The blog is about health and gives useful information on health and disease » Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid http://threath.com The blog deals in asthma, diabetes, Antidepressants, HIV, cancer and more. Sun, 01 May 2011 14:24:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 ALCOHOLISM TREATMENT TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES: ADMINISTRATIVE TASKS http://threath.com/2011/05/alcoholism-treatment-techniques-and-approaches-administrative-tasks http://threath.com/2011/05/alcoholism-treatment-techniques-and-approaches-administrative-tasks#comments Sun, 01 May 2011 14:24:08 +0000 admin http://threath.com/?p=176
Now to sound a very different note. An inevitable and necessary part of a counselor’s work is adminstrative. Writing notes in the chart…. Contacting agencies or counselors for previous records…. Dictating discharge summaries…. Contacting the referring party or others to whom a client will be referred….This is often perceived as a pain in the neck and the portion of one’s job most likely to get short shrift. However, attending to these details is an important part of good clinical care. Alcohol treatment is almost never a solo act, but instead involves the efforts of a team. How effectively the team functions often depends on the counselor who orchestrates and coordinates the various efforts.
The client’s chart or medical record is one very important vehicle for communicating information. This is especially true in a residential facility, with multiple staff working different shifts. There are often questions as to what should and shouldn’t go in a chart. To handle things that should be noted but are particularly sensitive, some agencies have adopted a set of confidential files, separate from the main record. Although not wishing to dismiss lightly the concern for confidentiality, nevertheless, it can be a red herring. In thinking about what to include in the chart, ask yourself “What do others need to know to respond therapeutically?” Rarely does this have anything to do with “deep dark secrets. ” More often it has to do with the everyday nuts and bolts— worrying over a date for discharge, preoccupation with an upcoming court appearance, a strained family meeting. The chart is not the place for putting forth verbatim accounts of individual sessions. But notation of any general themes, plus any modification of treatment plans is needed.
In addition to charting, it will also fall to the counselor to present cases at team planning meetings. On such occasions, a little preliminary thought helps: Are there special questions you have that you’d like to discuss with others? Along with these formal routes of communication, there are also informal channels. Take the opportunity to brief others.
Beyond orchestrating the activities of the treatment team, it falls to the counselor to be a liaison, and sometimes an advocate, with external groups such as employers, welfare workers, the courts. In these situations you must have the client’s permission before acting. Also, it is important not to do for the client what he can do for himself. Generally, it is more therapeutic to do a lot of handholding as the client takes care of business, rather than, in the interest of efficiency, doing it yourself.
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]]> http://threath.com/2011/05/alcoholism-treatment-techniques-and-approaches-administrative-tasks/feed 0 ALCOHOLISM TREATMENT TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES: SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKING WITH FAMILIES DURING TREATMENT http://threath.com/2011/01/alcoholism-treatment-techniques-and-approaches-suggestions-for-working-with-families-during-treatment http://threath.com/2011/01/alcoholism-treatment-techniques-and-approaches-suggestions-for-working-with-families-during-treatment#comments Sat, 15 Jan 2011 10:13:39 +0000 admin http://threath.com/?p=150
The data gathering completed, the task turns to helping the family make the readjustments necessary to reestablish a new balance. Here are some concrete suggestions for dealing with alcoholic families at this treatment stage. You are the most objective person present; therefore, it is up to you to evaluate and guide the process.
Concentrate on the interaction, not on the content. Don’t become the referee in a family digression.
Teach them how to check things out. People tend to guess at other peoples’ meanings and motivations. They then respond as though the guesses were accurate. This causes all kinds of confusion and misunderstandings and can lead to mutual recriminations. The counselor needs to put a stop to these mind-reading games, and point out what is going on.
The counselor must be alert to “scapegoating.” A common human tendency is to lay it all on George. This is true whatever the problem. The alcoholic family tends to blame the drinker for all the family’s troubles, thereby neatly avoiding any responsibility for their own actions. Help them see this as a no-no.
Any good therapy stresses acceptance of each person’s right to his own feelings. One reason for this is that good feelings get blocked by unexpressed bad feelings. One of the tasks of a therapist is to bring out the family’s strengths. The focus has been on the problems for so long that they have lost sight of the good points.
Be alert to avoidance transactions. This includes such things as digressing to Christmas 3 years ago in the midst of a heated discussion of Daddy’s drinking. It is up to you to point this out to them and get them back on the track. In a similar vein, it may fall to you to “speak the unspeakable,” to bring out in the open the obvious, but unmentioned, facts.
In making these patterns clear to the family, you can guide them into problem-solving techniques as options. You can help them begin to use these in therapy, with an eye to teaching them to use them on their own.
After a time of success, when things seem to be going better, there may be some resistance to continuing therapy. The family fears a setback and wants to stop while they’re ahead. Simply point this out to them. They can try for something better or terminate. If they terminate, leave the door open for a return later.
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ALCOHOLISM TREATMENT TECHNIQUES AND APPROACHES: SUGGESTIONS FOR WORKING WITH FAMILIES DURING TREATMENTThe data gathering completed, the task turns to helping the family make the readjustments necessary to reestablish a new balance. Here are some concrete suggestions for dealing with alcoholic families at this treatment stage. You are the most objective person present; therefore, it is up to you to evaluate and guide the process.Concentrate on the interaction, not on the content. Don’t become the referee in a family digression.Teach them how to check things out. People tend to guess at other peoples’ meanings and motivations. They then respond as though the guesses were accurate. This causes all kinds of confusion and misunderstandings and can lead to mutual recriminations. The counselor needs to put a stop to these mind-reading games, and point out what is going on.The counselor must be alert to “scapegoating.” A common human tendency is to lay it all on George. This is true whatever the problem. The alcoholic family tends to blame the drinker for all the family’s troubles, thereby neatly avoiding any responsibility for their own actions. Help them see this as a no-no.Any good therapy stresses acceptance of each person’s right to his own feelings. One reason for this is that good feelings get blocked by unexpressed bad feelings. One of the tasks of a therapist is to bring out the family’s strengths. The focus has been on the problems for so long that they have lost sight of the good points.Be alert to avoidance transactions. This includes such things as digressing to Christmas 3 years ago in the midst of a heated discussion of Daddy’s drinking. It is up to you to point this out to them and get them back on the track. In a similar vein, it may fall to you to “speak the unspeakable,” to bring out in the open the obvious, but unmentioned, facts.In making these patterns clear to the family, you can guide them into problem-solving techniques as options. You can help them begin to use these in therapy, with an eye to teaching them to use them on their own.After a time of success, when things seem to be going better, there may be some resistance to continuing therapy. The family fears a setback and wants to stop while they’re ahead. Simply point this out to them. They can try for something better or terminate. If they terminate, leave the door open for a return later.*131\331\2*

