Conceptualizing Addiction Paper

Conceptualized Addiction Paper

Working with Addictions

Stephany Jones

BSHS/455

February 29, 2016

Dr. Linda Johnson

Conceptualized Addiction Paper

No one is immune from addiction; it afflicts people of all ages, races, classes, and professions.  

~ Patrick J. Kennedy

Introduction

The idea of conceptualizing addiction seems highly speculative.  Since addiction has been around for centuries, conceptualizing addiction feels like a gaggle of scholars arguing what came first; the addiction or the family history of addiction.  It's logical to acknowledge that certain addicts have a predisposition to addiction; be it psychological, genetic, socio-economic, psychosocial or medical.  However when probed for their chemical use history and or familial history, an intergenerational addict may acknowledge multiple contributors for use or substance abuse in spite of the consequences.

Since the author of this paper works in the methadone modality of treatment, medical and psychological have been selected as the two main explanatory frameworks. Methadone programs have always struggled with a bad reputation with sketchy clinics in ghetto neighborhoods filled with drug addicts who are merely substituting one opiate for another.  Since this modality of treatment is based on harm reduction, oftentimes methadone clinicians are viewed merely as juice bar servers.  In this case, the myth is that clients simply want methadone product and not the treatment which accompanies it. Based on personal experience, oftentimes methadone clients are struggling and truly want the assistance. This paper will engage two conceptual models of addiction, and will compare and contrast the two models side by side.  It will describe how the models are synergistic and how they have competing views.  And lastly, it will summarize which theory is most helpful with intervening with addiction based on this author’s opinion.  

Comparison and Contrast

The next section of this paper will compare and contrast medical and psychological concepts of addiction.  The first is the medical theory of addiction.  In this theory, the addiction is often referred to as a disease and is usually treated pharmaceutically by medically trained practitioners.  Most notably, clients are considered to have a genetic predisposition to use alcohol or other drugs (Cherubin & Sapira, 1993).  This does not mean that a child of an alcoholic parent will in all certainty become an alcoholic; instead, these individuals have a greater tendency to abuse alcohol or drugs over someone who doesn’t have a history of drug use in their family of origin.

With the psychological concept, the notion of chemical use is generally considered to be a coping strategy for underlying problems.  Most often, clients with psychological needs or emotional issues - such as anxiety or depression – attribute the onset of drug use being aimed at trying to numb other symptoms.  The notion of self-medication asserts that addiction is brought on in an attempt to self-medicate and escape suffering, and remedy negative effects of underlying mental health issues (Khantzian, 1997).  It is the author of this paper asserts that the psychological concept becomes a slippery slope; specifically once addiction compounds unmet mental health issues.

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