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Yes, I think Kirk developed a tolerance for alcohol. Tolerance is the reduced response to alcohol (or any drug) after repeated experiences with it. Kirk developed a tolerance for alcohol because he had been consistently drinking for several years. He would drink excessively and have multiple drinks in a short amount of time. In fact, Kirk began taking in a lot of alcohol in high school and was never a “moderate’ drinker. Therefore, it was clear that as Kirk was in adulthood he would just have to drink more to get the same feeling. Dr. Aronson used the SORC model in therapy. SORC stood for stimulus, organism, response, and consequences that lead to the pattern of behavior. Dr. Aronson used this model with alcohol. For instance, the stimulus was to the external situations that triggered drinking. External situations could be the bar or being in a social setting. Organism are the events that take place within the person. These events would include thoughts, emotions, or withdrawal symptoms. Response is the behavior in which the individual shows after …show more content…
For instance, if someone developed alcoholism, they have lost their “control” because of their tolerance to alcohol. Once they get through the withdrawal symptoms and go through effective treatment, they are supposed to have their control back and have sensible thoughts. However, if alcohol comes back into their environment, it’s hard to say how they will react to it. Everybody is different and it would be hard to say who would relapse and who would not. Kirk addressed this question with simply testing it for himself. He made a plan and wanted to go abstinent after an operation. Family took all the alcohol out of the house and Kirk did things to distract himself from thinking of alcohol. He claimed it wasn’t as difficult as he
In my own words, I believe that self-control is a deliberate attempt to change the way one thinks and acts about something. For instance, during the month of March, I am on a restricted diet to try to find food triggers to my daily migraines. When I first started, I had to remind myself constantly that at breakfast I wasn’t going to grab a glass of milk, or at lunch, that I wasn’t going to make myself a sandwich. I didn’t realize how hard this was going to be when I first started. There are still times, 15 days after starting, that I am reminded by my mom or dad that I can’t eat certain foods or that I have to pack my own dinner because where we go for dinner won’t have food that I can eat. Every day, I am retraining my mind at how I look at food. I am having to constantly shift my mind away from the long list of food I can’t eat and focus on food that I can. The way that I shift my thoughts of food, is similar to how Erica in Brooks’ book had to shift her thoughts to focus on her tennis match going on. It is a constant rewiring of how the brain looks at the world around us. This process is not easy, and takes a lot of work and time. However, as time progresses, it does get easier. Growing up, I missed a several years of my childhood due to tragedies that occurred. Going through the aftermath of some of the hardships I was facing, I developed an isolated mindset. I thought that if I didn’t get close to people, than I couldn’t get hurt by them as well.
In the Canadian society there exists millions of people of which majority are white people scientifically referred to as Caucasian, there too exists black people whom are referred to as ethnically African people and of course our case study today Aborigines whom have been Canada’s marginalized minority that have suffered social injustice across the board.
Generally speaking, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) references substance dependence (in this case, alcohol) as a cluster of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological symptoms that shows that the person is continuing use of the substance even with adverse effects on the individual’s life. Specifically, for a person to be diagnosed with substance dependence they must show at least three of the following symptoms; tolerance, withdrawal, substance being taken in larger amounts of over a longer period of time than intended, an unsuccessful desire or effort to control the use of the substance, there is a great deal of time devoted to the drug, important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced due to the substance, and the individual continues use of the substance even with the knowledge that the substance is causing physical or psychological problems (APA, 2000).
The model of addiction etiology that best describes why people get addicted and how best to help them is biopsychosocial model. The biopsychosocial model, first developed by cardiologist Dr. George Engel, is today widely accepted by the mental health professions. The biopsychosocial model describes addiction as a brain illness that causes personality and social problems. The biopsychosocial model lets us to make solid and accurate differences between substance use, abuse, and dependence. It also allows the signs of addiction to be recognized and structured into progressive stages.