]]> http://threath.com/2011/01/alcoholism-treatment-techniques-and-approaches-suggestions-for-working-with-families-during-treatment/feed 0 EXERCISES IN DISCOMFORT FOR THE SELF-MANAGEMENT OF PAIN: DISCOMFORT AND RELAXATION http://threath.com/2009/04/exercises-in-discomfort-for-the-self-management-of-pain-discomfort-and-relaxation http://threath.com/2009/04/exercises-in-discomfort-for-the-self-management-of-pain-discomfort-and-relaxation#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:33:42 +0000 admin http://threath.com/2009/04/exercises-in-discomfort-for-the-self-management-of-pain-discomfort-and-relaxation In order to condition our mind to be less disturbed by pain, we are deliberately going to expose ourselves to some degree of discomfort; at the same time we shall keep our mind calm and relaxed so that the discomfort simply does not disturb us. And because it does not disturb us, we do not really perceive it as discomfort at all.

You suffer from pain. And I suggest to you that you expose yourself to further discomfort. I can see your reaction. “No, I have enough suffering. I don’t want any more. I could not bear any more.” This reaction is understandable. But just remember two things. You will not experience any feeling of discomfort; you will merely place yourself in a situation which under ordinary circumstances would be uncomfortable, but because of your relaxed state of mind, you do not feel as uncomfortable. And, secondly, remember that this is an important step in the

self-management of pain, just as exposure to the phobic situation was in the relief of phobic anxiety.

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]]> http://threath.com/2009/04/exercises-in-discomfort-for-the-self-management-of-pain-discomfort-and-relaxation/feed 0 WAYS OF COPING WITH STRESS: DRUGS AND STRESS http://threath.com/2009/04/ways-of-coping-with-stress-drugs-and-stress http://threath.com/2009/04/ways-of-coping-with-stress-drugs-and-stress#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:32:53 +0000 admin http://threath.com/2009/04/ways-of-coping-with-stress-drugs-and-stress In different cases, different factors operate in precipitating an individual into the habit of drug-taking. It may be simply a matter of relentless pressure of one’s peers, or nothing more than the desire to explore new fields. To experiment. ‘How can you evaluate something that you have never experienced?’ Nevertheless, stress plays an important part in bringing many people to take drugs for the first time, and in maintaining use of the drug before actual addiction has set in.

