Overall, the course had exceptionally impacted on my understanding of addictions and it’s recovery process. This course provided me the knowledge of various reasons, myths, and treatments of addictions. Addiction is a disease and not a disorder of choice, and readings helped me understand the attractiveness of addiction activities and compulsive behavior. Through this course I learned, classification, physical, mental, and emotional effects of various substances. The drugs are the product of psychoactive plants that have been around for millions of year. It overwhelms the brain’s ability to rebalance itself and can induce epigenetic changes that can last a lifetime (Inaba & Cohen, 2014, p. 1.45).
The course was very helpful to understand the concept of addiction as an illness of body, mind, and soul that documents the biopsychosocial-spiritual model approach. The psychological concept encompasses the thinking and escape process associated with substance use, which is related to depression, anxiety, and irrational thinking. Addiction is the form of interaction between stress and individual response to that stress
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It includes the awareness and assessment of where an addict is, and mobilizes his or her strengths in service of change. In addition to this, it is also important to understand the racial and ethnic issues of consumers, their prejudices, and historical trauma (Blume & Lovato, 2009). The readings provided information of treatment agencies like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and harm reduction therapy centers (Wormer & Davis, 2013, p. 420). The readings also impacted on my understanding of the importance of family history, extended family members, sex- roles, beliefs, and communication styles in the recovery process (Wormer & Davis, 2013, p.