Reclaiming Life: My Concluding Reflections on Overcoming Addiction
The study of Epidemiology
Cultural differences cause the percentage of people who get addicted to drugs or other behaviors within a given time frame (also known as the prevalence) to vary over time, between countries, and among national population demographics (e.g., by age group, socioeconomic position, etc.). Addiction will be less common in places where it is stigmatized.
- Asia
In comparison to other locations, the prevalence of alcohol dependence is not as great here. In Asia, drinking habits are influenced by both biological and socioeconomic factors.
The IAT (Internet Addiction Test) scores of 5% and the CIAS-R (Revised Chen Internet Addiction Scale) scores of 21% indicate that the Philippines has the greatest rate of internet addiction problem.
- Australia
5.1% of Australians were estimated to have a drug use disorder in 2009. A nationwide drug study was carried out in 2019 by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, which measured drug use across a range of drug categories and demographics. According to a national survey conducted in 2019, 11% of adults over the age of 14 smoke every day; 9.9% of alcohol drinkers, or 7.5% of the population over the age of 14, may be classified as alcohol dependent; 17.5% of the 2.4 million individuals who used cannabis in the previous year may have a hazardous use or dependence issue; and 63.5% of approximately 300,000 recent meth and amphetamine users were at risk of becoming problem users.
- Europe
According to estimates, the adult population’s prevalence of heavy episodic alcohol use (within the previous 30 days) was 18.4% in 2015; daily tobacco smoking was 15.2%; and cannabis, amphetamine, opioid, and cocaine use were 3.8%, 0.77%, 0.37%, and 0.35%, respectively, in 2017. Eastern Europe has the greatest rates of alcohol and illegal drug-related deaths. Evidence indicates a declining pattern in the consumption of alcohol by 15-year-olds in the majority of European nations between 2002 and 2014. In 2014, 28% of children in Europe were reported to have consumed alcohol for the first time before turning 13.w.
- Americas
According to estimates based on representative samples of the teenage population in the United States in 2011, the lifetime prevalence of alcohol and illicit substance addictions is roughly 8% and 2-3%, respectively. In 2011, the 12-month prevalence of alcohol and illicit drug addictions was estimated to be 12% and 2-3%, respectively, based on representative samples of the adult population in the United States. Approximately 4.7% of people develop a prescription drug addiction throughout their lifetime.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 43.7 million Americans aged 12 or older who were polled in 2021 need treatment for an addiction to alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs. The age categories with the largest percentage of members were “American Indian or Alaska Native” (28.7%) and 18–25 years old (25.1%). Just just over 2 million people, or 10% of the population, receive any kind of treatment at all, and those who do typically do not get evidence-based care. Addiction to dangerous substances and untreated addictions account for one-third of inpatient hospital costs and 20% of all deaths in the United States of America annually.
Nearly half of US adults know a family member or close friend who has battled drug addiction at some point in their lives, according to a 2017 Pew Research Center research.
In the United States, opioid addiction was recognized as a national epidemic in 2019. “America’s largest drug companies flooded the country with pain pills from 2006 through 2012, even when it became apparent that they were fueling addiction and overdoses,” according to a Washington Post report.
According to the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, 2.9% of adult Americans had a cannabis use disorder in 2012–2013.
- Americas South
If one only looks at epidemiological data, the reality of opioid usage and opioid use disorder in Latin America may be misleading. Despite producing 0.01% of the world’s opium and 3% of its heroin and morphine, South America has an uneven incidence of drug usage, according to a research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Although Colombia is the region’s leading producer of opium, the Inter-American Commission on Drug Abuse Control reports that heroin consumption is minimal in the majority of Latin American nations. Mexico has the highest rate of use due to its border with the United States.
Addiction and the Humanities: What Are They?
Etymology and History
Over time, the term “addiction” has acquired multiple connotations due to misunderstandings around its etymology. The word’s use in early modern Europe’s ecclesiastical landscape serves as one illustration. Back then, the word “addiction” had dual meanings: it meant “to attach” to something or become attached to it. One could categorize the object of this attachment as “good or bad”. In the early modern age, addiction was mostly connected with positive and kindness. It was perceived as a means of “devoting oneself to another” during this extremely religious period marked by Christian revivalism and Pietistic tendencies.
Research on addiction has improved our understanding of the disease, with studies on the subject going back to 1875, when it came to morphine addiction particularly. This contributed to our growing knowledge of addiction as a medical illness. Addiction was not recognized as a disease in the West until the 19th century, when it was recognized as a mental sickness as well as a medical ailment. Addiction is now recognized as a neurological and biopsychosocial illness that has a deleterious effect on its victims and is most frequently linked to drug and alcohol abuse. The manner that addiction is diagnosed and treated in medicine has altered over time due to shifting perspectives on the disease.
