Advanced Phases of Recovery: Surrender and Recovery - Assignment Example

Chapter 11: Advanced Phases of Recovery: Surrender and Recovery An adolescent who undergo a recovery from addiction goes through a progressive stage. Surrendering oneself to a recovery program, accepting that he needs help is the initial stage of recovery process. This lasts from six to twelve months. The adolescent must accept the goal to stay sober and to believe that he could be sober. The second step is to accept the goal of recovering sound judgment and clear thinking. This is to accept that there should be a development of the spiritual aspect of the self and to articulate one’s own beliefs. The third step is to trust the recovery program and the individuals helping him go through it. The participant should be involved in the therapy not just listen to the sessions and try to recover on your own. He should accept the help that is being given to him. Also, there should be acceptance of guilt and shame over the moral failings that have gone throughout the addiction. And with this acceptance comes the willingness to make amends with those wrongdoings. This resolves the guilt and shame that was brought about by the addiction. The recovery should not just focus on staying sober but also in eliminating the negative feelings that was caused by the addiction. If the adolescent is successful in trying to be sober but is not able to accept and to resolve the negative emotions then the recovery is incomplete. The recover has four dimensions: physical, spiritual, vocational or educational and social recovery. Chapter 12: Individuation in Recovery Individuation is the formation of one’s identity based on his innate characteristics such as: temperament, abilities and talents, and interests. The end product of individuation is a psychologically autonomous individual who is unique and a representative of his culture. The core elements of individuation are: willpower, the ability to make choices and decisions and to know what one wants, self-control, the capacity to delay, deny or pursue a goal, and morality, the development of a coherent set of internal ethics, ideals and values. Three factors affect the outcome of individuation: interaction with peers, family and the culture. Individuation is an active process and it starts with peer selection. This functions as a facilitator of the willpower of the adolescent, provider of needs that the parents did not fully meet, and a developer of relationships. It is also a leverage in seeking out freedom and separation from the parents. With the recovery program, the adolescent is able to discover and understand the development of self-control and prosocial attitude and behavior. With this, more intimate relationships gradually replace peer group as a source of security and support. The family gives support in development of self-control, spirituality and ethical morality. Culture is based on the set of values and ethics that defines the social structure that the individual lives within. It creates social control and personality development. Individuation is successful when the adolescent manages to balance the roles and understanding the function of the three factors. This builds self-esteem and confidence that was lost during the time of the addiction. Chapter 13: Family Recovery Substance abuse does not only affect the addict but also the people living with him. His family experiences codependence, the process of adapting to the issues and problems of the addict. Instead of helping the addict, the family slows down for him. Codependence starts out with concern and helpfulness but it eventually progresses to resentment and guilt and eventually, alienation and bitterness. The goal of family recovery is acceptance of the effects of substance abuse, not only to the addict, but also to the entire household. Common forms of enabling are: avoidance, rationalizing, covering up and capitulating. This is a process to get in touch with enabling, in which, the household supports the addict and wouldn’t allow them to fall down. This unconsciously permits a continuation of the addiction rather than a stop to it. Enabling affects the family in the long run the same as codependence does. The feelings of concern and helpfulness eventually end up in bitterness and guilt. Family recovery then opens up these feelings for them to accept it and turn it into a positive energy to also help the addict. 12-step programs are developed in order to help the addicts and their families to recover from the problem of addiction. It is traditionally associated with group therapy, which is a source of support and encouragement. Social support is very important in stress management, especially when recovering from the stress of being dependent on mood altering chemicals. The first three to four meetings of a 12-step program is the hardest and the most crucial as it deals with the addict’s acceptance of his problem. Also, in this stage, the addict is in the process of building trust with the coordinator or with the people within the group, that they can help him sober up. Chapter 14: Working with Families: Structure and Communication There are issues that need to be worked out regarding the family to maintain the recovery of the substance abusers and also to prevent other adolescents from going into the