The Medical Models Of Addiction

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such things as gambling, shopping, alcohol, drugs or even sex. As professionals working with addicts we must take into consideration that there are a number of theoretical models that can help us understand what our clients are going through. Being familiar with different aspects of addiction will create more competent social workers in the process. Addiction is a complex brain disease with serious, interacting physical and mental effects caused by long-term abuse of alcohol and drugs (South Miami Hospital website, 2016, para. 4). Individuals who suffer from addiction are being robbed of the quality life that s/he deserves. In working with those with addiction, the medical model involves many different avenues of the disease. The essential …show more content…

3). Another strength in using the medical model for addiction is that it will only allow to works for those involving chemical substances; not shopping or sex addictions (MyAddiction website, 2015, para. 3). Some limitations for this model is that it does not take into consideration one’s environment. What exactly is the client faced with every day? Is their environment healthy or does it portray a non-healthy atmosphere? Another downfall is that the model does not consider one’s family history. The medical model not only covers the genetic aspect of the addiction, but also the addictive chemicals, and the risks …show more content…

Being that some of the limitations with the medical model have to do with the environment and family history, this is a major influence in Marge’s drinking. Marge has a stressful environment, she is raising a family, has diabetes, unemployed, and a son who is difficult to raise. Another aspect is Marge has depression and a family history of alcohol disease. It is not that Marge is weak or no will power, it is the fact that Marge has a disease and needs helps coping with the whole issue not just the medical part. In order to treat the alcohol disease, one must work on the underlying issues at hand as well as the alcohol consumption which is used to cope with other

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