Analyzing Lauren's Alcoholism and Treatment Strategies in PHE1IDH

This project presents a case study focusing on Lauren, an adolescent struggling with alcoholism, anxiety, and strained family relationships. The analysis explores the problematic behaviors exhibited by Lauren, including her loss of interest in studies and social activities, and the impact of her alcohol consumption. The project examines the application of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET) as potential treatment strategies, highlighting how these therapies can be used to address the root causes of Lauren's addiction and promote sobriety. The project also assesses the actions of Rob, the healthcare professional, identifying which actions were helpful or unhelpful in supporting Lauren. The provided references support the analysis of adolescent alcoholism and its treatment.

Problematic behaviors can cause disruptions to the social and
communication skills of an individual which leads to the
development of negative emotions and attitudes causing
detrimental effects on the individual as well as their loved ones.
Lauren has been seen to portray an abnormal behavior - anxiety
and irritability- towards everything recently. She has been
observed to develop an overall negative attitude towards life.
Due to her lack of interest, she has lost focus on her studies.
She has become unsocial, extremely lethargic, mainly due to
the loss of her best friends who her parents deemed as good
influence and also due to her strained family relations. She has
thus, been seen to become more ignorant about maintaining
her health (Buratti & Allwood, 2018). She used to love attending
her physical education classes, but recently she has lost interest
and has stopped attending them. She has been seen to
frequently forget her asthma medications. These signs and
symptoms of lethargy, irritability, anxiety, can all be linked to
her excessive alcohol consumption during the weekends
Connor, Haber & Hall, 2016). This makes her wake up late on
most Sundays for her part time job at the bakery. These
incidences along with her not being able to accept her step-
father, has also added to the tensions within her and her family.
Studies have shown that adolescents are more prone to abuse
alcohol, drugs and tobacco. The given case subject has been
seen to have a severe case of alcoholism, and has been found
to be in denial of her being an addict. Studies have shown that
alcohol is a mood mediator, as excessive intake of alcohol
results in the reduction of serotonin level in the brain, leading
to heightening of negative emotions like nervousness and
anxiety (Godlaski & Giancola, 2009).
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy :
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is one of the most
significant therapy techniques used in drug rehabilitation.
This process aims to educate the abuser on the
detrimental effects of the addictive substance, to help
decrease the problematic behaviours associated with
substance abuse (De Castella et al., 2014). The process
helps in highlighting the various risk factors and probable
situations in order to apply various coping strategies to
reduce the relapse of the abuser (Magill et al., 2016). With
the information that Rob has gathered from his sessions
with Lauren, he can easily implement this technique in his
treatment procedure. This will help Rob take a holistic
approach to the problem and reduce Lauren’s probability
to relapse (Wilson, H Spence & J. Kavanagh, 2018).
Motivational Enhancement Therapy :
This is the second-most common therapy used for treating
substance abuse. The theory helps in motivating the
abusers to go through the entire detoxifying process and
helps them cope with their withdrawal symptoms, thus
preventing them to revert back to abusing substances
(NIDA, 2018). The process incorporates the system of
providing rewards and incentives for sobriety. Lauren is a
teenager and thus this technique combined with an
holistic approach can also be used to help her to get less
inclined to alcohol and help her achieve sobriety (Tripodi,
Bender, Litschge & Vaughn, 2010).
Name:
Student ID:
Phone No.:
Email ID:
Working with Adolescents
Rob’s Helpful Actions For Lauren
Lauren’s Problematic Behaviours
Models
Modifications
Rob’s Unhelpful Actions For Lauren
Rob could have incorporated a better way to educate
Lauren about the detrimental effects of alcohol and the
significance of exercising to maintain one’s health, than
by just handing out brochures, even after it was evident
that this technique was not working on Lauren.
He could have showed her videos on these topics or could
have verbally informed her about them.
Rob should not have let Lauren monitor her own
activities, given her negative and dismissive attitude
towards everything.
He should have either made home visits for collecting the
data or could have told her mother to document it, to
maintain the accuracy of the observations.
Rob, during the session with her parents, ignored the
importance of patient-client confidentiality, which might
in future make it even difficult for Rob to make Lauren
open up about her issues, as the trust is lost.
He should have maintained the patient-client
confidentiality or could have told her parents in another
session, without the knowledge of Lauren.
Rob suggested her parents to restrict her from seeing her
new friends, despite Lauren mentioning that they were
her only friends. This can make her feel even more
unsocial and lonely.
He could, however, have provided this advice to Lauren
during their one on one sessions.