During this stage, individuals intend to change. Individuals are aware of the pros and cons of their behavior. The contemplation stage is where individuals start to feel ambivalent about changing their behavior. Ted beings to move toward the contemplation stage during his second week of treatment. This is evidence in an small increased awareness of his lack of control when it comes to his drinking as evidenced by Ted statement that “it’s tougher to control it now that it use to be”. This shows that Ted is lacking control but is now aware of the possibility that he may have a
Drinking alcohol in some limit may be considered as normal behavior. However, since drinking quarter of whiskey clearly effects brain and bodily functions, we can say this behavior is abnormal. Possible diagnoses would be substance use disorders. One can be drunk after he or she got divorced, however this is not a sign of mental disorder. However, it is clear that my uncle suffers from every day drinking habit.
It is said to believe that alcoholism is a type of behavior, which is why it shouldn’t just be studied by medical doctors, but by psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychoanalysts. Why? Psychology is the study of human behavior. This article argues that alcohol addiction is distinguished by an imbalance of two different psychological reports leading to the loss of willpower (Bechara 2005). The first one being a spontaneous reaction for signaling immediate expectations. The second report is a reflective reaction needed to decrease the response triggered by the impulsive system. The article also reviews some candidates that can trigger alcohol use either knowingly or unknowingly. According to Alcoholism and the Loss of Willpower, alcohol-related stimuli capture the attention of problematic users of alcohol, triggers specific attributes (good/bad and sedative/arousal), and both of which could increase the likelihood to drink more alcohol or to drink in inappropriate situations, like before an exam or before driving a car. (Page 1) Another main aspect of alcoholism is the diminished extent for self-control. This also includes things like addicts not being able to efficiently execute certain behaviors and regulate their emotions and feelings. This can have a lot to do with the insula, which is a region of the brain deep inside the cerebral cortex. Where a lot of decision making takes place here, once the insula is engaged it makes conscious and unconscious decisions to drink that beer or take that drug. All of these findings conclude to possessing willpower. “Willpower depends in many important ways on neural substrates that regulate homeostasis, emotion, and feeling.” (Persaud, McLeod, & Cowey, 2007) All these understandings of alcohol...
If the problems you suffer stem from severe alcoholism or addiction, you must accept that these problems are not primarily mental or free will issues. Addictions are not about will power. The problems facing addicts, alcoholics, and their families are miserable, disgusting, and infuriating. They are often hopelessly discouraging. But to imagine that an addict "could change if he wanted to" is a serious misunderstanding of the long term dynamic of addictive disorder. The fact is precisely that an addict cannot change in the long run even if he wants to! That is the definition of addiction: "the loss of control over the use of a substance." It is important to understand that this loss of control is manifested not in terms of days or weeks, but in longer term behaviors: terms of months and years.
Supporters of the “choice theory” support that there is no theoretical obstacle to acknowledging the fact that thoughts, desires, values and other mental phenomena can dominate bodily functions. There is no correlation between continual bar pressing during intracranial self-stimulation and increased dopaminergic neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbensour results are consistent with evidence that the dopaminergic component is not associated with the hedonistic or pleasure aspects of rewards. (Schaler 2002) In other words, there is no empirical evidence that supports the claims that the chemical rewards have no power to compel. For instance, I am rewarded when I eat a delicious chocolate pastry, but I often choose not to this because I feel it will hurt my weight. Same applies to people with alcohol and drug abuse problems. The mere ability of an addict to understand the damages they do by using drug and alcohol such as the damaging of personal relationships, loss of job, legal issues, etc. results in the ability for that person to rationalize that addiction results in consequences. Gene Heyman, the author of “Addiction: A Disorder of Choice” explains in an interview that when you look at other diseases such as schizophrenia you can not reason with the patient stating that it is not socially acceptable to have hallucinations or outbursts, that will not affect the patient at all, but when you look at addiction the social factors are the key reasons why people choose to stop. (Heyman 2009) Overall, addiction is activities that influenced by costs and
Empirical research is needed on how heroin-dependent adults can begin to improve impulse control and decision-making. Increased impulsivity increases the chances that an individual will be able to remain abstinent from heroin. If the meditation technique implemented in this study significantly improves impulse control, the results should be replicated and clinical application of meditation focusing on resisting urges should be applied in clinical settings.
For example, depression is something people will take medication for, but how can one really distinguish whether somebody is having a bad day, from being truly depressed. Even if a psychiatrist was able to tell the difference, it is still not a good idea that someone has to take a pill (or other means of medications) in order for one to not be depressed. Consequently, that person will become dependent on drugs instead of truly overcoming depression. Joanna Moncrieff, wrote the book “Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drugs,” where she states, “It (power) has facilitated the particular form of social control that is embodied in psychiatric practice, by construing psychiatric restraint as the medical cure of a mental disease” (218). Just like Joanna writes, psychiatrists think that putting the person under restraint psychologically restraint is the remedy, but the fact is, all it does is temporarily puts a hold on the problem without fixing it. Joanna further states how people adopted this thinking that psychological problem result from a chemical imbalance
When people hear the word "drug," they usually think of an illegal substance such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, or any other drug that can be found on the street. Most people never consider the fact that consuming alcohol can be just as harmful as illegal drugs, not only on the body, but on the mind and spirit as well (#1). If constantly abused, alcohol can be even worse for one than taking illegal drugs (#5) Irresponsible drinking can destroy a person's life as well as the lives of those around them. When people become both physically and psychologically addicted to alcohol, they become an alcoholic and suffer from a disease called alcoholism. One denotation of this term is "a diseased condition of the system, brought about by the continued use of alcoholic liquors" (Webster's Dictionary, 37). Another definition of this term, given to me by my English professor, Janet Gould who is in fact, a recovering alcoholic, is that alcoholism is a mental dependence and a physical allergy (#3). Alcoholism somehow affects us all through a parent, sibling, friend, or even personal encounters with a stranger. In fact "alcoholics may become angry and argumentative, quiet and withdrawn, or depressed. They may also feel more anxious, sad, tense, and confused. They then seek relief by drinking more" (Gitlow 175).
Nonetheless, the mind can choose what to focus its attention and help change bad habits. This can happen through the process of cognitive therapy. Cognitive therapy is the ability of the mind to recognize cognitive distortions. To me this means being able to recognize that we live simultaneously in two different worlds which are the inner and outer world. The inner world are our innermost true beliefs, thoughts and the outer world are the environmental cues that generates a reaction to the inner beliefs and thoughts which are sometimes influenced by the deceptive brain messages. The all or nothing error, whereby we believe we must be perfect at all times or we are nothing. As a result, we place high standards on ourselves and are never satisfied. This is an example of cognitive distortion. We believe our ideal theory is perfection, so we try to do everything to be perfect but after failing severally we realize that our theory is refutable and we are back to the drawing board to either try to create a new theory or dwell on the old
Within this theory, a person who observes others doing drugs will more likely become addicted to them. When we observe addictive behaviors such as drinking or drug use, we, as humans, may want to copy their actions (Horvath, Misra, Epner, & Morgan Cooper, 2015). With this theory, the psychological and sociological effects come into play, with the reinforcement and punishment, or operant conditioning. An example given by Mosher and Akins is as follows; someone who is smoking marijuana may get reinforcement by their friends while the effects of the drug is negative
Behavioral therapists measure the effect on using a functional assessment, which is explained by Corey (2013) as being the ABC model, with the A standing for antecedents (the events prior to the behavior), B standing for behaviors, and C standing for consequences. The important concept to understand about behaviors in Behavior therapy, which is indicated by Corey (2013) is that it is not limited to observable actions, but also to processes that are unobservable such as thoughts, feelings, beliefs and other psychological phenomena. Using the Behaviorists’ version of the ABC model in assessing Jerry’s phobia, one could say that when he is trying to cross the bridge (antecedent), he panics, backs away and avoids the situation entirely (behavior), resulting in the cessation of the panic (consequence). This would be negative reinforcement, which is described by Corey (2013) as the formation of a behavior in response to a negative stimulus in order to avoid it as much as possible. Uninterrupted, this behavior will continue to be reinforced over