People under stress hear that marijuana brings a feeling of relaxed well-being and counteracts the anxiety and nervous tension of stress. There are usually friends who say, ‘I take it. You can see it has no ill effect on me. What do you lose by giving it a trial?’ So he tries it, and discovers it does bring a feeling of relaxation, and dispels some of the anxiety of stress. So he repeats it, and soon becomes a regular user.

It helps a lot, but maybe it does not relieve all the tension. Then one day the tension is more severe than usual. ‘Perhaps I need something a bit stronger. Just once, or a couple of times to settle me down.’ And he is off on heroin.

But in more than forty years of psychiatry, I have seen enough to know that those who do not go beyond marijuana may still suffer terrible consequences. Even old hands at the game may suddenly have a bad trip. This may occur after starting some orthodox medication, after an unaccustomed amount of alcohol, after some additional stress or in the incubation period of some virus illness. Perhaps, more commonly, the sudden bad trip appears without any discernible cause. In the bad trip the individual may injure himself or others, or even commit some antisocial act of which he may have no subsequent recollection.

I have seen several young introverts precipitated into schizophrenia by their experience of the dreamy unreality that often goes with the taking of marijuana. But distinct from the schizophrenic reactions, others have developed a toxic psychosis requiring hospitalization in a psychiatric institution.

There is another, less spectacular and less well-publicized reaction which may follow the use of marijuana. This is chronic marijuana intoxication. It occurs in people who have been taking the drug for some time. It is the counterpart of chronic alcoholism, but the clinical signs are slightly different. In chronic marijuana intoxication there is a general falling off the individual’s performance, both socially and at work. The person concerned is unable to accept this, even when it is pointed out to him. His typical reply is, ‘I am all right. You can see I’m all right.’ He is likely to repeat this statement several times, which in itself is evidence that he is not quite all right. Perhaps the most obvious feature of chronic marijuana intoxication is the individual’s lack of concern. The unconcern is all pervasive, extending not only into all aspects of his own life, but into the affairs of others and of the community in general.

We have discussed how stress may precipitate the individual into drug-taking, and how the effects of the drug may come to have a disastrous effect on his life. But there is another reaction which occurs in the early stages of drug-taking. There may come an awareness of increasing dependence on the drug. Then a panic: ‘Am I hooked? Have I become hooked without knowing it?’ The acute problem adds to the individual’s level of stress, and so makes withdrawal of the drug still more difficult.

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]]> http://threath.com/2009/04/ways-of-coping-with-stress-drugs-and-stress/feed 0 MAJOR PROBLEMS LEADING TO STRESS: CANCER http://threath.com/2009/04/major-problems-leading-to-stress-cancer http://threath.com/2009/04/major-problems-leading-to-stress-cancer#comments Thu, 23 Apr 2009 08:24:43 +0000 admin http://threath.com/2009/04/major-problems-leading-to-stress-cancer “I had the lump there. But sometimes you get bits of thickening. He said he thought it was OK but thought he had better do a biopsy. Then this report and he says I must have it off. Next week at the latest. So casual about it. Just an incident for him, but for me, my life. More, think of it! Fondling, loving. Oh, God. He’s sweet. Says he will love me just the same. But it can’t be. Says it’s me that he loves, not my body. But my body is me. Such an important part, for me and for him. Cuddling. Misshapen. I cannot think of it.

‘People talk about alternatives. He didn’t. But some people do. So little is known, could I take the risk?

‘The children. To grow up without a mother. So young. So different from what might have been. Deformed in their way. A child growing up without a mother becomes deformed in the spirit. Deformed, just as I shall be. Life, as I knew it, is at an end.”

The devastating problem, the effect of the cancer on herself, is made worse by the associated problems of its effect on her husband and children. Her brain is filled with so many nervous impulses that it ceases to function properly. She cannot think clearly. She does not know what to do.

She urgently needs to reduce her nervous tension. Of course, this can be achieved most effectively through simple meditation. If you should ever have the misfortune to find yourself in some such similar situation, don’t react by saying, ‘How can I meditate when I am distraught like this? You need to be calm to meditate.’ No. Just let it come, slowly, just slowly, and little by little calmness comes to our mind. And as we repeat the process, the effect of it gradually flows on into our life as a whole.

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