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SPS201 Alcohol and Other Drugs Essay 1 Sample

Assignment Brief

a) Description

This assessment requires analysis on three foundational areas of learning –

1. Understanding of addiction

2. The Cycle of Addiction

3. Evidence based models (choose one evidence-based model only)

b) Format

To be successful in this assessment you must address all three areas. You are required to clearly demonstrate your understanding of what addiction is, in terms of your what you have learnt, how the cycle of addiction impacts as well as giving a very clear understanding of one evidence-based model.

This assessment serves as a preparatory guide to the learning that students are expected to acquire and develops the research and analysis skills required to complete subsequent assessments. Your assessment must be submitted through Turnitin and must adhere to the College’s academic integrity and authorship requirements. The questions and instructions contained in the file will be available three weeks before the due date.

Note Research literature

Your essay must be based on a review of the literature and should include at least five primary academic references, ie peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal articles or book chapters. Do not rely upon non-academic and other web-based secondary references as these do not constitute academic references for the purpose of your assignment, which if relied upon for theoretical support, may mean you have NOT met the requirements of the assessment.

Referencing

You must use APA 7 referencing.

Table of references: You must include a Table of references section in your essay and acknowledge any sources that you use, including all web-based sources.

Structure of essay

As the assignment conveniently provides the three foundational areas to be addressed, there is a lot of sense to use them as headings, as they form the basis of assessment criteria. If there are identifiable questions or sub-issues within each heading, then it may be a good strategy to also include these as sub-headings under each heading.

Solution

Introduction

The nature of addiction is examined in this essay within the context of neurobiological disease and a learned behaviour due to sociocognitive factors. Therefore, using the existing social learning model this study aims to uncover the different dimensions of addiction such as compulsive use, loss of control as well as continued use despite negative consequences. Further, the essay evaluates downstream and upstream processes of the substance dependence that involves questions like withdrawal, relapse, and detoxification to demonstrate the problems that people encounter in their recovery. Thus, this work aims at presenting information concerning effective strategies in the treatment of addiction with regard to the psychological and social spheres.
Understanding of Addiction

Figure 1: Addiction as a brain disease
Source: (Surgeon General, 2016)

The diagram shows that there are identified changes in areas that are unidentifiable in the brain, and these areas are generally related to different stages of addiction. Giving examples it can be added that there is a concept of three stages, preoccupation or anticipation, binge or intoxication and withdrawal or negative affect and associated specific parts of the brain are described (Surgeon General, 2016). Addiction is widely accepted and defined as a neuropsychological disorder with genetically determined behavioral deregulation, impaired control over drug and other addictive behaviors, and negative life consequences (Siomek-Gorecka et al., 2021). This disease conception of addiction is rooted in knowledge that continued use of substances or participation in addictive activities can alter the brain structure especially in areas like, reward, motivation, and memory. The brain circuits which seem to become involved when a person has an impulse to stop participating in an addictive activity, get affected and results to the inability of individuals to cease indulging themselves in the addictive process even when they want to.

The simplest definition of addiction is a psychological and physical reliance on an object or an activity. It therefore leads to craving and reward cycle which in one way or the other has negative effects on the user, the surrounding society and physical wellbeing (Wiers, and Verschure, 2021). Addiction can be explained through certain feature: Compulsive use, the need to perform the addictive behavior despite the adverse effects. On the other hand there is an impulsivity issue when persons lose control over their actions or decisions, despite being able to comprehend the consequences of their actions. The last stage is continued use, where the person continues with the behaviour despite adverse consequences, and often tend to minimize them in their lives for the assignment helpline.

The Cycle of Addiction

The addiction cycle is a cycle of dependency which include phases such as withdrawal, relapse and detoxification all of which cause dependency. Detoxification is characterized by the outward withdrawal from the addictive behavior and one notices adverse emotions or physical sensations, which are normally associated with the addictive substance. Different substances or behaviors will cause different kinds of withdrawal symptoms, but they all prompt the person to engage in the behavior again in order to escape the physical or emotional discomfort associated with withdrawal (American addiction centers, 2019).

Relapse as the crucial stage in the cycle of addiction implies returning once again to the process of using a substance as well as coming back to those situations when controlling impulses is impossible because of the urge’s extremity. Hence it can be added that it is a common and challenging aspect of recovery that mainly reflects on the chronic nature of addiction (Guenzel and McChargue, 2023). Detoxification, on the other hand, entails clearing the body of substances that one is addicted to and most often patients undergo it under the close supervision of the doctor because withdrawal can come with its side effects. Detox is used, as a rule, at the early stage of therapy; its goal is to eliminate physical dependence on the substance and finalization of withdrawal symptoms before starting counselling and therapy.

Evidence Based Models: The Social Learning Model

The social learning model is an empirically supported theoretical orientation for understanding substance dependence in which learned behaviours, environmental stimuli and interpretations and meditational processes are central. This model propounds that dependence behaviour including alcoholism results from observational learning and reinforcement. The social learning model does not consider addiction a singular, stable, and singular state of affairs, but certainly provides a dimensional form encompassing a constellation of behaviors and implications that can affect individuals’ different sides with different degrees of addiction dependent on their social environment, choice, and perception (Smith, 2021).

The social learning theory revolves around the fact that addiction is learned through the late recoils which are usually picked from other people in the society, peers or even family members, media personalities. The external environment hence involves what people see around them in form of behaviors over substance use or other forms of addictions where they may be tempted to perceive these actions as ways of handling stress or some pressures. These behaviours remain learned because when behaviour is associated with perceived rewards such as relief from anxious states, social acceptance or pleasure. Because of this reinforcement, addiction-related behavior becomes strengthened and will most likely lead to habitual actions (Brady et al., 2021).

Cognitive processes also have a role in social learning model since people’s perception about the substance or behaviors can either lead them to engage in addiction. For example, if the learners think that alcohol will help them to overcome social phobia, they will be most likely to take alcohol in social events. Additionally perceiving the negative consequences downplaying the risks or overestimating control over usage, can maintain addiction behaviours. These cognitive processes, along with those learned behavioral responses, form the cycle that then perpetuates addiction.

Therefore, the social learning model supports the forms of treatment that tackle the behavioral as well as the cognitive parts; they may use treatments such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Offering guidance on identifying and directly confronting addictive beliefs, replacing negative behaviors with helpful ones, the model offers a clear structure for establishing long-term recovery, in a way expressing the conclusion that addiction is not exclusively the result of a person’s inherited traits and tendencies, but also a stably developed response to learned stimuli (Smith, 2021).

Conclusion

Hence it can be concluded that addiction includes biological, psychological and social determinants. The essay researched that addiction is not a simple issue but is witnessed through the cycle of dependency and learning that supports it. The social learning model offers an insight into the broaden scope of behavior and cognition influencing addiction and adding to its maintenance. In addition to that it can be added that implementing effective interventions is essential as it targets both behavioral and cognitive aspects fostering long term recovery through different strategies such as cognitive therapy. Hence addressing such addiction from implementing multidimensional perspective can help in developing better and efficient comprehensive and impactful support systems for those affected by drug addictions.


 

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