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ALCOHOLISM TREATMENT TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES: EDUCATION

admin — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 17:07:51 +0000

In addition to self-awareness, the client also needs education about alcohol, the drug, and the disease of alcoholism. Provide facts and data. A host of pamphlets are available from state alcohol agencies, insurance companies, and AA. Everyone likes to understand what is going on with them. This is becoming increasingly apparent in all areas of medicine. Some institutions have hired client educators. Client education sessions on diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and care of newborns are becoming commonplace. The importance of education has two thrusts in alcoholism. The first is to help instill new attitudes toward alcoholism: that it is a disease, has recognizable signs, and is treatable. The hope is to elicit the alcoholic’s support in helping to manage and treat his problem. The other reason for educating alcoholics is to handle feelings of guilt and low self-esteem. The chances are pretty good that the alcoholic’s behavior has been downright crazy, and not just to others. It has also been inexplicable to the alcoholic. The fact that he has been denying a problem confirms this. There is no need to deny something unless it is so painful, so out of step with values, that it cannot be tolerated. Learning facts about alcohol and alcoholism can be a big relief to the alcoholic. Suddenly, things make sense. All the crazy behavior becomes normal, at least for an active alcoholic. That / makes a significant difference. Successful recovery appears to be related to a client’s acceptance of the disease concept. Energy can be applied to figuring out how one can live around the disease, live successfully, now. The client is relieved of the need to hash around back there, in the past, to uncover causes, to figure out what went wrong. He need not dwell on his craziness; it becomes merely a symptom, one that he isn’t doomed to reexperience if he works on maintaining sobriety.
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SOCIOCULTURAL THEORIES ABOUT BDD CAUSE: BUT DO SOCIOCULTURAL INFLUENCES FUEL NOT ONLY NORMAL APPEARANCE CONCERNS BUT ALSO BDD?

admin — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 16:08:31 +0000

But do sociocultural influences fuel not only normal appearance concerns but also BDD? About 60% of the people in my studies said that they believe society’s focus on appearance increases their BDD concerns. The constant messages about attractiveness, and the incessant portrayal of attractive people on television, in movies, and in magazines, worsens their preoccupation. But only about a quarter believe our society’s focus on appearance is a major cause of their BDD symptoms. They generally give other explanations or no explanation at all. Or they say that the media and society contribute to their symptoms but aren’t the only or the major casual factor. As one woman put it, “Magazines play a role in BDD, but they’re not the whole story because everyone sees them but everyone doesn’t get BDD.” Another agreed: “The media isn’t the cause, but it feeds into it.”
So it seems that societal messages about attractiveness do trigger increased preoccupation in some people with BDD. Many obsess more about their appearance after seeing attractive people on television or in a magazine. This seems especially likely if they compare themselves with other people or with movie stars or models. Society’s emphasis on attractiveness may also contribute to BDD’s development. That is, this emphasis may increase the risk of developing the disorder (see Figure 6, p. 160). This theory is similar to that proposed for the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. These disorders are partly biologically based, but their risk appears to be increased by a cultural ideal of thinness.
Muscle dysmorphia is a form of BDD that seems especially likely to result in good part from sociocultural pressures. Men with muscle dysmorphia obsess that their body build is too small and inadequately muscular. They think they look skinny, puny, emaciated, or dwarfed when in fact they look entirely normal or even very muscular Because this form of BDD was rarely seen until recently, it seems likely that society’s recent messages that men should be huge and muscular, combined with the availability of anabolic steroids, have channeled a vulnerability to BDD into this particular form of the disorder.
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SLEEPING PILLS: THE FIRST SLEEPING PILLS

admin — Fri, 08 May 2009 09:35:43 +0000

Insomnia is not a new disease. The ancient Egyptians remarked that one of the worst things in life is to be in bed and be unable to sleep. The word ‘hypnotic’ comes from the name of the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos. Throughout the centuries, drugs have been available to help with sleeplessness. However, as more and more hypnotic drugs have become available, more and more people have come to suffer from insomnia. It is possible that modern life is more competitive than life in the past, and insomnia becomes a symptom of modern, busy city life. It is also possible that people are more aware that there is a drug for treating insomnia, whereas in the past people suffering from insomnia would have had to put up with it rather than seek treatment Hence this gives an artificial increase in the number of people with insomnia who take sleeping pills.

The drugs. For many years, opium and alcohol were the only remedies for helping insomnia. In 1869, chloral hydrate was discovered and became the first synthetic hypnotic drug. This was widely used at that time and is still used even now. Choral hydrate is relatively short acting; it is marketed in Australia as Noctec, Dormel, and Chloralix.

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HELPFUL TRAINS OF THOUGHT FOR SELF-MANAGEMENT OF ANXIETY: RELAXATION IS THE NATURAL WAY TO PEACE OF MIND

admin — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:25:44 +0000

There are many of us who feel we want to overcome our nervous trouble through our own resources. We do not want to rely on taking sedatives and tranquillizers over a long period. We want a more natural approach to our problems:

Relaxed.

Natural to relax.

It is the natural way.

To rest, and relax, and be calm.

Natural way to gather strength.

Strength of body, and calm of mind.

Of course, this sequence of thought is absolutely true. Relaxation is nature’s way of coping with tension and anxiety. When we feel tense, something within us tells us to sit down and relax. This is the simple biological remedy for a very common condition. But the trouble is that when we go to do it, we find it hard to achieve. Through our sophisticated cultural development we have lost the biologically primitive art of simple relaxation. We need a little help to relearn it again. It is natural and simple; we just need this little help to learn again what our distant forefathers could do so easily.

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