Paper Example on Understanding Addicts: Educate Yourself to Help a Loved One

Those who have an addiction require to be understood. People become addicts for various reasons such as curiosity, enjoyment, peer pressure, numbing emotional pain, and many other reasons. To create a lasting change, one needs to educate themselves about addiction first. Educating oneself will help to notice the signs of addiction quickly, and therefore, one can know when someone requires help, what to do and what not to do. It is important to offer those who are addicted the support they need. Offering support will help the person know that he is in good hands and get the necessary help to become better. Letting the person know that you will support them on their road to recovery is an important step so that they do not feel like they are alone. Psychologists should work on helping the addict feel more welcome and not judge them. When people who have addictions feel judged, they may relapse and give up on the recovery process. Clients create deeper and long-lasting change with therapists who do not judge them or make them feel bad about their situations. It is also important to make the person not to feel rejected. They are vulnerable, and most of them struggle with mental health problems. Therefore, it is good to make them feel interested and heard. Triggering the feelings of rejection may cause the person to feel unwanted. When the person is welcomed, not rejected, and is heard, he will remember how he was made to feel and, thus, will make an effort to get better for the people who assisted him in the process. In case of a relapse, it is important to also be there for the person as this is also a part of the process. Relapsing should not make the person with addiction feel like a failure, but he should be encouraged to move forward and get better. Respecting the client, being a role model, and providing direction and encouraging self-direction are also useful in creating deep and long lasting change (Davis, Patton, & Jackson, 2018).

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The counseling skills I will implement to be effective in counseling the person with addiction include; 12 step program, how to help the families and clients with addicts, and to be positive with setting goals with addicts. The 12 step program is a spiritual basis for individual recovery from addiction impacts. The steps are a direction towards a new way of life, and they provide the person with addiction a path that leads them to a lifelong sobriety as well as a lifestyle free of drugs (Miller, 2015). Helping the clients and families with addicts will involve counseling them about the problem, creating a therapeutic alliance with the clients and the families, encouraging the patient's recovery, and assisting the client and the family in coming up with a relapse prevention plan. I will meet with the family members to provide them with guidance on how to help their loved one recover and how to handle him during the process as support from families plays an integral role in addiction recovery. Being positive with setting goals will include helping the clients set attainable goals and help them achieve them one by one until they are fully recovered. Being positive will help in creating a connection with the addicts and help them towards the recovery process.

References

Davis, P., Patton, R., & Jackson, S. (2018). Addiction: Psychology and treatment. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

Miller, G. A. (2015). Learning the Language of Addiction Counseling. Hoboken, New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc.