Life Skills for the Substance Abuse Client

In this world, true independence is somewhat difficult to find. In one way or another, everybody depends significantly on their family, colleagues, friends including instances of unseen masses to support their daily lives. It might be quite practical to find people who depend on the television to cool down after a long day’s work. However, it is quite important to note that such dependencies may at times cause harm to the society or an individual. The most conspicuous dependencies may include a state of psychological or physical reliant on substances. This is sometimes known as substance abuse. The dire consequences of substance abuse often lead to compulsive dependence.

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The most probable consequence of this includes societal, or personal harm often referred to as addiction. In turn, this may lead to what is known as addictive behaviors (Krasikova, Lester, & Harms, 2015). Addictive behaviors refer to traits or habits that may go beyond control so that they result in certain negative consequences on a person's health.

The essay presents behaviors, attitudes, life skills, knowledge, and other issues related to substance abuse. The essay is meant to address substance abuse, and the context of the presentation is based on counselling.

Substance abuse behaviors to address

 Compulsion - compulsion is a substance abuse behavior that is associated with an increased need to perform something that is associated with certain drug use. The main aim of the inclusion of this trait in this presentation is mainly due to the adverse effects associated with the behavior (Winters et al., 2018). At times compulsion may grow from the mere need to perform a behavior to something concerning detailed plans about when and how to engage in the behavior in future.

 Loss of control - This is one of the most common substance abuse behaviors. Most of the substance abusers often find it quite difficult to stop their addiction and urge to engage in the different substances. Their independence is utterly lost to the respective substance.

 Reinforcement behaviors - this behavior describes the need to use substances to set a mood of pleasure which most of the time is false and only destined to last for a short while.

 Escalation - mainly associated with hardcore drug users who need their drugs to increase with every use. However, escalating behaviors are not solely limited to hardcore drug abusers; they also refer to any simple drug use that is nursed from its initial stages.

Basic life skills that substance abusers may find helpful

 Emotional coping skills - refers to the ability to effectively handle emotional issues. In this case, addiction is highly associated with sentimental behaviorism, which at times may lead to certain social problems. Substance abusers are often known to thrive on the heights of their emotions and most of the time; they somewhat do not know how to be handled based on their feelings. With the introduction of such skills, substance abusers may be taught how to act in ways that are not counter-intuitive to their happiness

 Just as seen earlier, most of the addicts are often victims of their emotional reactions and behaviors. In one way or another, this always works in ways that mar their communication with people around them. Effective communication skills may be used to help such individuals to communicate their feelings and thoughts, which eventually may help them build effective relationships. This may further help them improve in their struggle with drugs.

 Conflict resolution skills - most of the addicts have little ideas on how to engage and apply this skill. Whenever such persons have issues with people around them, they tend to fight back or engage further in drugs which increase their levels of addiction.

Knowledge, skills, and attitudes that will contribute to positive change

 Goal setting and accountability - substance abusers, should acknowledge that being accountable is quite a critical component towards a healthy living. They should also know that the setting and achieving attainable goals requires significant discipline. Accountability and goal setting may be directed towards the individual and communal good (Zemore & Ajzen, 2014).

Figure 1: Illustration: Goal setting and accountability

Here, addicts need to know the importance of:

A) recreating their lives with the help of intent and goals

B) staying focused and organized

C) Harboring effective beliefs and attitudes in the work, career and the general societal context.

 Financial responsibility - most of the recovering addicts often have significant struggles with their finances. By the time they are reaching full recovery, there is usually a higher likelihood that they will be grappling with significant debts, bad credit and even sometimes legal problems. This can be addressed better with the help of issues such as financial sobriety, responsible money management, and other apt money management practices.

Figure 2: Illustration: Financial responsibility

 Physical health and well-being - This refers to a wide spectrum of the substance abusers such as emotional, physical and spiritual issues. Physical health and well-being skills and knowledge may be administered to individuals grappling with drug addiction to help them take up good wellness and health habits in their day-to-day lives as part of the long-term addiction recovery practices.