STAGES OF DRUG ADDICTION Stage 1: Experimentation - Voluntary use

2. STAGES OF DRUG ADDICTION • Stage 1: Experimentation- Voluntary use • Occurrence can be without desire to continue using • Can be problematic when it results into nextstage of addiction: regular use. • Stage 2: Regular Use- Some can enter this stage without developing a dependence or addiction. • - Others have te risk for substance abuse increases greatly during this stage. • Stage 3: Risky Use/Abuse- Defined as continued use of drugs in spite of the consequences. • - Warning signs of addiction appears in this stage such as: craving, preoccupation • with the drug, • - symptoms of depression, irritability and fatigue if the drug is not used. • Stage 4: Drug Addiction and Dependency- withdrawal symptoms • - compulsive use of the drug despite severe negative consequences

3. WHY DO SOME DRUG USERS BECOME ADDICTED, • WHILE OTHERS DON’T? • As with many other conditions and diseases, vulnerability to addiction differs from person to person. • Your genes, mental health, family and social environment all play a role in addiction. • Risk factors that increase your vulnerability include: • Family history of addiction • Abuse, neglect, or other traumatic experiences in childhood • Mental disorders such as depression and anxiety • Early use of drugs • Method of administration—smoking or injecting a drug may increase its addictive potential

4. DRUG ADDICTION AND THE BRAIN While each drug produces different physical effects, all abused substances share one thing in common: repeated use can alter the way the brain looks and functions. Taking a recreational drug causes a surge in levels of dopamine in your brain, which trigger feelings of pleasure. Your brain remembers these feelings and wants them repeated. If you become addicted, the substance takes on the same significance as other survival behaviours, such as eating and drinking. Changes in your brain interfere with your ability to think clearly, exercise good judgment, control your behaviour, and feel normal without drugs. It doesn’t matter what you are addicted too, the uncontrollable craving to use grows more important than anything else, including family, friends, career, and even your own health and happiness. The urge to use is so strong that your mind finds many ways to deny or rationalize the addiction. You may drastically underestimate the quantity of drugs you’re taking, how much it impacts your life, and the level of control you have over your drug use.

5. 5 MYTHS ABOUT DRUG ABUSE AND ADDICTION MYTH 1: Overcoming addiction is a simply a matter of willpower. MYTH 2: Addiction is a disease; there’s nothing you can do about it. MYTH 3: Addicts have to hit rock bottom before they can get better. MYTH 4: You can’t force someone into treatment; they have to want help. MYTH 5: Treatment didn’t work before, so there’s no point trying again.

6. NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF DRUG ADDICTION • Different drugs have different long term effects, however some common symptoms include: • - Heightened anxiety or panic attacks • - Psychosis • - Memory or attention loss • - Severe depression • - Significant weight loss • - Liver problems • - Heart problems • Sexual problems (including impotence)

7. THEORIES ON ADDICTIONS • MEDICAL THEORY: • - View addictions as an illness. • Brain chemistry are different between addicts and non addicts. • genetic component of addiction within families, • significant correlation found between the presence of alcoholism in at least one • biological parent, and the development of alcoholism in the child, whether they • were raised in an alcoholic environment or not. Descendants of alcoholics • metabolized alcohol differently than relatives of non-alcoholics. • SIN THEORY: • Many religious groups sees addictions as a sinful act. • Some extreme religious groups belief that an addiction is of a demonic nature. The belief is once the demon is taken care of, then the person will be delivered of his addictions.

8. MORAL THEORY: The moral model states that addictions are the result of human weakness, and are defects of character. Those who advance this model do not accept that there is any biological basis for addiction. They often have little sympathy for people with serious addictions, They believe that a person with greater moral strength could have the force of will to break an addiction. The moral model is widely applied to dependency on illegal substances, perhaps purely for social or political reasons, but is no longer widely considered to have any therapeutic value.

9. INTERVENTION PLAN • MOTIVATIONAL INTERVIEWING • first described by Miller (1983) in an article published in Behavioural Psychotherapy. • It’s is a semi-directive, client-centered counselling style that help client to explore and resolve undecisiveness. • This method works on facilitating and motivating the client in order to change behaviour. • Motivational interviewing recognizes and accepts the fact that clients are • at different levels of readiness to change their behaviour. • In order for a therapist to be successful at motivational interviewing, four basic skills should first be established: • These skills include: • - Open ended questions • - The ability to provide affirmations, • the capacity for reflective listening, and the ability to periodically provide • summary statements to the client.

10. MI is non-judgmental, non-confrontational and non-adversarial. • MI attempts to increase the client's awareness of the potential problems caused, consequences experienced, and risks faced as a result of the behaviour in question. • This strategy seeks to help clients think differently about their behaviour and ultimately consider what might be gained through change. • focuses on the present, encouraging a client to change a particular behaviour, that is not consistent with a client's personal value or goal. • Warmth, genuine empathy, and unconditional positive regard are necessary to foster therapeutic gain within motivational interviewing. • It is critical to meet the clients where they are, and to not force a client towards change when they have not expressed a desire to do so. • Focus on pros & cons of change vs not changing.

11. STRATEGIES TO BE USED THROUGH THE MI ARE: Developing discrepancy: exploring the discrepancy between how clients want their lives to be vs. how they currently are. Help client examine the discrepancies between current behaviour and future goals. Client may become more motivated to make important life changeswhen they can see that current behaviours is not contributing positively to important future goals. Express empathy: Empathy involves seeing the world through the client's eyes, thinking about things as the client thinks about them, feeling things as the client feels them, sharing in the client's experiences. When clients feel that they are understood, they open up more to share their experiences with the counsellor. The counsellor's accurate understanding of the client's experience facilitates change.

12. Support self-efficacy. This entails assisting the client to move toward change successfully and with confidence. Clients are held responsible for choosing and carrying out actions to change in the MI approach, Counsellors focus their efforts on helping the clients stay motivated, and supporting clients' sense of self-efficacy. In the Motivational interviewing approach there is no "right way" to change, and if a given plan for change does not work, clients are only limited by their own creativity as to the number of other plans that might be tried.

13. Ten stages and processes Consciousness-Raising—increasing awareness through information, education, and personal feedback about the healthy behaviour. Dramatic Relief—feeling fear, anxiety, or worry because of the unhealthy behaviour, or feeling inspiration and hope when they hear about how people are able to change to healthy behaviours. Self-Reevaluation—realizing that the healthy behaviour is an important part of who they are and want to be. Environmental Reevaluation—realizing how their unhealthy behaviour affects others and how they could have more positive effects by changing. Social Liberation—realizing that society is more supportive of the healthy behaviour.

14. Self-Liberation—believing in one’s ability to change and making commitments and re-commitments to act on that belief. Helping Relationships—finding people who are supportive of their change. Counter-Conditioning—substituting healthy ways of acting and thinking for unhealthy ways. Reinforcement Management—increasing the rewards that come from positive behaviour and reducing those that come from negative behaviour. Stimulus Control—using reminders and cues that encourage healthy behaviour as substitutes for those that encourage the unhealthy behaviour.