article with data regarding the effectiveness of the intervention is required (often this entails a study with a research design including random assignment to the intervention (such as 12 step intervention) and a comparison group.  The required format is APA. You will be graded on how well you convey your experience, how well you integrate the research article into your paper, the quality of the research article examining efficacy or effectiveness of the intervention and how well you follow the APA formatting (e.g., title page, header with a page number, double-spacing, citations in the text, and reference page). Please see the paper rubrics for more detailed information on paper requirements.

ANSWER

Substance addiction, also commonly known as drug addiction, can be described as a mental disease that interferes with the normal functioning of a person’s brain and behavior, thereby resulting in the person’s incapability to dominate the use of prohibited drugs or medication. The substances mostly abused by individuals include alcohol, opium, cocaine, marijuana, nicotine and heroin. This article focuses on how an individual overcame the addiction of crack cocaine, how the addiction developed and the hardships he had to undergo to champion the addiction problem. Crack cocaine is considered cheap cocaine generally abused in the ghettos where most residents can’t afford the pure cocaine; though the addiction and effects serve to all parties who abuse all types of the subject drug. Addiction is not something that appears once; it is a process that results from the continuous use of a substance up to a point whereby the body and brain feel useless when the drug gets administered to the body within a given duration (Best et al., 2016).

This paper narrates how a last born in a family of five siblings got addicted to crack cocaine; Mr. Cross had depression issues due to his inability to match his other siblings’ achievements. Being a last born with less attention and too much pressure on his shoulders, he resorted to drug abuse. His first attempt at the drug got him amused and carried away; he felt an unusual feeling with drug use. Cross usually became psychoactive and re-energized; anytime he failed to use the substance, he experienced the urge and necessity from the body to use it. Mr. Cross ended up devoting most of his time at the expense of many activities and fundamental errands to indulge in crack abuse. Research has shown that cocaine abuse interferes with psychological and neurobiological factors of the body. The brain is known to develop specific behavior in response to certain stimuli; just like it creates impulses towards water and food, it behaves the same way when exposed to drugs and other substances.

Cross started to develop particular behavior inclined to coke; the urge and thirst to use the substance increased daily. He depended on the drug to do certain errands and feel ‘sober’; this was due to the association of the substance’s physiological factors on the nervous system, which is also related to motivation and emotion. Every time he felt lonely and defeated, he would run to crack as the only solution and pillar to his problems. Any substance abuse is usually interfering with the mesolimbic dopamine pathway, which is mostly the part of the brain that triggers dependency on specific stimuli. Cross later developed mood swings, restlessness, irritability and also had poor decision-making. Loss of appetite, runny nose, insomnia, breathing problems, nosebleeds and too much sweating are some of the symptoms he encountered indicating his addiction. He also started acting recklessly to the extent of borrowing money to cater to his addiction demands and even surrounding himself with unnecessary energy and company. Cross lost his job when the symptoms and addiction got to climax; he lost self-control and was considered a street guy who would come home when he felt like after disappearing for so many days (Mincin 2018).

His parents and siblings realized the addiction’s extent when he lost his job and started to spend outside the house; the family members were worried and began to look for immediate solutions to his problem. Cross got advised to seek therapeutic lessons and treatment; he denied being sick and felt that he was doing okay. Attempts by his family to take him to a specialist all fell into deaf ears. He wasn’t ready to stop using the crack because that was already part of his life; Cross was worried about his kids and wife. He was concerned about how his admission to the hospital would cause his family; he forgot about his life at stake and kept on deteriorating daily. Cross had reached a point in his life where he needed to use crack to do anything meaningful. After being sacked, he managed to secure another job, and he was deeply rooted in the course of protecting his career. He got concerned about his job status and feared seeking medical attention would make him lose the new job he had been looking for quite a while. His brothers had stopped caring and carried on with their lives; he didn’t have anyone to take refuge in hence the crack preference.

Like many other addicts, Cross was confused about whom to seek comfort in; all the attempts made by his wife to help him emotionally were unsuccessful. He felt pathetic, hopeless and uncertain about whom to trust and who not to trust. Over five years passed by with a successful attempt to convince him to join a rehabilitation center; his parents prayed and sought the pastor’s guidance but all to no avail. After several years of unsuccessful attempts to save him, one day, he ran out of stock while in the house and couldn’t help himself. The family took the opportunity to run him to the hospital, where he was stabilized and made conscious. The family took this opportunity to convince him to join the rehabilitation center; they explained how the family had struggled to help him. They presented their endless love and cared towards him. Cross gave in and admitted he needed help to help save his life; at the hospital, he was diagnosed with heart problems which would have been fatal if he opted to continue with the drugs. After two weeks of admission and treatment in the hospital, Cross got admitted to the rehabilitation center, and his journey to recovery began (Pedrosa et al., 2016).

