Suffering from Depression - Essay Example

Low mood is the primary symptom of depression and often clients in pursuit of getting rid of these negative emotions resort to abusing narcotics that do more harm than good. As it is also observed in patient care units, individuals suffering from depression become so heavily dependent on the narcotic that discontinuation is followed by severe withdrawal symptoms. The individual also resorts to increasing the number of drugs taken, which can lead to the individual dying as a result of an overdose. Drug abuse can also result in the individual partaking in activities that may be regretted later which can exacerbate the depression experienced by the individual. (Jaekel et.al. 2009)

Drug abuse is equally detrimental to depression and can seriously hamper one’s social and occupational functioning. Therefore, to help the individual avoid addictive behavior, the clinician must try to effectively treat the depression and if not, client psycho-education helps get them to avoid undesirable behavior. Clinicians must explain to them the detrimental repercussions of drug abuse and their vulnerability to it so that clients do not indulge in such behavior. Clinicians must keep a check on their clients and if by any chance, they do start abusing drugs the problem must be tackled when it is at its initial stage, to prevent the problem from developing further and causing even more problems. (Maisto, 2010, p. 343) Read More