The finishing touches “-holic” and “-holism”
The suffix “-holic” can be applied to a subject in modern English to indicate an addiction to it. It was taken from the word alcoholism (one of the first addictions to be widely recognized in the medical and social spheres) by incorrectly splitting or rebracketing it into the words “alco” and “-holism” (the root “alcohol” plus the suffix “-ism”).
Arts
There are several approaches of using the arts to address addiction-related concerns. Therapy including art can be applied to treat substance use disorders. Painting, sculpture, writing, and music are examples of creative expression that can assist people in finding safe and healthy methods to communicate their emotions and experiences. A person’s substance use disorder may be exacerbated by underlying problems that might be found using the arts as a diagnostic technique. People can learn about their own motives and habits through art, which can be useful in choosing a therapy plan. Lastly, by bringing attention to the problem and encouraging empathy and understanding, the arts can be utilized as an advocate for people who are dealing with a substance use disorder. Through art, people may raise awareness, share their experiences, and provide comfort and hope to others who are battling drug use problems.
- Using Art as Therapy
Researchers give priority to improving treatment retention and reducing relapse rates since addiction therapy is complicated and sometimes ineffective because of issues with involvement and service availability. Substance abuse can be characterized by a lack of confidence, a sense of helplessness, communication problems, and an absence of control. Similar to this, individuals with substance use problems are frequently very sensitive and creative individuals who can probably find significant ways to express themselves through the creative arts, including acting, dance, writing, painting, and music. As Kaufman (1981) and Waller and Mahony (2002) have further demonstrated, creative arts treatments may be an appropriate course of treatment for this population, particularly in cases when verbal communication is unproductive.
The following are the main benefits of art therapy for addiction treatment:
- Evaluate and describe the substance use problems of a client.
- Getting beyond a client’s denial, resistance, and defenses
- Holding in humiliation or rage
- Encouraging the emergence of difficult or repressed feelings
- Showcasing a customer’s advantages
- Using symbols as a substitute for spoken communication
- Traditional kinds of therapy
- Giving clients a sense of control
- Addressing a sense of loneliness
A systematic review conducted in 2018 found insufficient evidence on visual art, drama, dance and movement therapy, or “arts in health” methodologies to confirm their effectiveness as interventions for reducing substance misuse, despite the large number of randomized control trials, clinical control trials, and anecdotal evidence supporting the effectiveness of art therapies for use in addiction treatment. Research has shown that music therapy can be quite helpful in promoting introspection and getting those who have been diagnosed with substance abuse ready for treatment.
- Using Art as a Tool for Assessment
An assessment instrument called the Formal Elements Art Therapy Scale (FEATS) compares the drawings made by individuals with substance use disorders to those of a control group, which consists of people without SUDs. Three of FEATS’s twelve components—Person, Realism, and Developmental—were found to be very useful in separating the drawings of people with SUDs from those without. The Person element evaluates how realistically a human feature is portrayed, the Realism element evaluates the artwork’s overall complexity, and the Developmental element evaluates the artwork’s “developmental age” in comparison to standard drawings of children and adolescents.
Clinicians can learn a great deal about the drawings of people with SUDs and compare them to those of the control group by using the FEATS evaluation tool. Healthcare professionals may quantify, standardize, and explain the visceral and abstract aspects of SUDs through formal assessments like FEATS, which enables them to make better informed treatment decisions and identify patients with more accuracy.
The Bird’s Nest Drawing is a helpful tool for picturing a client’s attachment security and is one of the other artistic evaluation techniques. This assessment technique examines the drawing’s use of color; a deficiency in color suggests a “insecure attachment,” which the client’s therapist or rehabilitation framework needs to consider.
The Kinetic Family Drawings assessment tool is a useful tool for art therapists who work with children whose parents are alcoholics. It helps children express and comprehend their family experiences while also illuminating family dynamics. Children can share their needs and experiences with parents who may be recovering from alcohol use disorder by using the KFD in family sessions. A depiction of oneself and other family members being alone could be a sign of alcoholism in the parents.
- Lobbying
Feelings of shame brought on by stigma can keep those struggling with drug use disorders from getting treatment and can obstruct the delivery of harm reduction services. It may have an impact on healthcare policies, which would make it more challenging for these people to get treatment.
Artists work to shift the public’s understanding of addiction from a morally repugnant crime to a chronic condition that requires medical attention. This type of activism can assist in shifting the focus of the battle against addiction from the legal system to the public health system.
Artists who have experienced addiction firsthand and/or gone through recovery can use art to reveal the “human face of addiction” by portraying their experiences. Through personalizing stories of addiction and recovery and dismantling the “us and them” mentality, viewers may be more likely to empathize, reject stigma and stereotypes associated with addiction, and recognize addiction as a social issue rather than a personal issue.
