ACA Blog

[caption id="attachment_4859" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Jennifer Bingaman"][/caption] It generally takes a couple of years for a drug or alcohol user to get to the point where they need drug treatment. People generally don’t just start out using heroin and then enter drug treatment the next week. They don’t have their first beer and then start drinking a couple of bottles of vodka the next day. Addiction is sneaky. It’s like a sneeze. You get that ominous tingle in your nose. You maybe rub your nostril, get a tissue, ignore the itch, whatever you can do, but you know that feeling won’t go away. You’re going to sneeze. Probably twice. Maybe three times. Each sneeze is the addict’s equivalent of a relapse.

Milestones are important in that they can give us a built in time to reflect, recognize, regroup and plan ahead. The other day I noticed that the ACA blog list of Authors put numbers besides our names that indicates the amount of posts we have submitted. I realized for the first time that I had 50 blogs for the ACA. Ok, so I am a little late as this is actually my 52nd blog for the ACA but a little late is better than never at all; I hope you agree.

Having just finished a very long, grueling text book chapter exploring anxiety disorders my interest in existential counseling has once again been piqued. I’ve been interested in existentialism for years having studied the philosophy of Kierkegaard and the prose of Camus.

Apparently common sense has long since left the building. Hyperbole is the leading story and division is the mantra of many. Civil discourse is often ignored, a dusty tome left on a forgotten library shelf. To speak out against those who are declaring themselves the victims of this war is to be labeled an atheist, communist, socialist, pagan, devil worshiper or some other derogatory thing.

Dear Governor Christie, Last week we experienced a loss of one of the greatest icons in music who ever lived, the beloved Whitney Houston. Her music touched the hearts and souls of many across the globe and she will be dearly missed. I am proud to say that she was a fellow native of New Jersey. However, I, along with other colleagues in the field, are not necessarily angry with the tribute that is being given to her, but the missed opportunity for a teaching moment. Yes, the flags are being placed at half staff- but what message are we giving to New Jersey and the world? This is a moment in which we can use the message of Recovery to save lives in the memory of her death. She fought a long battle, and as a government official, if you are going to give her the honor that you do for other governmental officials who have fought and died in battle, then why not speak about the battle our dear Whitney Houston fought during her life. At this time, we are not sure if this disease took her precious life, however we know that she struggled with it. This is a significant moment in the history of New Jersey in which we can address the pressing issues of Addiction and Recovery.

I love Motivational Interviewing (MI). What once seemed a passing fad has stood the passage of time. MI is like Rogerian client-centered counseling meets Adlerian Reality therapy. The goal of MI is to express unconditional positive regard and empathy so that we can understand why clients want to address their problem(s) . It involves capitalizing on and strengthening their motivation for change. In order to do enhance their motivation, we must identify those moments when a client is ready for change as indicated by self-motivational statements or "change talk". Once we hear these statements from the client, we must then reduce their resistance and develop discrepancies between the client's goals, values, self-image, and current behavior. Below is a chart that contrasts Counter-motivational statements with Change Talk. Fill in the blank with any behavioral change your client is considering.

Death is a reality of life; we will all experience the death of a friend, family member, neighbor, or even a pet during our lifetime. And while death is a reality, it is also a topic that many find uncomfortable, unbearable to talk about, even tabu particularly when it is not our own loss, but someone else’s. In working with bereaved individuals, I come across horrific stories of ways in which friends and even family of those who have suffered the death of a close one have turned their back or entirely abandoned the relationship because the “death was too much to handle”. After a short three months after her teen’s son funeral, a grieving mother mentioned how her friends told her to get over it; the family of a grieving spouse and mother of two cut off any communication, and numerous others have abandoned their grieving friends simply because they did not know how to approach them or the situation. These are just a few examples of how the “support system” reacted in front of someone else’s tragedy.

[caption id="attachment_4859" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Jennifer Bingaman"][/caption] This past week we discharged a couple of clients at the residential drug treatment center where I am completing my internship. It’s not like this is a new thing for me. We’ve probably discharged at least 15 clients since I began internship in January. Some leave because it’s time – legal requirements have been met, their insurance has stopped covering their services, or they have used on property/relapsed. We always have a staff meeting to discuss these discharges and determine the client’s investment in services at the center. Our theoretical approach incorporates relapse as a part of recovery, so not every client is discharged when they relapse. This creates a whole other issue, but one I will save for another time and a longer blog post.

[caption id="attachment_4859" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Jennifer Bingaman"][/caption] The other day I had a resident in our drug treatment program approach me and thank me for spending so much of my time at the facility. Without thinking and answering quite honestly, I said, “I’m happy to be here.” He raised his eyebrows and said, “Really?”

Many counselors probably have, at some point, needed to deal with a Facebook issue. Be it the dreaded friend request from a client, learning of an employer checking on a client you’re working with in a rehabilitation setting, or even accidentally discovering something about your client while browsing on Facebook. There were so many issues to take into consideration from the counselor perspective that the original blog I had started about Facebook took on a life of its own. I decided to, rather than post an obnoxiously long blog, narrow it down one of the more interesting topics – my experience having a client impersonate me on Facebook.