Cbt And Substance Abuse Essay

Substance abuse, defined as excessive use of a drug in a way that is detrimental to self, society, or both, is a widespread and controversial topic in the united states of America, as well as in the world as a whole. In addition to the clear harm that substance abuse inflicts on those that suffer from it, it can also cause serious arguments between members of different political parties who would otherwise get along. As far as policies go, the republican party tends to view substance abuse as a personal failing, and focus on police presence and increased punishments to decrease the frequency of drug use. In contrast, the democratic party tends to frame substance abuse as a matter of a lack of treatment options and focus on treating those suffering

There are multiple possible forms of therapy, including individual behavioral therapy, group therapy (often used in support groups), or even family therapy in cases where the addiction is negatively impacting a family. In addition, cognitive behavoral therapy, Contingency Management, Motivational Interviewing or even Dialectal Behavioral Therapy can be used to help treat substance addiction. As far as individual therapy goes, cognitive behavioral therapy is a frequently used way of treating addiction. CBT focuses on encouraging the patient to examine their recurring thoughts in order to find any that might be negative or unhealthy and work on moving past them. In addition, CBT can be used to treat addiction by finding the rationalizations that some addicts use to justify their substance abuse, while also helping deal with other problems unrelated to addiction that CBT might help with, such as depression or anxiety (“Substance Abuse Treatment

Speaking of statistics, generally speaking, there is a higher rate of substance abuse in urban areas as opposed to rural or suburban regions. Now this could be attributed to the higher rate of poverty within cities, except that according to several studies, the rate of poverty is actually higher in rural areas, at 15.4 per cent as opposed to the 11.9 per cent in the cities (“Data Show U.S. Poverty Rates in 2019 Higher in Rural Areas”). Why then, is there such a difference in substance abuse rates between the two areas? The most likely reason is that there are simply far more people in urban areas, and so there are more people with easier access to illegal substances, though also easier access to treatment options. In fact, it is estimated that 83 per cent of the US population lives in urban areas in 2023, compared to 64 per cent in