Leah Case Study Essay

I would describe Leah’s drug use as consistent over the last four months consisting of smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use. I believe Leah meets three of the criteria for addiction. She uses all of the substances listed above even though she is aware of the consequences they may have on her, and she currently denies any ill effect from them even though she is thin and borderline anorexic. Her grades in school have declined when previously she was an A student. And lastly, she spends a great deal of time with her friends and partakes in smoking, drinking and using drugs. I think Leah chooses the drugs she uses currently as they allow an escape from reality and the deep pain she carries. The group of friends she has are also users …show more content…
The family dynamic appears to be very broken. For Leah the final straw to the family seems to have come when they moved out of the same town as her father. The comfort she had with knowing he was there if she wanted to go see him was now gone. Her mother seems to add several stress points to Leah’s life. One, her mother has a new job that keeps her busy. Two, the man she was dating from the old town moved to be close to her in the new town. It seems any free time Leah’s mother has is spent with him outside of work. Leah is worried about the health of her mother who has diabetes. It appears that her mother does not care well for herself with her medical condition and is suffering some side effects from the nightly drinking and stress of life. With her mother being unpredictable in her moods, even volatile that weighs on Leah. The biggest burden for Leah seems to be what would happen to Leah if something happened to her mother. With all of these factors there is no support system for Leah except her new friends. These new friends are the ones it seems that introduced Leah to the world of escape through drugs, drinking and so on. If she turns away from them and quits drinking and drugs who will she have in her life? Her one friend from back home who is worried about her cannot sustain Leah as a support system. It would seem vital that for Leah to move into recovery from drug and alcohol abuse she would need the support of her mother as a minimum. In that case it would appear to me that having her mother involved in counseling may be beneficial as well. There is so much pain and loss that Leah needs to grieve. The adults in her life who brought her into this world have seemingly abandoned her for their own selfish needs. That has had an impact on her brother and instead of Leah and her brother