The road to recovery for Mr. Cross was such a tough one; his room-mates and therapists did not believe he would recover from the addiction. His first year at the rehabilitation center bore no fruits; he once sneaked out of the center searching for the crack, but fortunately enough, he got captured before he could access any. Positive changes to treatment started emerging in the second year when he could go for a month without using crack. Cross spent a maximum of three years in the rehab to gain his original self. He got discharged after undergoing several tests to ascertain his recovery success; Cross returned to his family a completely reformed person. He managed to get his old job back and assumed his family responsibilities; he also started attending church services in his hometown. The church pastor uses his story as an example of what God can do to help his people; Cross is considered a role model by his kids and many other people who are undergoing life challenges.

His siblings, who had lost hope in him, apologized and are the key pillars to his recovery; his wife and kids were so supportive and influential in his full recovery. While conducting this interview, I had myself in the victim’s shoes and wondered about all the struggles he had to undergo to gain his full recovery. I also asked about his family’s efforts to bring him back to sanity and get him back to the right path, his children’s frustration in a man they once regarded as their hero and mentor. It must have been so hard for his close friends and the entire family; I felt a lot of pity and sorrow for his immediate family. To some extent, the interview was similar to what I expected in that the road to recovery would have been very much difficult and shaky to abide by. I also expected stubbornness and unwillingness to get admitted to a medical facility due to his addiction extent. Surprisingly, I did not expect his immediate siblings to lose hope in him and abandon him to the harsh streets the way they did. His siblings ought to have been patient and supportive the same way his parents and wife did rather than neglecting him to suffer his fate (Silva & Nappo 2019).

Some of the standard methods used to help in the recovery process include behavioral counselling, medication, evaluation and treatment for any subsequent mental challenges, medical devices for treating withdrawal symptoms. The interviewee’s impression was quite welcoming and warm; he took pride in narrating his story and that so many people look at him as a champion rather than just a mere drug addict survivor. The interview process was successful and fruitful; it all went on as planned without any challenges. I was also able to identify a relevant article that was peer-viewed; the paper indeed evaluates the effectiveness of the intervention or rather recovery process of a drug addict. Having been able to interview, I felt honored and humbled by the story of Mr. Cross and by the fact that I got the opportunity to document it for future references and guidance to many other people who would find themselves in the same circumstances. The article was closely related to my interview since it also had a similar storyline with precise steps to recover the subject patients.

The article also highlighted several examples of similar experiences from various past cases; being that drug addiction is one of the significant challenges that the government is fighting, it has several documented case examples and the relative consequences. Some of the notable differences between the article and my observation include; the patient in the article didn’t have to undergo sibling discrimination. Apparently, he wasn’t stubborn when offered an opportunity to gain his sanity back, unlike my observation. The patient in the article did not have to spend so much time at the rehab since he was optimistic about his recovery and optimism to get back to his family and everyday life. He was motivated by the need to get back to his lovely family, who were so supportive during his challenging times. The treatment process and recommended steps to recovery were similar in both cases.

References

Best, D., Beckwith, M., Haslam, C., Alexander Haslam, S., Jetten, J., Mawson, E., & Lubman, D. I. (2016). Overcoming alcohol and other drug addiction as a process of social identity transition: The social identity model of recovery (SIMOR). Addiction Research & Theory, 24(2), 111-123.

Mincin, J. (2018). Addiction and stigmas: overcoming labels, empowering people. In New Directions in Treatment, Education, and Outreach for Mental Health and Addiction (pp. 125-131). Springer, Cham.

Pedrosa, S. M., Lopes Reis, M., Tavares Gontijo, D., Araújo Teles, S., & Medeiros, M. (2016). The path to crack addiction: perceptions of people under treatment. Revista brasileira de enfermagem, 69(5).

Silva, T. R. D., & Nappo, S. A. (2019). Crack cocaine and dreams: the view of users. Ciencia & saude coletiva, 24, 1091-1099.