Alcohol and other Drugs Counseling: Brain of Human Beings

A drug modifies the brain of human beings to foster compulsive drug abuse. Drug addiction is a chronic disease which impacts the brain and causes change in the structure and also the function of the brain. Moreover, it also leads to change in the self-control, behavior and ability to make sound decisions in life. Candy released in the year 2006 is a romantic Australian drama movie which is an adaptation of the book “A Novel of Love and Addiction” written by Luke Davies. This movie was directed by Neil Armfield and cast and crew of the film involves Abbie Cornish, Heath Ledger and Geoffrey. The film got international recognition for its plot which is based on the love affair between a couple whose relationship was in despair due to their drug addiction. In this essay, the character, her family and her psychological need will be highlighted. In addition to this, as a counselor in reference to the counseling model counseling process of the client will be discussed along with the ethical issues linked with this case study.

According to the movie, Candy is a gorgeous and a smart woman who possess a lot of potential in her. She was a student of arts. She falls in love with young, charming and an aspiring poet known as Dan. Candy in the movie was portrayed as a replica of romance that could not restrict her in abandoning sappy romance for an aching reality. Dan sinks in his Bohemian lifestyle that involves drug addiction. Later both of them are trapped in the druggie lifestyle. The stuff that looked like fun and pleasurable turned out to be a misery. Dan was a successful con man and works on credit card scheme. Soon, the couple sinks due their horrifying drug (heroin addiction). The couple at this p

The socio-economic condition of the couple became worst and comes down to degradation, prostitution and withdrawal. She miscarries after three days of trying to detoxify at home. Dan’s love for Candy was shown through the fact that Dan left drug addiction in order to live a clean life and reduce Candy’s suffering. In order to survive Dan worked as a labor. Candy was observed to suffer and her loneliness in Dan’s absence made her remain depressed. She eventually adapts the habit of smoking and loitered around with one of her neighbor. Candy becomes too erratic and her fickle minded nature forced her to elope from that place. This was a shock and Dan was encircled with grief and was traumatized. Such an action of Candy forced Dan to relapses the habit of drug. He returned to his mentor Casper in order to seek help and relief. But he lost his best friend due to drug overdose. Both these incident of losing his beloved and best friend was an emotional devastation for Dan. Later somehow he manages to get a job and adapted his writing habits. Eventually when Candy returns back to Dan, he refuses to accept her.

The approach to Candy as my client’s evaluation and therapy is within the “Behavioral therapy domain of counseling theory.” Cognitive Behavior Therapy has proved to be effective to treat Anxiety Disorders. According to my assessment in this case study the client is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is one of such multi-problem mental health categories. A popular CBT model known as “Rational Emotional Behavioral Therapy” is required in Candy’s treatment. The name f the client is Candy who was a young lady who is a student of arts and she is married.

The scientific researcher established the thought that psychological acquaintance can be practically applied to medical problems which should be done in a mode in accordance with scientific methodology and convention. During the case assessment and formulation, as a counselor, I have observed certain facts. Candy the main character of the case study although was a beautiful lady with a jovial nature, her relationship with her parents was not of a normal relationship. Due to her aggressive nature, she did not share a good bonding with her parents. Her parents did not impose too much restriction in her life and accepted all her demands easily. This truth made her demand money from her parents in order to fulfill her needs. At this stage she psychologically required passionate love from a person. She got this love with Dan. Her flamboyant attribute attracted Dan towards her. Even she adapted the drug addiction of Dan.

I have evaluated the fact that once her addictions began to get more expensive and neurochemically addictive drugs, she began to manipulate her parents to lend money, engage her in prostitution and other staffs to finance her lifestyle. Her medical history also reflects that she was into methadone to lead a better life. On doing her assessment I have found that, she has also experienced psychotic symptoms during her miscarriage. She remained depressed and felt lonely in her husband’s absence. She felt mood swings and anxiety which was diagnosed as a Bipolar disorder. Although Dan’s desire and hard work to maintain a clean life helped her to abstinent from substance use, her depression and loneliness forced her to rephrase her lifestyle. According to my assessment, Candy has been a potentially good student in the field of Arts. Although her report reflects no past legal history, she later got involved in certain small crimes to maintain her lifestyle (Killeen et al., 2015).