Attentive listener Rob is an active listener to
Lauren’s view points and her
assumptions about her health
issues.
Wants to educate Lauren by
providing Brochures
He has been seen to provide
Lauren with brochures on the
importance of physical activities,
regular exercising, as well as on
the detrimental effects of alcohol
on one’s body.
Encouraging her to take Asthma
medications
Rob observed that due to her
excessive alcohol abuse, she has
become very forgetful and has
been forgetting to take her
asthma medications daily.
Activities and exercises Rob, during his sessions with
Lauren, has been seen to actively
promote the benefits of
exercising and physical activities.
Helps Lauren reveal her issues
and makes her realize them
properly.
Rob has been seen to keep an
open mind and create a safe
space to ask Lauren questions
about different aspects of her life,
which might have caused her to
behave in such a manner.
This process has helped Lauren
point out the reasons herself and
helped her identify them
properly.
Suggests support groups Rob has been seen to suggest
Lauren to attend support groups
for people who have alcoholic
relatives or family members.
This would help her cope with
some undetected and unresolved
childhood experiences or
traumas.
Provides achievable solutions to
her problems
Rob has been seen to set
achievable goals for all the
different issues that he observed
and identified to cause her to
behave this way.
Holistic approach
In his sessions with Lauren, he
has been seen to try and help
Lauren understand the issues or
factors in her life that is causing
her to feel negatively and the
reason why she is abusing
alcohol.
De Castella, K., Goldin, P., Jazaieri, H., Heimberg, R., Dweck, C., & Gross, J. (2014).
Emotion Beliefs and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Social Anxiety
Disorder. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 44(2), 128-141.
doi:10.1080/16506073.2014.974665
Buratti, S., & Allwood, C. (2018). The effect of knowledge and ignorance
assessments on perceived risk. Journal of Risk Research, 22(6), 735-748.
doi:10.1080/13669877.2018.1459795
Connor, J., Haber, P., & Hall, W. (2016). Alcohol use disorders. The
Lancet, 387(10022), 988-998. doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00122-1
Godlaski, A., & Giancola, P. (2009). Executive functioning, irritability, and alcohol-
related aggression. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 23(3), 391-403.
doi:10.1037/a0016582
Magill, M., Walthers, J., Mastroleo, N., Gaume, J., Longabaugh, R., & Apodaca, T.
(2016). Therapist and client discussions of drinking and coping: a sequential
analysis of therapy dialogues in three evidence-based alcohol use disorder
treatments. Addiction, 111(6), 1011-1020. doi:10.1111/add.13313
NIDA. (2018, January 17). Principles of Drug Addiction Treatment: A Research-
Based Guide (Third Edition). Retrieved from
https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/principles-drug-addiction-treatment-
research-based-guide-third-edition on 2019, August 8
Tripodi, S., Bender, K., Litschge, C., & Vaughn, M. (2010). Interventions for
Reducing Adolescent Alcohol Abuse. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine, 164(1). doi:10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.235
Wilson, P., H Spence, S., & J. Kavanagh, D. (2018). Cognitive Behavioural
Interviewing for Adult Disorders. Cognitive Behavioural Interviewing for Adult
Disorders: A Practical Handbook. doi:10.4324/9780429450730
Rob’s Helpful and Unhelpful Actions For
Brochure Rob could have incorporated a better way
to educate Lauren about the detrimental
effects of alcohol and the significance of
exercising to maintain one’s health, than
by just handing out brochures, even after it
was evident that this technique was not
working on Lauren.
Made Lauren
monitor her
own
activities
Rob should not have made Lauren monitor
her own activities and should have done it
himself in order to get better accuracy
about the different reasons behind Lauren’s
behavior.
Broke
patient-client
confidentialit
y
Rob should have maintained patient-client
confidentiality, which in turn would have
made Lauren feel respected and
encouraged enough to seek guidance form
Rob, from time to time, regarding her
health and behavioural concerns
Suggested to
restrict
Lauren from
seeing her
new friends
Rob suggested her parents to restrict her
from seeing her new friends, despite Lauren
mentioning that they were her only friends.
This can make her feel even more unsocial
and lonely.
He could, however, have provided this
advice to Lauren during their one on one
sessions.
Lack of
effectiveness
in his
methods
Even after many sessions he has not been
able to effectively reduce Lauren’s alcohol
addiction.
Withdrawal
behaviour
Rob’s ignorance towards Lauren’s disinterest
can be seen during his sessions with her.
Use of
judgemental
language
Rob’s choice of words during his session
with Lauren seemed a bit judgemental and
might prevent Lauren to open up about her
problems.