Santora states that the following are the primary goals of using art as a tool for advocacy in the field of drug use disorder education and prevention:
- The underlying message of addiction art exhibitions might derive from a variety of sources, but they all aim to communicate through emotions rather than through intellectually challenging or carefully guarded facts and figures. These displays have the ability to support, contradict, or stand alone as facts.
- An effective teaching tool for raising consciousness and knowledge of addiction as a disease. Exhibitions with a mix of personal narratives and visuals can make a lasting impact on a variety of audiences (such as addiction researchers and scientists, friends and family of addicts, etc.) by bringing attention to the humanity of the issue and thereby fostering empathy and understanding.
- A strategy to de-stigmatize substance use disorders and change the public’s opinion of them from being a moral failing to a chronic medical illness that needs to be treated.
- Reassure those who are battling addiction, offer support for their recovery, and let them know they are not alone in their battle.
- Using visual arts can aid in drawing attention to the deficiencies in a healthcare system’s prevention, education, and treatment of substance abuse. Recommendations can be made to federal, state, and local officials to increase funding for addiction treatment and prevention.
The “Voice” project brought together poetry, art, and stories written by women who had experienced addiction in the past. Its goals were to fight stigma, investigate how women perceive harm reduction, and provide a voice to individuals who have traditionally been marginalized or silenced. Women with histories of drug use and addiction collaborated with a nurse to develop artistic expressions at weekly gatherings organized by nurses knowledgeable about mainstream systems, aesthetics, feminism, and substance use. The community responded well to the creations that were displayed at a number of events, such as an international conference on drug-related harm, a nursing conference, and a local gallery.
- Narrative Technique and Substance Abuse
Using narrative analysis to examine the discourse of persons with addiction, narrative medicine to addiction focuses on identifying, taking in, and analyzing the stories of those who are afflicted with addiction in order to gain a deeper knowledge of their experiences. With the use of this knowledge, more effective treatment regimens and improved patient compliance may result from improved care plans.
To understand more about the drive and ambivalence that are inherent in recovery during the duration of a residential treatment program, a narrative study examined and demonstrated the cognitive and emotional inclinations among substance abusers during treatment periods. Upon comprehensive examination, seven story categories were identified: balanced, troubled/confused, optimistic, overly optimistic, pessimistic, overly pessimistic, “tough life,” and optimistic. Early in the course of treatment, narratives typically expressed a basic degree of emotionality (“optimistic” or “pessimistic” narrative). Clients’ experiences became increasingly intricate and comprehensive as they moved through the program, including details about their drug misuse and attempts at recovery. As a result, more dubious viewpoints toward therapy started to surface. As they gained the ability to discriminate between the advantages and disadvantages of their treatment, clients started to tell more “balanced” stories.
Older persons are more susceptible to substance use disorders due to increased medicine use, social isolation, financial concerns, and other causes. The prevalence of addiction within this demographic is given erroneously. Narrative therapy is a useful therapeutic approach in applied gerontology because it may be used to uncover stories of addiction in an empowering way. Making ensuring the client feels valued and at ease sharing information is crucial when treating substance misuse in older individuals. When the therapist and older adult are first building their therapeutic relationship, this is the appropriate thing to do. One useful method that can take into account the combined consequences of ageism, physical changes, social changes, and substance misuse is the social breakdown model.
- Philosophies
From a philosophical standpoint, folk psychology, more especially the belief-desire model, can explain the behavior of many addicts that cannot be explained by executive dysfunction or medical causes. In line with this concept, an individual obtains and consumes a substance or engages in an addictive behavior with the hope that it will assist them in reaching their objective.
Final Thoughts | Addiction In Case Work Hub
As the Case Work Hub blog series comes to an end, let’s not forget that there is always more to learn and do in order to comprehend and overcome addiction. Even though this blog may be coming to an end, many people and communities around the world are still fighting addiction. We’ve examined many facets of addiction, illuminating its intricacies, effects, and possible avenues for healing.
But it’s important to understand that there isn’t a solution that works for everyone. The complexity of addiction necessitates individualized strategies that take into account each person’s requirements and situation.
Although this blog series may not have addressed every facet of addiction in detail, I hope it has spurred discussions, increased awareness, and offered insightful information to both those who are struggling with addiction and those who work in the field. Let’s keep encouraging one another, fighting for easily accessible treatment programs, and attempting to eradicate the stigma associated with addiction.
By working together, we can build a culture that is more understanding and compassionate and where those who are struggling with addiction may obtain the support and assistance they require to start the healing process.”
image courtesy
NastyaSensei, Victor Freitas, Antoni Shkraba ,cottonbro studio