Addiction- When to seek counselling
Addiction signifies
to a difficulty to control certain repetitive behaviours which have dangerous
upshots such as consuming drug or alcohol. People are addict to the alcohol or drugs due
to intense desire or compulsions to use excessively to avoid disturbing
emotions/situations. In simple way, addiction is an obsessive and maladaptive
dependence which has severe psychological, physiological, sociological, and
legal magnitudes.
In majority of cases,
addicts do not sense that they are habituated, and are ignorant of harmful
consequences of dependence. People are addict to certain things including
drinking alcohol, taking drugs, eating, gambling, having sex and using the
Internet. Basically, addictions begin with doing these activities and they feel
emotionally and physically comfortable. Later on, such activities become so repetitive
that people cannot leave. A physical addiction is a dependence on a substance
or any specific activity to get pleasure and emotionally comfortable.
Symptoms of addiction:
People who are addict
to some substance are incapable to limit use of a substance or activity. As a
result, they exhibit signs of physical impairment.
Addicts have strong
cravings and compulsions to use the substance or activity.
They show
psychological symptoms like irritability, anxiety, poor focus, the shakes and
nausea if they attempt to withdraw from the drug or activity.
Addicts do not hold responsibilities
and important activities in everyday life, including school/work.
When to visit to addiction counsellor:
Though some people
may be able to recover from an addiction without any help of counselling
technique, it is sturdily believed that addicts require counselling of
specialists. Addicts must seek help for addiction when they experiences a
crisis, either as a result of a major life consequence or when the addictive
substance or behaviour is suddenly taken away.
It is well documented
in psychological researches that counselling is a major part of drug abuse
treatment for many people. Counsellors offer treatment for addicted people and
their families because they get special training in behavioural treatments for
addiction. Counsellors teach their addicted patients about addiction, embolden
them to transform their lives, applause them when addicts try to improve behaviour
and support them when they have problems.
Effective treatment
for addiction is cognitive behavioural because it helps patients to identify
and correct problematic behaviours through applying easy to use skills. This
technique also helps to address original problems that often co-occur with an
addiction.
Specific behavioural counselling
approaches that are applied for addicts to improve behaviour are as under.
-
Improve
motivation for recovery.
-
Teach
skills to stop taking drug and alcohol and avoiding relapse.
-
Counsellors
must use positive incentives to boost treatment participation and reward
progress.
-
Counsellors
must involve family members in treatment activities.
-
Encourage
participation in recovery support group.
It is imperative for
counsellor to create therapeutic alliance with addicts in order to bring
positive outcome. Strong therapeutic alliances can be developed by ensuring
patients that counsellors are really interested in their wellbeing, attentiveness
during sessions, understanding and communicating the foundational issues at
play in recovery.
Counsellors also have
relapse Prevention Plan. These plans will be developed according to the needs
of each patient. Counsellor must consider certain factors like prepare history
of the patient’s experience with substance abuse including previous relapses, warning
signs and how patients can best manage them, a detailed list of family,
friends, and counsellors that can be used as a support network, an emergency
relapse plan, specific lifestyle changes that patients can do to prioritize
their wellbeing.
Gist of above facts
are that addiction counsellors offer good support to people gripped in any kind
of addiction such as eating disorders, drug and alcohol issues, gambling
addictions, and other behavioural issues. They build friendly relationship with
their patients, and provide the support, resources, and guidance that patients explore
ways to recover from addiction.
Important: This article is developed through environmental information, academic experience and/ or personal view of writer. Writer is not responsible for any disagreement
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