Substance Abuse Support Programs - Essay Sample

Introduction

Addiction is characterized by compulsive drug seeking behavior or an intense desire to use drugs despite chronic medical or social condition including the risk of death. A wide range of treatment options are available to curb addiction. The 12-step program is one such intervention measure. Though the 12-step program has its origin in the Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) the program has been extended to cover the Narcotic Anonymous (NA) and the Cocaine Anonymous (CA). In the AA, CA and NA groups addicts come together to help each other in the recovery process. This paper gives and an account of the group meetings I attended.

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Day 1

On the 29th day of February 2019, I attended an AA meeting. The meeting took place at Lambda Place and started at 6.00 pm. The session consisted of 9 men, three white, four African American and 2 Hispanic. Two of the black were part of the Born Again group and expressed their praise that the attendance had improved significantly and the frequency of meetings was applaudable.

The meeting opened with a serenity prayer and a reading of the AA preamble. The teacher then asked attendees to share our spiritual path to sobriety. Members told their personal stories and references throughout the stories were made to the Christian God and how reading from the bible had helped them cope with the desire to drink. Most people referenced God's plan and God responding to prayer. One member quoted a reading from the Bible, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can endure it." (Bible, 1st Corinthian 10:13). Member applauded the member for the reading. The element of storytelling from a biblical standpoint was compelling and perhaps the most effective part of the AA meeting. I found the religious component and heightened focus of members being able to take charge of averting temptation to drink by drawing strength from a higher deity very helpful. Member reliance on divine intervention through prayers rather than some sort of evidence-based treatment option may lead to positive outcomes as the intervention is solely based on completely avoiding the drink rather than cutting it in small quantities. Members oppressed optimism that sooner they will have cut out on alcohol dependence.

Shaw, (2012) argues that addiction is a spiritual problem and must first be labeled as a sin. He further asserts that the Bible declares sins of addictive nature as spiritual problems that enslave, dominate and devastate those who give in to the bad habits and idolatrous desires. Citing from the Bible, Shaw affirms that sacrifice and denial are key to overcome denial for a renewal of their well-being. The members seemed to approach their recovery journey through a biblical approach by self-denial and completely avoiding alcohol. One attendee described how they could not even take one drink lest they drink more. The group largely conformed with the overall aspect of AA which calls for alcoholism recovery path by incorporating spiritual guidance.

Day 2

On the 1st day of March 2019, I attended a Cocaine Anonymous meeting discussion meeting for women. The meeting was held in a quiet and serene southern part of City Park at 10.00 am. The group consisted of 8 people, five whites, two black and one Indian American. All the attendees had attended the program for less than five times since they joined. Unlike the previous meeting, the CA meeting had invited former drug addict to share his story and how he overcame a cocaine addiction.

The meeting began with a serenity prayer, a daily reflection and a reading of the CA preamble. Following the opening readings, persons were told to share their personal stories about how they are doing in their recovery process and whether they had experienced changes. One attendee said that the withdrawal symptoms he experienced are getting worse. She noted that the hangovers were getting worse and he had sniffed cocaine several times that week. She further said that her hands were shaky and could not catch a sleep. Another member, a black lady, amid tears admitted that he had used cocaine severally. She said that the feeling of using the drug just once keeps recurring. She says that she used the drug and the feeling was explosive. Even after the drug effects wore off she could hear, "only once" voice. In the rest of the stories shared one person, had not used stayed off from cocaine use.

The guest thanked the members for admitting their difficulty in coping but praised them more for coming back as it showed that they were willing to recover from the drug use menace. The speaker shared his story from the way he started cocaine use at the age of 14 and how he had quit the behavior aged 37. He expressed optimism in the CA groups around the city as they had offered him multiple chances in his recovery process. He proposed a thirty-day challenge to help stay clean and sober. He advised members to stay away from cocaine selling agents and be in public areas most of the time. Moreover, the challenge would require them to phone the coach whenever they felt like sniffing cocaine. He advised that putting alcohol and cigarettes at home was not a good option as one could use the substance as a compensatory substance for lack of cocaine. Simply put, the challenge called for reducing the number of times one would fall into the habit.

The meeting ended with a thanksgiving prayer. Fliers on coping with addiction were distributed to all members for their own use and to give other people willing to recover.

Day 3

The Narcotic Anonymous meeting took place at the Stumptown Coffee Roasters on 2nd March 2019 at 10.30 am. The coffee shop was light brown themed and was quite cool. The room felt safer and welcoming. I was greeted with incredible warmth. The attendees were 6 blacks and 3 whites.

The meeting started with the serenity prayer. The group encouraged me to participate by asking me to read the twelve prayers. After and applause from the team, the teacher stated he had brought vape pens to showcase to the group. According to Rubin (2019), e-cigarettes owe their origin to Herbert Gilbert in the early 1960s who patented the smokeless non-tobacco cigarettes. The teacher explained that the E-cig consists of a battery, tube, and a heating element and something to create the vapor called an e-juice. The e-juice is a mixture of propylene, glycol, glycerin, flavors. The vapor delivers an intended taste and sensation to the user imitating the usual tobacco cigarettes. The teacher maintained that the e-cigarette as a better tool for combatting the harmful effects of tobacco. Each member was presented with an e-cigarette. The e-cigs were a donation by the local rehabilitation center.

The teacher then raised the topic of what member thought of the e-cig. Members were asked to use the devices briefly and contribute their views of what they thought about the e-cig including previous rumors as well as perceived pros and cons of the devices. One attendee after blowing away the smoke said that the taste is much pleasant and the nicotine content is much lower than conventional cigarettes. Another attendee indicated that that vaping was cool and offered a no pressure approach to quitting smoking. Another attendee said that he felt nothing apart from the flavors a feeling he called "terrible."

The teacher thanked the contributors and asserted that the e-cig indeed contained cocaine and since all were former cigarette smokers, it only aided in cutting the amount of nicotine. Moreover, she said that e-cig was a better way of avoiding relapse in smoking. The teacher cited from pros and cons from an article by National Center for Health Research (NCHR) (2018) authored by De Bravo, Gottschalk, Fraga, and Hirschfield in which they found that though FDA had not approved e-cig for quitting smoking, they offered a better alternative. The intervention program adopted by the group mostly involved cutting on progressive cutting down of nicotine. The meeting ended with short comments from every attendee and finally a short thanksgiving prayer. Articles from NHCR were distributed to everyone.

The meetings offered a platform for learning on the various intervention strategies adopted by addicts. The meetings were also illustrative of the successes and challenges faced by anonymous groups in the country. The intervention programs described in the article were reported at the start and middle sessions of the program and are not conclusive.

References

De Bravo, B., Gottschalk, L., Fraga, J., & Hirschfield, J. (2018, October 8). Is Vaping Safer than Smoking Cigarettes? Retrieved from http://www.center4research.org/vaping-safer-smoking-cigarettes-2/

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers.

Rubin, E. (2019, January 13). History of Vaping. Retrieved from https://originvape.com/blogs/vapinginfo/history-of-vaping

Shaw, M. (2012, February 27). Is 'Addiction? Rooted in a Disease, Demon, or Decision? Retrieved from https://biblicalcounselingcoalition.org/2012/02/27/is-addiction-rooted-in-a-disease-demon-or-decision/