Abnormal Psychology - Personal Statement Example

Due: Personality disorder: Alcohol dependence Introduction A serving of wine during dinner, a cocktail at a gala night event, a beer with friends, people interact with alcohol on many platforms. Alcohol makes its appearance in various parts of our lives. As easy as it is to ask for a second round, people forget that alcohol is addictive; physically and psychologically. Research from the National Health Service (NHS) indicate that men exhibit signs of alcohol dependence twice as much as women do.

What alcohol dependence means is that; drinking alcohol becomes an essential factor in an individual’s life in such a way that the individual feels that he/she cannot function without it (Maars, and Jeffrey, p 16). Degrees of alcohol dependence vary, and do not always arise from excessive drinking and/or abuse of alcohol. If an individual is unable to relax and enjoy himself/herself without having a drink, he/she couldbe exhibiting signs of psychological dependence on alcohol. The following case study involves Bozie Bradley, currently residing in Ontario, who has a history of heavy drinking which had escalated in the recent 3 months.

His behavior on alcohol control has been deteroriating, exhibiting serious characteristics of alcohol dependence.Discussion Viola Fairwhite, Bozie’s sister, sought help from Dr.Kelvin Navas, Bozie’s psychologist, about her brother’s condition. Dr. Navas was determined to help Bozie manage his condition, and rehabilitate from the personality disorder. Bozie had gone a milestone ahead to manage his condition but there was more to his cause of the condition that forced him to keep on going back to alcohol abuse.

The siblings were brought up by a single father. They lost their mother at 6 years and 15 years for Bozie and Viola respectively. Bozie was very young at the time as compared to his sister. Since he could not bear the pain, he ended up skipping classes. Most of the time he was too debilitated to perform any chores. Their father was an ‘occassional drinker’ who only drank on special occasions such as holidays; when he was not at work. When at work, he left his ‘bottle’ unattended to in the drawers and had no idea that his son would, in his wildest senses, think of touching the bottle leave alone drinking the contents.

Now, at 37, Bozie is a heavy drunkard and suffers from multiple conditions. When asked by Dr. Navas why he keeps going back to this behavior, Bozie replies by saying that he is ‘self medicating.’ The doctor explains to Viola that the reason as to why Bozie keeps on going back to his old habits is that, he thinks that by depending on alcohol he is able to ‘cure’/ reduce the symptoms. In the previos three months, he had exhibited severe depression mostly caused by the traumatizing event that led to the loss of his mother. Dr. Navas had also diagonized him with post-traumatic stress disorder and drug misuse.

His psychiatric disorder had serious consequences in his life. He used to skip afternoon shifts at his workplace, Denvark and Co. Ltd , which led to him being sacked. Bozie exhibited extreme conditions of psychiatric disorders when at one time he attempted to commit suicide. This was immediately after being sacked from his work place. His sister came to his rescue and even took a bold step of reporting the case to the authorities. His case was forwarded to the Ontario Provincial Post who later forwaded the case to Portage Ontario, a residential substance abuse rehabilitation centre, claiming that the case was not criminal in any nature and was a case of mental disorder.

In collaboration with Dr. Navas, the centre concluded that Bozie had developed a tolerance to alcohol. This refers to a physiological response that individuals have to any drug; the more they consume, the more their bodies needs to have the same effect. Due to his drinking habit, the enzymes in his liver that are responsible for metabolizing alcohol had increased which lead to increased tolerance. His brain systems had also developed tolerance and adapted; everyday they ‘expected’ alcohol.

The immediate treatment that Dr. Navas called for was his withdrawal from alcohol. This was to test his kind of dependence on the substance. This was aimed at ‘reseting’ his tolerance.Though it was effective, the treatment was a little too late. Seeing that his dependence had been reduced, Dr. Navas decided to check on his health status. That is when he discovered that Bozie’s liver had been severely damaged from a condition referred to as ‘liver cirrhosis.’ With the help of his sister, Bozie was immediately booked for counselling sessions with Professor Ashton, an Ontario based counsellor, who had the task of ensuring that he had cut out alcohol completely from his life.

Viola became vigilant on his brother’s behavior due to the risk of losing him. Professor Ashton recommended that Bozie should not drink again in the name of ‘relief drinking’ or moderate drinking. He was to be kept on watch by; Viola, Dr. Navas, and Professor Ashton for six months regularly honoring his appointments with the doctor and counsellor so as to fully recover from withdrawal effects.Conclusion From Bozie’s case, it is clear that alcohol dependence is a serious personality disorder.

It is advised that people should refrain themselves from regularly drinking more than 4-5 units of alcohol and 3-4 units of alcohol for men and women respectively which are the daily unit guidelines.ReferencesMaars, Jeffrey V.. Alcohol dependence and addiction. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2012.