Drug Addiction Counselling
Addictions counselling is a specialist field that employs methodologies drawn from several clinical disciplines. It is practiced across the world by addiction treatment consultants with various professional qualifications but generally follows similar methodologies.
The success rate of any addiction therapy varies depending on the skill of the counsellor and the motivation with which the patient approaches treatment.
It is often assumed that unless the patient is highly motivated and 'ready' to change that treatment will be a waste of time. In fact, it's important to realise that addiction is a brain disease and a part of the illness is believing that patients believe there's nothing wrong with them.
Most addicted people find incredible ways to rationalise and justify their ongoing drug taking: stress at work, relationship difficulties and intensive outpatient program, a great excuse because each time you challenge them about their drug-using they can use that stressful event to justify more drug use! Addicted people will find any excuse to continue using.
People that become addicted to drugs or alcohol often become very manipulative, playing family members off against one another using a technique known as 'splitting'. This form of diversion is useful in taking the attention away from their drug addiction.
Quality drug addiction counsellors and intensive outpatient program
It will be able to identify the ways the patient continues to use unhealthy techniques to protect their drug taking and help both the patient and the family to find new healthier ways of coping.
Drug addiction counselling has advanced significantly since it was first conceived of as a specialist field. Until The middle of the last century addicts were stigmatized so severely that there were no facilities for treating them. Rather they were relegated to psychiatric wards where they received no specific help with their addiction or underlying issues.
Thankfully the development of the 12 step program prompted the medical profession to start re-exploring further treatment methodologies. When presented with a simple program that was effective in helping even the most desperate addict, doctors started to realize that addiction therapies could be effective and that there are very few people who cannot recover.
Over the decades researchers investigating counselling have tried different approaches and seen how the treatment outcome was influenced. This led to the idea of "outcomes based" treatment which uses only methods that have been shown to have excellent results. It is now not uncommon for a patient to remain clean and sober for as long as a researcher stays in touch with them - provided that they are willing to adhere to the principles of the treatment regime.
Addiction is a multi-faceted illness that impacts on all areas of the patient's life. Nothing is left untouched - relationships, jobs, financial, legal and spiritual areas of life are all negatively influenced. Addiction counselling is therefore a complex field and requires specialist training to be able to untangle these various issues and effectively address each area of life.
Many addicts in treatment become motivated to enter the career of counselling. Whether they are attracted by the prospect of helping addicts or other reasons this decision should not be taken lightly. They should first discuss with their own addiction counsellor and their 12 step sponsor before embarking on this path. It can be very difficult to work your own program of recovery and maintain the professionalism required to be effective in addiction counselling.