As a counselor, I would divide my treatment plan according to different session. In the first session, her initial behavior and mood would be assessed. Her extensive traumatic experiences would be revealed through a conversation (Kolind et al., 2015). Her descriptions might get devoid of important negative emotions and also repetitive PTSD numbing. In the second session I have discussed with her about her own expectation and goals regarding the therapy. Talking to her led would make me realize about her self-esteem. This would give me the idea of selecting the therapeutic strategies in order to meet the goal (Doukas & Cullen, 2013). In the third session, I would plan on finalizing a treatment plan during our third session that could be the blueprint for additional sessions at CCS or social service support. In the fourth session, the basic principles of Candy’s treatment plan were prepared with others consultation. During this session, a long-term solution of her relationship and lifestyle dysfunction would be designed and implemented. In the last session, after the approval of the therapist and other coordination staff would be doing the follow-up to re-engage her into the treatment plan (Humbarger et al., 2016).

The model that I shall chose for curing substance abuse of the chosen character is Psychotherapeutic model. This is regarded as one of the most widely accepted approaches for curing people who are involved in substance abuse. This approach enables people who are associated with drug abuse to focus more on motivation of people and foster development of coping and problem solving skills (Mistral, 2016). The approach is a combination of motivational, cognitive and behavioral techniques that allows the counselor to treat patients with a lot variance in the reasons for their drug abuse. In this type of model, strong emphasis is laid on being emphatic, flexible and client centered. As a counselor, one should focus mostly on developing skills of the client to prevent premature dropout. The focus of the counselor is to work with the client and for the client (Sampath, 2014). The counselor focuses on changing the inner beliefs and perceptions regarding substance abuse. The main objectives of this model are to teach the client to break their addictive cycle and total restriction from all mood-changing drugs. It also allows the client to cope up with problem solving skills and support and guide that might otherwise relapse (Holmes, 2012).

Likewise, in the given case study, Candy shall also be cured using the Psychotherapeutic model. Knowing that Candy was involved in the use of drugs and sex and was constantly struggling for money, this shall become the best model, as it will help her in becoming a more confident person by removing their interest from drugs and substance. This model shall enable candy to develop her problem solving skills and shall guide her by making her realize that life is associated with much more things than just substance abuse. The reason why this model shall work in a positive way for Candy is that she will form a good alliance with the counselor making her aware of the negative influences of substance abuse (Bhatia et al., 2015).

The ethical issues likely to be faced in counseling the client in the given case study involve dilemmas that are associated with the personal beliefs, values and judgments (Andronicos & Achat, 2014). The history regarding how the society views an individual having addiction is burdened with misperceptions, emotions and biases, which have an effect on the care of the drug abusers (Mistral, 2016). For instance, in the settings of healthcare it is not unusual for the patients to be seen negatively, simply by being a labeled as abuser of drug (Bhatia et al., 2015). Due to the extremely charged nature of the field of substance abuse treatment, the tools for exploring the ethical dilemmas should be possessed by the providers. In the given case study, Candy had addiction towards drugs, and due to this, she suffered from depression (Klimas et al., 2014). Ethical issues are personal as well as societal (Holmes, 2012). There occurs a continuous struggle between legislating moralities for the well-being of the public and fighting to maintain the right to autonomy of an individual (Andronicos & Achat, 2014). It is an extreme emotional nature of such concern, which takes and issue from a personal level to a societal level (Klimas et al., 2014).

Drug counselors must adjust what is fit for them actually with what might be correct in view of expert norms. The experts of Substance misuse treatment who are social specialists, for instance, ought to be acquainted with the NASW Code of Ethics and may need to accommodate individual convictions with the callings code (Sampath, 2014). There likewise might be office measures that contention with an individual is close to home convictions. In either case, there is a steady need to weigh what may feel right by and by with the gauges and approaches of nature and calling. Maybe the most troublesome situation happens when there are clashes between the clinicians' qualities and the client practices. Experts realize that if a client debilitates suicide or manslaughter, there is an obligation to report. Yet, large portions of the day-by-day worries that emerge are not very straightforward (Klimas et al., 2014). Moral issues come up in various, apparently inconsequential ways. Much of the time, it might be to a great degree troublesome not to "push" the client toward a choice by underscoring certain data (Bhatia et al., 2015).In the case of nothing else, the inclinations ought to be recognized to the client. A client will then have the capacity to listen to what the specialist is stating, realizing that there is an inclination, and have the capacity for recognizing predisposition in advance (Holmes, 2012).

In the end, it can be concluded that the patient in the given case study needs to be counseled properly so that she can recover from her substance abuse. Her extensive traumatic experiences would be revealed through a conversation. Her descriptions might get devoid of important negative emotions and repetitive PTSD numbing. In the second session, I have discussed with her about her own expectation and goals regarding the therapy. Talking to her led would make me realize about her self-esteem. This would give the idea of selecting the therapeutic strategies in order to meet the goal in an efficient manner.

References:

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