Short Answers, Paragraph or 2 each question:
Why do chemically dependent people have difficulty with their feelings?
Why are relationship skills so important in the process of early recovery?
How do individual assignments help a client work through the recovery process?
Recovery skills
Contracts are patients homework
The Contract Group meets daily
Helps patients identify a problem, understand the problem and learn new skills to overcome the problem
They are the tools of recover that are individualized for each patient
Chemical Use History
Designed to give patients and their counselors a detailed account of the patient's use of drugs and alcohol
Breaking through a patient's denial
Honesty
An exercise that helps patients to see how they have been distorting reality
It is an eye-opening experience for patients to realize how much they have been lying to themselves and others
Love, Trust and Commitment
An exercise that helps build self-esteem
Patients build appositive relationship with themselves and others
Patients learn how to be loving to themselves and others
Feelings
An exercise designed to help patients identify their feelings and use the appropriately to solve problems
Chemically dependent people treat their feeling with drugs and alcohol
Each feeling needs to be carefully processed
Patients in treatment need a lot of practice identifying their feelings
Relationship Skills
Chemically dependent people have poor relationship skills
This exercise teaches patients how to practice healthy interpersonal relationship skills
Nothing solidifies learning better than watching the consequence of old behavior compared to the new behavior
Addictive Relationships
They can be as destructive as alcohol or drugs
This exercise teaches the patient the difference between healthy and addictive relationships
Communication Skills
An exercise for those who have a difficult time in delaying gratification and accepting responsibility for their own actions
Poor self-discipline leads to failure
Patients with self-discipline problems have poor problem-solving skills
Impulse Control
Acting too quickly on their feelings
Relapse Prevention
One of the most important aspects of chemical dependency treatment
Patients must be willing to prevent relapse
An exercise used to develop a relapse prevention plan
Patients develop skills necessary to deal with high-risk situations
Stress Management
Helps patients cope with stress
The inability to handle stress effectively fuels chemical dependency
Stress is the physiological response to the organism to a stressor
Patients must learn to do 3 things:
Relax twice a day
Maintain regular exercise
Learn coping skills to handle stress
In learning new coping skills, patients need to learn assertiveness skills, social skills and to increase t heir involvement in pleasurable activities
The Steps
Treatment programs differ as to which steps they address
The more steps a patient completes, they better off they are in recovery and the further along they are in the program
Rare is the program with more than 5 steps
As you go through the steps, make sure patients are internalizing the material
The Committee
Patients are constantly torn between the side that wants to use drugs and alcohol and the side that wants to stay clean
Do not move onto the next step until you know the patient has understood the first
Step One
All patients work on solid Step One in treatment
It is the most important step
Without it, recovery is impossible
Step One necessitates total surrender
Step One is mainly group work
Patients must admit that they are not in control, are powerless and that their lives are unmanageable
Step Two
Essential to step two is willingness
Without willingness to seek a great power, patients will fail
The word sanity in AA means soundness of mind
Here is where patients look at their insane behavior
They must conclude that they cannot hold onto their old ways of thinking
Patients must be encouraged to be honest, open-minded and willing
Once patients trust the group, it can be transferred to the AA/NA group
Step Three
Most patients will have difficulty with Step 3
Here is where they can begin to feel relief emotionally
There is great hope at Step 3
Willingness is the key to Step 3
Step Four
Patients make a thorough housecleaning
They rid themselves of the guilt of the past and look forward to a new future
Patients will share Step 4 with someone of their choice in Step 5
Patients need to concentrate on the exact nature of their wrongs rather than accuse r blame other people
Step Five
Match up with someone to share Step Four inventory
This step attacks the core of the chemical disease
Make things right with yourself, others and God
Patients must come to realize they are good people
After Step 5, most patients experience