same path. Components of a functional family includes: limits, support and direction. Limits provide expectations, rules and the consequences of breaking the rules. This creates control and evaluation of values and priorities. Without this, they tend to be willful and impulsive. Excessive standards, though, do not give room for individuation and will cause a dysfunction in parent-child relationship. Support from parent to child establishes trust in adults, thus, resulting to a good and respectful relationship with other people. Trust in the family maintains cohesiveness within and creates an environment of affection, sympathy, encouragement and comfort. Direction creates the goal that the family moves with and to. These are the priorities and values which creates interdependence and cohesiveness within the family. Each member has his own role to play to maintain the direction of the family. With substance abuse, communication of the abuser with his family decreases. Opening channels of communication creates avenues for both the family and the abuser to express themselves and to deal with the problem. Failure to communicate will result to alienation and this increases dependence of the abuser to chemicals since they are not able to express their thoughts and feelings coherently including the fear of being misunderstood. Conflict resolution is important to deal with the issues of substance abuse. Conflict resolution goes through three steps: confrontation, listening and negotiation. This allows the members of the family and the addict to face each other while communicating in the direction of fixing the problem. Chapter 15: Group Treatment of Adolescents and Young Adults: The Therapeutic Tribe Because of the need for individuation, the youth faces the pressure of peer group and personal values during adolescence to find their group where they could feel belongingness and comfort. There is a desire to be included in a tribe, much more known as cliques, that bears the same values that they have or that bears priorities that they believe are important. This shows how culture is very important and detrimental to adolescent development. This tribal analogy can be used in recovery programs in order to create a plan that will create a similar kind of group for the adolescent in order to get out of the addiction. Social hierarchy can also be found in the group therapy sessions that have managed to transition into the tribe. Sponsorship is a way of establishing a foundation and hierarchy for the group members. Rite of entry than transpires in order to determine whether the newcomer is fit for the group and can follow the spoken and unspoken rules and hierarchy of the group. These rites of entry, like following the order of the introduction, create cohesiveness in the group and establish one goal and direction for the group. Meeting external expectations is important for the youth, especially those that have experienced substance abuse. It is a critical part of the recovery plan to make sure that the counselor is able to establish a set of procedures for social hierarchy and norms in order to maintain group cohesiveness and trust. The ethics of the group shall also be well-maintained, such as: punctuality, sobriety, no drug glorification, respect, no aggression and sexuality. These establish common norms and values that the abusers should have to be and to continue belonging to the group. Aside from ethics, value systems become the core of the group. This establishes and defines the group’s outlook, ideals and goals. Chapter 16: Relapse Prevention Relapse often happens early in the recovery stage. As was discussed in the previous chapters, recovery is a continuous process of changing not only the habits of addiction of the adolescent but also changing their attitudes, behavior and personal values associated with their addiction. One approach to relapse prevention is teaching the adolescents in a recovery process to identify risky situations which triggers emotions associated with the addiction and to plan ways in coping with them or avoiding them completely. Resistance to letting go of the old habits, like listening to the same music and going out with the same friends in the same hang-out spots, and placing themselves in situations with strong associations with their addiction is part of denial and is a high-risk situation. Corrective group experiences, avoiding these high-risk situations and developing alternative relationships and lifestyle is a way of maintaining a continuous recovery process. Trigger emotions also causes relapse. These emotions like anger and frustration for males and depression and shame for females are associated with their reason for substance use. Thus, facing these emotions place them in high-risk situations as they have a tendency to relapse when confronted with the same emotions. Anger management and detachment are also ways of relapse prevention. Through this, the adolescent is able to counter negative emotions, accept oneself, and develop skills like problem-solving and assertiveness. Relapse prevention is basically, knowing themselves, identifying and accepting their faults and redirecting their lifestyle and habits in a different direction away from high-risk situations that could trigger emotions and thoughts associated with their addiction. Read More